# Monday, March 12, 2012
Jersey Cow and Calf March 2012
We've been really busy here. Spring has come and we've been working in the garden for days on end. Here are some pictures of Jersey Girl and her calf Rosco. He has grown so large and beautiful! I put 3 gallons of milk on the wood cook stove every morning, 2 gallons for pasteurization and 1 gallon for cheese. Jersey is doing wonderful. The calf stays with her all day after milking in the morning, and then in the early evening, he is put in his big stall with hay and grain so he can not drink milk over the night. Then when Jersey is milked in the mornings, we get about 2.5 gallons. This means he is drinking 2.5 gallons during the day!
Homesteading | Jersey Cows
posted on Monday, March 12, 2012 9:50:29 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Sunday, January 01, 2012
Jersey Girl and Calf

Jersey Girl and her calf relaxing outside in the sun. Both of them are going great.

Homesteading | Jersey Cows
posted on Sunday, January 01, 2012 11:23:14 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, December 05, 2011
Milking Jersey and new Calf

Steve using the Farm Master milker to milk Jersey Girl. And Daisy checking out the new baby.

Homesteading | Jersey Cows
posted on Monday, December 05, 2011 8:31:36 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Friday, December 02, 2011
Jersey Girl's new Calf

Jersey Girl had her calf December 2nd at 2am. He is a big bull calf, stood up and walked around quickly. He was hopping around the stall that afternoon. We started milking Jersey Girl Friday morning and freezing the Colostrum

Homesteading | Jersey Cows
posted on Friday, December 02, 2011 5:16:26 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, August 01, 2011
Cow Horse





Homesteading
posted on Monday, August 01, 2011 8:58:52 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Friday, February 25, 2011
Spring is Almost Here
Ah, can't wait.  It's been a pretty cold winter with snow several times and quite a bit of wind.  But now the grass is turning green and all of the Surprise Lillys are popping up, along with Easter Lillys and other bulbs.  The Lilac Bush has tiny, tiny buds too.  The Sandhill Cranes flew over one week early this year, on Feb 14-15.  We still see them migrating north every day or so.  Jersey Girl went and met her Beau, Wilbur, a very small Jersey bull owned by our good friends.  She will have a Thanksgiving baby next year.  She is the best milk cow ever.  We are still milking her twice a day.  This is a pic of Wilbur.

Flowering Shrubs | Flowers | Homesteading | Jersey Cows
posted on Friday, February 25, 2011 3:33:43 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Spotted Saddle Horses
Dixie and Daisy are both wonderful Spotted Saddle Horse mares.  They are retired here, having worked on some farm somewhere all their lives.  They are spoiled and happy.  They are both around 15 years old, and are broke to everything.  You can lead them in the pitch black and they will follow you, keeping touch to your back with their noses.  This breed is a fantastic homestead horse.  Our pastures are still very green as we cut it last at just the right time, and the little bit of rain has gone right to the green grass.






Here is a LINK to the Spotted Saddle Horses page on my main site.


Homesteading | Pastures | Spotted Saddle Horses
posted on Wednesday, August 04, 2010 9:03:58 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Tomatoes From Garden
Despite the very hot summer and record breaking heat, I have managed to keep the tomato rows alive and growing, although not as abundant as they normally would be.  We only have a deep well, so watering the garden runs the 220 well pump, so we have always been very careful with our water use.  I am starting now to get some tomato harvests.






Beautiful Zinnias!  My favorite flowers and the gardens most beneficial flower.
Flowers | Homesteading | Tomatoes | Vegitable Garden | Zinnia Flowers
posted on Tuesday, August 03, 2010 8:56:19 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Thursday, July 29, 2010
Miniature Horses July
Early morning pictures of some of the little herd out grazing.  It's been so hot they stay in their open barn during the middle of the days.  They play and run mornings and evenings, and stay out grazing all night long.  They are chubby little horses.  Tonto and Star are growing fast.






Tonto and his dad Roy playing in the evening.  Tonto likes to dog his dad.  Roy has a fantastic disposition and is good with the babies.  I think Tonto is going to be taller than his dad.  His mum Cheyenne is taller.





Surprise Lillys have popped up everywhere now that we finally got some rain.

_
Flowers | Homesteading | Miniature Horses
posted on Thursday, July 29, 2010 10:13:24 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Sunday, July 18, 2010
July 2010



Jersey Girl and T.  Jersey has filled out very well with grass, hay, grain and bread.  She had her first calf, and then we got her this spring.  She is not nursing any calf, just milking for us a 3 gallon a day.




T is a steer going on 1 year.









We get truck loads of bread, and the cows love it. 

Homesteading | Jersey Cows
posted on Sunday, July 18, 2010 12:22:53 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Sunday, June 20, 2010
Vegitable Garden June 20
The gardens are coming along nicely, we have had an excellent amount of rain.  Half of my tomato plants are volunteer plants, the other half I bought.  A lot of the Sweet 100 cherry tomato plants came back up, more than the others.  Sweet 100 is a very hardy plant with very thick, dark green leaves.  The volunteer plants are very thick and sturdy little tomato plants, easy to transplant and move.  I have a thick layer of grass clippings now on all the rows.  I have to wait till the last of the volunteer plants come up.  I think it is safe now.


3 rows of tomatoes with some green peppers.



Cucumber tower, tomatoes, peppers.  Cucumbers are pickle size now.


My favorites, the Zinnias.
Flowers | Homesteading | Tomatoes | Vegitable Garden | Cucumbers | Zinnia Flowers
posted on Sunday, June 20, 2010 10:48:47 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Saturday, June 12, 2010
Miniature Horses June
The Miniature horse babies are growing like crazy.  They are now in the herd with the other mares.  All are family.  Ginger, Cricket and Spirit are still due to foal.  The pony herd comes in 3 or 4 times a day to drink, and I call them to the barn in the heat of the day to stay and eat some hay.  The babies sleep in the cool barn during the afternoon if it is hot.







