Easier with the doing of it

I firmly believe that many a hard thing becomes easier with the doing of it.

And so it has been with the milking this week. Little by little we have figured out the milking machine and it seems to go better every day. We have got it down now so can finish with everything in less than an hour with either Bruce or I and two of the kids working. We have all the days assigned out so everybody has four turns of milking a week. We only use the machine with our cow Buttercup. We still milk Natalie by hand.

It was Libby's 7th birthday this week! The night before her birthday she went to bed at 6:30 pm, on her own, so she could be ready for the next day. On her Google Calendar, she had scheduled the following on her birthday:

2:00-3:00 am - Wake up
3:00-4:00 am - Pretend to sleep
6:00- the rest of the day - Have fun

At 6:30 am we went in and woke her up (Jesse, Mary and Dad had already done the milking) and sang Las Mañanitas. We brought her into the Entertainment room, where Jesse and Mary had set up her birthday present.It was Libby's Hot Chocolate "Restaurant", complete with a Menu board, cups and saucers, pink hot pads, measuring cups and sponges, an apron that said "Libby - I love Hot Chocolate" and some hot chocolate mix and white store-bought bread (the real treat)! She served us all hot chocolate that morning. The prelude to this is that for Christmas Bruce and Joseph gave me a hot chocolate maker, which mixes the hot chocolate and keeps it warm, and has a pour spout with it. Libby has been making hot chocolate for everyone constantly since Christmas, so we just added to her "Restaurant". Every day since she gets home from school and goes upstairs and pretty soon we hear over the intercom, "I'm ready to serve hot chocolate if you want to come to my restaurant!" She has been serving anyone that comes over, including Josh's friends and the home teachers.

On Wednesday we got a new calf, a Holstein bull. (Yes - we're brave enough to try it again!) He is SO CUTE, as you can see here. Holstein calves are bigger and hardier, and so far this one is doing well. We are bottle feeding him with the milk we get from the Jerseys.We have yet to come up with a name for him. Peter wants to name him Frederico, which just bothers Mary to no end because she doesn't think Peter should be able to name him, and Bruce is determined that his name should be Slobber-Face, since that is what he does after you feed him. FYI - the calves that we lost were not Joseph's. His cow and calf are in a different herd and are just fine. He did not loose his investment!

One day last week they had "Crazy Hair Day" at the Middle School. This is what Jesse did to Mary's hair! There was a secret to it, but we'll never tell. :)Thursday night there was a High School Choir Concert, and Josh sang in several numbers. His first one was "Try to Remember", accompanied by me. His friend Vinnie sang the same number at festival, so they sang it together for the Concert. They put actions to it, and had the audience smiling. Their voices sounded incredible together. Josh also sang with the Madrigals, and then the last number was his barbershop quartet group. They sang this song in the video, Still of the Night, and Breakfast at Tiffany's also.



It was SO FUN to hear them sing!! For the first time they had microphones, so Josh's bass part really came out. Everyone came up to me afterward and said what a great bass part it was. Josh LOVES singing with these guys. They really have fun together.

We had a fun, but short visit from Lorna and Kaylee, who stayed overnight with us. We hardly recognized Lorna! Ask her if you talk to her... :) Happy Birthday this week to Kaylee and Lauren!!

On Saturday morning, Jesse played her soccer game against a really tough team. They lost 4-1, but they played really well. When the whistle blew, she grabbed her bag and ran to the car, and we took off down the road to another city in Idaho for her clogging competition. We made it at the exact MINUTE that we needed to be there. If that was not a blessing, I don't know what is. We were blessed.

She did really well, getting a first in one dance, and two seconds in the others. She loves to clog, and loves to be up there on the stage. Here is a clip of one of her dances:

As soon as we left there, we got to drive 45 minutes and see my parents, who just got back from Atlanta, where they have been healing at my brother Curtis' house. We didn't tell them we were coming, so when my Mom opened the door, she said, "Well... ", and looked first at Jesse and didn't recognize her at all. Then she turned her head to me, her face went all serious, and then she started to cry when she recognized me. It was so funny! I wish I had a video of her face.

