Darling Wifey sent me an article on Fox News about raw milk and how some states are pushing to ease regulations. At $13 a gallon in Florida, seems to me we’re causing people to pay black market prices for something that shouldn’t be regulated in the first place.
If I didn’t have my own milk cow, I’d be worried about all the quotes from the different alphabet groups listed in the article that raw milk will kill you. Funny how it’s not killing people where it’s normal, like California and Europe. Unclean milk will get you sick in my opinion, no matter where it’s from. However the less handling between you and the cow, the better off you’ll be.
The farmers walk. After all these years of farming, I look just like that. Except he has hair. And muscles. And he’s younger and better looking. Otherwise, exactly the same.
So I’ve been working out recently. Each morning I get on my stair climber and climb for about 40 minutes. Then I hit the shower or the barn, depending on what is going on that day. I’m glad to be working out again and thankful for SWMBO who has allowed me to move some stuff around to make everything fit. I felt like I really needed to be doing something to offset the amount of butt sitting I do at my day job.
However before I was on my stair climber, I was working on the farm. I don’t do most of the heavy lifting, Miguel does that. I do however do my part and I can tell a difference in how I feel compared to when I didn’t really do that much on the farm. I seem to be stronger than the average Joe and if it comes to using my core muscles, I really seem to be quite strong for my size, age, etc. Turns out I’ve been doing a real workout all this time and I just didn’t know it. I don’t think I’ll give any of the guys in the videos a run for their money anytime soon, but I do know if I get a hold on you, you’re going to have a heck of a time getting loose. Tackling calves and hauling pigs does have its advantages so if you want to get into your bikini for summer, come out and get into your muck boots this spring.
The bed, finished except for the tailgate. I’d make fun of the barrels as work surfaces but when we got home, we had nothing close to working as well as these barrels.
March 1st. The bed is done. The tailgate hasn’t been started on yet, the truck is in 1000 pieces, and we’re picking it up from paint. Stressed? Oh no. Not a bit. We’ve got entire days until the wedding. I’m sure it will all work out fine. Let’s head to the barn and get to work.
The rear view of the bed, minus wood and tailgate.Truck and bed loaded onto my trailer, ready to haul back to the farm to start putting things together.
At least we’ll have most of the pieces home where we can do the work ourselves. It’s hard to have everything waiting on you, but it’s even harder to have it waiting on someone else who is outside your control. Two weeks till the wedding day. It’ll be close, but it’s doable.
I subscribe to Sugar Mountain Farms daily blog. Its a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone trying to farm. At the end of each days post, he has a “daily spark” which is usually thoughtful and uplifting. Today was a little different.
Daily Spark:
What doesn’t kill you leaves you weak and exhausted.
What doesn’t kill you leaves you for another day.
What doesn’t kill you leaves you alive.
What doesn’t kill you leaves you hunting it down
to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
This morning when I moved the cows I found Curious had dropped a beautiful little bull calf. The calf is up and moving about and we’ve already tagged him, #32. Normally we get higher and higher in numbers but 32 had been missed accidentally previously. SWMBO has informed me that we already have a name picked for our next bull calf so this one will be named Boyd. (Hello Boyd and Ava!)
Curious is a pure black Angus and so is the dad, Benjamin. I was planning on castrating this little calf but Spork pointed out he would make a good bull. Benjamin is already having his first year of calves so in two years when this little calf is ready, Benjamin will be ready to sell so based on Spork’s advice we are going to leave this little bull uncut and see how he develops. If he looks and acts right he may be our next bull. If not, he might be someone else’s next bull. Either way all he received today was an earring.
Here is a little closer shot of the new bull calf. Sorry he has the sun behind him.
We had a visitor this weekend, Miss Katie, and of course we took her out to see the new calf. We walked the paddock twice, a group of 5 of us, and we didn’t see the new calf anywhere. Just when I wondered what had happened to the calf, Katie looked over and found him in the grass outside the paddock. Leave it to the new kid to be the calf whisperer.
Boyd, just discovered in the grass
With no mom around everyone was able to take a turn petting the new calf. You can only do this for the first day or so. After that the calves will run away if you approach.
The kids, petting Boyd
We had enough time with the new calf that we were able to get some video of the kids and the new calf. Too cute.
The new calf, ready to take a nap after all the attention.Spork, fishing with dad. Note he stole my hat.
Also this morning I took some of the kids fishing. Bok Bok and I fished first, then Spork and I took the paddle boat out and did some more fishing, after a stint on the bank.
Home made chilaquiles
So after feeding the animals, taking the kids fishing, planting 54 tomato plants, and various and sundry other things I worked on today, I was fairly hungry at 2pm. After working 6 days a week for me, Miguel decided to save my day by bringing me a kit for home-made chilaquiles (it’s pronounced like Chilli-keel-As). I’ve had these in a restaurant before, they aren’t much to talk about. Miguel’s however? Oh man are they good. After this huge plate of food, I wasted the rest of the afternoon with a big siesta which I much enjoyed. Now the sun is going down and I’ve already slept too much. I guess I’ll put the kids to bed and maybe head back to the shop to work on the apple press. It’s too nice to stay inside for long.
Finally we have a loaded grill for an actual test. The weather gods have not been kind previously but they have made up for lost time with an absolutely perfect day today.
Despite our South American grill, we are as North American as we can be with hamburgers and corn. We will add bacon and cheese for the burgers in a few minutes and hopefully have a successful grilling experience.
So far the vertically stacked burning setup is working extremely well. Moving the coals around in our make do fire pit? Not so much. But we are persevering.
Somewhere along the way, the painter didn’t realize that the interior of the cab needed to be painted completely as well. He thought we had carpet to cover everything. Um, no. It’s all Tiffany Blue. So back into the shop for more interior paint and to the paint store for more paint since he’s running out. More time, more money. However the end result was worth it. Perfect paint match, inside and out.
The fuel tank was equally clean. No spray, no missed corners that weren’t quite taped correctly.The cab, fully painted on the inside. It’s impressive how well everything was masked off so no paint got onto the wheel or gauges.
These pictures were taken February 24th, 2014. The wedding was March 15, 2014. This truck is PART OF THE WEDDING! I wasn’t freaking out by this point, but I was becoming concerned. We had to put the entire truck back together, plus a mountain of parts had to be installed, then the truck cleaned and taken to Pinehurst for the wedding. Not a lot of time for mistakes or things that don’t fit properly.
The rest of the truck. The paint looks great, but now the other parts of the truck are looking bad.
Engine bay covered in overspray. Sigh. At least they won’t raise the hood at the wedding.
Back side of the truck, minus the bed.
Frame rails the same way. Nobody should look under the bed I guess. At least we can work on the boards for the bed to make some progress. We hauled them to paint to test the fit, then varnished them 3 coats on top, 2 on the bottom and put them aside waiting on the truck.
Finally! Paint, and it looks good. After months of work, and wondering what this color is going to look like, it was rewarding to see the first coat of paint on the truck.
You don’t realize how bad the red primer looked till you see it against proper paint.
Of course, the bed hasn’t been touched yet and we’re running short on time. Uh oh.
