Monday, November 30, 2009

Wreaths are Ready

This is a balsam, cedar, and pine wreath that I made last night, with a gorgeous hand-tied bow.
They are ready and available. We also made the traditional balsam wreaths as well. My Mom and I made 50 on Friday, while watching and feeding 5 kids 3 meals, and still managed to milk the cows twice! Then we made another 12 yesterday afternoon.

Here's the days action in the cow barn:

This morning the cows staged a rather clever ploy to get back out to pasture. I knew it was going to rain and thought it would be kinder to leave them in the barn, so leaving Jude ( 8 years old ) in charge, I continued on cleaning and fluffing their beds. " Gale " was in the entryway of the barn finishing her grain, while " Ellie ", " Berretta ", " Teeny ", and " Happy " stood around chewing cud and watching me work. I glanced up just in time to see Gale turn the corner out of the barnyard and steam headlong down the hill. " Jude! Get her!" I yell, and then as if on cue, the other cows file out of an unlocked gate and join her in a steady brigade down the road. Jude grabs a leaf rake, and the cows just deflect his efforts as he crumples in the ditch defeated.
I growl some choice words, unload the milk I had just loaded, toss little kids--like a bunch of grain bags-- into the truck, and ROAR down the hill! Crossing the brook, I see the cows are just reaching the open pasture gate and calmly walking through it, single file. Well, at least they went straight to pasture and not to the neighbors's house! Sure enough, " Ellie " will find some corner way out back and decide to have her long awaited calf there. Never a dull moment!
When I gathered the cows tonight, even though Ellie has bagged up even more, she didn't have the calf, and I'm going to pretend that she is just REALLY wide, but not pregnant. We'll see what that does for me. Usually it goes like this:
As soon as my own baby is snuggled safely in my bed, I steal out to the barn at unpleasant hours, for nights in a row, get thoroughly exhausted, and then finally when I give up and forget about it, a sweet little calf will just " appear " one morning when I go out to milk! Must be that darling little calf fairy!
Tommorrow we are in for some major excitement! The long awaited timber bridge is going to be built over May's Brook! Hopefully our driveway won't wash out every time it rains, AND how cool is your very own bridge! I'll take pics as it progresses.

4 comments:

  1. Having your own bridge is VERY cool!!!
    I recognize that pre-calving behavior!

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  2. They have re-routed May's Brook for now and we are pretty much stranded at home. No one can come in either,--wait a minute---I think I like the sound of that! I probably should have brought the heifers up to the barn before they had to cross a bridge to get here. That might be worth a video!

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  3. Hey there J-

    That's a great looking wreath. I only hope my wreaths turn out looking that great when I make them this weekend!
    LaJuana

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  4. Jess, your wreath is beautiful.

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