I BACK FROM WHERE I LEFT OFF YESTERDAY...

As I promised,  I'm back to continue my story of woes. I had gotten up at 4:00am, Monday morning, filled all my large pots with hot water and loaded up my van and took it to the calf area  by 4:30 and went back home for another load of pails filled with cold water to mix their milk replacer as quickly as I could before the water got cold. All my work got done and as I think I said, I was only 14 minutes late for my blood test appointment.

I'm a blood technician's worst nighytmare. My veins in my left arm are hard as nail and the last time it took two people to take a little bit of blood and it took them almost half an hour but this time I got a 27 year veteran technician and she got lots of blood from that stubborn vein. I was so thankful and I was so hungry since the last time I had eaten was Sunday morning at breakfast around 10:30 or so. I went to the small coffee shop in the lobby to get a cup of coffee and a muffin to tie me over till I got home. It had been 17 hours since I ate last.  I didn't care if there was soybean oil in it or not. I gulped it down and went down town to pay my car registration. I was lucky to find a nice parking spot  and I put money in the meter and I hope that since it was a rainy Monday it would only take a few minutes and I paid for 35 minutes just in case.

I was early and there was nobody in the lineup and I handed the clerk my registration paper and he asked for my insurance. Rats, I had left it in the car. I backtracked and  went back in but already there was 5 people in the lineup. When I got my turn I handed the clerk my insurance and he looked at it and said, Mam, your insurance expired in July. I said, impossible. I remember paying my car insurance.
He pointed me the phone over there and said get the insurance company to fax me the insurance. I called the insurance number and I got someone from the motor vehicle branch. Thinking that I made a mistake, I called again, I got another person answering the phone from a different department of the motor vehicle branch and she said, just dial again.  A third attempt had the same result and I went to talk to the clerk and told him what was happening and he said" Did you dialled the # 9 in front of the phone number?" Deh... I was way too tired to think straight and my sugar and coffee rush hadn't kicked in yet.

I got a hold of my insurance and she said"Your insurance is paid but give me 10 minutes to fax that to the Motor Vehicle Branch. I had never received the insurance card to carry in my wallet as they mail it from headquarters. They will send me a new one.

All this time my parking meter is ticking and I'm glad that I had put more money than I thought it would take but I was sure that my time was running out.
Finally the fax came in and I got my ticket to pay my registration and I have to sit some more and wait my turn. Time feels longer when I wait with nothing to do. Finally they call my number and I paid and I'm out of there. I rushed to the car and I couldn't believe that I still had 3 minutes left on my parking meter. It doesn't take much to make me thankful and happy.

I'm trying to do all my errands while I'm in town to save on gas. I went across the bridge on the North side to my Credit Union to make a deposit and I got a call from my husband George.

The hospital where my son was had called for someone to pick him up as they would not allow him to drive home  after Day Surgery and told him to take a few days off to recuperate and no lifting...

I rushed back home to pick up my husband and drove him to the neighbouring town hospital to pick up the truck and I picked up my son Vaughan.

When I arrived home it was almost noon and I'm truly famished. I warmed up the mushrooms I had sauteed the night before and cooked the T-bone steaks and steamed some carrot curls and I warmed up a bit of left over sticky rice and my husband and I had lunch. After lunch, I laid down and fell asleep on the couch for an hour.

When I woke up, I checked my emails and opened the stack of business mail and did a bit of office work and went to work at the farm early since we were one man short.

I remember one more incident that happened last Saturday night after work. As I was getting ready to leave the barn, my son asked me to help him. One of the milking cow had knocked a little one way door right off the wall. He needed someone to hold it in place to nail it back on. It had fallen right in the manure and was all dirty. Thank goodness for disposable gloves. My son hammered the nails back in but it wouldn't hold. I told him to get a few big spikes and I held the little door while he hammered. We got it back in place and well balance.

There are many little details that I've forgotten but one just came to mind just now. A day before the meat is ready to be picked up my husband announced to me that he's picking up the meat at the butcher tomorrow.  What meat?  He said "I told you about the meat. No you didn't. This is the first I heard of it and I just filled the freezer with lots of food and bread. I even bought some hamburger on special...

