This is why I milk a cow. Ricotta cheese, Butter, Parmesan cheese, Farmers cheese. Icecream, Cream, milk for my morning coffee straight from the milking – perfectly homogenised, Yoghurt, Sour cream, Cream sauces. Um, what else?
Actually I am not going to talk about the milk. I was going to talk about all the things I make from the milk, all the animals that drink the milk but then yesterday evening as it began to rain I was using the wind to help me put a tarpaulin onto the chickens run, flicking it open with the wind behind me so it glued itself to the side of the structure allowing me to anchor the flapping side first. And I thought about how we use the wind within the day. Like a boat tacking across a harbour, we feel the wind, note its direction and place ourselves to harness it. Directing it somehow. Or maybe directing ourselves to work alongside the wind, together. 
I use the wind when I broadcast grass seed. Putting it at my back, stepping in time with its strength, my hand scooping and releasing in one flowing movement, the wind carrying and spreading the seed across my path in the field. One of my favourite tasks. 
I use the wind to blow dry my hair into perfect bed hair ringlets.
I open a door just so using the wind to dry the milking parlour floor. 
I study the wind so I can decide what doors can stand open all night and which animals need the shelters. Where to put the plants that come out in the day to harden off. What windows can open. Where to hang the laundry. 
The wind blows out here with a roar reminiscent of Wellington, NZ. 25 knots is a quiet day. It howls and screams across the prairies with no care for the houses made of sticks that stand in its way. It will blow for another month at least. It always does. So we must use the wind. Not fight it. Use it. Blow with it for a while. 
Except on mornings like this morning, when the wind is confidently blowing the dark rain past the doors and I know that my buckets and I will struggle against it with my head bowed and body hunched in, forcing my self through the arrogant wind going about the business of my morning. No gambolling in the sun today or for a few days actually. I hope you all have a chance to find loveliness in the day. The rain is welcome though but I would not mind if it warmed up a bit.
Ok, out into the grizzling hissing dawn I go.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
41 responses to “Use the wind”
I always love the pictures of the young uns playing!
They all look so happy to be out playing in the grass 🙂
Great photos of happy animals – love Marcel! thanks again for the great blog.
Beautiful post, celi. Harnessing wind is a lot like embracing change. Use what comes your way to your advantage. Who knew it could even transform the words on a page! And your accompanying photos of all the playfulness on the farmy….just as wonderful! Enjoy these windy days!
You are right darling, it is exactly like taking a challenging situation and using it in a new way.. c
I wonder what secrets Tima and Marcel were sharing through the fence?
Looks like a week of windy wet here, too, but it hasn’t started yet. All I can do is sit inside my office and watch for it. Have a good day, anyway!
I think it might be there soon, the wind is blowing it along fast.
I love this post. I’m with Fay Meling…it is like embracing change. People here call the winds by name. I love that. They have beautiful Italian
names…seems they should. A confession, though, when I first saw your title, I thought perhaps you were talking about wind of another kind. Cow
farts to be exact. And I was very curious how you would use that. If anyone could figure out a way, it would be you. x
Oh dear, darling. My upright ladylike Daisy would NEVER fart. Maybe a little fuff every now and then but never in company!.. heavens.. no.. c
hahahahaha. You are so funny, Celi
Love all the frolicking babies 🙂 Have Sheila and Poppy been out to kiss Tima yet? Laura
Tima visits with Sheila and Poppy every morning, they sleep next to each other too, divided by a hog panel. I am fairly sure that Sheila is constantly trying to get Tima in there with her. But imagine how fat Tima would get then!
I have a feeling that the day will come when one or two or even three of your pigs will figure out how to either dig under your fence or climb over so they can all cavort and sleep together. I have (more than once) had a pig escape, under the fence or over the fence or even through the fence and find it’s piggy way into my yard and my garden.
✿♥ღLinda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Damn, I’d love to have that kind of steady wind up here. That would be time for milling flour.
You have a wind blown mill? Well , you would never be without flour here, and it would be done in minutes, we have STRONG steady winds for about 6 weeks in the spring. c
When I first moved to Bedford VA, I lived in a house that was well out in the open and at the base of the mountains. That is when I learned what wind could do! We had a patio set, which had a very large (seat 8) glass top table. One day the wind was so fierce it lifted that table and blew in to my neighbors horse field! The glass broke, but luckily it was the shatter proof type that end up in small balls, but still a bummer to pick up (I didn’t want the horses to eat it by mistake).
My little cottage is more secluded in a slight dip surrounded by trees, so the winds are not so bad.
Made your butter the other week, it was delicious and sooo yellow! Now I want to try Ice cream, could you give me some pointers? I have read you saying you make custard first? Once I have mastered the ice cream I will move on to cheese. My Mum can’t get over all the things I am attempting now – being a city girl that had a high corporate job for years!
hugs, Lyn
Do you have an ice cream churn? Mine attaches to my mixer. I will go to virginia’s site and find her recipe for french vanilla icecream. It is the best. I just have to find it. Mine is entirely by memory now and it is best to go back to the source I think. And if you want to make cheese go online and order your rennet tablets now, the fresh farmers cheese is absolutely simple and is ready in 24 hours.. I make it twice a week. easy peasy.. c
There.. this is the bestest ice-cream recipe ever. If you add fruit (or peach jam a personal fav of mine) make sure it is already partially frozen and add at the end of the final churning. Wonderful. c
Yes I have an ice cream maker. I have made mostly Sorbets with it and a few fruit ice creams. But now I am getting good milk would love to make a vanilla one. How long does it keep in the freezer? Someone told me as it contains eggs it only keeps a month! I will order some rennet tablets this week. Ta very much my friend
Mercy, I make it all summer and eat it all winter! So mine definitely sits in there longer than a month, though if that is bad for you then I will not recommend you do that (giggle) c
The eggs in your ice cream are cooked, aren’t they? Aren’t you making what we used to call French Custard? I make that, too, but don’t have fresh raw milk. Darn
We are lovers of windy days here at Food on Fifth. I use the wind to dry my clothes, my hair, dry paint and to put me in the best of moods. Thanks for making me think of “wind”.
I love the wind, except when it’s pulling apart my decrepit greenhouses! We get a lot of wind off the water, but I remember those Midwest winds that never quit. I am hoping that you will miss the tornados.
I love how young calves seem to have wooden legs when they gambol, lurching and rocking around the paddock. And that Tima is following closely in Sheila’s footsteps; she’s going to be the social glue of the farmy, trotting round to visit, gossip, exclaim and reassure.
Wind for drying clothes (although my old clothesline breathed it’s last breath and needs to be replaced).
We have discussed using wind for power one day.
Wind for flying a kite.
Wind for drying my dogs after their bath.
Wind for airing out the house after being shut up for the winter.
Wind for carrying the smell of lilac into my kitchen.
So many good things about wind, as long as that wind isn’t part of severe storms.
As if you don, t have enough to do…..was the wind part of the typhoon that did so much damage in usa
It is the tornado season, (though not as bad as usual this year, not here though, we are just having the high winds.. c