Naomi and David had already been on the farm a few days before we got here, so they taught us what the daily chores were. In the morning we feed 16 dogs, 4 horses, a bunch of goats, 2 baby goats, 2 rabbits, 2 baby cows, and a young yak, then we water the gardens and potted plants.
Naomi and I help in the kitchen a lot making cheeses and preparing various foods for canning. We also picked a TON of blackberries our first week here. The blackberry bushes in California are as big as houses.
The boys do a lot of the outdoor labor: digging fence posts holes, splitting wood, mending fences, etc. We all do chores like pulling weeds, planting, mulching, herding cattle, and milking cows.
I learned to milk cows our 3rd week here. Thankfully we have a milking machine and don't have to do it all by hand. There are 3 small Jersey cows: Buttercup, Ginger, and Daisy, and 2 large Holsteins: Sue, and Princess. All the cows are pretty trained and know what to do, but every now and then someone acts up. Daisy is the adolescent cow who likes to do things her own way. Sometimes she tries to go out of turn or wander down the road when we cross them back into their pasture. She's been pretty good lately though, so I think she may have just been testing us newbies. Princess is pretty mellow, but she has one vice: her dang tail. I cant count the times I've been smacked in the face with her tail while milking her, or whacked in the side when letting her out.
Although the cows normally cross the road from the pasture to the barn just fine, just the other day, Sue, the big Holstein spazzed out and decided to run down the road instead. Of course Princess followed her and we ended up chasing them all over the road, driveway, yard, and neighbors yard. I didn't see what was going on until I heard Naomi and Dan yelling for me and ran out of the house just in time to stop the two cows from running straight down the road into the mailman's oncoming truck. Luckily, they decided to veer right and go where they were supposed to in the first place.
The only other thing you have to watch out for with the cows is their rear ends. Cows don't poo like dogs, horses, or goats; cows are much messier. It splatters and splashes, so you have to keep a good distance. And whatever you do, if the cow starts to cough, RUN. They can launch it at you over 6 feet away. Basically, cows are a lot of work, but when one Holstein can produce up to 4 gallons of milk in a day, I suppose it's worth it.
Since we've been here, we have gone on a few outings. Our first weekend here we went to a large reservoir nearby. It was beautiful but difficult for swimming. It has been super dry here in California this year so the reservoir is really low. We had to climb down a 75ft, granite encrusted, steep dirt slope to get to the water. It was worth it that day, but too much work to go back.
The past few weekends, we have been going to a local campground/resort to swim. They have a gorgeous lake with a beach on it that we don't have to climb down.
Just across the street from the farm is a 11 sq mile vineyard/club that we sometimes work at. Chris, one of the owners of this farm, keeps some of his animals over there and helps out with the animals the animals owned by the vineyard. They have donkeys, pigs, yaks, water buffalo, Arabian horses, camels, turkeys, ostrich, and probably other animals that I haven't seen.
A few weeks ago, one of the donkeys had a baby jack (boy) but rejected him. The mother gave him quite a beating so they separated them. When he was a week old he came to stay on this farm and we get to take care of him. He is adorable. We bottle feed him several times a day and take him on walks to get his strength up. When his mother attacked him, he tore a tendon in his hind leg. After just a few weeks of being here the vet said his tendon was almost completely healed. He doesn't have a permanent name yet but Naomi started calling him Pippin because he gets second breakfast.
Yesterday David went to work for the winery helping them move crates of wine that they don't sell anymore to the dumpster. They gave him a bunch of wine for all his work...then we went dumpster diving for the goods they threw away! We got 34 bottles of wine for free! Chris went first and got a lot more than us. He is friends with the owners so it was technically "okayed" for us to get the wine. Free and legal! Now I just have to wait until Christmas to drink it...
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| Baby Goats |
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| "Fuzz" the Yak |
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| Giant Blackberry Bushes |
I learned to milk cows our 3rd week here. Thankfully we have a milking machine and don't have to do it all by hand. There are 3 small Jersey cows: Buttercup, Ginger, and Daisy, and 2 large Holsteins: Sue, and Princess. All the cows are pretty trained and know what to do, but every now and then someone acts up. Daisy is the adolescent cow who likes to do things her own way. Sometimes she tries to go out of turn or wander down the road when we cross them back into their pasture. She's been pretty good lately though, so I think she may have just been testing us newbies. Princess is pretty mellow, but she has one vice: her dang tail. I cant count the times I've been smacked in the face with her tail while milking her, or whacked in the side when letting her out.
Although the cows normally cross the road from the pasture to the barn just fine, just the other day, Sue, the big Holstein spazzed out and decided to run down the road instead. Of course Princess followed her and we ended up chasing them all over the road, driveway, yard, and neighbors yard. I didn't see what was going on until I heard Naomi and Dan yelling for me and ran out of the house just in time to stop the two cows from running straight down the road into the mailman's oncoming truck. Luckily, they decided to veer right and go where they were supposed to in the first place.
The only other thing you have to watch out for with the cows is their rear ends. Cows don't poo like dogs, horses, or goats; cows are much messier. It splatters and splashes, so you have to keep a good distance. And whatever you do, if the cow starts to cough, RUN. They can launch it at you over 6 feet away. Basically, cows are a lot of work, but when one Holstein can produce up to 4 gallons of milk in a day, I suppose it's worth it.
Since we've been here, we have gone on a few outings. Our first weekend here we went to a large reservoir nearby. It was beautiful but difficult for swimming. It has been super dry here in California this year so the reservoir is really low. We had to climb down a 75ft, granite encrusted, steep dirt slope to get to the water. It was worth it that day, but too much work to go back.
The past few weekends, we have been going to a local campground/resort to swim. They have a gorgeous lake with a beach on it that we don't have to climb down.
Just across the street from the farm is a 11 sq mile vineyard/club that we sometimes work at. Chris, one of the owners of this farm, keeps some of his animals over there and helps out with the animals the animals owned by the vineyard. They have donkeys, pigs, yaks, water buffalo, Arabian horses, camels, turkeys, ostrich, and probably other animals that I haven't seen.
A few weeks ago, one of the donkeys had a baby jack (boy) but rejected him. The mother gave him quite a beating so they separated them. When he was a week old he came to stay on this farm and we get to take care of him. He is adorable. We bottle feed him several times a day and take him on walks to get his strength up. When his mother attacked him, he tore a tendon in his hind leg. After just a few weeks of being here the vet said his tendon was almost completely healed. He doesn't have a permanent name yet but Naomi started calling him Pippin because he gets second breakfast.
Yesterday David went to work for the winery helping them move crates of wine that they don't sell anymore to the dumpster. They gave him a bunch of wine for all his work...then we went dumpster diving for the goods they threw away! We got 34 bottles of wine for free! Chris went first and got a lot more than us. He is friends with the owners so it was technically "okayed" for us to get the wine. Free and legal! Now I just have to wait until Christmas to drink it...
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