January 5, 2024

Today’s joy is the joy of fresh new corn fodder bedding! It goes to our heads, new bedding does… it makes calves run and jump and kick their heels, twisting like old experienced bucking broncs getting ready to heave a cowboy as far as he can fly. Cows nose contentedly through it.

The little brown hens squawked and fled in terror as I ripped a bale apart and scattered it to the corners. Silly hens… they hate the noise and action and dust flying, but they love a nice fresh bed as much as anyone does. Several naughty young pullets have made nests for themselves in corners of the henhouse instead of in the nesting boxes like proper hens do.

Joanie freshened today. She had a big beautiful black heifer calf, which we named Ida Mae.

The two larger calves are now weaned and eat hay, haylage and nibble at a little grain, drinking from the frost-free waterer just like the big girls do.

 On Christmas Day in the morning I put the twenty-four-pound turkey from Polecat Hollow Farm in my big roaster. The turkey was so large the lid didn’t fit; the tail and part of the legs stuck out. We buttered and salted it and slid it in the oven around seven in the morning. By two that afternoon it was done, roasted to perfection. We had a huge celebratory Christmas breakfast earlier that day, so we skipped a noon meal and had turkey and trimmings when it was done! The dog wasn’t invited, but she managed to invite herself, all big eyes and eager panting and great joy and excitement when a drumstick descends. She gets a bit anxious if people (or animals) watch her eat a great prize like that, so she grabbed the drumstick and rushed for the door as she usually does. Since the cats happened to be sunning themselves close to where she chose to eat it, there was some trouble about that. She does well with not chasing cats, but sometimes on a day like this they just get on her nerves.

I picked the meat off the (remaining) bones after dinner and put the bones in my stockpot, filled it with water and cooked it at low heat all night. Poured off the broth in the morning, refilled the pot with water and a bit of salt and cooked it on low heat all day and night. We canned the first six quarts of broth on Second Christmas morning. It won’t last long, but we’ll enjoy it while it does last!

There was a youth gathering in the neighborhood on Second Christmas Day, which the younger members of the family attended. We had a family dinner to attend further down the Valley. I helped milk cows when I came home late that afternoon. Ida Mae was a bit funny about taking her bottle when I went to feed her. She seemed to be feeling well, ran after me quite happily and wanted to play, but no milk. I got one of the girls to try coaxing her and somehow Ida Mae got that milk into her tummy.