Update On Baby Cows

We are so sad to post that our second baby cow has died. We believe that one of the cows had a parasite that passed to the other. within hours from any signs of illness she was dead. We know taking bottle fed calves home from the livestock auction often results in death, but in the past, we never had problems. This is one of the hardest things with raising your own meat for self sufficiency, is seeing your animals die, get hurt or worse the failure with all your hard work. The last calf we have is doing great, so great that he will be released out of his holding pin into a bigger holding pin out in the field. We don't name our calves until we know they have a good chance of surviving. So this little guy was named by Isaac. He holds the grand title of Sir Rudolph!! My first thought was...shewwww i can eat a RUDOLPH!! I'm so glad he didn't pick my best friends name or family member!! LOL Now we need to find a friend for Rudolph. Cattle are herd animals and he would be so lonely in a field by his lonesome!

A Great Read!!

 Thanks to my friend at work, Rachael, I read this fabulous book!! Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich is a great short story about a woman who became more self sufficient in small steps. This book is full of inspirational tips and has a great resource section in the back. I really enjoyed this book of self sufficiency with a touch of humor.

Mooooooooooooooo

 Its baby cow time. We bought 3 baby cows to raise for beef. Two of the babies were so tiny they still had their umbilical cords. We bought these cows at the livestock auction. Meat buyers are usually the ones who buys these little guys for veal. These little guys were taken from their mothers so we had to teach them how to take a bottle which was filled with milk replacer. The little black cow would not latch on, so I found a tip online about pouring honey on the nipple...it worked GREAT! I'm hoping by mid summer we will be butchering and stocking the freezer with meat. After researching and seeing where the meat from the grocery store comes from and how inhumane the animals are treated, It will be worth the 6 am bottle feedings!

January Movie Picks ....get out your tissues!!

Quilting

I decided to dig out a quilt top that I had buried with many other quilt tops and baste it for preparation to knot. Since i am very busy with 4 little kids i opted out of quilting it, for times sake. At least this way i can play with a needle and hopefully get it ready for binding. This quilt top is called a blooming nine patch. Each block is made up of 9 2x2 squares. The size of this quilt is a full/queen. I am hoping that maybe this quilt will hang in my living room. Blooming nine patches are one of my favorite patterns!!

Applebutter in the Making!

This year we decided to make applebutter in a copper kettle outside. A friend of ours loaned us his kettle and we started at the crack of dawn. We started with 4 bushels of apples. First I steamed the apples just a little to make them soft and then we put them through a food mill.

 We added 30 lbs of sugar and stirred alllllllll day.

 Im hyperactive, so therefore I couldnt just sit for hours, so I brought my Barb Carroll Rug out and started hooking!

 It made lots and lots of applebutter!!!

Puppy Love!!