He thought that he had told me but a housewife would never forget an important thing like that...
I had to turn on the spare fridge in my upstair kitchen and get stuff moved. Luckily my son's freezer had lots of room to spare.

My husband went on a weekend silent retreat  in the neighbouring city and I've been home alone . I worked at the farm from the time I woke up and since I had all the hired hands to feed I had put a beef roast to cook in the slow cooker last night before going to bed and had a big country meat and potato dinner for them. My son came to get the left over for his supper.

This afternoon , Saturday 23rd, after lunch I went to clean the pit in the milking room. It's a sunken area where the men stand to milk the cows.  Big heavy rubber mats had to be removed and my grandson and I worked for 4 hours and finished just in time for the guys to milk the cows. I then went to feed the calves. The men cleaned the big pens and added beddings everywhere so now all the cows and calves are happy for the moment.
I'm waiting for another cow to calve but she only due on the 30th. I'm hoping that it will slow down soon. We milk about 60 cows twice a day and have approximately 120 head of cattle to care for.

My son just got my pots out of  my van  this evening. I kind of had forgotten about them. lol... They have been rattling in my van all week since Monday. Today has been extremely busy but everything went very well. I hope it stays that way. Tomorrow I'll clean my pots.

Our lives takes us on different journeys and we all encounter our crosses but it's a good life and I'm thankful for having some work to do.

Thanks for  putting up with me and reading my life's ups and downs. Life is like that.
I enjoy your visit and comments and I'll try to catch up on your blogs  as soon as I can as you mean a lot to me. I'm off to bed now.

Good night.
JB

IT GOT WORST AS THE DAY PROGRESSED

Here is how my weekend went.

Saturday, Nov. 16 One of the calf I was weaning off milk was eating more grain  than usual and had pooped all over her gate and pails so I hosed the gate down and she panicked, reared on her hind legs and jumped in the next little pen with the other calf.  I called my husband but he was busy milking and my son was still in bed and would come in about anywhere between half an hour to an hour if he didn't fell back asleep. so I decided to try to feed them one at a time. One drank the whole pail of mostly water with a sprinkle of milk replacer powder while the escapee sucked on her new friend's ear.  I thought that she must be full by now and the other one would  be next. She drank the second pail while the escapee continued sucking on her ear.  I tried a third pail and she wanted more so I pulled the pail away.

It was getting close to lunch time when my daughter Jackie and granddaughter Nicole came to bring my grandson Liam to work at the farm so I went home with Jackie for a cup of tea and to give her something.

I had to feed two workers for lunch and it was 11:45am already and no lunch ready. George left me a note that he already had his lunch and had gone in the field to spread liquid manure. I had made a big pot of beef  barley vegetable soup the day before and I put a piece of roast beef through the food processor and made some meat sandwich fillings and the boys made their own sandwiches and heated their soup in the microwave. Everyone was happy. I ate and went back to the barn to clean that pen.

The two calves were beginning to feel crowded in the small pen made for one. My grandson arrived to help me  and together we   cleaned, scrubbed and washed the pen well and put bedding in and tried to get the escapee back in her pen. Calves can be very suborned.  She didn't want to come out but the other one walked to the end of the narrow alley. Perfect, I  put one of the little gate there and tied it down to keep her there and with much coaksing  we got the escapee in and locked her gate.

Now we had a second vacant pen so we cleaned that one and two more using the same tactics.  We almost lost one of the calves out the door as my grandson misunderstood my command and instead of blocking her way out he got out of her way and she dashed out of the enclosure and the barn door was open for fresh air but I ran after her and stopped her from escaping. My grandson is still learning how quick they move.

After we were done with cleaning those 4 pens, I sent my grandson home as he was getting tired and hungry and I started to do my evening barn chores work and got home around 7:00 pm and washed and had supper.