How fun to be with Mom and Dad!! To be home, even though I've never lived there. Wherever they are is home. We brought some pizza and added it to their hamburger and carrots. In a cooler we also brought a gallon of milk from our cows, a dozen fresh eggs from our chickens, a pound of ground elk meat, and a loaf of whole wheat bread. That was fun and Mom just ooed and aahed over that, which is just what I wanted her to do. (True confession - ha ha). The bread was overboard - I mostly brought it so she could tell what was wrong with it and what I could do better! Ha ha

When Angie came in later on, she started to jump up and down and yell when she saw us! Of course that just makes one feel good all over. :) She came over to convince Mom and Dad to go to the Gold and Green Ball that her stake was having. So we got dressed up and went. It was a live band, and Mom and Dad loved it. It was worth the whole trip to see their faces when the Tennessee Waltz came on. The look that passed between them was priceless. Not recognizing the song, I had to ask, "What's wrong?" They answered quickly that it was the Tennessee Waltz and in a moment they were arm in arm off dancing. Unforgettable moment for me! (This is the song that was playing on the Music Player when the blog first came up.)

Jesse got a fever while we were there. Hopefully it wasn't contagious; I think she had just overdone it. On Sunday morning after Mom and Dad had gone to Church (we didn't go because of Jesse's fever), Jesse took a Tylenol and started to feel better. When I woke up from a nap, I was laying on the couch and she went to the piano and started playing piece after piece. It was heavenly to lie on the couch and listen to her play!

I went over to Rodney and Angie's and got to see these cute kids! Carson put his hands up to me for a hug. He has really grown up, walking all over the place.Angie - so sorry I missed you. I guess Mom and Dad's clock was wrong, because I thought I was there in time. I hope your song went well! Rodney showed me all around the house. It's so great! I can't believe all the room you have downstairs to expand. What a great find!

Back at home, Bruce was busy coaching Joseph's soccer team. They lost again. They are playing club teams that pay thousands of dollars to play, and have professional coaches, so it's tough. It's good experience for them, though.

Mary's team lost also, although it wasn't so bad as the first game. Thanks to those who coached for me on Saturday! Josh played almost his whole game this week, and they WON 2-0! He also performed again on Saturday night for the Booster Club, altough he said that performance wasn't nearly as good as Thursday night.

We had Zach and Sarah with us this weekend, while Gary and Heidi went to Colorado to get the Van from Grandma and Grandpa. What a great thing that will be for them. Well, I shouldn't say they were with "us" since I was gone for two days. Peter and Libby had fun playing with them.

Here is a puzzle that Joseph made up:

This exercise is designed to test your ability to FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. In the end, this should turn a brand of Dictionary into a famous author. Write this on a sideways sheet of notebook paper, using the blue lines as a guide. Write out each step.

1. Print WEBSTERSDICTIONARY – Record your starting time
2. Remove the first letter
3. Change all the vowels except for the letter E into Ts (Y is not a vowel)
4. Switch in position the second letter and the sixteenth letter
5. Change the third letter into an O
6. If any of the same letters are in succession with each other, remove them all
7. Change the thirteenth letter into an E
8. Insert a J before each E
9. Move the letters in the fifteenth and sixteenth position, keeping them in order, to the seventh and eighth position
10. Remove any of the same letters that are in succession, and from left to right replace the first set of letters with one L, and the second set of letters with one K
11. Switch the letters in position 10 and position 13
12. Change the first C into a T
13. Remove the first D
14. Change the letter in position 9 into an I
15. Remove any of the same letters that are in succession with each other
16. Switch the letters in positions eight and nine
17. Remove the last letter
18. Switch the second vowel with the third consonant
19. Switch the first vowel with the second R
20. Print the name of the Author – record your time

Post your answer in the Comments section!
(sorry to anyone who has already done it -- it was wrong but has been fixed!)

