Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Pages from Laurie's "Milking Time" sketchbook, vol. 1

 There are always a few cows who seem to take a little longer to finish up milking than the rest.  Or, who take a little longer to clean up their grain in the barn before coming in to the parlor to be milked.  I've found that keeping a little sketchbook in the parlor is a good way to pass the time while waiting for the slowpokes.  Keep in mind while viewing these, that they are very rough indeed. I usually only have a few minutes to scribble each image.  On top of that, I am usually using a bic pen.  Not exactly a choice drawing tool, but if it gets stepped on by one of those big stompers, it's no great loss.



Size comparison:  Jackee, on the left, and Styx, on the right... 2 average sized Jerseys.
Melody, in the middle..... our average sized Brown Swiss.  I scribbled this one morning as
I was waiting for them to finish up their grain.  Melody always seems like such a giant
amidst the diminutive Jerseys.




the view from the parlor window

a comparison of cow feet.... Tide on the left is a nice, young first calf heifer.
She has slim legs and dainty feet.  Alpine, on the right, is the matron of the herd.
She has big old knees, thick ankles and hefty stompers.  I get to see this particular view,
the backs of the their fronts, a lot!




Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Quechee


Last week we took a day trip to Quechee Gorge.  Jill snapped a few photos that I thought I'd share.  I can only imagine how the gorge, and the surrounding area, look now in the aftermath of Irene!


Stephanie and Jill 


We all hiked to the bottom of the gorge.


After the long hike back up the gorge, we visited Vermont Cheesecake
in Quechee for some much needed sustenance.


Monday, August 29, 2011

August goes out with a blast!

Well, we've weathered the storm!  Irene blew in early Sunday morning, just about the time we started morning milking.  We braced ourselves for the worst but, thankfully, it wasn't as bad as we expected.  Thinking we would lose power any minute, we kept one eye on the NOAA website tracking the storm and hazardous weather warnings and the other eye on the electric fences that were slowly becoming submerged as the rain fell harder and harder.  Luckily, we never lost power.  Since we are perched on top of a hill, we didn't experience too much flooding either, but many in our surrounding area weren't quite so fortunate and there's lots of cleaning up to be done for many miles.  Click here to see pictures of the flooding at Consider Bardwell, next door.

We have 3 new additions to our herd, Cedar, Emerald (due to freshen any minute) and Mavis Jr.  They are beautiful Jerseys and already fitting in with the rest of the girls.  Photos of them will be posted in a few days.

Monday, August 15, 2011


Summer is winding down and fall is in the air.  Warm days are giving way to cooler nights and the crickets hum endlessly.  Soon, the leaves will be exchanging their vivid green hues for shades of red, orange and gold.  In the meantime, the cows are busy making milk from grass while fertilizing the pastures and enriching the soil.

It's hard to believe that it's already the middle of August.  It seems like it was just yesterday that the cows arrived and Wayward Goose Farm really came to life.  Milking every day, morning and night, since they moved in on May 18, we've really gotten to know these girls.  They all have their own character and personality and are truly a pleasure to work with.  From Melody, the giant Brown Swiss who will stop at nothing to get to her grain to Heather the most patient, alert and friendly cow we've ever known, we feel very fortunate to have such a beautiful, calm herd of cows.

Check out our Cow of the Day and get to know the ladies.