The Hopeful Homesteader

Tag: fiction

  • The joys of cow ownership…

    The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur because we had so many family things going on. May is known as the month of birthdays in our family. There are 8 birthdays in the month of May, and five of those birthdays fall between the 8th and the 13th. This year, we were celebrating my dad’s 70th birthday and we planned a surprise for him by having my sister fly in from Luxembourg as well as some of our aunts and uncles and one of our cousins. He was blown away and it was definitely worth it, but it meant that for the first two weeks of May, it was go go go with the kids having many late nights and us constantly prepping and cleaning the house for all the different family gatherings. As much fun as it was, I was really looking forward to a nice relaxing week last week. I had even planned for the girls to go to my mother-in-law’s for a day so that I could enjoy a day of doing nothing. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans for my week. The week started off with both girls sick, coughing, leaky noses, and Cece had a fever to really round it out. Now after 5 years as a Mom, two sick kids isn’t enough to wreck my week. In fact, often it means the girls need a day of resting and watching movies which is when I am able to get a lot of housework done. The real wrench in my blissfully carefree week, was our beloved Buttercup. I got a nice crash course this week about some of the less glamourous sides of having a cow. The stuff they don’t put on the Instagram reels where the women are walking around effortlessly in their handmade dresses as they tend to their perfect gardens and farm animals.

    For starters, Buttercup gets very impatient about getting her bowl of milk, which should be really fun when I start weaning her in the next couple weeks. There have been a few instances where she has been so excited about her milk that she knocks the bowl from my hands which leads to her getting milk all over the barn floor and sadly lapping it up before it soaks into the gravel. This is frustrating of course for her, but also for me as it generally ends up on my clothes as well. For those who have never smelt calf milk replacer, imagine a sort of sweet popcorn smell and that is pretty close to it. I never imagined that having a cow would actually increase the amount of clothes that I have to wash either from having the milk spilled on me, or her incessant need to chew my clothing. I now keep my flannel shacket as a barn shirt so that I am not constantly having to get changed every time I come back from the barn. Now I know the saying, no need to cry over spilled milk, but nowhere does it say no need to curse over spilled milk, as that has definitely happened.

    The milk mishaps aside, I felt like I was getting a good handle on taking care of Buttercup. Now that she drinks out of a bowl, it is significantly less work. She also has a larger outdoor area now and is generally pretty content just sunbathing and munching on her grass clippings that Brent puts in her pen from the lawnmower. She still enjoys a nice chin scratch and of course we have to keep her pen nice and tidy, which means raking the gravel when she pees and getting rid of the poop. Having had dogs now for almost 11 years, picking up poop was not a big deal for me. In fact, hers takes less time because it is generally just one and you just take the big shovel and throw it in the wheelbarrow. Simple. Or at least, it was simple, until last week when I had a very unfortunate mishap. One day, after I had shoveled her pen and was walking toward the gate and I tripped over a hose that was on the ground. I didn’t drop the shovel or hurt myself but it was enough force to send the poop flying off the shovel and onto the chain link gate. Anyone unaware, cows poop stinks, it is also very difficult to clean off a chain link gate as it gets in everywhere. I first attempted with baby wipes, feeling confident that if they can tackle the biggest blowouts my babies had they could tackle this. I was wrong. All it did was make the mess bigger. I thought about using the hose, but then realised that would make the entire barn wet and we were due for some colder temperatures. I finally came to the reluctant realisation that I needed to let it dry, before I would be able to clean it off. Which meant we had to deal with cow shit being on the gate for a couple days. Ah, the joys of farming.

    The poop fiasco however, was not to be my most challenging situation of the week. Brent was working long hours and even had to work late on the Saturday so I decided I would make a nice dinner for once he got home. I was going to make mashed potatoes, sausages with roasted peppers, gravy, peas and most importantly of all Yorkshire puddings. For those who have never made Yorkshire puddings, you need to get the muffin tins smoking hot in the oven before pouring the batter. I had timed everything out, and once my potatoes were boiling and my muffin tins were in the oven, I figured it was the perfect time to go and feed Buttercup quickly. The girls were watching a show, I mixed the milk and went out to feed her, which generally takes only 2 minutes…Buttercup had been in the barn all day because in the morning it had been snowing (thank you Manitoba spring), so when I opened the barn door I could tell she was eager to have the fresh air on her. The problem was that I was holding her giant bowl while trying to open the chain link gate, all while trying to get Brinkley back so that he wouldn’t make me spill the milk. This resulted in me opening the gate a smidge too wide and Buttercup busted out.

