2005-06-07 - 11:21 a.m.

The cow fund

Quote for the day: Lord, 'tis Thy plenty-dropping hand
That soils my land;
And giv'st me, for my bushel sown,
Twice ten for one;
Thou mak'st my teeming hen to lay
Her egg each day;
Besides my healthful ewes to bear
Me twins each year;
The while the conduits of my kine
Run cream, for wine.
All these, and better, Thou dost send
Me, to this end,
That I should render, for my part,
A thankful heart...
-Robert Herrick, A Thanksgiving To God, For His House

Well I decided to once again try to format my diary writings here cause even I forget.

Farm Life
Family Life
Home Schooling
Health
Cow Fund
Police reports

They will not always be in order but hey; I write what is on my mind.

Farm Life: The humidity has been unbearable the last few days. The air has been thick like pea soup and in this thick pea soup flying are those nasty little mosquitoes for once I am not proud to say everything is big here in Texas.

By the time I get in from morning, afternoon and evening chores I am drenched with sweat. I guess the good thing of all this is that I am losing weight hahaha or it feels like it. My pullets are close enough to the chicken coop that I can use the water hose from the coop to water them instead of carrying those heavy buckets of water.

This is a relief for me. When my daughter gets back from camp we will go out one night and move them to the big coop. I need for my husband to measure the roost so we can add more or I guess I can do it.

Our lamb finally had her baby�s, yes that�s right plural she had baby twin girls.

Family: I miss my daughter terribly. The first night she was away a small electric storm came through and I cried knowing she is afraid of the sound of thunder and I prayed she would be too sound asleep to hear it. I am hoping she is having a good time with her friend.

My son doesn�t miss her like last year. He has an understanding of where she is and we have been marking the calendar every day for her return. He hasn�t even gone in her room, which is odd to me.

A yellow jacket wasp stung my poor baby; every now and then my dad and I have been going outside with wasp spray looking for those little pests.

I had just looked in the playhouse a few days ago and figured it was safe. My son came out with me today drenched with mosquito repellant. I haven�t let him out for about 2 days cause of them.

I wished it worked for those wasp I saw them swarming around him about three of them when he slammed the door to the playhouse. I jumped off the MACHINE my legs almost clasping on me cause of the jolt and ran inside with him to put medicine.

He told his daddy on the phone today, �Wasp stung my hand, mommy killed him!� You bet I did. Mommy sprayed them then squished them to their death. No one gets away with hurting my baby!

My legs are killing me I think I might have pulled a muscle on my leg, so much for mowing today.

Cow fund: Yes now its time for the subject of the title of this days diary. I�ve decided to raise funds for my future cow. I will need a lot of stuff for her.

The milker itself the pump to make it run, the containers for the milk to cool, the cream separator, halter for the cow or at least make one out of a rope.

Curry comb to brush her, the place to put her while milking, the molds for the cheese I will be making and of course the book, Keeping a family cow, though I think I will get my husband to spring for that if I charm him enough.

A friend of mine says I should set up a pay pal account donation for my cow fund. Now that�s not a bad idea hahaha. Don�t worry loyal readers I wont get mad if you don�t donate to my cow fund I will probably put it up just for the fun of it. I have heard of crazier stuff put up on web sites.

I have been planning a yard sale or I should say flea market sale. You can go to the local flea market and set up a booth for $5.00 for the day. I think I will do that one day as I clean out my house and use the money for my cow fund.

So in all I need money for my cow equipment and the cow itself. I will keep you posted as I collect. As of today I start off with $20.00 from my allowance to start off my cow fund.

I could probably set up the shares for the cow itself a lot of people are doing it this way, everyone that wants milk could have some milk but they are paying for me milking and boarding the cow not necessarily the milk itself.

I have heard of family�s running into problems with this with authorities or should I say the inspectors that are run by the Milk producers who don�t want small time farmers like us selling our raw milk. You see legally you can have your own cow and drink your own raw milk but you can�t sell it. So people are getting around it by selling cow shares.

I have joined a great group online called �The Family cow forums. The woman who wrote the book runs it; so far I am finding tons of advice in it and haven�t even finished reading all of the posts yet.

Homeschooling: Well with Miranda away for camp it�s just Tommy and me and his schooling doesn�t take that long at his age. I have finally got so disgusted with the way I have everything organized here and there and maybe some things over there that I took the kids cupboard in the hall way and I am going through it throwing stuff out to put their supplies in there.

I am so tired of trying to search for things and at the last of the semester finding something saying, �Wow I was going to teach her from this book�
Health: Well I am at One month and one week of exercising and eating better. More fruit, cause I drink more shakes that I make with my Vitamix.

My pants are fitting me much better if I was to weigh myself which I wont I think I maybe lost 5 lbs. Which doesn�t seem much but I am going at this slow. I do 30min on the MACHINE each day accept weekends. This last weekend I didn�t cause of being sick. I think I only did 20min today cause of Tommy getting hurt. I walk back and forth at least two to three times to the coop each day and walk around the farm too.

Police reports: I still haven�t gotten the paper but I plan to go into town today and I will pick it up and update it later today or tomorrow so check back in a bit.

Special note: We watched a movie called �Oil storm� it was a fictional documentary on what would happen if we lost our oil supply. It�s frightening on how much we depend on it.

The good thing is at least we won�t starve on the farm and I know where all my family are heading of course hahaha they would have to eat fresh eggs and chickens that have been recently plucked.

It�s amazing what you will eat when your hungry though J even for a city person. My husband was once out on a survival course in Germany with this one city boy.

They gave them a live chicken told them how to kill it and dropped them off in a remote area. The city guy said No way am I killing and eating this thing, by the second day he was asking my husband, �How do you kill this thing again? hahaha

The Storm - The Family Cow