Got milk?

Do you need milk? We sold 7 gallons yesterday, and we still have 10 gallons in the fridge today. $2 a gallon. Come and get it! Please?! :)

The alternate Title on this weeks blog was "Survival Mode". That's what I've been in this week. Here's why:

1) We are milking two cows. This takes on average 1 1/2 hours, just to do the milking. Then you have to come in and process all the milk, which entails filtering, pasteurizing, labeling. Another hour at least. When you do this twice a day, it's been like adding a full time job onto my regular schedule.

2) Bruce is on a critical path at work until a release next week. He is supposed to work his regular schedule, nights, and weekends until then.

3) Jesse was really sick this week. She finally got better on Tuesday morning after taking Activated Charcoal three times and throwing it up all three times. After that, she slept (during the day) for 6 hours almost without moving. I was almost to wake her up and make her drink something when she woke up on her own. She has been fine ever since.

4) Bruce and Joseph have both been sick with the same thing, a bad bacteria of some sort that really wiped them out for days. They felt terrible, nauseated, achy, headache, fever, coughing - you name it. They both started to feel better today. I hope they will be in full swing tomorrow.

5) I worked three days this week substitute teaching. I am very grateful because of the money, but it sure throws a dent into all other areas of my life!

6) We had to have the drainage field on our septic system replaced this week. That meant that for two days, we could not use any water beyond flushing the toilet and washing hands. No dishwasher, laundry, showers, etc. I went over to our kind neighbors to use their shower one night.

7) Soccer is in full swing with, practices and games starting this week.

8) I had to miss exercising all this week to milk the cow. I hate missing that!! Being with the WWW (Wise Walking Women) is such a balm and an uplift to my soul, that I hate missing it!

This has been a tough week! I just put one foot in front of the other and tried to get through it, which I did!

On Wednesday morning, I sent the kids off to school and realized that Bruce was in bed sound asleep after having had a high fever during the night, and it was up to me to milk both cows! Well, I reasoned to myself, I'm not the first person in history to have had to milk two cows by themselves, so I set about doing it. I was milking Natalie, and just starting to feel a tinge of loneliness and feeling sorry for myself, when the thought (and impression) occurred to me, "You're not alone, Grandma Reta is with you!" This is my grandma on my Mom's side who passed away many years ago, and she loved to milk her cow. I really felt that she was with me. It was a sweet experience. I finished milking Natalie, and as I was cleaning up Buttercup to get her started, Bruce came walking in and said, "You're out here by yourself milking. That's just wrong." So he helped me finish with the rest of it.

Some happy memories of the week:

Josh did a fantastic job in the High School vocal Festival this week! His ensemble, he and four other guys, sang "In the Still of the Night" acapella. Once during the song the tenor and the bass had a run together. The tenor went flat on the top note, and the judge said she thought there would be a train wreck there, but the bass (Josh) held his note and kept the whole group together. Josh also sang "Try to Remember", with me accompanying him, as a solo. He sounded great! (I put this song on the Music Player in this blog). The judge said he had really clear vowels and a good performance. He got 34/35 on his solo, as well as on the ensemble.

On Monday night we had a fun Family Home Evening with our friends that have the dairy cow. They came over to help us milk Mon night, and we had fun evening together.

On Tuesday night, we ended up putting this puzzle together.
When you turned off the lights, it glowed in the dark! This was a puzzle that we got from Grandma & Grandpa (Bruce's side) for Christmas. Thank you! We sure had fun putting in together.

Jesse also sang this week at New Beginnings. She sang "Firm in the Faith" with Brighton and Kimi. It was beautiful! It was amazing to see Mary go up and get a rose as one of the girls that will be going into Young Women's this year (in May). Wow! How did those 12 years go by so fast? It was a beautiful program, which I needed badly by the middle of the week!

