Monday, August 27, 2018

       WHAT WOULD  YOU DO TO GET YOUR HANDS ON                    YOUR FIRST GUERNSEY MILK COW                                          



Well in my case it was more like what wouldn't I do?. 
It had been a dream of mine to get a Guernsey milk cow for years.
 That beautiful sun-kissed  milk. 
That thick gorgeous golden cream. 
That amazing auspicious yellow butter.
Who wouldn't leap over obstacles to get that?. But alas. It seemed it was a pipe dream. There was not a Guernsey to be had in Western Canada. 
Then out of the blue, one Saturday evening my daughter Tamara..aka, my partner in crime, sent me a text stating there was a kijiji ad about a Guernsey cow in Stony Plain Alta.
What ?Really?
 I am all over that. I found the ad on kijiji..Not an easy task if you've ever tried to find something you saw online. I emailed the seller immediately.
An hour later no response. So I called the number immediately. Damn! an answering machine. OK I leave a polite message stating the obvious.. I am calling about the Guernsey cow listed on Kijiji
 Another hour later I haven't heard a thing from this poster. I call again . Because maybe I didn't leave my number.  Did I ? maybe, maybe not I wasn't thinking straight . I was too excited. The Adrenalin must be fogging up  my brain. This time the message was an ongoing rambling of excited gibberish about always wanting a Guernsey , and my Dad milked a Guernsey cross cow and he told us back then how much healthier milk was for us from the Guernsey than the Holstein. But who pays any attention to their parents at that age, But here I am and those words are echoing in my brain over and over. .blah blah blah . Well I was getting antsier by the minute . It was getting late.. normally I would be in bed by 9, but who could sleep. I cant sleep . What if someone else gets a hold of him before me.

Then i thought hey! That was a cell Number.. ill text that person ..Just in case the sound is off on their phone.
Well turns out the sound was off and HE was in a meeting. He didnt sound annoyed in the text....lol. Sometimes you can tell..

Ok no problem, just settle down . He'll call me. When he gets home. That's what he said.

At 10;30 I still hadn't heard from him.  What do I do. ??/
 "OH MY GOD!" my husband yelled from the living room. . "You are stalking this poor man."
Yes come to think of it thats exactly what i was dong. What is wrong with me?
But what if someone else calls him and talks to him before he gets my messages. What if its already sold..
I resigned myself to the fact that I was never going to own a Guernsey milk cow.
 Well the story continued for another half hour... me pacing the floor till the phone rang.  Well it almost rang .. I guess you could say it Ra...
 I grabbed the phone in mid ring and there was dead silence on the other end.
"hello?  Hello?" what the hell why aren't you saying hello.
then..
"Hello? Betty? Betty at 555-555-5555? Betty at cell number at 777-777-7777? then he began to laugh. I understand you want a Guernsey milk cow.  Really desperately I would say"
"yes Yes i do. And you have one." Normally I would be embarrassed at the fact that my emotions were all over the texts and the phone calls.
" Well No i dont."
My heart went from being in the back of my throat to plunging to the pit of my stomach in half a  second flat.
 I knew it. I didn't try hard enough.
Impossible no one tries harder than me ...ever...Like ...never.
 Turns out he had cows, they just weren't trained to milk..they were just cows at this point. Who cares i'm gonna get a Guernsey!
 Well as luck would have it, he was impressed with my tenacity and persistence. He had 33 calls( during his meeting) to field and mine was first. WOO HOO
 Im going to get my cow.
Then he tells me he has 2 of them and would give precedence to the buyer who would  take them   together,
The story continued as this.  He bought them from the USA sight unseen just for his dad to look at in his last years he had left. His dad was gone now. The cows had never been milked but I didnt care.
 They were both bred when he got themin 2011. One ended up having a heifer the other had a bull calf. One cow died but not before she raised her bull calf. And then....he bred the other 2 ..the cow and her heifer calf . Next year each had a heifer...  are you lost yet. I was .Alas I said I would take both. Yes you heard right.
 So in actual fact, if  I wanted a cow I had to take both cows  mother and daughter re-bred and their  suckling calves. For twice the money. I begged my hubby to the point where he was defenseless to my whining..
We were on the road by 8 am the next morning. It was a very quiet ride there and an even quieter ride home...except for the odd squeal under my breath.

