guest column

I moseyed into our local greenhouse this past Monday and bought tomato and pepper starts, probably the earliest I have ever bought them. Now, I wasn’t sure if I was going to plant them right away or not, but I had them if I decided to just go for it. I also snagged some more onion bulbs, onion bulbs that my oldest said once again I’d have to plant myself if I came home with more. I tend to keep bringing them home since our onion patch area just isn’t quite full, I think I’ll go ahead and grab a few more when I’m in town next just to hear the children groan at the sight of them. That Monday evening, I hoed the rows for peppers and tomatoes, that alone took up all the time I had, but while I was doing that, my oldest made mounds for all of our squash varieties and put some seeds in the ground. The next day, I checked the ground temp and weather, the ground temp was at the minimum of what I would comfortably plant into, and the weather was going to be steadily warm with chances of rain. Those chances of rain made me itch even more to get plants in the ground, even with the risk of severe weather I decided to put some plants in the ground. I planted a small variety of both tomatoes and peppers that evening just to make sure the ground conditions were actually fine. Seeing that they were perky in the morning, I got to planting more around some small rain showers. As my allotted rows for peppers filled and filled, and plenty remained in the box, I realized that maybe I should have counted plants as I put them in the box at the greenhouse, but this wouldn’t be the first time I lost all control in the greenhouse. As we received more rain later in the week, there was a lull in planting. Sunday, we finally got the cattle panel tunnel up in its new spot for the cucumbers and pole beans to vine up on. I’ll plan on getting them in the ground first thing this week. While I was planting peppers one day, my younger two had big sis help plant their own little gardens. Their gardens flourished last year, so they couldn’t wait to get planting this year’s, now to wait for sprouts!

I was sitting on my little crate next to Georgi, the Brown Swiss, one morning last week while she was being milked. I’ll massage her udder, keep the hose out from under her feet that don’t always hold perfectly still, watch so an inflation doesn’t slip, etcetera, while sitting there. It’s dark out when we milk, and I’m always fresh from bed, quiet, calm, and cozy in my coat and gloves. My husband slipped out of the barn, and then I saw it, Georgi’s tail. Her tail started arching up then her back arched as well and I screamed “Nooooo!” as the pee started raining down onto the rubber mat, she was standing on, splattering up onto the claw, my boots and legs, anything within a couple feet of her rear end. I shot up and ran to get the bucket, the bucket that should have been by my side for instances like this. I was more trying to startle Georgi with my loud, high pitched, wake-up-the-whole-barnyard “Nooooo!”, my Jerseys are sensitive and sometimes a little scolding will make them not to repeat what they are doing, peeing in the stanchion for example, I didn’t think about the husband who’d just left the barn. He was back in a flash to witness my wide-eyed sprint to the bucket as pee showered everywhere. I’m not sure if he envisioned something else happening, maybe death by milk cow or, you know, bad placement of my foot. Whatever it may have been, I’m sure I woke him up a little more too. Now, Georgi, I think I just annoyed her rather than startled, she’s not sensitive and does not have a care in the world. We have tried other things rather than just my screaming to stop her from peeing. If she is laying down when we go get her to milk, she gets walked around in circles like a dog, giving her plenty of time to relieve herself before going into the barn, but really, it’s her choice whether she is going to cooperate or not and actually go in the time we give her. We really did read that some cows do not like the sound of their “mess” splattering in a bucket or catching the other “mess” with a shovel against her back legs, but our Georgi, she doesn’t care. She really doesn’t make a mess routinely in the stanchion, she just likes to throw us off once every couple or few weeks, like, ah, looks like a good day to get the milkmaid messy. Though she doesn’t mess in the stanchion too often, she does mess outside of it a little too often. My niece asked recently why there was so much poop in the barn, my answer, “Georgi”. She makes what we call a “poop trail”, the name should paint a picture for you on its own, while walking back to her pen. I frequently ask my youngest “what’s at the end of the poop trail?”, the answer is always “nothing” or a dirty look depending on the day. Georgi has come a long way since coming to our homestead and becoming a family milk cow, something she was not before, so even though she makes her messes, I still have to say she is a great cow, and her abundant milk is amazing. I’ll keep dealing with her occasional bad habit in the same way she deals with my hugs, just a shake of the head. Now, onto a cleaner subject!

My youngest went to the incubator Friday and said, “There’s more chicks, they just keep coming!” I giggled and asked “Don’t you like the chicks”? Her reply was, “Not when everything is exploding chicks”. Ahem, I guess I’m not going to tell her I’m the one who keeps adding eggs to the incubator.