Goodbye, Love.

We had to sell Dan's favorite cow, Love.

Cows like Love are hard to come by. She was like a bovine jungle gym. As soon as she'd lay down after being milked, the kids were in her 'house' — as they called her stall — petting her and climbing on top of her and laying on her. And Love never moved.

I took these pictures two nights before we sold her — and before I told Dan and Monika that Love would be leaving.

You can read the rest of the story in my last Dairy Star column, which will be posted on the Dairy Star website on Tuesday, April 17. I'll add the link here when it's available. Here's the link.

P.S. The story has a happy ending named Lucy. I'll post pictures of Lucy as soon as I snap a few.

Chickens and eggs

My dream of having a flock of free-range laying hens came true in 2008 – the summer after we bought our farm.

Glen's family wanted a bunch of broilers to put in the freezer. We had a chicken coop, so I agreed to raise the birds. And since I'd be going through the work of raising the broilers, I said I wanted to raise a dozen layers with them to start my flock.

Well, when Glen's dad ordered the chicks, he went a little overboard on the layers.

I ended up with 40 laying hens.

I felt like I had eggs coming out of my ears.

I loved — and still do — having our own supply of fresh eggs. But washing that many eggs always turned into a chore. And, even though we eat a lot of eggs, we can't eat that many eggs. Thankfully, our friends and neighbors like eggs, too.

Little by little, the size of our flock decreased. Then, we got our dog, Skippy, and the size of our flock decreased a lot.

Last year, I was picking up milk replacer and the store manager said they had 10 chicks that were in urgent need of a home due to an ordering error. They came home with me.

The kids were thrilled with the surprise. I was excited, too, about replenishing the flock and having brown eggs again. (For some reason, the only hens left after the summer of Skippy were six California Whites and one Americana that lays green eggs.)

The new red hens are all laying now. And they even found the nest boxes after we tore the old chicken coop down and moved the boxes and roost to the machine shed.

Going into their fifth summer, my old hens are still laying and the Americana decided to return to the nest boxes just in time for Easter! (We only collect the eggs from the nest boxes and the square baler. I don't have time for daily egg hunts.)

Now my only challenge is collecting the eggs before the kids find them and want to 'help'!

P.S. I hope you had an egg-stra special Easter!

Mowing the lawn in March...

...and other spring fun

As much as we enjoyed our mild winter, our enjoyment of our unseasonably warm and early spring is double that.

Even though, as farmers, thoughts of drought and the summer of 1988 linger in the backs of our heads, the current weather has us smiling.

We should be able to let the cows out to pasture a full two weeks early this year – something both us and the cows are excited about. Jillian, one of the dry cows, found an unchained gate yesterday and took off for a jaunt. I know the rest of the cows are just waiting for the pasture gate to open.

Spring grazing – 2011

Words can't even describe how much the kids are enjoying the spring. I'm ready to start putting them to bed in clean barn clothes because they're out the door in the morning before they've changed out of their pajamas.

Monika got a trampoline for her birthday. (Technically, it's Monika's and Dan's, but we're letting Dan believe it's Monika's for awhile because every other play thing was his first.) The kids and their cousins were out jumping as soon as Grandpa finished setting it up. And, yes, Dan was still in his pajamas.

We had a beautiful day for Monika's birthday party. We ate outside, opened presents outside and played the year's first game of kickball.

The day after Monika's party — March 25 — I took the lawnmower out. The grass behind the barn was ready for a trim. It didn't get mowed last summer because the grass got away from us when our lawnmower broke down — and once the grass behind the barn gets too tall, mowing that area becomes an occupational hazard due to the steep banks. Plus, we were super busy with our construction projects. I'm determined this year to keep it mowed.

Maybe we'll look back later and shake our heads at our early spring, but right now we're having fun!

Switching again

It's official. We're switching cows again.

Maui and Trixie calved on Monday morning within minutes of each other. I know that happens all the time on bigger farms, but it doesn't happen very often around here. Both cows gave birth to heifer calves, which made the morning doubly exciting.

The arrival of these two little heifers also means that we're now milking more cows than the barn can hold. And there aren't any more cows to dry off until the middle of April.

We already dried off a couple cows early to make room for the cows that calved earlier this month. Not nearly as many as we did during the winter of 2010-11, though. This past fall we 'wintersized' the herd, as one of our salesmen dubbed it, so we wouldn't end up with so many cows on extended vacation.

The challenging part of switching this early in the year is that the cows aren't out on pasture yet. But they will be soon. For now, the switch cows are relaxing on a pile of corn stalks in the cow yard.

The challenging part of switching itself — other than the extra time it takes to milk and move cows — is knowing that come fall we'll have to downsize again to fit the herd back into the barn.

Unfortunately, we can't double cows up in stalls as easily as Trixie's and Maui's calves doubled up in the calf warmer.

Pink Pancakes for the Birthday Girl

It's amazing how a couple drops of food coloring can turn an everyday breakfast into a birthday treat!

Pink Pancakes
Makes 50 2½-inch pancakes

4 eggs
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
couple drops red food coloring*
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp baking soda

In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Whisk in yogurt, sour cream, vanilla, sugar, salt and coloring. Then whisk in flour and baking soda.

Preheat large nonstick pan over medium heat. (The burners on my electric stove go from 1 to 10; I set the burner at 4 for these pancakes.) When water dropped on pan instantly bubbles, pan is ready. Spoon one tablespoon (an actual measuring spoon) batter for each pancake. Cover pan and cook pancakes until bubbles on top start to pop, then turn and cook until lightly browned.

Serve hot with the accompaniments of your choice. I like these pancakes plain, Glen likes them with pure maple syrup, and our kids like them with honey butter or whipped cream.

*The pancakes are just as good with blue food coloring (Dan's favorite) or none at all.