    Now, Buttercup has not been tagged yet, meaning if she were to run off down the road or to another property, we have no way of identifying her other than saying, hey that looks like our cow. So there I am, standing with this bowl of milk having a “holy shit what do I do now” moment. I put the milk down in the barn in the hopes that it would entice Buttercup to come back in, but she was not having it. Finally, she was free! Brinkley got her riled up because he finally had someone to run around with, and man did they book it. One thing I never realised, is how fast a calf is. I knew the girls were inside, my oven was on, and I needed to get this cow back in the barn. I swear anyone who has known me since before I lived in the country, would have probably paid to have seen me desperately trying to herd this calf back into the barn. I know that cows don’t like loud noises so I was trying to speak to her softly, and gently, but when you are running after a calf, sometimes your gentle voice starts to fade. I had almost gotten her into the barn, just in time for Brinkley to coming running up and sending them both on a sprint again. She went through the pumpkin patch, thankfully we haven’t planted anything yet, although she did scare some ground nesting birds. Then she was ripping around the play structure kicking up her legs like this was the greatest day ever. Once I finally got close enough to her I managed to pet her, and slowly lead her back over to the barn and get her in there with her milk before securely closing the gate. After checking the gate about 3 times, I closed the barn door and went back to the house, where the girls were none the wiser. My poor muffin tins however, were extremely smoky when I pulled them out and I was forced to open a bunch of windows and turn the fan on.

    I learned a few lessons this week. One, to make sure the path to the wheelbarrow is clear when cleaning out the cow pen. Two, make sure that you block the gate when you open it to get into the barn and three, cows are very fast. A bonus lesson learned is that no matter how many cute Instagram reels there are about owning cows, do not let that fool you into thinking that it doesn’t come with its own unique set of challenges. I am sure there will be many more and in two weeks we pick up our lambs, which will lead to a whole bunch of new experiences I am sure.

  • Seeing a man about a cow…

    I originally had a whole plan for this week’s blog. After feeling defeated last week at the lack of affordable cattle, I spent most of the week reading up on what we would need for our future sheep, planning Cece’s 5th birthday party, and contemplating whether or not we should get pigs instead. I was going to write about the pros and cons that I had considered about getting pigs and talk about which breeds I liked best. However, 8hrs ago I saw Brent leaving the driveway with his trailer hitched to the back and I sent him a text asking where he was going, to which he responded, “to see a man about a cow”. Two and a half hours later, he was pulling into the driveway with Buttercup, our new 4-day old calf.

    Now in Brent’s defense, we had been talking about getting cows for months as I had previously detailed, and he did in fact mention this morning that he might have a lead on a calf for pick up on Saturday. However, that was the last thing he mentioned before I saw him a few hours later pulling out of the drive. To some this might seem frightening, ill-planned, scary, nerve-wracking or stressful, but for us I have to admit it is kind of par for the course. When we decided to buy our first house, we had a conversation on the Friday of hey we should maybe think about buying a house and we closed on our house on the Tuesday, a mere 4 days later. A few years later, Brent and I had had some brief conversations about how it might be nice to have a pool. We even bought a small above ground pool, then returned it because we decided that it was too small and not worth it. Then I went on a trip back home to BC and I was checking the Visa statement and noticed a large charge from Canadian Tire. I texted Brent to ask about the charge, and his response was simply “POOOOOOL!”. We still have that pool to this day and it remains one of the funniest messages I have ever gotten from him. A year and a half ago, I had been bugging Brent about us needing another golden retriever because I kept seeing cute ones online. Two weeks before Penny’s first birthday, after supper he just said, we have to be at this address at 7pm to pick up our new puppy. Some people thought it was crazy, to add a new puppy when we already had a 3-year-old and a soon to be 1 year old, but we wouldn’t change Brinkley for the world.