Arriving  in Calgary about noon-ish but weren't to meet him till later because  he would be in church till noon then a church lunch and home by 2. No worries.  I can wait .. But i couldnt. This guy must be a sadist. He was torturing me, making me wait,  What kind of Christian would make me wait even 1 more minute.
I whined to my hubby to get on the road out to the guys farm.We drove out to the acreage where the cows were.. They were gorgeous. I could see them from the road. "Give me those binoculars." I said to Les. I need a closeup look at them .  I was peering into this guys yard with the binoculars from the road, hanging out my window so as not raise suspicions, ( ya right, that scene isn't peculiar at all!)
 Finally a jeep drives up and i'm hoping its him .."Garth? is that you?"
"Yes" he said looking  guarded at the binoculars in my hand. "Betty? I presume"
"Yes! Yes its me."we followed him up his driveway and I jumped out of the truck and ran to the cows. Wow there was a lot of cows in that pen. "Hurry Honey lets get them loaded.
I ran back to the truck to get my cheque book. No way was  I letting this not happen. I could hear him talking to my husband, I walked over quickly to where he and my husband stood. He had his back turned to me but I could see the grin on my husbands face what ? what was so funny. Garth turned around to face me and I exclaimed out loud.

"OH MY GOD I "VE BEEN STALKING A  VICAR "
We all had a good laugh and a quick visit. and then we were on the road again

 I bought the whole herd. 2 cows with calves, bred back and the herd sire. Whoa. Les, my husband, never spoke to me the whole way home. But I wasnt too worried, I knew he would come around.
 Buying those cows turns out to be one of  the best thing we've ever done.
 Betty

Saturday, August 18, 2018

my first Blog





NOW WHAT?




                                                                        So this is Us.

   Just to put a face to the names this is Me , Betty and my hardworking stressed out husband Leslie.

The name Jersey Chores was his literary input, ( which doesn't happen often). And I thought it was

 brilliant. He chose this because at the time we were milking Jerseys,  and well, you now about the

 reality tv show. So I paid for the name immediately ( that was 2.5 years ago.) 😌😔😔 and now I

 have to post something to get this train rolling  .So here is my first blog post.

                                                                  Entitled ..

                                       NOW WHAT?


                           Who doesn't think about  being a writer? > really? you've never? 

Well my grade school dream was to be a writer. My teenage dream was to be a Veterinarian. My

 young adult dream was to be a mother, wife , master gardener, and  farmer.  Well now with this blog

 post  I realize I've  accomplished all these dreams. How lucky am I?

       The only problem is , what to write about. Well you will get my day to day dilemmas and my

 stressors and my highs and lows of farming and especially cow milking chores  .  My mishaps,

 which there are many,  My favorite 

recipes and gardening tips. ( did I forget to mention I ran a 1500 sq foot greenhouse retail business for

 12 years: everything started from seed.. yes even the perennials and all doable in zone 2b) . Oh yes

 and a vegetable CSA. till I blew out both my shoulders 😖😖😖,.

And you will notice often that my technical skills with computers is much lacking...but my friend

 "Jo" ( who you will hear about often)  helps the best she can...I"m not an easy student to mentor...

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         Well we have been farming organically since before it was cool. 1997 to be exact. Wheat, oats,

      flax, barley, lentils..and livestock. And Guernsey cows...oh how I love my Guernsey cows.

  Now our grass-fed/ grass-finished, free-ranged ,milk-fed organic Premium meat lineup- unparalleled

                                     in Saskatchewan....is being offered to the public.

                        We offer BEEF.. PORK ..CHICKEN... LAMB ..AND.. PEKING DUCK.


I hope you will check back often to read our happenings from time to time and I welcome feedback

 of what you would like to see on these pages. SOMETIMES I HAVE NO FILTER ..(sorry in

advance for that I will try not to be too much of  a redneck) I will keep it reasonably short because no

 one knows how precious time is more than me . So wish me luck and enjoy my musings. Feel free to

 checkout our facebook  page   Catherwood organics

😎
  
Betty