We’ve had a turkey and a goose sitting on eggs in the barn for what has apparently been 28 days already. I only knew it had been 28 days after my youngest came running across the yard and into the house with a big grin on her face. She had spied a little head poking out from under the turkey hen. Since we have farm cats, and unless we can relocate the mama and babies to a safe place, we usually take the babies and put them in a brooder to grow.
Now, when she heard a baby goose, I wasn’t as thrilled to take the baby from its mama because Daddy was nearby guarding. My oldest humored me and held the male goose back while I grabbed the cute little gosling and left Mama to sit on the rest of her eggs. I believe that very same day, my youngest also watched a caterpillar she had been keeping in a jar emerge as a butterfly.
Days later, my husband came into the house and asked my youngest if she had put something into the incubator 28 days ago. Maybe it slipped her mind, or maybe someone thought a duck egg was something else, but a sweet little duckling had hatched. Ducks are the one bird we hesitate to hatch too many of. Though my youngest would hatch every one of them if she could, they are just messy little things. With all of the involvement my youngest has with hatching, raising, and rescuing birds—and, well, anything that breathes—it makes me wonder about her future. She’ll be far more than a crazy cat lady.
We milked just one cow starting this past weekend. Our Brown Swiss has entered her dry period, when she puts her energy toward her condition and her growing baby instead of milk production. Her milk production had really dwindled over the past couple of weeks, so she herself had already switched her focus from giving us milk to growing her baby, but I just was not ready to stop milking her. We absolutely love our thick, creamy Jersey milk, but I may love a glass of Brown Swiss milk even more. It will be nice to get in and out of the barn a little faster for morning milking over the next couple of months. I’m just thankful to still have a decent supply of fresh raw milk from Pepper, our Jersey, until we start swimming in Brown Swiss milk again after she calves.
We have officially started county fair week, and it may have began with me stepping in literally the only fresh cow patty to be found in the whole driveway Sunday morning... in my flip-flops.
I’m choosing to believe that got the bad luck out of the way early. Here’s to a week full of hard work, fun, and projects that reflect months of learning.
Look forward to a recipe next week! Follow us on Facebook at Vintage at Heart Homestead.