Introducing Miss Olivia

I am so excited to introduce you all to Miss Olivia, the newest member of our little family! I am sure you will agree that she is as cute as a button, but I will also add that she's a lively and feisty little thing!

A little over a week ago Cory had to drive down to Myrtle Point to pick up some newborn calves, so I decided to go along for the ride. I'm a sucker for baby animals, especially cows, sheep and kittens - I don't know what it is, they are just the cutest and most fun little things. I had always wanted to own my own little herd of cows but never really thought it would happen...

So, along I go for the ride, pretty content to just get to oooh and aaah over the babies, and then something happens when we get there. Cory sees me almost drooling over the babies and decides that I should get my own little calf. He said he was pretty sure his Dad would let us pasture it with his own cattle and so we didn't have to worry about not having the room right now... So, I pick out a little girl - Miss Olivia! She's half Angus, half Holstein - she's 100% beautiful!

While we were at the dairy we didn't have any cell service so we hadn't been able to check with his Dad before buying her, I was just hoping it was ok.... So, we bring Miss Olivia and the others home and talk to his Dad. He was fine with it and said she'd be just fine in with the rest of the babies and Momma's.

So, we get our three into their new pen and give them a bottle feed, then Doug took the other two calves up the road to the friend we were picking them up for.

Miss Olivia turned out to be a character - she was feisty, thirsty and craving attention - she's a funny little thing, so much personality!

She loves it when Cory comes to visit her during the work day for loves and when he goes to leave she always gives him a playful nudge on the butt as if to say "one last rub down before you leave".

The last few days she has been taken under the wing of one of the other Momma cows which is just amazing. She has her own baby (Shep) but she's happy to feed Olivia too and to look out for her. I'm so glad Miss O has found her place in the herd!

Here's some more pics - I couldn't resist, she's just too cute!

 

Catch up after a long week!

It's been a long week since I last posted on here. I can't believe it has only been a week...

So, all the things I had intended and planned to since I last posted on here haven't quite happened, as I said, it's been a long (and very strange) week.

On Wednesday last week I had grand plans, I started strong and got going with things I needed to do... Then I got a phone call from my dear hubbie, saying that his Mom had taken a fall and was hurt and was heading to the hospital. So, I put everything on hold, threw together a pot of spaghetti, put the rest of what would be dinner in the truck and headed out there.

It turns out that she was going out the sliding doors and her flip-flop caught on the rug and she took a dive. She whacked her face on the cement and landed on her wrist, it was smashed up. Broken in at least 4 places and in a right mess.

I got the house cleaned up and dinner finished before she came home, and boy am I glad I did. She came home with her arm in a splint and a partial cast, and she was hurting pretty bad. There was no way she would have been able to do those things, and I knew she'd be worrying about it getting done.

It was a pretty late night, I guess we got home around 9pm, which doesn't sound too bad, except that poor hubbie had been gone at work all day and hadn't even got his shower til we got in the door.... we crawled to bed for some much needed sleep.

The next day I headed to the farm with Cory to look after his Mom, she had grand plans of going out shopping and running errands with me, but I knew there was no way she'd feel like it... and when we got to the house she said she realised it too. So, I just stayed with her that day and did some things round there, helped her manage her pain and did some grocery shopping... There was no way I'd be getting the things at home done, so I just put them out of my mind.

The weekend crept up on us and I was glad it was here. On Saturday morning Cory's Dad called to ask if I wanted to go and do some target practice... I really needed to before deer season started, so we headed out there and shot targets for an hour. It was actually really hard work, the guns I was shooting were so heavy and the stock was really long, so it made it hard for me to get a comfortable position. My aim was good though, and my Father in law said I would be good enough to go hunting. I definitely want to do some more practice sessions before the 1st Oct, but my confidence was a little better.

That afternoon I headed to a friends baby shower. She was actually a friend of Cory's growing up, but we've hung out a few times and she's a really awesome and fun girl. It was also my first ever baby shower... so that's something else to check off the list... I didn't know what to expect, but it was a fun afternoon!

That evening we headed out with some other friends downtown, our friend Nat was having a birthday and they'd gotten a babysitter so were trying to make the most of it. It was a nice evening, but another late night... I'm not used to all these packed days and late nights!

We crawled into bed a little after midnight to catch some much needed Zzzzzzz's!

