Cattle Escapades

Well, I must say that cows are entertainment.  Just ask my facebook friends who have already heard most of these stories.  We purchased two cow-calf pairs this fall.  Although my husband and I both grew up with cattle, we have never intentionally owned a cow in our adult lives.  We have owned heifers (female cattle that have not had a baby calf) and steers ("fixed" males)  that we fed until butchering weight then sold and ate the meet a few weeks later.

2008 Steer Crop

We did own one cow for a week or so.  That was an oops.  We were feeding a heifer until she reached butchering weight.  One morning as my husband left for work, he noticed that she was starting to calve.  He drove back to the house to tell me to watch her that day.  Later that evening she had a grey heifer calf.  We sold the calf to a couple from Idaho who needed a calf to "graft" onto a cow that had lost her own calf.  The cow was butchered for meat about a week later.  We though about keeping the cow and calf.  But, we were in the middle of a major remodel of our house where we had to completely replace our roof; trusses and all!  We were doing all the work ourselves and could barely keep up with the required work.  A cow and calf were out of the question!

Our Boys with the Grey Calf in 2009

You see, cows are a year-round commitment.  They need vaccinations.  They eat a lot of feed.  They have to be bred to a bull or artificially inseminated.  They have babies yearly and introduce the owner to newborn calf and possible calving difficulties.  They are harder on our fences.  It seems as though they can smell when the electric fence is off.  When we raise cattle for butchering (the technical name is "back-grounding") we only own them for around 6 months.  When we have cows, it becomes more complicated.

So, we jumped into the world of complicated this September.  And, it has not been with escapades.  To begin with, we noticed that our seemingly docile two cows were really one docile cow and one angry, snotty cow.  Darla is docile.  Oreo is an angry snot.  We first noticed this when we helped the previous owner and vet give Brucellosis vaccinations to the calves.  Oreo rolled her eyes back until the whites showed, lowered her head, and almost sent the vet technician airborne    My husband and I determined to keep a respectable distance from her and wished we we had noticed her "condition" before purchasing her.

Our cows and calves in 2012.  

As we loaded the cows and their calves up to bring them home, Oreo kicked my husband in the shin as she passed by.  He still has a bump on his leg from her kick two months later.  At home, I won't let the kids into the cattle pen without an adult.  I won't be in there without something to smack Oreo with if needed.

Manure present from Oreo.

It didn't take long.  After being home about four weeks, Oreo decided I was in the way of her food.  She backed me into a corner and rolled her eyes back and began kicking at me.  I fended her off with a small grain bucket becoming splattered with fresh wet manure in the process.  Thank God I had a bucket and no kids with me!

All was calm for a couple weeks until Oreo decided to try to eat the grain set aside for the calves.  We though she wasn't capable of reaching it.  But, somehow she got her massive head through a 7 inch opening. Her head went in, but was not coming out.  Oreo was stuck between a 2X6 board and the barn wall.  I tried getting her to turn her head and drop it down low - the way she got in to start with.  But, she was not having that.  Instead she threw her head around showering everything around her with snot and saliva.  Since she was wedged against the barn wall, I figured she could not flip herself over and suffocate, so she stayed stuck until my husband got home from work.

The infamous Oreo aka angry snotty cow.

Forty-five minutes, a crowbar, a piece of wood, and some nails later we had Oreo free.  My husband removed a section of the barn wall structure to allow enough room for Oreo to get her head free.  She still had to twist her head to be free.  It took prying her head up with another 2X6 temporarily nailed in place to give my husband the help he needed to twist her hear and lift it the final foot to freedom.  Needless to say, that area of the barn is no longer a favorite for Oreo, even though it is the location where I feed grain.

Darla is such a sweet cow with a nice large and tame heifer calf.  Our plan now is to eat Oreo for meat and use Darla and her calf as the base of any herd of cattle at our place.  Between our kids and location close to the city of Spokane, we can't risk ornery animals like Oreo at our place.  So enjoy the exciting cattle stories for now.  I am expecting my story bank will dry out once Oreo leaves.  You are welcome to have a good bbq'd beek steak with us at our place though!

Snowy Days in November

We have around 6 inches of snow on the ground in our area of Spokane.  Hidden under all that snow is produce just waiting to be eaten!  These vegetables were for dinner last night.  The broccoli was frozen solid, but easy to wash up with water and cook for dinner.  My youngest son loved that the broccoli had icicles!

You will find broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, carrots, beets, and kale still in the garden under the snow.  I'm not sure what the broccoli, cauliflower, and turnips will look like once they thaw.  The other vegetables won't be affected by the freezing temperatures at all.  If I had been ahead on my to-do list, my low hoop tunnels would have been over these veggies before the snow flew.

A lonely head of broccoli

Beets hiding under a blanket of snow.  Can you see the raised area?

Kale holding off the snow

Just because the temperatures have dropped, the work still continues on our small farm.  It is time to cut down the tomato plants trellised in the greenhouse.  I will need to dig the carrots, beets, and turnips before the ground freezes solid.  In not so long I will be starting seedlings for early crops of spinach ready to harvest in March and we will do it all over again!

Cider Press Harvest Party

We tried it out and the turn of the century cider press from Superior Drill company and it works great!  Jayme did a wonderful job rebuilding the press this summer. I wish we had before and after pictures.  It is attached to a pallet for ease of movement with the tractor.  This is one heavy press!

We picked all the pears from our two pear trees and make 6 gallons of pear cider.  We drank one gallon as warm spiced cider.  The other five gallons are fermenting into a hard pear cider also known as "Perry" using this recipe.  We want to share this press with our friends and family, so we had two dates that you can come out to our farm with your apples and use the cider press.  After the pressing is done, the clean up takes almost an hour, so we don't want to run just a few apples through it.

Cider pressing at our farm located just west of Spokane, WA:

Done for 2012 - Stay tuned for dates in 2013!

Bring your apples or pears and run them through our press! Bring your fruit, take home your juice. One 5 gallon bucket of apples or pears makes about 6 quarts of juice. Don't forget to bring a jug or two for your juice. We will provide warm drinks and maybe hotdogs and brats or smores. 

Also some of our produce and items from our farm will be available for sale or trade.  Feel free to just come by during the times listed above.  If you want to contact us with questions, our contact info is at the top right corner of this blog. 

Fall Harvest Time and a Cider Press

Fall is here according to the calendar, but the days remain warm.  No complaints from us about the unseasonably warm weather.  Maybe the remaining green tomatoes will turn red before our first killing frost.  My husband Jayme has been rebuilding a turn of the century cider press this summer.  Our best guess is that the cider press was made by Superior Drilling Company sometime around 1900.  The cider press was in poor shape, but with all the necessary pieces.  Jayme took it apart, cleaned and welded the metal, and replaced all the wood framing.  He still has some work to do.    

The rebuilt wood hopper that feeds the apples into the grinder is still in the the shop drying from the clear coat.  The wood press baskets are not shown in these pictures. This picture is a closer shot of the fruit grinder.  All fruit starts out by going through the grinder into a wood press basket underneath (not shown).  Then the basket of fruit mash is moved forward to the large press that screws down (the wood portion also in the shop being finished).  

When the press is finished, we plan to host an Open House at our small farm and invite people to come out We will have our remaining produce  farm fresh eggs, and a selection of jams for sale.  We encourage you to bring out apples to press too.  The handle can easily be turned by kids, so we hope you will bring the whole family out to visit.  We will give you the cider from your apples that you run through the press.  Check back for exact dates - most like one or two days of October weekends.  Start collecting those apples soon!