Pit stop

Lunch of the gods

In the lecture hall - the West girls go to college

Setting out for A&M

It's BABY day!

My farm-wise intuition told me that Angelique looked close to kidding, and I had Savannah put her up in the nursery pen. Lo and behold, baby goats. A boy and a girl (pictured). The two older girls and I have gone to College Station to attend A&M's Vet Science open house, but Paul took this picture for us.

SURPRISE!

We woke up this morning to find that Dexter cow # 15, Fan-C-Clare, had a brand new red HEIFER calf....YAAAAAH!

Milking mistakes

I talked to my Grandad on the phone Saturday, March 21st. The important things he told me what that trying to milk for 20 minutes was waaaay too long and that I could give her mastitis if I wasn't careful. The Surge was a good millker. Cows can hold back milk for their calves. 5 gallons a day for a Jersey was considered very good in his days. If her udders are fleshy, they might still look full after milking. Check her out after the calf nurses, and see what her udders look like. Four months may be too young to wean the calf.

So I put the calf back in with her, and I have enough milk that I'm going to take a few days off and think about it.

First iris of spring from Aunt Mae's place.

Poor baby truck-bad alternator at only 32k miles.

Dead Tomato plants

Too early to set out transplants. Temp was low 30s last night. Fruit trees seem ok.

Happy Easter from the West Family!

5 lbs 7.8 oz less than 10 min. Weaning is a pain!

2nd milking

> 10 min. = 3 lbs 1.2 oz. Both milking today don't equal yesterday's morning milking. This was her first 2nd session in a day though, and it had only been 7.5 hours inbetween. She was agitated about this new schedule, about being seperated from her calf and herd all day. I am weaning her calf, and have seperated her as far as I can on my small farm. I have put Mairead in with her to keep her company. Bella the calf, when put with the goats, tried desperately to nurse from several of them. Oh well.....

Planted transplants today

13 tomato plants: 2 each of Yellow Pear, Sweet 100 Cherry, Amish Paste, Juliet, Marglobe, Caspian Pink and 1 Jubilee. Planted 7 peppers: sweet banana, poblano, and 5 different color bells. The garden should be very fertile from the 4 inches of shavings and manure from the horse stalls that I put in last fall. Last weekend Jess and I mounded it up into 4 foot rows and put in three 16 foot cattle panels, leaned at a 60 degree angles and propped up by thick bamboo poles. Jess planted 48 ft of Sugar Snap peas, (Mon March 17th), on the south side of the panel in the shade of the house, and the tomatos and peppers went in on the other side.

Milk Stats and Averages

6 lbs 7.8 oz of milk in 15 min. Researched on the internet today that 1 gallon of milk weighs 8.5 lbs. So this morning was less than 1 gallon. Also read that the Jersey gives an average of 5.8 gallons a day, so that is 49.3 lbs of milk. Also that a Jersey being milked is given an average of 5-10 lbs of grain and has access to pasture. One scoop of grain weighs 4.5 lbs, so that means about 2 1/2 scoops a day, (I have been giving her MUCH more), plus she has access to wheat pasture and probably needs bermuda hay. Now Anabel has a 4 mos calf with her, which I usually remove 12 hours prior to milking, but her udders have never got very big. I'm going to try a second milking today, plus wean her calf.

Good Milk Day

18 minutes, motor smoked at 12 min. darn it! The milk weighed in over 10 lbs....the scale rolled up into the 9lb area and then blanked out becuase it only goes to 10 lbs. So shorter milk time than the record 22 minutes, but more milk. Guess she let down faster. Was a surprise becuase she had been left with her calf during the flooding, and we hadn't milked in 3 days.

Farm Company

Today we had company, my neice Madeleine spent the night with Jessie. This morning she came out with us to see how we milk our cow. Fortunately Anabel was cooperative today and didn't kick the bucket or run off.

Girls gone wild

Jessie goes bareback

2 hours later, windy. 19 min, 5 lbs 13 oz. Worked with back teats and she doesnt like that.

Attempt 1 failed today bc i fooled with equip too long, she kicked it all off. Only good thing was i found she respects a strap.

7.2 lbs of milk in 15 min. Better after a miserable day yesterday.

The homestead

Tinker does not approve of the snow in her face. She had great fun running around in it when it stopped though. The tire is a training aid to break her from chasing the baby goats. Scout, her buddy in the background, was mature enough that he never required being hobbled. Unfortunately Tinker is a little more reumbunctious.

The largest snowman I have ever seen in these parts!! I have so many pretty snow pictures now that I'm going to have to do a slideshow. Check out my website www.truwestfarm.com in the next couple of days or so and I'll have it running.

Snowstorm II, the sequel!

Well here it is Thursday, March 6th and we have a second snowstorm. Although we can't go years without much more than a snow dusting, it looks like we're in for another 1/2 foot or so.

King, our red Dexter bull, leads his herd across the vast frozen tundra of North Texas!

Snowstorm Tuesday, March 3rd

I never thought I would see this much snow here! Woke up and it was the most beautiful snow ever...fluffy and soft looking.

First Dexter baby of 2008

I can't say that Iron Molly has the best timing. We had 2-3 inches of rain the night before this calf was born, so we were knee-deep in mud, and we were expecting snow that night. I slipped and slid with the tractor to position a round bale to give them some relief from the north wind and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I was VERY relieved this morning to find that even with an unheard of 7 inches of snow, the calf was still around...which is a great testimony for the hardiness of the Dexters.

First baby hit the ground today...probably because we have snow in the forecast for tonight! Looks like Iron Molly had a teeny-tiny bull calf.

Baby Bella gets the last drop!

These plugs are a lifesaver when one quarter milks out faster than the others

Today was a milestone-Anabel didn't run off before I finished milking!

The surge milker all hooked up and running well off of a small compressor moter

Belly-up to the bar

Our high tech milking parlor

Feed set out for Anabel

Attaching the pulsator

Assembling the equipment for the morning milking

Spuds goes to the dentist