Izzy is doing well. Herbie told me this morning that she started baa-ing when he came home, so he went into the garage and tried to give her her bottle of milk. She nosed around with it, then walked away - you're not my mum, I'm not drinking from you ! She thinks she's a dog. Even hops onto the buggy with me and takes a drive down to collect the mail !
Milked nearly 7 gallons of milk this morning - wow. Took as much from Buttercup as I could, 5 gallons as she had already nursed Worsie and Dolly gave just over 1 1/2 gallons. Time to make cheese again, but I'm letting the milk set so that I can scoop the cream off as I think we are on the last pound of butter from the freezer. Also owe Amanda 1/2 gallon of cream as she was short a gallon of milk when she switched her pick-up days with Jennifer. Need to shuffle my tasks so that I can set time aside to try make cheddar cheese again.
Pearl was lying down this morning, while Little Red seems to spend most of her time standing in the pond, chewing the cud. Hopefully they will both birth soon as their udders look as if they're about to pop. Will be watching them both closely, don't want a repeat of Milkshake. Can't afford another $ 225 vet bill and no mum or calf to show for it.
Chickens are laying well, really well. I have more eggs than I know what to do with. Think I'll go down to the local paper and put an ad in for chicken, duck and goose eggs. 2 Toulouse geese are sitting on eggs and I've put a couple of the White Chinese gooses' eggs under them also, so will see what hatches. Think that at least one of the hybrid geese is female, so need to look at butchering some of the boys, think we have 2 Toulouse, 3 Chinese and 2 hybrid boys. Sort of wish that I could get Foie Gras from them, but haven't been force feeding them grain so their livers will just be normal, not huge and fatty. I know some think it is cruel, but I don't think it hurts them and like all the other animals I've experienced on the farm, they sure love to eat, especially grain. I think the confinement is probably more cruel than the force feeding but then chickens are farmed like that commercially in America, so what's the ruckus ? It's been years since I've had good Foie Gras, think in South Africa, maybe before 2004 when I came here to live as I don't remember having any during my visit in 2007. Think I tried some in Chattanooga but it was overcooked and not good.
Think we have another fox. I was working in the front garden yesterday around 7pm yesterday when a chicken started major noise and came shooting up the driveway from below the sheep enclosure. Anni took off into the woods in hot pursuit so I went and got the gun, let Rosco out and followed behind with Izzy and Sargeant. How many people do you know go fox hunting with 3 dogs and a lamb following behind ? Although I never saw it, just by how fast and far it moved I think it was a fox. Down the hill, over the seasonal creek and up the other side, then Anni went off our property so I didn't follow her further but called her back. On my way back I looked for morel mushrooms as we had lots of rain and now it's warm, but didn't see any. The other area where that guy said they collected morels from 30 plus years ago is just beyond where Vickie, Nancy and Milkshake are, so I'm not going hunting there.
Well, much to do again today, so bye for now.