Lots of Milk!

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful week! We did a lot of work around here. We always work hard, but it seems that when fall is on the way we do more work. We try to get the stalls cleaned, the chicken pen cleaned, and garbage picked up out of the pasture and other areas. We get new animals, and sell the ones we don't want anymore. We make sure all the animals have good shelter for the winter, and that the fences are in good repair.

Today I thought I would show you a little bit more about Echo and what the milker looks like when it's milking her.

Often I'm the only one out in the barn milking. Bryon and Matt are out and about doing other chores so I'm the one that has to get the milker on all by myself.

There are four inflations (those are the silver tubes) that need to be put on all four of Echo's teats.

This is what it looks like when the pulsator is going.
That's a lot of milk that's being sucked into the tank!

While the milk machine is milking Echo I hand milk the goats. The milker milks out four gallons of milk from Echo a little bit faster than I can milk one gallon of milk from Matt's goat, Annie.

When I'm done I filter the milk and put it in gallon jugs, cool it a little bit in ice water, and then put it in the refrigerator.

How many gallons of milk are in the refrigerator today? 

Are they all from one day? 

Somedays I don't put the milk in the refrigerator. Either Bryon or I separate the cream from the milk. 

The milk goes into the big container in the sink.
The cream goes into the jar.
I love to watch the milk and cream in the two plastic pieces
near the middle of the milker.

I got almost 2 quarts of cream from 4 1/2 gallons of milk.
The jar in the middle is a quart jar.
The jars on either side are pint jars.
Two pint jars hold the same amount as one quart jar.
That may not seem like a lot of cream but our cream is
so thick that you have to scoop it out with a spoon or a knife!
It doesn't pour out of a container like the cream from the store.

Last week I showed you the squeaky cheese that Quin and I made. Your teacher said you read a poem last week about Little Miss Muffet. I thought you would like to see what curds and whey look like together.

The curds are in the spoon.
The whey is the liquid in the pan.
I give some of the whey to the chickens.
Most of the whey goes on the garden.
Whey makes good fertilizer and helps the garden grow!

Quin loves curds! Whenever we make cheese he always
wants a little bowl filled with soft curds to eat.

We got a new animal this week! His name is Sully.

Sully is 8 years old.
That's older than most First Graders!
He's a good cat.
He loves living on a farm.

Can you tell this is his favorite chair?
He doesn't like the dogs very much so he finds a spot in the house
where he can sit and relax with out the dogs bothering him.

Maybe you are wondering why we didn't get a kitten. We love kittens, but there are so many older cats that need a home. Sully's old owner was moving to another place that doesn't allow cats so he wanted to find a new home for his furry friend. He thought Sully would love living on a farm instead of living in an apartment. 

Do you think Sully looks happy?

If you have to write a story, maybe you can write a story about Sully! Or about any of the other animals on the farm! 

If you write a story about the farm I would love to read it!

Have a great week filled with learning!

Post Holes for the Greenhouse

Welcome back!

One of the things we're building is a greenhouse. A greenhouse is a house where green things grow. We want to grow plants in our greenhouse. A greenhouse will let plants grow earlier in the spring before the snow melts, and later into the fall and winter after the leaves have fallen off the trees.

Someone in your class noticed there was a corkscrew on the back of the tractor. The real name for that piece of equipment is a post hole digger. It's very heavy! We need it on the back of the tractor when we are moving hay to balance the tractor.

We also use it to dig holes in the ground.

Do you see how much it bounces around?
That's because there are so many rocks in the ground!

Someone has to dig the rest of the rocks out of the hole before we put the mold in.
Matt is strong, so he helps.

The hole has to be deep enough for the mold.

Next we need to fill the mold with cement.

The post goes in next.
There is a hole in the top of the post because the hoop for the greenhouse will fit inside it.
The hoop will help hold up the greenhouse roof.