    • First Christmas at our impulse purchase house
    • Brent enjoying our pool
    • Penny when we brought Brinkley home
    • Cece when we brought Brinkley home

    Of course, all that said, there was still a little bit of panic in me when Brent informed me that he was on his way to pick up a calf. For starters, we had nothing set up for the calf. We had bought our electric fence material, but we still haven’t taken down our neighbour’s fences that they used when they were renting our land for their horses to graze. Thankfully, Buttercup won’t be out in the fields grazing for another 6 weeks minimum. We also didn’t have any milk replacement, bottles or a pen set up in the barn. I mentioned all this to Brent when he called me on his drive home and he was quite calm about it all. He said he was going to rig up a pen in the barn for her. The good thing about being married to a carpenter is there is always a lot of scrap wood and pallets around which really come in handy. As for the milk replacement, he had already made a call to the livestock supply store down the street from our house and he ended up going to our friends’ house that is right across from the supply store, and they had bottles that they were not going to use. Brent mentioned he had a moment of panic when he was first leaving to pick her up, but that it had changed to excitement to be bringing home the first farm animal to our property.

    I did my best to not mention anything to the girls as I wanted it to be a surprise for them when he got back. They knew we were looking for a cow and liked to talk about what it would be like when they got one, but I really wanted to see their reaction when it was finally here. I also didn’t really feel like having them ask me for two hours when Daddy was going to be back with the cow, so I kept it a secret. If you ever ask anyone that knows me whether I can keep a secret, most of them would laugh in your face. I am known for blabbing everything, I simply can’t keep information to myself, but I was determined to make it through the two hours. The problem with keeping it a secret was trying to convince them of the need to hurry and get their boots and coats on once Brent had told me he was just down the road. Trying to get a toddler and a 5-year-old to get out of the house quickly is a feat in itself, but it was worth it to see their reaction to the surprise Daddy had for them.

    Penny getting to know Buttercup.

    When Brent first got her out of his trailer, I was shocked at how small she was. He carried her out because she only weighs around 85lbs and is about as tall as Kili. At first, she was a bit hesitant to see the barn and have Kili and Brinkley chasing her around as if she were another puppy to play with, but she eventually got used to her surroundings and soon she was running and kicking up her legs in excitement. That excitement was what lead to my first time being kicked by a cow, thankfully she is still small so it didn’t hurt, but I will be more mindful of it in the future. Cece and Penny were over the moon about their new cow. They helped me put her hay down while Brent made a pen for her by attaching some pallets together and one for a door at the end, securing it to the barn. Then they had plenty of hugs and kisses for her while she snuggled into her hay. They refused to leave her side until Brent got back with the milk replacement and the bottles and then they wanted to help feed her. With both my girls, I was lucky enough to be able to breastfeed them exclusively, which means that I have absolutely zero experience with formula, which is pretty much what this milk replacement is for the calf, although it comes in a much bigger bag. It was a very new experience having to measure out 2.6 L of water then weigh the required powder. At first Brent tried mixing it in the bottle, which proved to be rather impossible, and powder was spilling out. Then we moved onto a large metal bowl and then using a funnel to put it back into the bottle. When we brought it out to Buttercup, she drank it with gusto. The girls each had a turn holding the bottle and I got my chance as well.

    • Dogs with Buttercup
    • Penny keeping a watchful eye
    • Cece and her new bestfriend
    • Brent feeding Buttercup
    • Massive bag of replacement

