Milking Lesson

First thing Sunday morning (before 7 a.m.!) Kristin and Lily arrived at the farm to learn to milk LaFonda. These two beauties are longtime friends of our daughter from high school rowing team days. Before they launched into chores and miking, they tied up their hair.

First we fed the chickens.  It’s part of the routine. When LaFonda sees me feeding the chickens she knows milking time is imminent and while I  take care of the poultry, she drinks water, lets Splotch drink his share of milk, and pees so she won’t have to do that in the milking parlor.

Everybody loves crazy Hobo.

I forgot to take photos during the actual milking session, but Kristin and Lily milked both by hand and using the bucket milker. LaFonda was totally calm and patient with them, and they were adept milkmaids.  After milking, they thanked LaFonda,  strained and chilled the milk, and cleaned and sanitized the equipment.

Afterward, we all relaxed on the patio, drinking cappuccino with fresh cream. Rog printed our instructions for making mozzarella and Kristin and Lily took home the morning’s milk for their next adventure, cheese-making. I can't wait to hear how it turned out!

A Wedding on the Farm!

 Saturday we hosted the wedding of two dear friends, Laurel and Darin, at Squash Blossom Farm. The past several weeks have been a whirlwind of planting, weeding, mulching, painting, sprucing up and getting the farm to be as beautiful as possible for this celebration.

The tent for the dinner was set up on Friday.  The forecast for Saturday was for very stormy weather, so they decided to rent a second large tent to cover the ceremony. That tent was set up Saturday morning.

The tables were adorned with colorful fabrics and ribbon-adorned burlap rand crocheted runners, made by Melissa.

Laurel and her sister Heather decorated the arbor with curly willow, ribbons and flowers for the ceremony.

An hour before the wedding, I helped Laurel pin up her hair and tucked in the flowers and Melissa sprayed it into place.

Beaming sisters.

Guests began to arrive,

delivering amazing gourmet  dishes for the potluck.

They signed the guest book.

Stephanie, mother of the bride (one of our favorite people on earth.)

Ella, daughter of the groom.

A hundred fifty guests  beneath the ceremony tent,

photo by Melissa Eggler

listening to a little Nodding Wild Onions music.

The bride and groom ready to become married!

A litte practice kiss.

On their way....

to becoming Mr. and Mrs.

Vows, (“I will always be on your side, except  maybe when we are playing Scrabble.”)

Married!!

Bar on the patio.

Hand washing area.

Photo by Ella Smith

Kids exploring the gardens, chicken coop, barn.

Setting up  the fabulous potluck dinner. Rog, Jessica and I  were preoccupied making wood-fired pizzas for the potluck, so from this point I was too busy to take many photos.

Ella made the delicious wedding cake ---her first cake-making effort ever(!), with white, lemon and red velvet layers.

photo by Ella Smith

The cake was served just before the  promised thunderstorm let loose,

photo by David Shane Smith

but the band played and the bride and groom and the wedding guests danced under the tent, sheltered from the rain, late into the night!

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Tea Party!

Last week the farm was invaded by four dear friends from our high school days.

We shared many stories and lots of laughs. We spent a fun day perusing thrift stores. While I was preoccupied with my cow and newborn calf, they dived in and spruced up the store for its summer opening and planted flats of flowers. We decorated hats and had a fancy a garden tea party (Gayle’s Kickstarter reward.) And we took many photos of ourselves all gussied up for the tea party.

These photos make me smile. I treasure this friendship that has  stayed strong for over 30 years. Thank you, dear Seesters!

Fickle February

February is such a tease of a month.  It starts out with Groundhog  Day;  if the groundhog sees its shadow we will have 6 more weeks of winter. In Minnesota, ONLY 6 more weeks of winter would be welcome. We know better than to  be that optimistic.
Most of this February has been very cold. Last weekend it warmed up enough to get a bit of fresh snow that made the dog tracks through the yard look  pillowy soft.

But then we got cold again. The birds seem to know when the weather  is going to change--they gorge themselves at the feeders.  It costs a small fortune to feed these little birds, at least as much as it costs to feed my 75 chickens!

Yesterday and today we enjoyed a brief,  balmy warm spell - almost 40 degrees! Snow melted and slid off the roofs. We should have known better than to leave lawn furniture on the stage; the garden bench was out of the way of the snow blower but right in the path of the barn roof avalanche. Broken to smithereens!

Snow on the east end of the barn roof is lying in wait for an unsuspecting person or dog to walk beneath it.

It was  so warm today today (but we are forecast for a blizzard, 60 mph winds and 10 to 14 inches of snow tomorrow!) so I decided I better check on my beehives - I have to order bees pronto if i need them.  I was expecting the worst and was happy to discover the top bar hive seemed pretty active and healthy. This is the view through the observation window. The bees were  moving about. I found a few dead bees on the snow; that’s a good thing-- the result of bee housekeeping on a warm day.

Wading through the deep snow from the top bar hive to the Warre hive at the bottom of the yard was good exercise--the snow had drifted thigh deep and was dense and wet.

The Warre hive did not look so good - lots of dead bees in front of the hive, and bee droppings all over the hive and the snow.

Bee poop polka dots on the top of the hive. Bees often suffer from dysentery in late winter/early spring because they are unable to clean the hive of droppings until it warms up, usually a January thaw, which we did not get this year. There might also have been too much moisture from so many bees breathing in a small closed space - this hive was very heavily populated last fall. Or worse, it could be nosema, bee diarrhea caused by a parasitic infection. This has been an especially stressful winter with unusual, unrelenting cold.   But when I put my ear to the hive I could hear a faint humming, so perhaps the hive will survive.  Nevertheless,  I think I will order two packages of bees to ensure I have at least two hives next summer.

I’ll close on a sweeter note--dark chocolate poppyseed cakes

and  savory heart turnovers with greens, mushrooms,  walnuts and creamcheese, made for

a Valentine party at our house last Friday, "Chocolate, Champagne & Love Songs.”  Thanks to the  Nodding Wild Onions for providing the music, and thanks to all our wonderful guests for bringing a bounty of bubbly and decadent chocolate delicacies.
Sending Valentine love to you all!