It's very important that the post is straight, and in the right place.
We use different tools to measure. We used a tape measure to measure where to put the hole, the mold, and the post.

We use this tool, called a level, to make sure that the post is straight.
Do you see the bubbles in the top two tubes on the level?
The bubbles inside the tubes need to be between the two black lines.
It's a little tricky to get the post straight up and down.

It's exciting to see the greenhouse get started!

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Yes, we have a cat.
This is the barn cat, Midnight.

This morning she decided to climb on my back while I was hooking up the hose to the faucet.
She works hard keeping the mice out of the barn.

We also have two indoor cats.
This is Stinky.
She's lazy.
She likes to take naps.

*     *     *     *     *

We've had some problems with the chickens and turkeys roosting in the barn.

The problem is they don't know how to use a bathroom. They leave their droppings all over the food barrels, and the hay in the stalls! Ewwww, YUCK!

Bryon and Matt installed bird spikes so the chickens and turkeys
will find someplace else to sleep at night!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Photos from the Farm #31

Welcome back!

How was your week? I hope you learned new things, and that you did your best.

Here's Harry taking a break on Annie's back.
Baby goats love to climb on everyone and everything!

Do you remember our old cat, Cookie?
She is about 17 years old and she still catches mice!
We don't usually have mice in the house,
but once in a while in the spring or fall one will get in.
Thank you, Cookie!

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Do you remember what our yard looked like last week? 

This is what it looks like this week.

All the purple flowers are gone.

More of the red flowers have started blooming.

There are some red flowers called Poppies starting to bloom in this flower bed.
I trimmed all the flowers off the rhubarb, but I haven't had a chance to bottle any yet.
Hopefully I will have time this week.

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I have a very good friend who has pigs. We still don't have pigs. Pigs aren't allowed in Highland.

My friend thinks it's great that you are learning so much about the farm so she sent me some videos of her piglet.

This piglet was injured by her brothers and sisters. That happens with piglets. They aren't very careful and sometimes they pile on top of each other. The piglet at the bottom often gets hurt. 

My friend decided to put her in a pen all by herself and hope she could learn to eat solid food quickly. She was still drinking her mom's milk. 

She did! Now she is healing quickly and is the same size as her brothers and sisters. Sometimes we can't save an injured animal on the farm. No matter what we do, sometimes they die. We are always excited when a sick or injured animals gets better.

*     *     *     *     *     *    *

I thought you might like to see one of my friend's goats. This is Widget. She is good at adopting other animals. This year she has adopted a calf. My friend bought a calf, and Widget is feeding it!

*     *     *     *     *     *    *

Bryon saw the chickens taking a bath in the garden last Saturday! I ran out with my camera and was able to take some videos for you.



You can see how this chicken shakes off all the dust! Wow! They really get the dirt and dust in their feathers. The bugs shake out with the dust and the dirt and the chickens are much happier!

I think I would be happy to get rid of bugs crawling around and trying to live in my feathers, too!

*     *     *     *     *     *    *

Last Saturday there was a balloon that flew over our house.
Bryon got a photo of it!
It landed in a field nearby.
It's fun when the balloons fly so close to our house!

That's all for today.

I hope you have a great week! 

Photos from the Farm #24

Welcome back!

Did you enjoy the snow earlier this week? We did! We are very grateful for all the water it brings to the mountains! We have a big puddle on our driveway, too! The birds are coming to get drinks from the puddle, and the ducks visit it in the morning for a little bath.

*     *     *     *     *

Here are the photos and little stories for this week.

Do you remember our barn cat, Midnight?

She likes Clover's coat, too!

We have seen her ride Clover a few times. Midnight only rides Clover when she is wearing a coat.
Matt was finally able to get a photo of her! What a funny cat and goat!

*     *     *     *     *

Matt works at Timpanogos Animal Hospital in Pleasant Grove. He gets to help the techs and the vet do different things.

