The girls have been bred by the Lady Vet and her very long very skinny silver syringe that she stores down her top so it does not get cold. Both procedures went smoothly. In a little over a month we will take blood samples for a pregnancy test. Fingers crossed now. 
If I had a penny for everytime we have had to cross our fingers I could fly home first class! You do remember that you and I are off back to New Zealand in October. This is why I am farming so intensively, no time to waste this year.
The Tall Teenager is home on leave and look what he brought me back from the Phillipines. 
Isn’ that just fantastic. it is very heavy. John thinks it is spring steel. (At least I think that is what he said) and the handle is clad in a piece of a bicycle tire! It was pretty rusty so I gave it a good scrub and an oil and when I go to the Old Codgers on Tuesday I will get him to sharpen it for me, he has one of those wheel things and sharpens all my knives. Isn’t that a fantastic present. Clever boy. I can cut up a whole chicken in no time with a kitchen weapon like this!
Russian bees are darker than the Italians I am used to but very busy. They work extremely fast. I think I can put a honey super on this coming week.
Lovely day yesterday. 
Sheila is a hot pig, but bearing up. 
Today is yoghurt day. Yoghurt on Monday, farmers cheese on Tuesday, butter onWednesday, icecream on Friday. Butter on Sunday again and bread every Monday too.
The plonkers will go into the freezers in a little under a month, then there will be more time and milk for the house and I will start making the hard cheeses. But in the meantime the milk (and whey) is the main protein for the pigs and chickens.
It is busy here now.
I hope you have a lovely day.
your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
34 responses to “bred”
What a busy schedule! The ice cream day sounds like the most fun of all; or at least eating it would be! Interesting information about the Russian bees; are they flying around? Am I likely to spot one in NJ? Or do we have Italians?
The picture of the lady vet with a syringe down her top made me laugh: I hope she doesn’t bump into anyone – they might get quite a surprise! That chopper thing looks like a small panga (as they are known in Seychelles) – I bought one for Jock’s birthday when we were there, and it has come in very handy for long grass etc.
Brood well, Daisy and Queenie.
Love,
ViVx
You ARE busy! Keeping my fingers crossed for fertility…isn’t there some kind of dance we can do as well?
Fabulous cleaver, but how on earth did the TT get it through security? I have visions of Celi holding forth in the kitchen with her flashing blade…I love the shot of the bees in the borage flowers – such a pretty shade of blue.
I laughed at the syringe down the top too – it has a weird sexual connotation! Similarly smutty – I like your new chopper 😉
Good morning, c, and top of the morning to the farmy. I’m curious about transitions: when you bake, are you using US cups now, or are you sticking with weighing out ingredients? I have a few old standby US recipes that I’ve pretty much given-up on now because it’s so much easier and faster to weigh ingredients than all that spooning and sweeping nonsense.
Awesome gift. Beautiful yellow rosebud. I would love to be there with you to make all those dairy goodies! Sounds amazing.
I didn’t even recognize Lady Sheila under that crust of mud! Her skin will be lovely in the fall.
Ferocious looking cleaver! Hmm, wouldn’t it be great if you found your robber baron[s] who have caused so much harm to all your animal folk and were able to use this, freshly sharpened by Old Codger . . . never mind the chickens!!!!! [Sorry to be bloody-minded] . . . .
Noooo, its so unlucky to give somebody a knife/blade as a present. You must avoid this bad luck by immediately crossing TTT palm with a bit of small silver (coin) 🙂 Laura
Yes! And Immediately!
So funny I was thinking the exact same thing! Strange how some superstitions linger on isn’t it!
Way ahead of you guys, I paid him the moment he gave it to me. Silver of course! c
Must do the same thing for gloves/mitts that come as a gift. But never heard it had to be silver, just coin of some denomination.
Oh, and of course never give wallets and purses without a coin inside.
I would not want to be around you and get you angry when you have that cleaver in your hands! Yikes. But what a perfect gift. He knows you well. Sheila looks very alluring in that photo. 🙂 Busy days here, too, Celi–enjoy any quiet that you can find!
Keeping fingers crossed for the girls! Having just come from Prague I have to tell you to immediately pay the tall teen fro the knife!!!! Very dangerous to accept knives without pay…even a few cents…as it means it will “cut up” your relationship, and, let’s face it, TTs are hard enough at the best of times. Big hugs 😀
Hi Celi. I’m sitting in my garden at the mo, and just realised that I have not seen one bee. And I have a bee friendly garden lots of lavender, catmint ect, usually the lavender is full of them buzzing away, I don’t like it it’s too quiet I miss the bees. I wonder where they are? X
Terribly busy woman! No wonder you’ll need a vacation to NZ!
What a busy schedule and do you sell your butter, yogurt and all the other things you make? Do you make different kind of icecreams and bread?
I would never have recognized the “eye of Sheila” under all the mud and straw. Those Russian bees are darker…how interesting and laughed over the lady vet and her syringe…your description was better than a picture.