Winter's back!

I snagged this mini kit on a blog yesterday and did a layout of the squirrels I caught with my camera last month. I'm behind again on scrapping my photos, so have to try to catch back up! LOL

Kit Credit: Precious Moment add on kit by Lilas

Winter is back here today, it is snowing now as I type. :( It is quite nippy outside to, and the wind is blowing. When I went out earlier I was really glad to get to the barn out of the wind. Hopefully this is winters last gasp!

It's been an interesting day here today, we had a lady we met online come give us lessons in drawing blood from a cow so we can find out if Mabel is with calf. (She sure looks like she should be when she is laying down, as you can see from the photo I took of her yesterday.) Wow, I knew before that I probably wouldn't be able to do it, but after watching I KNOW there is no way I could bring myself to. LOL Thankfully DH probably can, I just can't stand the thought of shoving that needle home.

The thing the lady did when she first got here was to walk up to Mabel who was in the stanchion and "bumped" her to check for a calf. Now this is something I've been reading about on a cow board, DH and I visit and wondered just what it was, so to see it done was cool! However OMGoodness it looked painful for Mabel, although she didn't seem like it bothered her as much as I would have thought it would. LOL She put her left hand on a hip bone, and the other hand pushed WAY into her belly down low. She never did feel a calf pushing back she said, but after the first time or two of pushing she stopped and then did it again, and said it felt different...so I think she kinda thought she could be with calf...but who knows. She is sending in the blood for the test tomorrow, so maybe within a week we will know.

If she is, she is due the first of May I think so it won't be to long and we could have a baby calf walking around...if all goes well anyway. I sure hope she is, she has cut way down on how much milk she is giving us, and this morning was the worst...just an inch or so in a 1 gallon jar. I'm sure going to miss having the milk for butter and cheese though. She should be dried up already if she is going to have a baby, so I'm hoping the reason she isn't giving us much is because she knows this and is doing the drying up herself. LOL I guess going a couple months without fresh yogurt, cheese, butter and milk is a small price to pay for a new little calf running around the pasture. :)

We really need it to be a healthy little girl, (but would take a boy of course) so we have our 2nd milk cow...and can get to where we don't have to be without milk, if we breed them right, so we always have one giving us milk. Either that or find another cheap cow and the money to buy it! I told DH this morning I wouldn't mind getting a cow for my birthday...since I already got my laptop. I can have several things for my 40th birthday can't I...if I just had the money anyway? *giggle* A year ago I'd never have said that, but Mabel changed my mind, I have really loved the milk this winter that I've been able to use for all the wonderful goodies we love...especially the butter. That just goes to show I'm REALLY loosing it...a milk cow for my birthday. Or then again, maybe that shows that I have already LOST it. *snicker*

Many Thanks are going out to our friend from both of us, for helping out with Mabel, it was a really interesting experience to see the "calf bumping" and extremely helpful for DH to learn how to draw blood...I don't mind holding the rope like I did today, but that's as far as I can go with that part of it. LOL The special pointers on what is to fat or two thin for a cow, is good to know too! I'm glad she didn't think Mabel was way to thin, even though I've always thought she was...but that's just cause I'm "cow illiterate" and know more about goats than cows...which isn't saying all that much...since I don't know near enough about goats. LOL

Cheese tip:

Oh yeah, a really interesting tip that this special lady also told us, is that when we make hard cheese, instead of waxing it to age it, we can put it in a foodsavor bag and suck the air out. I never even thought of that, and even if I had, doubt I would have known if it was ok or not. She says she does it all the time though, so thats what I plan on trying (cause I don't like the waxing process to well)...if we can ever get around to trying another hard cheese. She also says she ages them in her fridge...which I thought would be to cold, but I'll try that to, if I haven't found a little fridge to use just for cheese. Now I REALLY can't wait till we get Mabel back in milk! LOL

With as much as we learned today, just in the short time she was here visiting, I'd so LOVE to get together with several members of that board and listen to all the knowledge they seem to have...think of the things we could learn! :)

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend, and no one gets snowed in! LOL That would be WAY to much snow for this late in the season. Better run, gotta finish getting supper ready so when DH gets back we can eat. DH just ran a cherry pie I made over to a neighbor, cause he is going to sell us another bale of hay (since we are almost out of our own) for a REALLY good price, so I figured I'd thank him for that with another pie. LOL Not sure it turned out as good this time...least pretty wise, but I'm sure it should taste ok.

I tried a new recipe for peach pie today too...looking forward to seeing if I like it better than the old way I always did it (with canned peaches), this one used fresh or frozen peaches and other spices. It looked yummy and the recipe can be found here if you are interested! I used frozen peaches of course...and lemon juice, since I didn't have a lime.

Ok, Ok, Ok...I'll stop rambling! *giggle* Have a great weekend!