Crossed Every Which Way

Josie came into heat again Thursday morning.  It’s day 18 which isn’t unusual, but I wasn’t expecting it until Monday.  My driver who was to take her over to meet her bull fell through or else she’d of been there sometime on Thursday.  But I was able to call the AI Tech who works this area and he came by Thursday late afternoon.    Hopefully if she cycles like she did the last couple times, she will settle down and we caught her in time.  The bull semen lives for 24 hrs so as you can imagine it’s better to be earlier then later.   I’ll know in another 3 weeks if it took.  As of Friday morning, she was still BAWLING.  I think the neighbors who missed the last blessing of heat, must of thought she had mad cows disease.  She never got feisty with me, but I also never turned my back on her or bent over with my butt in the air.  They will mount anything and anyone.  Not me!  Friday afternoon she settled down.  Now we wait.  I hope that the AI wasn’t too early, but if it was we will have to try again.  All good things in God’s time.  Heavens knows we’ve been waiting long enough for this.

Her sire is WF Duncan ET.  I’m not sure what all that means, but he is suppose to throw some good calves.  So, now it’s time to cross our fingers and toes and knees and just about anything you can cross and pray that Josie will be pregnant and give us a healthy calf in 9 months.  Mark your calendars and set your watches!

My AI Tech is Allan Pickett.  He’s been doing this work since he was in high school.  He went to our local h.s. and knew this area when we had dairy farms all around.  He doesn’t get many calls to come to this area anymore, but was more than happy to accommodate me.  I was thrilled that he was very responsive and came when called.  It was a very good bargain….$28.  That doesn’t even pay for his gas.  I felt like I should of given him a tip.  I mean, he did have to reach into places that most people don’t.  He was very nice.  Did I say that?  Well, he was.  Anyone that is gentle with my Josie is a friend of mine.

My day was spent watching Josie.  It’s a fact that a cow in heat that is watched up to 6 times during the day has a better chance of settling then one that you only observe a couple times.  Plus she was really being obnoxiously loud and the only thing that quieted her was my presence.  So I drug a chair out close to the pasture, propped my feet up and read my Organic Gardening Magazine…which by the way had a very nice article on winter squash.  So I sat and listened to the feathered ladies behind me chit chat and occasionally Josie would check to see if I was still there.  She was the quietest she’d been all day.

My son, the Tender Hearted Warrior, was crawling on his belly stalking the deer with his bow and arrows.  He shot at one, but the arrow was too heavy and feel at her feet.  Better success next time.  He’s quite the marksmen.  When he was just a little tike at Stockade Camp, he won all the marksmen awards!  (you know just a paper plate with ribbons hanging from it…but it meant everything to a 6 yr old!)  He hasn’t lost his eye and he’s taking right after his dad.  Honey shot his bow the other night that he hasn’t touched…..well, probably since we were married almost 30 yrs ago….and BINGO he hit the target dead center!!  What a guy!

Can you see him right above Joy’s back.

If you’d like to skip over to my new home you can find me there now.  I’m still unpacking the boxes and rearranging the furniture, but for the most part I’ve moved in.

Remember, we’re still Peaceful Acres we just are using a different address!

Butterflies & Bees

Photo Credit to Blue Melanistic

One couldn’t ask for anything more to bless their gardens and farms with than butterflies and bees!  I’m not sure why I named my business that, Butterflies & Bumble Bees…..I think I was thinking of things that described nature that abounded with beauty and grace and hopefully my business would do the same providing for the poor in India.

(As a side note:  Butterflies & Bumble Bees is moving to a new home.  It is only temporarily closed, but will reopen soon with a new face!  Along side my shop will be a new home for my blog and all will be found at Butterflies & Bumble Bees dot org….If you love Peaceful Acres….as I do….you can still find it right here, but I’ll be posting on my new blog….when?…..I don’t know for sure, but it will be soon….but don’t fret, I’ll make sure you can find me where ever I go and I haven’t left yet….there are stories and tales to come…..like Josie coming into heat again….pics to come on Monday!!!!  Hang tight, don’t go anywhere!!!)

Back to Bees……They are on my mind again.  I’ve got lots of butterflies flitting and fluttering around my little farm during the summer months, it’s bees that have got my attention lately.  Anytime I have honey bees stopping for a snack I am persuaded to leave alone the flowers they are feasting on.  Besides cut flowers make me sneeze and wheeze!  And since the honey bee population has declined we ought to think about ways that we can lure them to our gardens and farms for pollination and food.  You know without them food as we know it will cease.  Maybe that’s why scientist are now creating food in a petri dish.  Now that sounds nourishing, kinda like eating a cardboard box.

While recovering my body from Chronic Lyme Disease and it’s many friends, I stopped all sweeteners even fruit for over a year or more.  Then I allowed myself raw honey due to the fact that it doesn’t raise ones blood sugar levels.  I took a friends word on that (I haven’t researched it but I have heard others refer to it that way) and I’m glad, because I do love local raw honey.  It’s suggested that eating local honey will help with allergies….I haven’t noticed yet, mine are worse then ever.

I’ve lined up my local raw honey for the winter and hope that my stash lasts me.   If I run out then I’ll have to try and locate some more, but for now I’ve got 20 lbs on order from the President of our local bee keepers society.  He has mostly Black Locust honey and that’s good, but I like Wild Flower and various others best.  I’ll store it in small jars just in case it starts to crystalize and I can warm it slightly.  Or just scoop it in my tea as it is.  It’s still good.  I learned my lesson with a 5 gal container of honey I bought once.  It did start to crystalize and it was nearly impossible warming the 5 gal container in the bathtub.  If I store anything for any length of time I prefer to use glass, so I can avoid any leaching from the plastic to my food.

I’ve signed up for the Winter Bee Keepers Class.  I’m really excited.  I’d love to have my own hives and my own honey.  Just like anything else, it takes time and a little money to get started.  Nothing compared to getting the bovine girls though!  So don’t be surprised if next year sometime I add honey bees to my little farm!  But it might have to wait until the following year since hopefully next summer I will have a new calf and milk enough to swim in!!!  All things in God’s good time.  Plus if I have to wait until the following year, then I might as well wait until we retire the next and move to the mountains!  We’ll see, I’ve lived my life like that for too long….tomorrow.  Don’t do that.  Learn to be content where you are.  As I say, “Bloom where you are planted!”

In the mean time, here is a good article on the honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder.  A very interesting assumption.  It wouldn’t surprise me if it was High Fructose Corn Syrup poisoning the honey bees.  Look what it’s done to our health.

Don’t forget I’ll give you a link that you can RSS and follow me onto greener pastures, but for the mean time, I’m right here!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Josie woke me Monday morning complaining about the grass Popsicles.

We had our first snow….actually unusual for Maryland on Sunday, October 17.

The chicken yard is very, very mucky after 4 days of non stop rain…I guess it did stop long enough to snow!

Room for one more?

Finally some thawed green grass!

The barnyard needs more rock.

A lone Cleome survived the killing frost.

One faithful friend remembering another….

Boomer’s final resting place, surrounded by life giving herbs.