January on the Homestead

January in the northern portion of the United States is snowy, of course.

Our little homestead in the middle of the ranch is beautiful amidst all that snow.  And things slow down, but they most certainly don't stop.

Cookie the Milk Cow has a calf, named Tibby (named after the tibia bone that Jiles broke the same day she was born).

Cookie the heart head.

Oliver came with me to check out the new calf.

"Is dat Tuh-ties talf , Mommy?"

We stopped in the barn to see Brit the Pyrenees' puppies.

And to climb the ladder in the loft.

Grandpa was feeding his Percherons Fred and Phillip.

A new calf of course means milking. Spencer and Ezra are great buddies to do it. Brother bonding time.

We love the butter and buttermilk that we get from all of her cream. She produces a lot of cream in the beginning, then it gets less as the calf gets bigger.

And, oh yes, whipped cream!!

Zoe and Oliver are great chicken feeders. The ladies are always happy to see them.

A few escapees trying to catch up to give themselves in just to get some grain.

One early morning, when it was below zero out, Katelyn came running up to the kitchen door (the ends of her hair were frozen) breathlessly exclaiming that there was a bobcat in the hen house. It was killing chickens and ducks just for sport. It had killed at least half of our brood. The still-alive chickens were huddled up together in a corner. Weston was not around, so Spencer grabbed the gun and ran out.

He got it on the first shot, but I made him shoot it one more time, just in case, before we went in there. It was a sad scene. Chickens and ducks were laying dead all around. The bobcat was biting and breaking their necks, then moving on to the next prey, leaving that one for dead. Our favorite duck Lucky, who had survived a skunk attack as a duckling, was in bad shape. We took him inside by the fire, but within the hour, it was apparent that he didn't have a chance. Sooo sad!

Brit's puppies fatten up so fast. And their hair is half of it.

The pivots get a nice rest all Winter. 

We got so much snow in December and January, and it was sooo cold (-16), that the roof was needing to get scraped off. It wasn't slippery at all, so Weston had the older 3 kids help out.

They helped for a while...

...until one of them jumped off into a big pile of it. (Not sure which one of them did it first.)

Lots of plowing to do. I think the purpose behind this plowing (below) is to make a sledding hill.

Milkin'

"Come on, Cookie!"

She comes walking towards the barn with just that one simple call from The Rancher.

He holds the door and she enters the milking room of the 120 year old barn and takes her place with her head in the stanchion and happily begins eating her grain.  

I wonder how many cows have been milked right there in that very spot.

The milkmen this morning are Weston and our nephew Brian, who is here working for the summer.  They have a special little observer today, still clad in her nightgown, which is happily juxtaposed with her hot pink mud boots.

With one on the left and one on the right the job goes quicker.

And 2 gallons are filled up in no time.

Last of Summer Days

Today is the last day of Summer vacation.  

We are spending it school shopping.  Blah.  I thought that for sure we had enough school supplies in the house.  We gathered everything up last week, took inventory, and compared it to the school list.  We have about 1/3 of it covered.  

I would so much rather be spending it at the creek.   But it's cool and rainy-ish anyway, so it would probably be too cold.  I love our days at the creek, when we all pile into our junky Suburban with the windows down and drive through the field to a spot where we feel like parking it.  This year, the kids always ask to go to Picnic Rock.  It's the deepest part of our little creek, over Spencer's head in on spot, and they like climbing the rocks.  I like going there, but it isn't the easiest place with the little ones.

I hope that we can fit a few more days here - after school and on Saturdays - before it gets too cold.

Saying, "Hey!" to Cookie.

It is popular around here to run home.  Jiles had shut the gate and then just started to run, so Kate and Ezra jumped out and joined him.

We stopped by the loading shoot to see what Mazy had found.

And then Kate and Ezra stood on the gate... 

and hollered and listened to their echos perfectly clear somewhere against the hill.  

And they laughed and laughed.  And each laugh echoed a perfect echo-laugh.  

Which made them laugh harder.

 And I stood still and took happy pictures of my girl that usually hides when I point a camera in her direction.

I was not going to miss this golden opportunity of capturing something that I adore: the laughter and blissful face of Miss Kate.

After that we went and parked under an apple tree, in its shade.  Ollie fell asleep in my arms, Spencer read a book next to me, the 4 middles climbed on top of the Suburban and ate apples to their heart's content, and I sat and held Ollie and took it all in.

These are the days.