Homesteading | Miniature Horses
posted on Saturday, June 12, 2010 10:32:06 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Rose of Sharon Trees blooming
The Rose of Sharon trees are blooming heavy this spring.  We do have hundreds all planted from cuttings.  We have Pink, Purple and White.  They re-seed themselves and grow baby trees by the hundreds each spring.  They are great trees to have to keep the bees at your farm for the garden.  You need to have lots of flowers for the bees to feed on.  The Rose of Sharon flowers will stay from the middle of June till the frost gets them.  All summer blooms.







Blooming Trees | Flowering Shrubs | Homesteading | Trees
posted on Tuesday, June 08, 2010 10:09:09 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Saturday, May 15, 2010
Green Green Pastures
All the rain has made some beautiful green pastures.  I use the riding mower to mow all our pastures.  It is so much cheaper on gas, it's fun and it doesn't tear up the land like a large tractor.  I mow on the highest setting, and it knocks down any weeds and gives the grass a great place to grow.  Plus it distributes the grass seeds into the soil.  Broom-sage hates being mowed constantly and it will kill it.  Broom-sage is no good for your pastures. We have a lot of Lespedeza in the back pastures, which is great for pasture grazing.  Mowing it on high helps it to spread side to side. We are lucky to have a large stand of Lespedeza here, probably planted long, long ago.  Plus the ponies like short sweet grass the best anyway.  Mowing on the riding mower is my favorite thing to do on the farm.








Homesteading | Miniature Horses | Pastures | Lespedeza
posted on Saturday, May 15, 2010 10:38:52 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Wednesday, May 05, 2010
May Hostas
The Hostas are out growing their containers.  All the barns are stripped out and airing after the 10 inches of rain we had in 2 days.  It honestly did not stop pouring for 2 straight days.  The pastures are greening up good now.

Flowering Shrubs | Homesteading
posted on Wednesday, May 05, 2010 3:10:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Spotted Saddle Mares
Dixie and Daisy with all the leaves just about out on the trees now.  Girls look good after loosing those winter coats.

Homesteading
posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2010 3:01:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Spring Leaves on Trees
The trees are getting a lot of leaves now, starting to look really green across the valley.  The Maple seedlings are coming up.  Maple leaves beginning.  Rose of Sharon trees have small leaves.  The Lilac is in full bloom.  Yellow Mustard is up everywhere, making the farm land fields bright with yellow.  Dogwoods are blooming white and Red Buds are purple.



Blooming Trees | Flowering Shrubs | Homesteading | Trees
posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 10:31:28 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
New Miniature Horse Babies
Here's some new pictures of the babies laying out in the sunshine.  Star the filly on the left and Tonto the colt on the right.  Tonto found a cool hole to nap in.  I could only see his head before he woke up.




Homesteading | Miniature Horses
posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 10:26:21 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Spring Homesteading Pictures
The leaves are really coming out on the trees across the valley now.  It has been warm for April.




The chickens get all the weeds I pull from the garden areas and lots of greens every day.  I bag the grass in the grass catcher mower and give it to them.  They need lots of greens in their diet.  We are getting a dozen eggs a day from 15 hens.  They get all the scraps from the kitchen including washed and crushed egg shells.



Lilac Tree is blooming, it smells great.



The cows and horses are wanting the grass now and leaving a lot of their hay.  The grass is really coming on with the good rain that we have had.  Jersey Girl, our milk cow, is a small size for a Jersey, and that is just what we wanted for a homestead milk cow.  We are getting 2 gallons of milk a day with lots of cream for butter and ice cream.  The Holstein is a steer.  Jersey Girl gets six loaves of Wheat bread a day plus hay and pasture.  The steer gets lots of buns and bread daily also.  The bread really keeps the weight on them good.




The Apple trees started blooming April 10th this year.  We usually get buckets of apples every other year, and this year is our year to get apples.  Lots of Apple Butter.  We have 2 different kinds of Apple Trees.  One is small red apples and very sweet and the other is larger red and yellow apples.  The smaller apples make the best pies and fillings.

Blooming Trees | Chickens | Flowering Shrubs | Homesteading | Jersey Cows
posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 7:39:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
New Miniature Horse Babies
Cheyenne had her Miniature foal Monday morning.  Tonto is a little boy who looks just like his daddy.  She did fine, she is always a really good mom.  We left them together in the stall for a day and a half, then let them out so he can learn to run and play.  It was a very beautiful day yesterday to get them out in the sunshine and let Cheyenne eat some grass.






Pokey's baby Star.  Pokey was this same buckskin color when she was born and then turned into a dark bay, almost black mare.  The 2 mares and babies are out together in the same pasture so the babies can play together.



Pony Boy, "Bubba", daddy and Miniature Stud. They live together as a herd except when the babies a little.  Bubba is a calm boy, he always treats the mares with respect and is never pushy or dominate with them.  He is one of a kind.

Homesteading | Miniature Horses
posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 7:00:19 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Thursday, April 01, 2010
Homesteading Blog Beginning

We raise miniature horses, Jersey milk cows, steers, chickens, rabbits and have wonderful farm collies. We make butter from the Jersey milk, it's easy and wonderful.

We also grow large organic gardens of vegetables, flowers, butterflies, beneficial insects and birds.

I'm going to be making pages about milking, butter making, gardening, training dogs, rabbits, chickens and more.  I'll get the old pictures back up as I go along.  God Bless you.

Homesteading
posted on Thursday, April 01, 2010 2:00:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]

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