Shalali Infante and Pint-Size Farm, located in New Mexico, breeds miniature jerseys, Nigerian dwarf goats, and American Guinea Hogs shipping animals all over the U.S.

A friend wanted to spend some time with me and the farm, so she came by for morning chores.  She has milked goats before, so she helped with milking as well as the feeding and clean up chores.

After milking, it was honey robbing time.  My mom came as well, as she wanted a refresher course since my parents have not worked much with their bees this season.  We got a lot of honey from one hive.  One hive was barely surviving. The other three hives had lots of honey, but it wasn’t capped yet, so I didn’t take it.  It will be ready next time (in 2 weeks).  My dad showed up for the last hive.

Here is a Top Bar with honey comb on it.

Here is the all the honey and comb in the pot after we collected it and started to cut up the comb to break up the cells.

Honey dripping off the knife

Honey and comb all mashed up and read to pour into a colander to drain the honey and leave the wax.

After bees, Dante, David, and I went to look for a BMX bicycle for Dante.  He has been doing some BMXing with Kyle and borrowing Kyle’s bikes and helmet.  So, on Wednesday, he’ll have his own new bike for the practice session.

We had leftovers of beans, meat, red chile, and tortillas.

After dinner, David and I put a chicken tractor next to the brooder so the chicks could go outside of the brooder.

Milk Stats: Total gallons, 8.09; Sally gave 31.7 pounds or 3.86 gallons; Janie gave 22.4 pounds or 2.73 gallons; Annie gave 12.4 pounds or 1.51 gallons; and we collected AGAIN 27 eggs or 2.25 dz.

SATURDAY:

Sweete apprenticed in the morning.  She was supposed to do it all (my day off) with the exception of Annie, but since David got the truck running, I wanted to come out too to use it :)  It worked like a champ.  It was nice to use to feed from, because we can stand on the bed, and drop the feed into the feeder, instead of toss it up.  There is a lot less hay that gets into the clothes this way.

Sweete found Lola’s weaner ring.  Annie thought about coming in first to be milked when I opened the door to the milk parlor, but then she changed her mind.  Sweete milked her out and they both did well.

After milking, we went to Cochiti Lake to have some cooling off fun.  We had a blast.  The water seemed cold at first, but then we got used to it and had fun.  Unfortunately, we all got a little too much sun.

For the afternoon milking, Annie did come in first to be milked.  She is slowly building her production.

We had Frito pie for dinner with beans that had been cooking all day, ground beef, and red chile.  Yum.  We watched Grand Torino.  It was a very good movie.  Clint Eastwood is an amazing director.

Milk Stats: Sally gave 32.9 pounds or 4.01 gallons, Janie gave 23.4 pounds or 2.85 gallons, Annie gave 12.2 pounds or 1.49 gallons, and we collected 27 eggs (again)  or 2.25 dz.

FRIDAY:

Annie has been calling for her calf, especially when she is full of milk.  Lola lost her weaner ring while we were out there in the morning.  We couldn’t find it, and believe me, we looked.  Oh it was so humid, after we came in from milking, I checked and it was 47% humidity.  Dante started milking Annie, and she let down just fine for him.

After we came in and cooled off, Dante & I went back out to the barn, because there was something dead under it and a nest of rotting eggs.  So, I found a dead chicken just under the opening (that should not have been open, as the skirting fell off in one place).  We got that chicken and buried her in the compost bin; it was pretty gross.  Then, I belly-crawled from the opening to the far end of the barn in a channel that was just tall enough for me to belly crawl and just wide enough for my shoulders.  There were a few live chickens roaming around under there.  I pushed a box in front of me and loaded it with all the eggs.  Some had already opened up and were smelling horrible.  After I got them out, we decided to bury them underground, as they gave a whole new meaning to the word RANK.  The opened ones were green and bubbling.  GROSS.  When we placed them into the hole we dug, they started exploding like malignant Pop-Rocks.  Oh, it was so disgusting!  Dante made the comment that we could have used the dead chicken as an air freshener for the rotten eggs.  Gross!!!!!

