Calves, Friends and Canning

This is Swissy, well he has not yet been officially named...but he is a brown swiss calf and since Don is a bit slow when it comes to naming the creatures on our farm we have taken to calling him swissy. And I think he is a wonderful cow. He came to us last thursday...just a day old and larger then charlie was. This is a big calf. he stumbled into the barn while I milked Chloe. Her head swung around and her eyes fixed on this wobbling babe coming into the barn. She did nothing but stare. She Don manuvered him into the cow pen and Chole stared as he tried out his legs, confused by his new surroundings. She stayed still...allowing me to finish milking, and then we brought him out. She took to him immediately. Welcoming him in as if he was her own. Her depression seemed to lift, she had a calf again and all was well. Swissy, is a foster calf from the dairy up the road. At the dairy the calves are removed from their mothers before they get a chance to latch on for the first time. They are bottle fed...and so teaching Swissy to go to Chloe for milk was a challenge...as he thought I would be feeding him. But he is a gentle, sweet calf...he comes when he's called...and loves to be pet....I think he has won my heart. So again there is new life here...and we are all glad for it.

This weekend I had the joy of having Jeannie and Dan come for a visit...it was so good to be with good people....to Laugh...to tour about...to be reminded of the wonderful people in my life...

A roadside stop to see the view:)

Jeannie and Dan

Our Roaring Fire...a bit tricky to start due to some damp wood...

Jeannie checking out the view!

Resting in the sun after a hike

It was a good weekend! Thanks guys for coming.


And this week I got to embark upon the adventures of canning. Monday I spent all day in the kitchen canning peaches(Em, i chose this so i could share with you) It was wonderful to be canning the taste of summer for the winter. It is good to learn how to put food away, and more and more I am thinking of staying at this farm for another year. I shall see where life leads, but as september falls, the leaves are beginning to tinge red and the nights and mornings are colder and there is time again for living. The farm is not as busy anymore...it is just good.


And these are the plums...the plum tree that unexpectedly produced. With gorgeous plums. Not a mark on them. It is strange how nature allows some things to survive. No disease, no insects...it was a lucky tree. But Yesterday as the sun was rising I found myself in this tree, harvesting plums and I thought, this is how my life should be.