Sunday after church and lunch we headed to Amity Vineyards with John & Janet. The vineyards here in Oregon are amazing, and there are always so many of them! If you're a wine buff then you should definitely get out here and take a tour, you'd be amazed.

After that we were shot, we needed to kick back & relax, so we ordered a pizza and chilled out for the evening... The weekend was gone...

Hello & Canning so far

Well, it's been a while since I've written on here... Not too sure why, probably just since I haven't had much to say... so I'll keep this post short so as to not bore you to death.

Last weekend we picked berries, and we picked a LOT! It's craziness how many blackberry bushes there are at the farm. It seems like with the weather this year everything is late producing fruit, the blackberries are no different. There was plenty of ripe and juicy berries for us to pick but I'd say about 75% of the fruit weren't ready yet. We picked several gallons of berries and will probably wait a couple weeks before another mammoth picking session.

So, I made jam for the first time ever! It was quite a process but so much fun, AND the jam tastes yummers too, so that's a bonus. I made two batches, one just straight blackberry and the second is blackberry, blueberry & strawberry mix. I also made a batch of blackberry pie filling and canned that, but all the recipes called for a product called 'ClearJel' that I couldn't find in any of the stores close by so I subbed with cornstarch. I don't know if it turned out ok, it seems a little runny to me, but I guess the only way to know for sure is to make a pie and see... so I guess I'll be doing that next week sometime too.

I'm still holding out for apples... I have an awesome recipe for canned apple pie filling and I'd love to have that stashed away for the winter.

Harvest

Harvest is an especially beautiful time of year in Oregon. There is so much to see, so many textures, colours and the landscapes are just highlighted by the farm machinery and all the activity buzzing around.
I couldn't help but try to capture this.

Mooooooo

Cows are fun subjects to photograph. I didn't have much time to snap these photos before they got freaked out and started a stampede.... nope, I'm not kidding - just very thankful they were runing in the opposite direction!

Some recent photos (photo heavy)

I have always loved to take photos - and as you can tell, sometimes my posts are a little photo heavy (sorry).

I've really been enjoying taking photos in and around the farm and where we live this summer... here's a few of my favs :)

Happy Easter

I hope you all had a very lovely Easter weekend. We had a fun and 'interesting' Easter Sunday.

We started our day by getting up early and making some things to take to lunch at Cory's parents house. I made Cornbread casserole and some Yorkshire puddings to go with lunch. After that we got ready and headed out to Church here in town. It was really busy, but was a fun service and the choir did a good job. The message Charlie gave was really good too, he's a good speaker. If you'd like to hear that or any of his other messages you can listen or download from the website which is here (f you click on audio archive then 'launch' you'll get the complete list).

After church we headed out to the farm and got the lunch ready to serve. It was so yummy! We had lamb, potatoes, yorkshires, hot cross buns, crab salad, cornbread casserole, jell-o salad, stuffed eggs (and the list goes on).

Cory's Grampa and aunt Donette came for lunch too, so it was good to be able to visit with each other and share stories. Cory's Grampa tells the best stories, he has had such a wonderful life - I could sit and listen to him all day.

After a little while Doug went out to check on the Momma cows that were down in the barn. A few moments later he called us and said two were really close to giving birth and that we should wrap up and come down there. So, we did exactly that. Thankfully I'd brought a change of clothes and there was some rubber boots in the garage that were perfect for me. So we bundled up and headed out.

We climbed up on top of the hay bales in the barn so we could watch over both cows and not spook them too much. One of them was really nervous about the whole thing and any little noise we made seemed to make her more anxious.

After about an hour the blonde gave birth to a pretty big calf. I could feel the pride well up inside me as I quietly cheered her on through the hole process, she did such a good job!

The other one was having a harder time of it and didn't seem to be making much progress. We decided to head up to the house and warm up. We were both blocks of ice!

The next time Doug checked on her she had given birth to the calf and it was healthy too. YAY!
One more was looking pretty close to giving birth last night, but news this morning was that there was 7 born last night! YIKES!

Anyway, that was pretty much our Easter in a nutshell. We came home and tucked into the Easter eggs that we had got from the British store in Lake Oswego. Cory's first ever one, and it seemed like it was a hit. Looks like that'll be another sure tradition in the Fast household from here on out!