It rained in the afternoon.  I churned butter.

Sweete apprenticed for the afternoon milking.   After milking chores were done, Dante & I put Lola’s a spare weaner ring in Lola’s nose.  I cannot afford for her to go back to nursing.

David got the little orange electric farm truck running yesterday.  It is my new milk wagon.  We will be using it to haul all the milking supplies and hay to the barnyard.

We had burgers for dinner.  After dinner, David & I took a half-mile walk with Buttercup.  We should have put her leash on her, as she was not used to walking in the street.  Our street was okay, but Foothill had too much traffic, so I carried her.

Before bed, Dante and I went to check to make sure all the chickens had come out from the barn.  Of course one had not, so Dante had to belly crawl all the way to get her.  At least all the rotten stuff was out, but it was still a little odoriferous.  Then we blocked it up.  I need to make it more permanent, and will do that soon.

Milk Stats: Sally gave 30.3 pounds or 3.29 gallons, Janie gave 20.7 pounds or 2.53 gallons, Annie gave 11.8 pounds or 1.44 gallons, and we collected 27 eggs or 2.25 dz

Milking went well.  Little Annie stood like a seasoned milker again.  I’m very please with that little girl.  Her production is coming up.  It won’t be as much as Molly would have given after her calf was weaned, but next lactation will be better.  We opened up the pasture again; it finally dried enough after irrigation last Sunday.

It was so hot yesterday, I felt lucky I had things to do in the house.  I washed 3# of butter and got 4 qts buttermilk plus a glass for me to drink.  Then I skimmed 10.75 gallons of milk and ended up with 8 gallons of milk set out for clabber for the hogs and the chickens and 2 + gallons of cream culturing for butter.  I’ll churn it Thursday afternoon.

We got our cell-phone bill, Yikes, I forgot to send in my damaged phone (they sent me a replacement) and they charged me for it!  I called and the man I talked to was very helpful!  So, after dinner, David & I found a late FedEx p/u and dropped it off in time to go out yesterday.

We had Chicken Spaghetti Alfredo (no fetuccini) with the last of the chicken I roasted 3 days ago.  That bird fed all of us for 3 meals.  Can you say WOW?  I’m impressed.

After we got back from the FedEx, David & I loaded up the little farm truck with grass clippings (I have a landscaping company that drops off their grass clippings) to mulch the potatoes again.  We had to weed them a little bit first.  We ended up getting the truck stuck next to the potatoes.  ARGH.  David had to jack it up to put dirt under the wheels to get it out.  We need about 4 more truck loads of mulch before we are done, but we got a start on it.  I slept good, but this morning my arms were sore (from the weeding).  We probably needed a chainsaw instead of a hoe for the weeding.

Milk Stats: Sally gave 31.6 pounds or 3.81 gallons, Janie gave 21.8 pounds or 2.63 gallons, Annie gave 10.4 pounds or 1.25 gallons, and we collected 31 eggs or 2.58 dz.

Yesterday, I awoke at 4:45 am so I could get out an milk Molly early  before she left for new home.  I milked her around 6 AM.  Then we got her and her calf loaded.  It took a little effort, as she was concerned for her calf when we were trying to load him, and she came out of the trailer.   Finally, they both were in the trailer and headed home.  They got there around midnight their time.

When we went out to do regular milking, we let Annie out with the other cows.  They are all trying to find their place in the herd with a new member and a lost member.  It will take a few days for all the dust to settle.  It was a rodeo milking Annie in the morning.  She was mainly used to a milking machine and had been fed in the stanchion while being milked.  I milk by hand and don’t feed during milking.  Those differences in addition to her whole world being changed, she was none too happy.  I ended up having to tie her foot back to keep her still.  She didn’t like that, but soon settled down and I milked her out.  She gave about 3/4 of a gallon.

David & I met for lunch.  It was nice to see him in the middle of the day.