Last month you learned a lot about teeth. Dogs need to get their teeth cleaned just like people do. Dogs should get their teeth brushed, too. Most people don't brush their dog's teeth because dogs don't like to have their teeth brushed. Dogs don't care if their teeth are clean or dirty.

Do you like to brush your teeth to keep them clean?

This dog has dirty teeth. Some of his teeth are infected and broken. Dogs don't take good care of their teeth. Do you see all the yellow stuff near the dog's gums? He also has a broken tooth on his top jaw near the red plastic tie.

Are you wondering what the tube is? It goes down his throat towards his lungs and carries a special gas that keeps the dog asleep. Dogs don't like getting their teeth cleaned. People can sit in a chair and have a hygienist clean their teeth, but a dog won't do that.

 

Here is the other side of his mouth. Can you see the teeth that are flat towards the back of his mouth? They shouldn't be flat. Sometimes dogs chew on rocks. If one tooth breaks other teeth wear down. All the brown and yellow need to be polished off his teeth.

All clean! Can you see the spot on the right side of the photo that is missing teeth? How many teeth are missing? Check the photo right before this one.
If you look closely you can see stitches where the teeth used to be.
Those teeth were infected and needed to come out.

All clean on this side, too!

The next thing that happens is that the tube comes out of his mouth and then the put the dog someplace comfortable while he wakes up.

Thank you Matt and Timpanogos Animal Hospital for taking photos for us!

*     *     *     *     *

Questions!

We don't have any new animals right now.
We'll have new animals when the goats have their kids. Annie and Penny will have kids this year.
Do you think it's funny that baby goats are called kids?

We don't get any milk from the cows yet. Echo will give milk next year after she has a calf. Remi will never give milk because he is a boy.

Thank you for your questions!

I hope you have a great week!

Friday Photos from the Farm #3

Welcome back! I'm so glad you came back to visit!

Here are the three turkeys on our farm. They all look the same, don't they! Their names are Tender, Juicy, and Drumstick.

We think their heads are ugly! But they do have bright colors, don't they! Did you get the feathers I sent? They all come from a turkey and they are so different!

Someone wanted to see a picture of they boy that takes care of the animals. We both work together because it's a lot of work for one person. This is Matt, he loves goats! These are two of his favorite goats. Do you remember their names?

Someone asked for a photo of our steer. This is what he looks like. His name is Arby's. He is a nice steer, and he is really big! He thinks he is a big dog and likes to play with people, but he weighs almost as much as a small car, so that's much too big to let him play with people!
He has a very big tongue that he likes to lick people with! YUCK!!

Almost every barn has a cat. Our barn has a cat named Midnight. She isn't always friendly to people. She has one responsibility.... she keeps the mice away. She does a great job because we don't have very many mice in our barn. Mice get into the hay and make a mess. They eat the grain and other food that we buy for the farm animals. We don't want mice in our barn!

I thought you might like to see a hen that is laying an egg. Hens like to share nests. This hen is the last one to lay an egg in this nest this morning. Can you see the different color eggs underneath her?

Here are the eggs I collected this morning. There are brown and green eggs. Sometimes we collect a blue egg. One of the brown hens lays blue eggs!
Do you see the giant egg towards the front of the basket? That is a duck egg! We love duck eggs!

Here is the hen and her chicks. There are five chicks in the grass. Can you see them? There are two grey chicks, two yellow chicks, and one that is black and brown.

Next week I'll send a photo of Matt's dog and some photos of our ducks.

Have a nice week!

A Happy Cat

This is Stinky. Her 'real' name is "Pretty Stinky" because she's a very pretty cat, and when she was younger she had gas. Now that she's older, she can be a stinker by starting little disturbances with the older cat, Cookie.

Stinky loves to curl up on our bed every morning. I love looking at her. She looks so cozy and comfy. There are days that I think it would be wonderful to be a cat and curl up comfortably on the bed and enjoy a morning nap.