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”
Bobby Blanc is certainly getting big!
Happy Birthday Our John – did you make him a Pav?
and… WellingTonTon?? I LOVE it!
All lovely photos C. especially the close up portraits of Bobby and Mama…I love to see their expressions and eyes!! And that beautiful wool…oh my!! I am just learning to knit but so far….it’s hopeless! 🙂 Happy Birthday John…your day can only get better! 🙂 I’m sure C. will see to that!!
PS. I loved the Fays and not Phase…it made me smile to think of you sitting typing in the wee hrs. of the morning with the cobwebs not quite cleared out! 🙂
Aww! Happy birthday, John! I do hope tomorrow is better!
Happy birthday to John! I’m thinking you may have some other little bday surprises for him later. Worse for me would be to not start my morning with coffee and I hate to admit I’m that addicted! Miss visiting you and the animals! Have a great day!
WHAT a sweet picture of Mama and Hairy McLairy! I just love it.
The wool yarn is gorgeous. Now on your next walkabout, gather some appropriate natural material to dye it with. Then it would be a truly Farmy yarn. Or knit Our John a warm vest — that would be a good airplane project for your trip to NZ. Best birthday wishes to him!
I love the photos of Mama’s wool all spun up… I doubt I’ll ever have my own sheep but a spinning wheel is on my list as long ago I spun. Here in the city we don’t need it, but in the country cupboard we have plans B, C, D, E & F in the event, God forbid, of the demise of the coffee machine, a plunger, a stovetop thingy and worst comes to worst – instant & bags. WellingTon Dog… he certainly is 🙂 And finally, happy birthday to John, I’m sure his day got better, at 4.30am there’s not much you can do about anything…
Happy birthday, Your John!
Amazing how a fleece can be turned into such beautiful wool. A fantastic skill.
Ooh, beautiful yarn! 🙂
Those skunks do seem to be quite a problem. Poor John! I hope his day improves. I love the progression of the wool. I remember growing up with people who had spinning wheels in their homes. They were surprisingly, quite a common sight xx
I had a dog that got skunked once. Theoretically, tomato juice is supposed to get rid of “skunk stink”. We had no tomato juice, only Bloody Mary mix. Trust me, it doesn’t work – and I haven’t had a Bloody Mary since. Oh dear… best of luck!
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment on my blog. Having now found you, I’m enjoying your posts and am fascinated by your farm life. The photos of your animals are wonderful. Keeping up with you is going to be quite a learning experience for a suburban girl like me. 😉
welcome ally, wonderful to see you over here in the farmy lounge of comments.. have a glorious day.. c
Ahhh darn it! But Happy Birthday anyway, Our John! I’m sure the day will end perfect. My dear departed Momma used to say…everything works out just right, if you let it. So I’m sure he will let it and everything will be good.
We all do crazy things with our animals names don’t we….Fuzzy is Fuzzy Doddle McDoodle Brown, but we call him Dude much of the time. Boomer Brown is Boomie, Boom, and The Boom most of the time.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com