On the way home from lunch, I got dog food for Zed, the huge pooch we now have.

Then I priced some wood for making the new stanchions and bought a new drill.  Mine died a couple of weeks ago and my cordless has bad batteries.  ARGH

The evening milking was completel different with Annie.  She gave a gallon and she stood still without having to be tied.  I am so impressed with that girl.  Her udder is amazingly decpetive too.  It is so small, but puts out a good amount of milk.

David & I harvested the garlic last evening before dinner.  I have it drying in the pumphouse.  It smells so good.  How exciting.  Enough garlic to last us for the year.  I don’t think I planned enough for things like pesto and for seed for next  year, but I’m still happy.  We’ll plant more this fall.  It is so amazing to see that which we have grown!

We had leftover chicken and mashed potates and watched Pulp Fiction as a family movie.  I guess you know your kids are growing up when you can watch a movie like that as a family

Stats: Sally gave 30.9 pounds or 3.98 gallons, Janie gave 21.4 pounds or 2.76 pounds, Molly gave 9.9 pounds or 1.28 gallons, Annie gave 14.4 pounds or 1.73 gallons, and we collected 26 eggs or 2.17 dz.

Yesterday, I finally got all the data entered for the rest of the year on my milk stats.  Whew.  I hope to never get behind again!  Molly was in standing heat about 1:00 PM.  Fun, fun.

There was quite a bit of cloud cover yesterday, so it was much cooler than the day before.

My new cow left Nebraska yesterday morning and she arrived around 9:30 PM.  I’ve been trying to buy a cow from this breeder for 5 years.  Finally I got a girl from her.  She was worth the the wait

She is such a petite pretty little thing.  Her name had been “Glenda” but we’ve decided to call her Annie short for Annabelle (after the woman, Ann, I got her from).  When she arrived, I milked her out.  She only gave 1/2 gallon and she tried to soak her foot in the milk.  Oh well, she had a long journey and has had tons of changes.

We had roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and salad for dinner.

Andre went swing dancing.  David and I stayed home for the cow’s arrival.  We have been going dancing every Tuesday for over a month now.  I sure missed it.

So yesterday was pretty quiet, just sitting in front of the computer doing Data Entry.  Now I have better stats

Sally gave 32.9 pounds or 3.98 gallons, Janie gave 22.6 pounds or 2.73 gallons, Molly gave 17.6 pounds or 2.13 gallons, and we collected 24 eggs or 2 dz.

A pretty quiet day spent mostly indoors, as it got up to 98 degrees at my last check.  After milking, I gave a farm tour to a shareholder and her niece.  Her sister and nephew were supposed to come, but the nephew got in trouble and they were not able to make it.  We’ll reschedule their visit.

The skink sprayer in the milk room was having shutting off issues.  I took it apart and found only gunk.  Fortunately the O rings and seals were still intact.  After putting it all back together, Wa-La, the valve shut off with no leakage.

I got the Kombucha tea brewing.  This involves heating 5 gallons of water and brewing the tea and sugar in the 4 crocks.  After it brews for 24 hours, I’ll take out the tea bags and add enough water to fill each crock with 2+ gallons and add the culture.

The weekly billing is done and the checkbooks are balanced (see anything to avoid going outside in the heat).

I finally got some more shavings for the chicks.  I also put their heat lamp on a timer so that we can forget them if we get too tired.  It worked beautifully.

When I was mucking up around Molly in the afternoon, she kicked the pitchfork out of my hands; on its journey, it whacked my right hand fingertips quite hard.  I was unsure if I was going to be able to milk, as for about 10 minutes, every time I squeezed my fist together, my fingers stung and ached quite badly.  Yes, I whacked the $&%^ out of her, and fortunately, I didn’t break this pitchfork over her leg (yes it has happened before).

David had a company dinner and didn’t get home until 8:00.  He had a very long day.  I made Penne Alfredo with ground beef for the kids.  I didn’t eat, as I was just to hot and not hungry.

