My quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan Claire. For a gallery index showing every block in the quilt in chronological order, click here.
She wanted to milk the cows in the worse way. Her father would never allow it stating that she was a young lady and it would make her delicate hands course. I’ve always felt that was the reason she was so anxious to do it.
Holsteins are pretty high maintenance, have huge appetites, and don’t do well on poor pasture. Highlanders are low maintenance and are efficient grazers.
At the back of the barn is a room gleaming with stainless steel counters and sinks where cream is separated and small batches of specialty butters are made.
It’s a big log house. He dug the hole and after the basement was poured I painted tar on the outside. We raised and set the logs and beams ourselves with nothing more than a block and tackle.
While the sows are named Cookie Cutter and Allspice, the market pigs end up with names like Pork Chop and Bacon. And one odd year when Farmhand 3 was only 3 we had one named Coffeemaker.
Pigs that have been weaned are called shoats. The females are called gilts and the males will be castrated by now and are called barrows. Another name for this group is feeder pigs.
This is most often the pose you will find a fresh litter of piglets in. Mama pig lays on her side and softly grunts while the piglets tuck in.
Food is available for mama and an area is provided for piglets. A corner is blocked off with an opening piglets can get through but mama can’t. It’s equipped with heat lamps to keep the little ones warm.
We have geese that live with our chickens and help guard them from predators. They do a pretty good job of alerting and herding the hens out of danger.
Pasture pens are open-air structures that have a roof covering 3/4 of the top surface. Half of the side surface is also solid. The remaining surfaces are covered with chicken wire.