Week ending 7-2-23 We Get A Cow!!! Talea's Birthday, Camping Trip

Miscellaneous beginning of the week pictures

In addition to working at the bakery, I worked hard on history curriculum I’m writing to sell, we worked at our blueberry patch on Blueberry Hill so that we could open to the public next week and I babysat a 10 month old for 3 days. Besides working, we had a camping trip to prepare for, errands to run, the a/c in our van to fix, an orthodontist appointment for 2 kids, and our regular chores of tending our large garden, yard, house work and taking care of the needs of the children. It was a busy week!

Makenna holding Isla who I babysat for 3 days while her parents were in Wyoming
Kaitlyn pushing Isla in the stroller. She babysat her while the rest of us worked on Blueberry Hill
Thomas push mowing around the rows of blueberries.
Sam and Andy working hard clipping out brambles
Kaitlyn, Makenna, Talea, and Isla
First gladiolus!
A comic Andy wrote about Jesus being resurrected

One night after a swim party we saw a possum in our driveway. I told Thomas to hit the gas and hit it. He missed the first try but then backed up and hit it and ran forward over it again. I felt bad for the cute thing but after losing 3 chickens to a raccoon the other week, I thought it was a great opportunity to kill a possum too. I don’t want either hanging around our coop.

Kaitlyn was the brave one to pick it up and carry it off into the woods.

Getting a cow!!

Craziest thing! At the pool party a lady at our church said her husband had a cow for us. He buys and sells beef cattle but he found a dairy cow and got it for us!! She said he was bringing it over the next morning. That was a slight problem as we were leaving on a camping trip for Talea’s and my sister Lori’s birthday. And we weren’t quite ready as we had some fence mending to do, buy a harness, etc. But we worked hard, Thomas offered to stay home and milk the cow, and it all worked out!

Thursday morning, Talea’s birthday, I ran to the store for a cheap harness and stock pot. Then we got to work fixing the fence. My friend just stopped in the middle of the road with his cow trailer and walked down our 1/4 of a mile driveway to tell me my cow was here. I walked up with him and he got her out, handed me the lead and drove away. It was so fast and so crazy! I’ve never even touched a cow before. I had to lead her down the driveway to our pasture and milk her as she was definitely full.

truck and horse trailer at the end of a driveway

cow walking down a dirt driveway — Walking her down the driveway was so fun and emotional. I couldn’t believe she was mine! I’ve dreamed of having our own cow for a long time but was too scared to actually do it.

woman with her new dairy cow — Welcome to our pasture, Maisy!! We sure need you to eat down the grass!

mom milking her cow for the first time — I was ecstatic to be milking my own cow. What a dream come true!!! It all happened so fast, I couldn’t believe it.

pot of freshly milked milk — My first 8 quarts of milk!! Maisy kept walking through the tall grass so there were a lot of grass seeds in this first pot as I tried to follow her around to milk. Now that she’s eaten the spot down where I milk her, there are hardly any.

An 8 quart pot plus a bowl with a few more quarts. What do we do with all this milk? Make ice cream! All it is is 4 cups of milk to 1/4 cup of sugar plus a few drops of vanilla. That’s it! So it’s basically milk. Good ole fresh, raw, vitamin packed milk. It’s the best ice cream ever! I’ve never been much of an ice cream eater–I hate all the junk that is in ice cream– but I may be now. 🙂

Talea’s birthday

Talea’s birthday turned out a bit chaotic as we were trying to leave on our camping trip but got slowed down with getting a cow, milking her for an hour, setting up an electric box, and still having Isla to take care of as her parents were stuck in Dallas. But everyone pitched in. Makenna and Talea made and frosted cupcakes. Kaitlyn mowed the yard, Thomas installed the electric box for the fence. I helped with the fence, milked the cow, strained the milk, made lunch, and made the ice cream. The little boys packed the van. By 2:00 we were ready to sing “Happy Birthday” and then get on the road.

I think we were all running on adrenaline in this picture. We were thrilled to have our own cow

The night before her birthday, Talea asked to open a few presents so we said sure since Thursday would be busy packing and driving to the campground. (Little did we know we’d get a cow too and still be babysitting!) Makenna made a cardboard closet for Talea’s doll, Jenna, to hang up her clothes. I got this Little Mermaid dress for free so I thought she’d like it, even though we haven’t seen the movie.

Going Camping!

After milking the cow, putting up the electric fence box and getting Maisy all situated, then having cupcakes and ice cream, we were finally ready to leave camping. We went to Lake Norman State Park and met my sister, Lori, there who shares a birthday with Talea and turned 40.