WATER

I am really bad at drinking water. Our well water here is so high in iron that it smells. So when you have to carry in all your drinking water you are less likely to just chug it down.  I should though – on good water days I am so much more energetic.

But the animals are another story they drink gallons and gallons of water a day. And if they are not drinking in it they are stamping in it or lying in it. Water is the real “staff of life” for them. 

They don’t care what it tastes like as long as it is fresh. I have one outdoor tap with a five hoses all joined together and every day I drag these from cows field to pigs field and chickens coops filling their water. 

This new Bobby drinks a lot of water as well as his bottle of milk twice a day.

Molly the sow is still endlessly upending her water container because of the heat so I am endlessly carrying out buckets of water for her.  She is bellying down nicely. 

Although Wai the Wonder Pig has water under the magnolia tree over by his garden bed, he still gets up two or three times a day and trudges noisily all  the way to the barn and his own bedroom to loudly slurp up water from his own water bowl.

Alex once again spent all day under the big tree with her two front feet in the small calf water trough.  She makes such a mess of that water I clean and refill it every evening so at least it is available t drink in the night time.

I cannot imagine the horror of the flooding and devastation in the wake of these hurricanes, when people cannot get good drinking water.  It puts a lot of things in perspective doesn’t it. And there must be many small farms like my own hit. Poor people.

Yesterday Lady Astor milked very well. She let her milk down completely and quickly so it pounded into the milking bucket with reassuring force. It may have helped that the new bobby mooed to her when she disappeared from his sight. I am not sure.  But up until yesterday  I was coaxing out each drop, doing a lot of hand milking. Her production is now quite low so I will go to once a day milking tomorrow if she stays clean. She is not allowed out in the fields at all for the meantime, and is being fed grass hay and vegetables – no legumes at all, no grain.  If the bloat and her milk are connected (and she shows signs of mastitis each time just prior to bloating), then I want her quite dried up before she goes out again. This deterioration is new to Lady – she had been a good solid milk cow until this season.  I think the milk fever she had in the spring unbalanced her metabolism.

Poor old cow.

And time for me to get to work.

I hope you have a good day.

Love celi

WEATHER: 

Monday 09/25 0% / 0 in
Mostly sunny skies. Continued very warm. High near 90F/33C. Winds light and variable.

Monday Night 09/25 10% / 0 in
Clear skies. Low 64F/18C. Winds light and variable.

Sun
6:43 am 6:44 pm
Moon
Waxing Crescent, 31% visible – 11:56 am 10:12 pm