I started a HUGE project of entering the data of the milk and egg collection into my database.  I stopped doing this last June 18.  So, now I’ve got the information up through August.

Sally gave 33.2 pounds, Janie gave 23.4 pounds, Molly gave 14.1 pounds, and we collected 33 eggs.

We irrigated this morning.  David is now handling the irrigation, which is so WONDERFUL for me, as it frees me up to just do morning chores, instead of worrying about the irrigation and flooding different areas.  Poor guy, he thought he knew how to turn off the electric fence, but he unplugged the wrong cord, and ended up getting zapped.  Dante didn’t think that was a very good Father’s Day gift.  So, we showed him exactly where the fence charger is plugged in.  I think that he didn’t get a full zap, as it was discharging into the water, but still OUCH.  We also decided to flood two more areas were are hoping to turn into pasture grazing for the cows.  He had to build up berms to keep the water away from the house.  It turned out fine.  He got the potatoes really soaked.  We’ll have to weed and mulch them in a few days, after the dirt dries out a little bit.

When I was putting away the rakes and pitchfork, Claire pulled her bully stuff and made all the cows switch position at the feeder.  Sally Jo back up to move over, and backed into the rake in my hand and it whacked me across the temple.  Oh, it hurt SO bad.  I still have a tender area.  I got a goose egg on the side of my head.  I must say curse words were also knocked loose and flew out of my mouth.  When cleaning up the milking equipment, the thermos we keep the wash water for the cows’ udders rusted out on the top and lost all of its insulation.

Our neighbors’ (Amy & Colby) sheep got loose while they were moving them.  We (David, Andre, Dante, & I) all went over to help herd them back into the enclosure.  Colby ended up tackling one and once she was in the enclosure, the other soon followed.  What an adventure.

I ran errands - Costco (hopefully to buy my last cheese as mine will be ready in about 65 days or so); Target to find a new gallon thermos for the cows’ wash water, which they didn’t have; Sportman’s Outdoors, which did have the gallon thermos; La Montanita Co-op for potatoes (also hopefully the last I’ll have to buy until I buy more seed potatoes next year).  I also picked up some Crock-like shoes to wear outside.

David was already watering the garden when I got home.  After unloading the car, I got the filling for the apple and peach pies ready.  The apples were from frozen apples that we picked last year from a friend’s tree.  The peaches were Organic peaches from Costco.

During evening chores/milking, one of the pigs from the compost bin got out.  Dante and I had to wrestle him and ended up carrying him upside down to get him back into the compost bin.  I think those piglets must weigh close to 100 pounds now.  I guess they are no longer piglets anymore.  Our newest shareholder and her young son were witness to this fiasco.  Never a dull moment on the farm.

While cleaning up, I churned the butter, but stopped just before it broke to take out some cream for sour cream for the baked potatoes for dinner.  After clean up chores from milking, I got the potatoes in the oven, soon followed by the pies.

My parrents soon arrived.  I picked greens (Swiss chard and beet greens) from the garden.  I made a salad with greens from Amy and Colby’s garden.  The ribeyes were already to be cooked.  I heated bacon grease and cooked the steaks in cast iron skillets.  As soon as the steaks were put in the pans, I started caramelizing garlic in more bacon grease for the greens.  Once the steaks were turned, I put the greens in the pan with the garlic.  Once they had totally wilted, I added some kombucha, covered the pan, and turned it down.  Once the steaks were done, the greens were perfect.  We took the pies out of the oven as soon as dinner was ready. I also had fresh chopped garlic chives from the herb garden for poatoes.

I whipped some fresh cream for the pies after we had sated our appetites with dinner.  It was all delicious and we had a nice visit with my parents.

After we were in bed, fixing to fall alseep, I remembered the chicks.  David got up and turned on their heat lamp.

Sally Jo gave 32 pounds, Janie gave 23 pounds, Molly gave 11.7 pounds, and we collected 37 eggs.