A small miracle occurred that day (besides the one with Grandma Reta!) and that was that it was terribly cold, stormy and windy Wednesday afternoon, so I cancelled soccer practice. That gave me the extra hour and a half I needed to get dinner on and the milking done in time to go to New Beginnings. I don't know what I would have done otherwise!

We ordered the milking machine a week ago Friday, and we tracked it every day, thanks to the UPS website. It was in Jacksonville , St. Louis, Colorado, Salt Lake, and finally made it here on Friday! We got out there Friday night with the machine, and Bruce not feeling very well at all, and it was a disappointment! Ha ha It was one of those things that you look forward to solving all your problems, and you shouldn't!

I'm happy to say that two days later, we have gotten through some of the learning curve, and are getting much better results, but that first night we hardly got anything! Tonight it only took us 1 hour to do both cows, working with Bruce, Joseph and I. It's getting better!

Another thing that has helped a lot is that we have stopped pasteurizing the milk from Buttercup. At first we were pasteurizing it because we didn't know if her milk had something bad in it that made the calves get sick. I drank the raw milk, because we figure I have an iron stomach from growing up in Mexico City and living in Bolivia for a year and a half. I have been fine - no problems (even accounting for incubation period), so we are not pasteurizing anymore. That saves a lot of time!

My U-12 team, which Mary's on, had their first game on Saturday. We got creamed! I didn't even keep track of he score, but we had one goal to their eight, probably. But the good news is that we did much better in the second half after we got our wits about us. I have so much to learn to be a better coach and give more to this U12 team. I just don't have the time to devote to it. But we'll see what we can work in, and do our best. The girls still had fun playing, and they weren't down on themselves, so we will learn from it. Josh also played his first game, and they won 4-1. Josh only played about 3 minutes though before his right hip started hurting him, so that is of concern.

On Saturday night we had 13 of Libby's friends over for her birthday party. She was so excited about this party, and had been planning it for MONTHS. We made homemade pizza, played soccer and "Murder in the Dark", had a Treasure Hunt (made up by Jesse and Mary), and ate cake. We didn't have to worry about not having enough milk to go around! I kept offering it to everyone. Ha haOne last note. Buttercup stepped on my toe this morning when we were milking. It's all black and blue, and it hurts to walk! :) I'll probably survive... :)

Announcement - a new Resident on the Farm

Well, here she is, the newest resident on the Family Farm.
This is one addition we've been contemplating for a long time.
We found a good deal on Craigslist and finally decided it was time.
So we proudly introduce Buttercup, the Jersey dairy cow. This was her name before, and we decided to keep it.
I wish I had a camera to see all of your reactions right now! I told Bruce that we're trying to make ourselves as "peculiar" as possible. What percentage of the US population works on "bleeding edge" technology as a software engineer and milks a cow twice a day? And then blogs about it??

Ever since our friends and neighbors got a milk cow almost two years ago, we have helped them milk their cow once a week. This has given us an idea of what it would be like. We have thought about getting our own ever since then, and we finally did it. It's a great investment because we will not only have the milk, but are able to breed her and raise steers that can be sold for profit, besides raising a steer for ourselves for meat. Our ancestors were not far off when they described their dairy cow as one of their most valuable possessions!

We're pretty excited about Buttercup. She is pregnant and due on Feb. 14th. If she has a heifer (a female calf), we'll be able to raise her and sell her back to a dairy for twice what we paid for Buttercup. If it's a steer (a male calf), well, he's not so lucky. We'll name him Hamburguesa II, raise him and eat him. If you're vegetarian and reading this post - sorry!

Because she's pregnant, we won't start milking Buttercup until about four months after she's calved. Luckily though, we have a deal with our friends that they'll milk their cow for half the year and share the milk with us, and then we'll milk Buttercup for half a year and share with them.

Another important reason we wanted this cow was to have meaningful work for the children, as Elder Maxwell encouraged us to do. They'll be the ones trading off doing the milking.

Also, what better food storage could you have?

But mostly we are excited to have some good milk!!

Welcome to the Farm, Buttercup.