A June Bug,Locust, And Bulls!

She's here! On June 3rd we had the first calf of the season and she is a lovely brindle named
June Bug! Her sire was a Scottish Highlander and the  mama cow ( aka "Roundhead" ...Dave named her) is showing promise of being  a fabulous milker! She is half beef breed crossed to a jersey (dairy breed) so we really didnt expect too much in the way of production, in fact we werent even figuring on milking her, but the way she has developed we thought that she just  looked too good to pass up. She has been "fresh" (dairy term for coming into milk) for less than 3 days and she is already milking 5 gallons of milk a day on GRASS ONLY!!!! No grain whatsoever!  Many dairy men would scoff at the lowly amount of 43 lbs of milk per day, but we are thrilled. It is so creamy and the butterfat is decidely jersey influenced since it is bright golden orange in color.. YUM! It's going to make great cheese!





San Marzano Tomatoes all mulched and loving the heat!

We've gone from a very cool and wet spring to record breaking temps in just a few days, we hit 100F here yesterday BLECK!  Tonight the temperature is supposed to drop to 44F! Crazy weather!  The San Marzano tomatoes  in  our pizza garden  shot up close to six inches in  just over the last two days during the heat spell, thanks to the compost and mulch they never even needed to be watered during the high temps! I topped dressed them with compost and then mulched them in old straw...it sure made the difference in how they fared in the heat.  I planted them alongside of a mesh fence this year, hope it works well  as a trellis.

Wild Honey Locusts Blossoms

Lilacs cant  hold a candle to the thick sweet perfume of the wild honey locusts blossoms which surround our home. It was their lingering fragrance  that  made the past few days  of sweltering heat bearable. I hope to harvest a bunch of the blossoms tomorrow  for "Wild Honey Locusts Ash". I really do cook them down to the  point of ash, and then I dust certain cheeses with them. The ash attracts some very cool molds and adds a very nice hint of flavor.

It appears that no farm is without it's  bit of "drama". Our two bull calves, "Freddie" (the brown one) and "Rib Eye" were having their fair share of  it today. It seems that "Rib Eye" who is obviously bigger and more heavily muscled than lighter framed  and all around smaller Freddie, decided to be a bit of a "bully". Now you know where the term "bully " comes from!
Poor Freddie  didnt  even paw the ground, he just humbly lowered his head, waiting for the pending impact.

You can notice by comparing the two photos how much "Rib Eye's"  overall heft shoved Freddie back by quite a few feet! Not to worry! There is one great leverage that mother nature endowed our little underdog with, and that is the world's great equalizer....

Horns!!!   Freddie has horns, Ribe Eye does not.  Little Freddie has him on the run...yes, life is good !