Dante had Saturday morning off.  Sweete assisted me in the AM.  After milking chores were done, the family went to Jemez Springs to hike up to some hot springs.   It had been rainy in the morning, but we decided to go anyway, figuring that the hot springs would feel really good if it was cold and rainy.  We packed a lunch, (left over barbeque chicken) and snacks and hit the road.  It took about 2 hours to get there.  We passed some beautiful scenery on the way in and out.

Spence Hot Springs- This was our destination, and we soaked for an hour or more.  The parking area is across a gully, so you have to hike down to the river and then across and then back up to the springs.  There were a lot of people, and quite a few youngsters.  The last time I was here, I was about 6 and my family along with aunts, uncles, and cousins all went.  We had to hike (it seemed like forever to a 6-y/o) and cross the river on a log (I crawled) and then hike forever more, only to find the hot springs filled with naked old people.  I was scarred for life ;)  Now there is a bridge across the river and a well defined trail and people had their swim suits on!

This is Soda Dam

Here are the boys and I at Soda Dam

David & the boys at Soda Dam

I’m not sure what this is called, but it is a beautiful red canyon

David & I at the canyon (notice the rain drops on David’s shirt??? remember those)

On the way home we hit a HUGE rain storm and could barely see the car in front of us.  Visibility was just beyond the car.  We were in it for about 20-30 minutes and then it ended and the sun was out and the road was dry as can be.

We stopped by Baskin Robbins for a treat on the way home.  We got out to milk about an hour late, but the cows seemed okay.  After milking David made dinner from leftover beans and ground beef.  I didn’t eat, as I was still stuffed from all the snacking.  I washed 3.25 pounds of butter and then skimmed 11 gallons of milk (I was out of jars, so I had to clear the fridge).

Sally gave 32.8 pounds, Janie gave 23.2 pounds, Molly gave 17.3 pounds, and we collected 27 eggs.

I’m once again trying to blog again.  I’m just going to jump in.  If you have questions, comment and I’ll answer them.

I was supposed to be going to Nebraska today to deliver Molly and her new calf (aka Red Bull) to Ann and pickup my new Mini-Jersey girl, but yesterday her county was put on TB quarantine and my cow needs more testing in order to leave the state.  Ann is going to bring her to me next week instead.  I couldn’t go other than on the weekend, and we already have the health papers on Molly and Ann needs to get her out of the state while she can. David was planning on going with me, so he had the day off.

This AM, when I opened the doors to the milking shed so that Sally could come in, Molly came in, got into the stanchion and wanted to be milked first (she usually goes last).  So Dante brought in her bull calf and I set to milk her.  Sally was a little upset to be second instead of first.  Poor Molly had milk streaming from 3 teats, I guess she Needed to be milked.

David and I took Molly to the Livestock Brand Inspector at the Belen Cattleman’s Livestock Auction (the inspector was working there today) to have her brand inspected (she was branded by her previous owner, and I never did re-brand her with mine or transfer ownership) so she could leave the state totally legally.   I got a very good lecture from the brand inspector about timely branding my animals (Yes Sir, I do plan to be compliant from here on out).

After we got home, David and I went shoe shopping.  He got a pair of running shoes, as he plans to take up jogging as a cross training t his cycling.  I got another pair of sandles to show off my pedicured toenails

We checked out a driving school for Andre, and have enrolled him for the next course starting in early July.

Tonight we are having BarBeQued homegrown chicken, baked potatoes, and salad from the garden.  I made the BBQ sauce and am baking the chicken in thick sauce.  should be good.  Then we plan to camp out in front of the TV for a family movie (probably lots of blood and guts).

This evening during milking, I put water in the portable swamp cooler that David put in the barn for us.  Until today, we’ve just been using it as a fan.  It was NICE.

Sally gave 29.7 pounds, Janie gave 23.1 pounds, Molly gave 18.7 pounds, and we got 27 eggs.

OHHHHH, Janie is BRED.  Unfortunately it is only to the Angus, but bred means she is not broken!!!!