Snippets

Blogging is really the last thing I want to be doing right now. I’d rather communicate with envelope and stamp. But I’ll keep trying.

Daisy’s milk is so delicious it’s unreal. Like someone poured sugar in it. So sweet and rich.
This mountain grass is good stuff.
This mountain makes cows happy.
This milk deserves to be shared but I’m the only one here to drink it.

My little carnivores drink it, too.
And fully appreciate its sweetness.
They love it here, too. I haven’t seen Eli this content in a very long time.

I miss Mike to a degree that is painful. I know he misses me as hard – does this make me happy, to be so loved? Or sad, because I don’t want him to ache?
Both.

I have the most unattractive tan lines.
Cutoffs + cowboy boots. Don’t try to visuallize, it’s pretty awful.

The Psychedelic Jellybean

A few autumns ago, Mike did a favor for a guy; Mike didn’t need nor expect anything in return, but the guy was so grateful, he wanted to give Mike his camp trailer in trade.

Mike said, “no, really, it’s OK,” but the guy insisted and signed the title over to Mike. When Mike brought it home, he said, “what am I going to do with this?” and I said, “I have a thousand answers to that question,” and he said, “alright, then, it’s yours.”

Before:

I immediately ‘saw’ the psychedelic jellybean it was meant to be but had neither the time nor the reason to do anything about it, and so it sat in mediocrity, not old enough to be retro, not new enough to be nice. Until I decided to spend the summer on the mountain.

Stealing away an hour here and a few hours there, I transformed the camp trailer into the psychedelic jellybean, an exercise in how many colors and patterns I could cram in this space in the least amount of time at the lowest possible cost. In larger living spaces, I prefer a look that is sparse and natural, airy, light. But white + sparse in a small area just seems too much like a cell in a mental ward, so for small spaces, I firmly believe the more color the better.

Work in progress while streaming Pulp Fiction, the ideal background-movie, since the soundtrack and dialogue are the best parts:

Two quarts of paint ~ sky blue and raspberry: $22. The cantaloupe color {which erroneously looks like like ‘radioactive kewpie doll’ in the photo above} was left over from my checkerboard floor. All fabric came from the thrift store and set me back about $20. Oh, how I love vintage fabric:

I tore off the dingy vinyl cushion covers and made new ones, and, if I may brag, did it all without pins or a table:

The trailer ceiling was torn and ugly so I covered it with fabric. I originally thought I’d use adhesive velcro to attach the fabric to the ceiling but my god velcro is expensive! They sell it by the inch! So I stapled it up – just household office staples – and had only one incident of arterial bleeding when I accidentally sent a staple into my finger.

I loved working on this. Even though the majority of my time on the mountain is spent outside, after the challenges of last summer and fall and after giving 9000% of myself to EMT training through the winter, it was just fun to work on something a bit frivolous, something tangible rather than mental, and totally transform this space.

Fiona

I can’t believe I haven’t posted a Fiona status report since her birth! This calf is painfully darling. And it looks like she’s going to grow up to be a dairy cow!

I was curious how the genetic mix of dairy (Daisy) and Angus (Sir Baby) would manifest. Dairy cows are taller and bonier than Angus ~ their energy goes to producing enormous quantities of milk (Daisy is considered a “low-producer” at six gallons a day at her peak) while Angus cows are shorter and stockier ~ they produce enough milk to raise a healthy calf but their udders are much smaller and the bulk of their energy goes toward muscle (meat).

Fiona has Sir Baby’s eyes, as mlaiuppa so astutely noticed right off the bat, but everything else about her is Daisy. She is so tall, compared with Angus calves her age, and has the delicate dairy cow face. Her little teats are not so little when compared with an Angus calf, and she has loose, flappy skin where her udder will be, which leads me to believe she will have an udder like Daisy! Hooray!

Behaviorally, Fiona has followed the pattern I noticed with Baby and Frisco when they were young calves. They let me pet and fondle them for about a week after birth, then went through a stage where they were skittish around people and only wanted to interact with other cows. And then, after about a month of that, it was like a switch was flipped and they became pets.

Fiona followed this pattern to the day. She was a cuddly newborn, then seemed to trust only the other bovines (which did not concern me as I’d noticed the same with Baby and Frisco) and then one day about two weeks ago, she trotted up to me and was like, “LET’S BE FRIENDS!!!!”

Now, every morning after I milk Daisy and open the gate to let everyone out to graze, Fiona trots over to me and nuzzles my face and licks my arms and shoulders and neck and as I rub her down.

Her tongue is still small enough that her licks are a gentle exfoliation – a grown cow’s tongue is so rough it will practically take off a layer of skin. I only let Daisy “groom” me when I’m in jeans and a long shirt, otherwise it hurts too much.
But Fiona’s kisses I will take for as long as I can.

Home for the Summer

not bad for a cellphone pic, eh?

The Farmily Tree

The Farmily is getting big. I’ve had so many requests for a tree, so here is my attempt: in order of appearance, including year of birth + year joining the Farmily. Click on each name to go to a photo/post on each member.

The Farmily:
Eli ~ Cat ~ born 2006, joined 2006
Charlie ~ Coyote ~ born 2007, joined 2007
Ranger ~ Quarterhorse ~ born 1999, joined 2007
Chloe ~ Border Collie/Mountain Cur Hound ~ born 2008, joined 2008
{mother: Pita, father: John, see extended Farmily}
Daisy ~ Brown Swiss/Jersey Cow ~ born 2006, joined 2009
Sir Baby ~ Black Angus Bull ~ born 2009, joined 2009 {adopted mother: Daisy}
Flicka ~ Quarterhorse ~ born 2006, joined 2009
Frisco ~ Holstein/Brown Swiss Steer ~ born 2009 {mother: Daisy}
Rue ~ Cat ~ born 2003, joined 2010
Mushy ~ Cat ~ born 2010, joined 2010 {mother: Rue, father: presumably Eli}
Kettle ~ Cat ~ born 2010, joined 2010 {mother: Rue, father: presumably Eli}
Fiona ~ Brown Swiss/Angus Calf ~ born 2011 {mother: Daisy, father: Sir Baby}

The Extended Farmily:
Ricardo ~ Goose ~ age unknown ~ RIP 2011
Houdini ~ Quarterhorse ~ 1981-2011
Sunshine ~ Paint Horse ~ born 1985
Rocky ~ Angus Bull ~ born 2004
Ervin ~ Angus Bull ~ born 2006, joined 2009
John ~ Border Collie ~ born 2000
Pita ~ Mountain Cur Hound ~ born 2006
Black ~ Cat ~ born 2010
Blue ~ Cat born 2010