Yesterday On The Farm

Welcome to May!

This new month has definitely brought a lot of busyness to the farm. The grass is finally growing well, so setting up daily cattle paddocks has been added to the daily chore list. Not that we mind, it’s nice to have the cows back on fresh grass every day.

We’re also milking goats again which is a huge blessing. In fact, cinnamon’s buckling kid is almost ready to wean completely which will mean plenty of milk, and possibly the opportunity to dabble in adding herd share sales to our repertoire, meaning that we would sell a portion of a goat to an individual, and they would pay a monthly boarding fee thereafter entitling them to a certain amount of the goat’s milk. (selling raw milk outright is illegal in the state of TN)

Yesterday day was “one of those days”. You know what I’m talking about, right? It started off relatively relaxed, with me planning to make a couple batches of soap, do some laundry and cleaning, and maybe make some cheese, while Gabriel set up some fence and got ready to plant some garden stuff.

And then, wham!

The tractor’s broken, the well pump looks like it burned out, we have a sick calf, and oh! I forgot we had to pick up the beef from the butcher today.

So Gabriel spent the day trying to fix things, moving cows to within range of the other well, and doctoring the sick calf, while Garrett and I jumped in the truck and drove off to pick up beef.

Ah, it’s nice to have ground beef again! we’ve been out for a while, and trying to use up all the various steaks and roast which, lets face it, just aren’t as convenient.

Anyway, the only USDA inspected butcher is about two hours from us, so it was quite a drive. Garrett’s a real pro at traveling though, for which I’m incredibly thankful, and Yoder Bros. is definitely the nicest butcher shop I’ve ever been in, so I don’t mind the drive.

When we got home, Garrett helped me load it all into the freezer, and a cuter helper you never did see!

After we got the beef taken care of, Gabriel and I headed out to give the sick calf a shot, and then I headed off to choir practice. After the day we’d been having, I really wanted to skip choir, but it’s the second-to-last practice, so I felt compelled to go.

By the way, it pays to keep a couple of boiled eggs in the fridge for dinners on the go.

I’m in love with salad right now. That happens pretty much every Spring and Fall when the lettuce is growing well, but as you can see, there’s almost more eggs and cheese than lettuce. What can I say? I was hungry.

Everything turned out alright though. The well pump mysteriously started working again, and the sick calf seems to be getting better.

I guess that just goes to show that we shouldn’t stress about things beyond our control.