Went for a family walk this afternoon and found this little cutie who walked right up to us… 🙂
Caramel had her calf – a girl! Last year, she had Winchester. Click here to see that post. 🙂
We decided to make Caramel’s name category “flowers”, so meet: Tulip! 🙂
She made the trek down to the barn beside her mama, and will stay with her tonight. Then we’ll milk Caramel tomorrow with the others. 🙂
Thank You, Lord, for another miracle!
Found Jalapeno this morning – laying beside her Mama: PeaPod. 🙂
Click here to read about Peapod’s calf, Cuke, from last year. 🙂
Jalapeno stayed alongside her mama and walked all the way down with the other 3 milking girls. It all happened so quickly this morning, I struggled to get a good picture of her, lol! 🙂
Meet Adams. He was born this morning, and his mama is Gluey. (Click here to read about how we are naming our boys this year.) He’s a cute little guy – tinier than his half siblings, Washington and Coco. 🙂
Here he is standing beside his mama, with Tangerine photobombing, lol… 🙂
Since we already milked today, we decided to bring Gluey and Adams down to the barnyard so she could get some privacy with her little guy. Then we’ll milk her tomorrow with the other two. 🙂
Adams ALMOST walked all the way down… Kinda got tired of walking in the sloppy mud, so he got a lift down the rest of the way. 🙂
Click here to read about Gluey’s calf last year – Xray. 🙂
After all that exercise and the bumpy ride, it was time to eat again! 🙂
Meet “Washington”! He is our first calf for 2014. His mama is Tangerine, and is dad was Cleatus. It was a joy to see him this morning – healthy and all cleaned up. 🙂
Washington has a big sister named Banana. Click here for an old post that has links to take you back to her birthday in 2012.
He also has a big brother, Sahara, from 2013. Click here for old posts he was featured in. 🙂
Washington must have had a good breakfast, because he walked all the way down to the barn with his mama. His legs weren’t even the least bit wobbly! 🙂
Lord, we are so thankful for a new calving season here on our farm, and we thank You for the gift of Washington today! We lift up the rest of our herd to You. Strengthen us to handle whatever situations come before us. May we remember it is Your plan we want – even when it’s hard. We grieve the loss of Pax from last week, but we thank you for the 7 years she milked and had calves for us. May the blessings around us always be more bold than the dark spots. Because the Truth is: This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalms 118:24 NKJV) Amen
And then, as I’m sitting in my car using the free wifi at the library to upload the pics for this post, I receive a txt from Mike at home:
OreoCookie had her calf this afternoon! Thought I’d include a couple pics of her in this post. More will follow, I’m sure… I LOVE her coloring!! 🙂
Got home and decided we’d bring Cookie & her calf down to the barnyard, leave them together overnight, and milk her tomorrow with Tangerine. Oh, this little heifer calf is ADORABLE! She was a champ just like her half brother earlier today, and walked all the way down to the barn. Not sure of her name yet… UPDATED 3-22: The Sarver Family has named her Coco! 🙂
Click here to participate in a Barn Hop! 🙂
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On January 21st, we checked our ACV that had been fermenting in our cool basement since 12-20. [Click here to read about our first stab at making our own apple cider vinegar from raw cider.]
It grew another, really nice and thick “mother”. 🙂
We strained it and poured it into two new jars…
Then we poured new, fresh raw cider in with the two “mothers” to begin a new batch. 🙂
And then we had the bright idea to actually TASTE the finished product to make sure it tasted like vinegar… WHICH WE SHOULD HAVE DONE FIRST, lol. And determined that it, in fact, was NOT ready yet. Grrrr. Guess we are learning a lot from our mistakes in this adventure, lol… 🙂
Our solution was to top the 2 jars of “almost vinegar” off with 1-1/2c of last batch’s “finished vinegar”, and let it sit another month…
MORAL OF THE STORY FOR PART 2: Just because you grew a nice sized “mother”, don’t assume it’s done fermenting into vinegar – TASTE IT FIRST. 🙂
And here is Part 3 from yesterday, February 28th. You can see how thick the “mothers” are in the two half gallons we gave more ferment time to on 1-21. And YES, they tasted like vinegar this time around… 🙂
The gallon jar on the left was not ready yet (Yep – tasted it first, lol!), so we are letting it sit another month. You can see it’s grown a third “mother”… 🙂
We strained the two half gallons that were ready & added “mothers” to new batches. I think we finally have the hang of this now. Fortunately for us, it is a very forgiving process! 🙂
If anyone ever wants a “mother” to make their own, we are always happy to share. 🙂
Click here to attend a “Barn Hop” at The Prairie Homestead. 🙂
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