Making Butter

The dogs made butter today.   I was outside for 4 hours, and they were finding reasons to run like crazy.  When Shadow deigns to run with Rocky and actually "play" with him, they usually end up running around and around the 12 foot diameter fire pit that we put together in the center of that back acre.  When Rocky finally gets obnoxious enough after Shadow stops playing, Shadow takes off after him at full speed and they run the whole acre, back and forth, under trees, skidding in the mud, everything.  She will always be faster and more agile than he is, but I have to say, he's making some spin-on-a-dime turns these days and can almost out-run her when he gets up to full speed. There is a huge blue spruce, with just enough dead branches underneath that the dogs can skim under and run low to the ground.  Rocky really looks like a whipped pup when he gets to the point of trying to hide under there and Shadow still won't let him forget how annoyed she is with him.  At top speed, he throws his furry body under the tree and they run circles until he gives up and tries to shake her off in some other way. I always think of the story of Little Black Sambo when they are under that tree or tearing up a mud path around the fire pit.  (People of a certain age will remember that story, back before it would have been seen as politically incorrect).  I don't remember much about the book except that Sambo was dealing with tigers, and somehow he got the tigers to chase each other around the base of a tree, around and around until there was nothing left but butter.  (And something about it being the best butter ever).   Well, the dogs made a lot of mud, and really no butter, but that children's story is always what comes to mind as Shadow chases Rocky at top speed and Rocky tucks his tail and tries to lose her under that tree.  She always outsmarts him, and he will eventually "fall" over his own feet as he's running and grovel on the ground while she growls over him and  sounds like a raging lunatic.  It was so nice and warm again today, and the mud was so inspiring, that I decided to try to pound some T-posts to enlarge the little cow pen that Bessie and Lucy are in.  The ground was soggy enough that I could even pull OUT the posts that I wanted to move, and they came out with a squelchy, muddy sound and almost no effort on my part.  Not at all what I should be able to do in February, but 4 hours later, the posts were all moved and pounded into place, the fence was stretched tight and secured, and the cows were out exploring their new area.  They have about twice the space now, so I won't feel bad for them when winter actually comes to stay for a while and I don't let them out into the bigger fenced area.  This gives little Lu a bit more room to get away from Bessie when she tries the "Shadow" treatment and comes at Lucy to teach her a lesson.  The T-posts are set up for 2 strands of electric wire, for whenever we decide to use the welded wire fencing for something else.  For now, Bess and Lu are respecting the visible fence, and not needing an electric shock to stay where I want them to be. Jeremy has been telling people that Lucy likes him because he's the same size as she is.  He comes out when I'm milking Bess and feeds Lucy grain and alfalfa by hand.  And I found out today that he's right about why she doesn't like ME.  I'm bigger than she is and my eyes aren't on her level!  Lucy tried to lick my face and kiss my hat yesterday as I was bending over to shovel manure, but I didn't think much of it.  She quickly backed off when I stood up with the lovely shovelful of cow-pie.  Today, while I was crouched down to secure the fence to one of the posts, she trotted over and licked me through the fence.  I had watched her earlier as she sniffed noses with Rocky, and let him lick her nose through the fence (kind of gross, though, because she had sneezed and he gladly licked her nose clean when she came close enough!).    Anyway, as long as I stayed crouched down, she watched me--eye to eye, sniffed my gloves, let me touch her nose, and grazed right beside me.  She didn't sneeze on me, thank goodness!  I think a llama did that once to me at the zoo......  As soon as I stood up, she did a little rodeo kick, stomped the ground and jumped away.  Bess is letting me come up to her whenever I want, pat her on the side, scratch under her collar, and just in general acting very calm.  She only tosses her head when I bring out the alfalfa first, and she wants the GRAIN first!  ;)  I have only brushed her on the left side, because that's the side that is facing out from the wall when I milk her.  Today she let me brush her right side, although I didn't take a risk and get in between her and the wall.   So, progress.  I didn't have to bring the stick in today to shove her out of the way so that I could get through, either. The vet stopped by on Monday night and left some little sample baggies for me.  I'm supposed to milk the first few drops from each cow teat into the bags (separately), so that the state lab can test to see which (if any!) might have staph-caused mastitis.  I took the first samples this morning, stuck them in the freezer, and will take the 2nd set of samples on Friday morning.  But Bess didn't quite know what to make of it all.  Usually the milk gets going and it's actually being collected by me as her milk let-down is happening.  Today, (from her point of view at least) I kept messing around, not getting down to business, closing up little bags, starting other teats flowing, then not following through.....milk was being wasted in the straw while I fooled with those little baggies.  She eventually let me milk a big bucket full of milk, but she looked back at me while I was "collecting" as if to say "Well, what's all the fuss about?  Let's get on with the usual routine!) Sure is a nice winter for our first winter on the farm.  But I'm wondering how bad the flu will be without cold weather to knock it out, and how bad the mosquitos will be in the summer.  One mosquito actually flew out of the silo yesterday, and I was too surprised to smack it.  We could be in for a really hot and buggy summer! 5 new chickens from the feed store joined the flock yesterday.  They are typical scrawny white Leghorns, the laying machines.  I just needed a few more white-egg-layers.  So far they are just hanging out together in a little corner away from the other chickens. Have a good day.  Welcome, Myles, to the growing e-mail group.  ;)  I should make some REAL butter before heading out to pick up Jeremy and then Michael. Laura.