Milking Sugar

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” -Anne of Green Gables

My friend, Brittany, was able to come over and we had a great time. We drank tea, milked the cow, made chocolate ice cream, and watched Anne of Green Gables.

Spring Farm Update

     Here we are and it's already April. Many little spring things have been going on over here at Stone Pond Dairy. We had our turkey hen, Jake, sit on some eggs and a little bit ago they hatched. There are some turkeys and some chickens so we call them the churkeys. Our heifer, Honeybelle, also had a calf last night around 9:20pm. He is the most adorable little thing headed to the butcher! I was at our weekly Civil Air Patrol meeting when Daddy texted to tell us that Honey was having her calf. Well, it's her first calf so I had to be there. The rest of the guys are going to have to tell me what happened.      Now, for the photos...

The Churkeys and their mommy

Clarabull, the cute little bull calf.

The next morning...

And there you go. :)

First Life Update of 2015

Well, hello and a late happy new year! Goodness, I can't believe it's already February 2015! I'm in the second semester of my senior year in high school and it seems like just yesterday I was starting high school. I'm having a hard time accepting that I have to grow up. Oh, well.

We got a bunch of baby chickies today. I'll have to take a picture so I can show you all. They're Brown Leghorns.  We built a stanchion by the barn, which we are actually getting around to finishing. Daddy and Grandpa put the vinyl siding up on two of the walls and they put the window in. It's lookin' good. Oh, and Honeybelle is definitely pregnant, which is a good thing. After she has her calf (in about late March), we will never have to run out of milk again! (crazy laugh) Sugar-Muffin, on the other hand... I sort of doubt she's pregnant. We shall see.

My Civil Air Patrol life has been somewhat laid back. I got my first pinning ceremony for my promotion to Cadet Senior Airman. Yay! You're supposed to get one when you promote to Cadet Airman and again for Cadet Airman First Class. We had some... interesting situations that prevented that so at least it's done now. I'm sort of relieved because everyone was getting really pushy for a ceremony.

My flight commander, C/CMS Bilardi and the cadet commander, C/Maj Cinnamon pinning me on Monday.

I did something a little out of character for me last Sunday. I curled my hair (using the pin curling method, of course. I would be the person who'd burn myself if I had an iron.) I got a lot of compliments and it was a nice change. Hmm. Might do it again someday. This coming Sunday will be fun. It is called "Old-Fashioned Sunday". We dress old fashioned and have an old fashioned dinner on the grounds. A couple friends and I are planning on dressing in Regency Era (in other words, Jane Austen's time) clothing (even though this is America and that was England...). I found the dress I'm going to wear at Goodwill for $11. It has a lace top and a sort of sea greenish skirt. It's so long it needs to be hemmed though. Despite my non-existant skill of sewing, I am attempting to hem it myself. We shall see how that works out.

I convinced my daddy to take me to our town's small, one room library the other day. They need a better selection of biographies. I love Abraham Lincoln, but could you have some lesser known people also? So I got a big, fat bio of President Lincoln, a book about the year 1775, and a book about King George VI. That ought to last me a while. I love reading and a good cup of tea. Earl Grey... I think I'll go get me a cup right now.

And so I shall leave you with a quote:

"I declare there is no enjoyment like reading" -Jane Austen

Farewell, good friends, until next time. (I am obviously feeling very dramatic today. I'm starting to scare myself.)

Dexter/Mary Farms

Rain, rain, rain... perfect time to find some deer. I ended up taking no pictures of deer though.

On the way out, Ben stuck his head out of the window.

When he put his head back in, it looked like this.

Ha ha! See y'all later!

Hey there, moo moos!

It sounds funny, but that's how we call the newest residents at the farm. Introducing Honeybelle and Sugar Muffin! (We call them Honey and Sugar for short.)

Sugar Muffin on the left, Honeybelle on the right

They are so cute! Sugar is two weeks old today and Honey 4 days older. I bought them for $200 each and they're pure Jersey. Right now they are being fed by nipple buckets twice a day with milk replacer. We leave a little grain and hay too. They eat the grain, but I haven't seen them do anything with the hay yet. Yesterday I went out and took a bazillion pictures of them. Unfortunately, it was just about to rain so the pictures look sort of dreary, but here's a few of them.

Sugar Muffin

Mmmm!

Honeybelle

Sugar Muffin

Honey in front and Sugar behind

Honeybelle

Bacon and her piglets are doing well. She is starting to wean them and you can tell they aren't happy about that.

We still have about two years till we can milk the cows, but I can wait. Meanwhile, I'll just play with them. :) -Leigha

Piggies!

Bacon had her second litter of piglets on April 27th! Yay! She had fifteen total, but we lost 3 due to being stepped or rolled on. :(   They are cute though.

I went out back to take some pictures of them. Unfortunately, it was very bright when I did so there are a lot of lens flare in the pictures. Please excuse that.

:)   Leigha

Piglets!

My goodness! It's not even spring and we have so many baby animals!
Early this morning, our pig, Bacon, had 11 little piglets.

Bacon is lying in the pit on the right, while her babies are in the shed.

As  a first time mother, she is really protective. She keeps them in the shed. If they try to get out, she has this special grunt that tells them to go back in. So far there is one pig that is disobedient. A little calico female keeps wandering out and won't go back in when told to. She did eventually go back in. Here's a picture of Bacon mothering some piglets that strayed outside the shed.

Farm Swap

I guess it's our version of a farmer's market. But the farmer's markets always seem like big yard sales to me. This is literally a swap between farmers. Usually it's for money, but occasionally someone will swap a cage for a few dozen eggs. :) There are pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, geese, ducks, cows, ponies, guineas, and more! I think it's every other Sat. I only go every once in a while with my daddy.

Random Pictures

This post is about what the title says. :D

-Leigha