    The girls were sad to have to leave her, as we went inside to have dinner. They came out with me after to bring a large container of water for her. Again, as this was a spur of the moment purchase, we didn’t have a water trough for her. After some quick googling I discovered that calves have a tendency to knock over their water if it is just in a bowl for them, so I had to ditch my plan of a large salad bowl. I quickly scoured the house looking for something that would be “trough-like” something that I never thought I would be doing. The best thing I could come up with was using one of our old Superstore grocery bins, and I have to say it was very effective. Online it said it had to be something that would be heavy enough not to be easily tipped over, and I can say that once it was filled up with water, it was certainly not easy to carry and therefore I felt confident she wouldn’t be able to tip it over. Of course, I still had to bring it from our house, all the way out to the barn. Going from the house to the barn is not normally a difficult trek, but carrying several litres of water in a bin, while holding Penny’s hand and avoiding giant puddles from the melting ice, made it considerably harder. We will definitely need to find a better permanent solution for Buttercups water needs. Once the water had been carefully placed in her paddock, the girls took the opportunity once more to give her a few more goodnight kisses and hugs, and then they reluctantly came into the house to have a bath as they had been rolling around in the hay with Buttercup.

    Girls saying goodnight to Buttercup

    Going forward, our routine will have to change to incorporate Buttercup’s feeding schedule. Based on her weight, she needs to have 2.6L of milk replacement twice a day and she will start to get food starter within the next couple days for the next 6 weeks until she can hopefully start to be weaned. By the summer, she will be out in the field and grazing on pasture which will come with all kinds of new projects like getting the fencing up, making sure she has easy access to water and building a cow shed for shelter once the winter months hit. There is bound to be so much to learn with her, and I know it will be a lot of work, but she is pretty darn cute.

  • My decision to become a stay-at-home mom…

    From the moment we decided that I would stay home with the girls instead of returning to work as a high school teacher, I knew there would be some people who were going to question my decision. I also expected some people to assume that it was Brent’s idea, as it was his idea originally for us to move out to the country. The truth is, I wanted to stay home long before we moved out here. When Cece was born, I had tried to think of ways that I could work it out so that I wouldn’t have to go back to work. Unfortunately, at the time, Brent was just starting his own carpentry company, and it simply wasn’t feasible. So, once we had Penny and we had bought our forever home, I knew it was my moment to convince Brent I should stay home with the girls. I spent many evenings trying to figure out the best way to present my arguments and convince him.

    It started with me dropping hints about how long the drive to and from my mom’s house would be and how much gas that would be using. He suggested that I look at daycares around the town or near the girls’ future school…swing and a miss. It did help my case however, that the daycare attached to their future school had a 5-year waiting period. To which my response was, well after 5 years they will be in school so doesn’t that make the waiting list rather useless? Then I started bringing up more often how it would be really tough to juggle the workload while still being present with the girls, which he agreed with and said the girls were the top priority and he would start running some numbers to see if we could make it work. This was my golden opportunity, my chance to seal the deal and make sure that he would agree that the best option was for me to stay home. I made up a budget for what we would need each month to make it possible, but I wasn’t going to leave it all up to the numbers. Oh no, I had a bigger bargaining chip up my sleeve, one that I knew couldn’t fail me…food.

    As I was home with the girls, and Brent was working, I naturally made dinners during the week. Seeing as I was home all day, there was nothing preventing me from really having fun with it as I LOVE cooking and baking. Being home meant that some weeknights we had a full roast chicken dinner just because I felt like it. He would often come home to fresh baked goods because it was my way to destress while the girls napped. As they say, the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Although, in this case it would be more the best way to convince your man to take on all the financial obligations and let you stay home and be with your kids is through his stomach, but it really doesn’t have the same ring to it.

    Now I am not sure if it was in fact my amazing feats of baking and cooking that sealed the deal, but right before Penny’s 1st birthday, we made the official decision that I would stay home and I sent in my resignation letter feeling completely sure of myself. Completely sure of myself until the next day when I started panicking that I had given up a good paying job that I liked to stay at home and eventually get into hobby farming, something that I had no experience with. It all seemed extremely daunting to me, and I questioned whether or not I would be any good at it, something I sometimes still wonder, but it was hands down the best decision I have ever made.