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Sunday morning Nov 17, started tame enough. I went to work at 5:30 am and I went about my chores as I heard a cow moaning. When all of a sudden, she moaned really loud and I could feel that she must be calving. It was dark where she was and I got my trusty flash light and went amongst the dry cow to investigate. I saw a long pair of little white legs sticking out so I knew that it would soon be born. The cow was laying down.

I called my son and by the time he got there the calf was born unassisted. He carried the calf to the big pen and took care of the mother and I fed the little bull calf and went home when my chores were all finished and took a quick shower. I went to church alone for 9:00am that morning as George caught up on much needed sleep.

I treated myself to breakfast with a dear friend and we had a wonderful time chatting girl talk and reminiscing. Time went fast and I got home at around noon.

I picked up my granddaughter Jordyn and her new baby boy and took her across town to visit a friend and show off her cute Cyprus.  I forgot my camera, darn it. I dashed over to pick up some calf milk replacer while in the area and on my way home, I stopped at Cosco and at the Coop for some grocery.

While I was at the Co-op I got a call from my son that the back door where the heifers are was left unlatched and the heifers all came in in the alleyway and made a huge wet mess. There was manure and pee from one end to another. It took him half an hour to clean up the  mess. I was very thankful that I didn't need to clean that mess. I normally clean up small messes.

Earlier that day a man wanted to trap raccoons and my husband had gone behind to show him where to find the raccoons and he exited another way.  That door can only be latched from inside.

When work was finished and I got home, it was already dark.   I found a note from my husband  who had gone to a meeting that my granddaughter had called to be picked up. To make a long story short, I left immediately to pick her and her baby up. The baby was crying and as we approached the farm on our way back, I asked her if she wanted to wait till tomorrow to get fresh cow milk and she insisted that we go pick up the milk now.

I filled two bottles of milk and as I went to wash the milk tap, there was  just enough water in the hose to rinse the tap.  BAD NEWS: There was no water at the farm... I took her to her home and  when I got to my house I called my son as my husband had left his cell phone home.

By now it was 8:20 in the evening and all I had eaten all day was breakfast around 10:30am. I was famished.

I sautéed some  fresh button mushrooms and I was about to fry my T-bone steak when I remember that I wasn't supposed to eat anything after 7:20 PM because I had blood tests at 7:20am  in the morning and I had to have a 12 hour fast. Everything went back into the fridge.

My stomach screamed in despair, I drank a tall glass of cold water and waited for my husband's return so I could tell him the bad news about no water at the barn. Cows drink during the night and remember when the water pump broke, the milk production went down because they had no water during the night.

No water is one thing and to make matters worst, my son wouldn't be able to help as he had an early hospital appointment in the neighbouring town for day surgery and I was due at the hospital for blood tests for 7:20 in the morning.

I'm so glad that my granddaughter decided that she wanted to get the milk when she did because this mess would not have been discovered until the morning and my husband would have been alone to deal with this whole mess.

Both my son Vaughan and George tried to find out what was wrong with the new water pump  and were getting nowhere. The hoses were brought out of storage again and hooked to my sister in law's house  and my husband filled the water troughs and called the plumber emergency number and they would be in first thing in the morning.  The pump was OK and it was a switch box that needed replacing. At 2:00 am, my son went to turn off the hose.

I was tired but happy that Jordyn wanted to get milk when she did or things would have been worst.

I woke up at 4:00 am and went to the barn at 4:50 am. and got all my work done before going for my blood test.

Thanks for reading my farmer's journal. Just think of us the next time you put cream in your coffee or milk in your cereal or recipe, or ice cream in your cones and butter on whatever.

To be continued tomorrow, to read at your leisure.

PS, I thought that a nice glass of Gewurztraminer  and a piece of dark free trade chocolate would be nice while I told my story. I took one sip and the Gremlins knocked my glass over and it shattered in pieces on the floor and all I can say is "That sip tasted good". Here what's left of my glass. Fortunately, there was another glass left in the bottle and I have lots of wine glasses left in the cupboard.

Good night all and sweet dreams.
JB