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Sunday, April 07, 2013

The "Stars" of our farm!

Pearl & Daisy

While Pearl seems to be top "dog" around the farm now...not to mention the "star" of the show since she's showed up in more photo's than the cows have lately, the cows are still loved too. Pearl rules the roost in the pasture, and grabs the coveted spot in front of my camera a little more so far...but the cows...they are the ones that give the real GOLD around here. Maybe not as a beauty queen, posing for the camera like Pearl...but as the ones giving us milk, so I can make that much anticipated homemade butter, not to mention the cheese I am hoping to make this spring!

Button

With the warmer weather...and the addition of Button our newest milk cow...I have actually been able to put my first bag of butter (3 lbs put into bags with my food savor, so they keep longer) into the freezer and another almost ready to join it. Yes, 3 lbs doesn't sound like all that much, but it IS the first time since we moved, that I've had enough extra butter to put it in the freezer for long term storage! A little here or there that got used right away doesn't count...I only put them in food savor bags when I have several with more expected right away.  The food savor bags help keep it in the freezer without getting freezer burnt, for a year or even more!

Since it's getting fairly close to being a year ago we moved, this is a BIG thing for me...something I've been looking forward to for months! LOL Also, one of the many reasons I was SOOOO looking forward to spring! I had high hopes it would help get our production up, and so far it has! :-))

Snowball

This is Snowball, she was born last spring, so is getting close to being old enough to work on becoming our newest milk cow. Can't wait to see what her first baby looks like...will it have a lot of white on it, like she does, or look more like a Jersey? Only time will tell. Can't wait to add her milk to our fridge! LOL

Hopefully she does better than Clover did though, not sure what is going on with Clover, but she dried herself up. Course it being her first time probably didn't help things, especially since we were both sick just after we took her calf away...and couldn't keep her milked quite like we should have. She also seemed really depressed, when she "lost" her calf...but still, as a family milk cow, she better do better next time, or she may find herself finding a new home! LOL I'm afraid I'm a bit greedy when it comes to milk and cream, and want them to give me some for a few months AFTER their calf gets weaned, before they have another one to raise.

What can I say...I would rather not have to buy butter cause I hate spending money on something that the cows should be giving us...not to mention that homemade butter tastes ever so much better than the store bought stuff! *sigh*  I still have some store bought butter, that I'll use in baking...but sure can't wait till I get it used up, so I can go back to using homemade butter in the baking too...it's even BETTER with homemade butter, than it is using butter from the store!

(I'm not going to get into a debate about how butter is or isn't bad for you...I don't believe it is, besides I would STILL rather trust what God has made, over what Man has made...so I'll be sticking with butter, not that plastic stuff called Margarine.)

Anyway, when it comes to the animals on the farm, even though Pearl seems to think she is in charge...our cows are still the REAL stars of this farm, because of all the yummy food they provide us with...even if at times it's not as much as I would like it to be. :-))

4 comments:

  1. Nothing like having one of those FoodSavers these days! I love the markings on Snowball! Her facial features give her such a timid and 'lady-like' attraction! When is she due to calve?

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    1. She actually isn't due yet...but sometime this year hopefully she will get bred...just not sure when. We did borrow a bull from a neighbor, just haven't seen him doing his job yet. LOL I'm just hoping she is old enough, I know it would probably be better to wait another couple three months...but we got the bull now, for the others and can't really separate them at the moment. So...guess what happens, happens. :-))

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  2. I think Snowball is a very pretty cow. :)

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  3. Anonymous2:54 PM

    She looks like a nice young lady; keeping her legs tight togather.
    (:-))

    Dad

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