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12/07/2006: "Finals are Over and There's a Cow in the Field."

I've probably flashed a picture similar to this up on different posts, mostly because it's one of my favorite scenes. But today, there's something new in the picture: Aura! Can you spot her?

To find out more about today, and to know where Aura is in this picture, click the link!

To start with, Aura is standing in the middle/lower right hand side of the picture. She is such a nice color of red that she blends into the landscape really well. She is settling into her new home quite nicely, though she still gives us a look like we're crazy when we approach to milk her.

But she's really gotten used to the whole milking procedure. This morning, Nate used his scythe to cut several pounds of oat grass. We took it to her, putting it into her feed bin. She munched, ravenous for the beautiful green grass, while we secured her head. Then Nate and Rebecca got to milking, one on each side of her, racing to get the milk before Aura finished her food. Usually Aura eats for about 5 minutes, then fusses about for 5-10 minutes, swaying back and forth, being generally uncooperative as we try to milk. After fighting for a bit, she settles down and lets us finish milking her. Today was different. She dove into her food with gusto. They were finished milking within 10 minutes! Aura stood perfectly still while she ate and had no objections to being milked. We were so proud of her! I stood around and drank tea and tried to be helpful.
Here's Nate in the early morning with the scythe.

After milking, we had breakfast and then we took Aura out to a small pen in the field. She enjoys being outside, though mostly she just looks around at everything. We think she's still missing her herd. We have yet to hear a "moo" out of her, just some random burping, which isn't quite the same.

Today also marked the first day of winter break! One of the many things that tried to derail my studies for finals were the blueberries. Now we have about a dozen, year-old, wonderful little bushes, and they needed to be mulched. It took a lot of willpower to make it through finals! Anyways, today I rewarded my tenacity and tackled the mulching. It turned into a larger project than I thought, so I recruited Nate. First we dug up a ton of poison hemlock that might grow up through the mulch. Then we cut down the grass and placed cardboard over the area to be covered.

Next we brought cartloads of cottonwood chips, kindly donated by a neighbor, and made a 6-8 inch deep mulch over a large area. We took out the drip system, not wanting to bury it forever.

We took a break at midday, and had a wonderful glass of fresh milk!


Rebecca was finalizing details of her trip, and after a glass of milk, decided to make her departure. Tomorrow she is giving a talk in Southern Oregon on low impact methods of growing wine grapes. Then she goes on to California to visit family for the holidays, and then on to Mexico for a month!
She's taking a very special Giant Pink Banana for a very special friend, Bob. We hope she gets a lot of attention driving down the Interstate with the Banana strapped in next to her.



We wished her good luck on her journey and returned to our project. While we were working, a clatter and squacking racket started up. We both looked up and there was our sharp-shinned hawk, with a starling in his talons! I was showered with soft grey feathers as he flew over my head, slowly struggling with his prey. A troop of starlings came to the rescue, pecking and harrasing the Sharpie. The starling did manage to escape, though probably quite damaged. The Sharpie banked after losing his prey and landed on one of the cedars in the back yard. He huffed and puffed for a few minutes, pouting maybe, before flying off for different haunts.

In Grecian literature, that would have been considered an omen, though I'm not sure anyone can divine it now. We took it as a good sign that the wildlife feels at home enough to pout right above me.

We continued working, finishing up before sunset. The blueberries are now mulched and tidy for the coming year. Their branches are a beautiful red, with bright red buds already starting to develop. We're excited at the thought of fresh blueberries, just outside the door. There is plenty of room for more! The mulching went so well that we're planning on tackling the vines as soon as we get a hold of more cardboard.


The sunset was spectacular. We brought Aura in, cut her more grass, and put the ducks up.


We just finished up the evening milking. Again, it went wonderfully and smoothly. I got to milk out one "quarter". I'm fairly slow still, this having been my second day of milking. But I'm learning and will pick up speed. The evening milking is delightful. The cow is content with her feed, the lights are soft and we're huddled close to a warm body providing us with sustenance. It's delightful to walk out into the moonlight and hear the killdeer flying for home, even as we look to our own warmly lit kitchen.