Pear Blossoms, Milk, and Fodder

Look, Wendigo, the dandelions are blooming! 

The wind has been intense.  The chickens look funny when their tails blow inside out.  Sometimes they get blown off course and they stumble in the wind.  It hasn't stopped them from roaming the farm searching for tasty bits in the grass.  I'm glad they are finding plenty to eat and getting lots of exercise so they can keep making all those beautiful eggs!     

The old pear tree in the front yard is spectacular right now.  Big boughs of white flowers, and tiny white petals that rain down and flutter in the breeze.  If the weekend wasn't going to be so frigid, it would be the perfect time for a cookout under the blooms.  

I predict the pear harvest will be a small one this year, despite the numerous blossoms.  The weather has not been conducive to pollinating insects.  The wind is so strong and the temperatures are so low that I haven't seen the swarms of bees and flies that are normally attracted to the pear blossoms.  The predicted freeze may finish off the flowers before the bees get to do their job.   

Even with the cold, the plants are waking up.  The grass is green and getting shaggy.  Brandon is gearing up for mowing.  The tractor wheel rim was successfully replaced.  I heard lots of grunts and expletives coming form the the workshop while Brandon tugged and pounded the rubber tire onto the new rim.  It was a sweaty battle, but he emerged victorious.   

Peaches and I have made great progress with our milking routine.  She hears me filling the food bowl on the milk stand, so she is waiting by the gate.  I open the gate and she walks right out, around the side of the crib, over the hay pile and tarp, into the crib, and leaps onto the milk stand.  She even puts her head in the right place so I can lock her in.  The last time I milked, she never once kicked her feet, and I got a good rhythm with the squeezing.  She gave less than half a cup and then the teats were dry.   I massage the udder and bump it like the baby does, and I can get a few more squirts from each teat.  She is still patiently eating, and my hands aren't tired yet, but there's no more milk.  

I think I understand why folks lock the babies away from the mother during the night and milk before the baby gets breakfast.  A measly half cup of milk hardly seems worth the trouble of making dirty dishes and laundry twice a day.  Of course, I may think that because I currently get a gallon of raw cows milk from my cow share.  Months ago I bought a "share" of a dairy cow that lives in my neck of the woods.  For the cost of my share, which was forty dollars, plus thirty-five dollars a month, I get a gallon of unpasturized milk every week, which I pick up from the refrigerator in Joe's garage.  It's sealed in a regular milk jug, with a pretty label, just like the milk from the store, only it is the most amazing creamy milk you can imagine.  The cream floats on the top, and sometimes as much as a third of the gallon is cream.  I tell myself I'm going to make butter and cheese, but it's so delicious we usually just drink it up.  We have to drink it pretty fast, or it spoils quickly.  The chickens usually get a share too, since we have a hard time drinking a whole gallon every week.  

Yesterday evening I was in the greenhouse when I thought "I should pick some lettuce for dinner.  No, I need to milk the goat.  But, I don't want to milk the goat!"  Uh oh.  

This is my fodder growing set up.  It's wheat seeds, which I have been soaking, then watering, so they will sprout.  Sprouted seeds have more nutrition than un-sprouted.  A fifty pound bag of seeds was only seven dollars, and could result in nearly three hundred pounds of fodder!  

In this photo you can see the tiny white roots that start to sprout after a few days of watering.  Each tray has some holes poked in the bottom so the rinse water drains off and they don't get moldy.

These seeds have been getting watered three times a day for six days.  They still have a few days to go before they are ready to be fed to the animals.  My idea was to feed Peaches the sprouted seeds while she gets milked, plus I can give it to everyone else to supplement the hay.  Even the chickens can eat it.  I've been starting a new tray every morning.  Eventually I will have a tray to feed and new tray every day.  I think it's working!