Day Two of the Farmy Round up. Wow. It takes two days to walkabout the farmy now. So much to see. Here is a grubby Paisley Daisy…
..with her good friend Queenie Wineti. We tried to breed daisy twice this season but both times it did not take. Then it was too late in the season to try again. A cow is pregnant for nine months and then I will milk for at least 8 months, so it is best if she calves in the early spring. So I am going to wait so that I get her into a better breeding pattern. She and Queenie the little Hereford beef heifer will be bred in the early summer of next year. I am going to try and milk Daisy right through the winter if it does not get too too cold. 
Then we plan to find a little Jersey milk cow to see us through until Daisy is milking again. This is Daisy’s bobby calf. Bobby Blanc. 
Queenie again. She is a lovely little cow, short and fat. I am going to breed her to the smallest bull I can find so that I build a tiny herd. I do not need a lot of meat but all my beef is grassfed. Pasture raised would be a better description as they are fattened on alfalfa/lucerne. 
A while ago my friend Sara at Punkin’s Patch took a big box of mama’s wool and picked it and washed it and carded it and did some other things to it and now she has spun Mama’s grubby fleece into these skeins of beautiful soft wool. 
Yarn they call it here in America. Isn’t that glorious. She has boxed it and sent the wool to me in the post. Isn’t that the most fantastic thing. She has a great fondness for Mama. Thank you so much Sara. Mama thanks you too.
This is the wool in Sara’s garden.
Mama is hanging out with Hairy MacLairy. I am sure they are discussing making little hats for the children!
It is not often we catch Mama smiling. She is our stern policeman sheep.
Warm and windy again.
Good morning. This morning is Our John’s birthday. He leaves the house at 5am for work so he gets up at 4am. By 4.30 am he had discovered that the coffee machine has broken down again, TonTon had skunked himself and the verandah, and the vest I bought him for his birthday present was too small. So he has gone to work holding his nose instead of a cup of coffee, leaving his present behind.
Oh dear. But the good news is that he has fixed the pump. I will be giving it a trial run with the cow very shortly. So cross your fingers.
Now I must run out the door. All the roosters are crowing and I have a stinky dog to deal with before milking. Never fear though -I bought the Skunk Off stuff. I am armed and ready!
Have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
71 responses to “Walkabout the FARMY with the Big Animals”
Mama has a great story with a happy ending. I’m glad you have her :-). Nice shots. She’s a pretty ewe.
I have loved following the story of Mama’s flece. Wonderful Sara. Job well done. I will look forward to seeing what C creates with it. My knitting needles are envious.
That wool is gorgeous – bet it feels wonderful, too
Thank you so much Sara, we are so looking forward to getting our hands on that soft cuddly warm wooliness.. c
Sorry to hear that the birthday got off to a rocky start. Isn’t that something that it takes two days to really see all of the Farmy. Your daily shot looked chilly to me, but lovely and clear in the way only cool days are. Still in the 90s/30s here…
Let’s do this part first…the word you wanted was “Phase”, not Fays….I love you too much to let you leave that there 🙂
Lovely walkie – as always. Hope John’s Birthday ends better than it began!
Thank you darling. I just came back in from the milking, brought the page up and went EEEK! how I missed that one in my sleepy stupor i do not know. It was meant to read Day Two (fixed now) .. at least it does go to prove that I really DO write these posts in the early morning before dawn. c
Lovely post, and good morning to you and the farmy, and happy birthday wishes to your John.
Love the walkabouts – was Mia having a bad hair day and didn’t want to be photographed? Lovely yarn … felicitations to Our John, maybe a replacement coffee machine is in order, hmmm? Laura
You’ll have to knit the hats 😉
Oh i think mama might give it a try, with wee spectacles perched on her nose, in front of the tele!
Tele! No wonder they are all so happy 😉
That Hairy….he must have the lines to woo the women, from the look of that smile on Mama.
I hope you can make up to John for the miserable start to his birthday. I hate coffee machines. Give me a cafetière with a plunger any day. Quick and easy to make perfect coffee and no fiddly bits to wash up. Nothing to go wrong, either.
I love the look of that wool. Isn’t Mama wonderful and Pumpkin’s Patch is also great!
Mama is smilin cos she’s with her man, Hairy’s devotion reminds me of those cheesy seventies soul singers like Barry White, “baby, baby, baby, can’t get enough of your love”, “you’re once, twice, three times a lady” that kind of thing. Anyway he is mumbling something along those lines into Mama’s ear and she is eating it up. He has a lot of facial hair in common with those 70’s guys also.
That wool looks amazing. There’s a movement in England at the moment to use more of the wool from our own sheep to make fine cloth for tailoring. All the cool Italian companies make wonderful ultra light weight wool suits. England has great tailors and quite a lot of sheep – it makes sense doesn’t it.
It certainly does make sense. In fact this is one of those times i want to resort to a teenage – DUH! c
oh no….those nasty skunks! happy birthday to john! that yarn is gorgeous. what wonderful scarves it could make!
Hi C! Happy birthday to john!! Today’s my mother in law birthday too. She’s 71 now and an absolute Super Trouper 🙂 The yarn is so beautiful! Is incredible that people (Sara) are able to make this pure white thing out of the Grayish mess sheep’s carry on (no offense mama and Co.). 😉
Poor John! Not the best birthday beginning. Mama’s wool looks gorgeous now and I never knew that Daisy’s full name was Paisley Daisy. Paisley is my favorite pattern.
Names are funny! I thought about that after I posted this morning, finding my way in the dark out to the barn, following the smell of TonTon. Ton’s real name is WellingTon Dog. I should tell people that, it slipped my mind completely.
Never mind hats for the children, I suspect that Hairy is whispering something a little more suggestive than that to get such a smile! Hope the Birthday boy’s day improves!
Christine
Now it was nice to meet all the big animals…