    When I first started thinking about staying home with the girls, I thought about all the positives. I wouldn’t have a set time that we had to wake up at, I could plan out the days the way I wanted, I wouldn’t need to wear work clothes, I would have concentrated uninterrupted time with my daughters, and I would be able to become a master at hobby farming. First off, it is true I don’t have a set wake up time. Cece enjoys keeping me on my toes about when she will wake up, although it is generally around 1:30 am where she comes into my bed because she cannot stand to sleep in her bed any longer. The way she describes it, you would think her bed was this horrifically uncomfortable bed in a scary dark room, instead of the reality which is a twin bed with tons of stuffed toys, comfy pillows and a sound machine that doubles as a night light that plays soft music. So, my mornings start with Cece in my bed, and then waiting for the sound of Penny coming out of her room usually around 7:30 am. She meanders into my room, generally holding about 3-4 stuffed toys, looking completely unimpressed that she is awake.

    As for planning out my days, Cece is never one to let me forget that wonderful task and asks me first thing in the morning: “What day is it?” Once I answer her, she responds with “What do we do on this day?” Without fail, every single day. The appeal of planning out my days in whatever way I wanted, quickly faded when I realised how tiring it is to give a plan of each day to a 4-year-old every morning. Particularly when that 4-year-old wants each day to be a “special” day and has zero qualms about telling you that your plan sounds boring. Now, in her defense, some days are boring. The days when I need to wash all the bedding, or do some deep cleaning around the house, I agree, boring. The plus side is that she also happens to find things that some would find mundane as very exciting. Both girls get excited whenever we must go to the Post Office. Simple tasks like going to get groceries is fun for them because they like to help me out and put things in the cart. Although now that Cece is older there are a lot more scheduled things that I have to plan around, rather than just choosing what I feel like doing that day. She is in preschool and gymnastics which takes up time and next year when she starts kindergarten, a schedule will be even more set in stone.

    I will admit, not having to wear work clothes is one thing that actually did stay true, and although I know there are some moms out there who still get dressed up and do their hair and make up every day when they are staying home with their kids, and honestly kudos to those moms for managing that, I am so happy to get to wear comfy clothing all day. Now this is not to say that I wear my pajamas all day, far from it, but I enjoy not needing to worry about whether my clothes are professional enough. I rock a crewneck sweater and leggings or jeans most days. Now that the girls are older, it is certainly easier to find the time to shower, do my hair, even diffuse it (anyone with long curly hair will know what an incredible feat that is). I don’t find that I really wear much makeup anymore because I just don’t feel the need. The other day I put on mascara and Cece asked me why I was making myself “all fancy”. Then, of course, Penny wanted lip-gloss to be fancy as well.

    As for the uninterrupted time with the girls, now that I am home all the time, I feel like there are always a million things to get done. We are home much more often now, which means that toys get taken out all day, meaning cleaning up the chaos piles is a daily task. I am not about to tell my kids that they can’t play or make messes with their toys, but having huge messes around the house also stresses me out. Believe me, I wish I could simply live in the chaos and not care, but I can’t, so I tend to be like a little cleaning bot that follows them. P loves helping me clean, she thinks unloading and loading the dishwasher is one of the best activities around, but my wonderful Cece prefers to jump from one game to the next with little thought of the mess. Having this time with the girls, however, has allowed me to be here with them for every new development. I never missed a single milestone with Penny, and it felt so wonderful. I get to be a part of all their games and see the girls playing together which melts my heart until one of them decides the other one isn’t playing properly and they both start yelling or crying.

    Finally, as for mastering my hobbies and becoming a knowledgeable hobby farmer, that has yet to be determined. I have certainly had much more time for baking, which I absolutely love. I have had the time to make soft pretzels, bagels, breads, cakes, cookies, muffins and it fills me with joy seeing the girls and Brent enjoy them. Becoming a homesteader though, is a bit trickier. I have taken out books from the library about gardening, pig, cow, sheep and goat farming. But I feel like reading about them still will not prepare me for when we get our first cow or sheep. The process of even just looking for cow and sheep to buy is daunting: how much should we be paying for a bottle-fed calf? Should we get one that is already weaned, but would that be more expensive? How much should we pay for a lamb, and should we get a male and a female so we can grow our flock or just buy new lambs each year? I foresee this being a trial-and-error process, and I suspect it might come along with many tears. But just as I was sure of being a stay-at-home mom, I am sure I want to try homesteading, and I hope it will also become one of the best decisions I have ever made.