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Wednesday, April 30, 2014



Quote of the day from Jessica Crosmun:" .twins born vaginally in the hospital, baby A (left) had instant cord clamping and baby B (right) had delayed cord clamping. Isn't the color difference striking? Thought it was a really good educational visual for the value of keeping the cord intact for as long as possible" The mother of these twins gave permission to share the photo.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Spring!!!!!!!!

Hey, I'm Micah and here are a few pictures I took this spring.
I guess this little flower didn't want her picture taken. ;)










 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

A House Flowing with Milk

One day we could not fit the morning's milking in the fridge so La got all the milk out and I started by skimming it all.

 Then I made farmer's cheese with 2 gal of it which took care of 4 jars.

With some of the cream I tried to make mascarpone but I didn't get it hot enough before I put the acid in so it did not separate too well.
Here is the farmer's cheese also called paneer in India, and queso blanco in Mexico.
 Farmer's Cheese

2 gal whole milk
4 cups water
4 t citric acid

Bring the milk to a boil or at least really hot. Mix water and citric acid.
Stir it into the milk. Drain and run under cold water. Press for several hours.

Notice the nice press that Laura made me.
Sometimes we call farmer's cheese fry cheese because it does not melt, it browns. This is probably the cheese that Heidi toasted. It is best hot off the griddle dipped in pizza sauce.
Next we took a quart of milk to Granddad...
...and made a bunch of chocolate milk.
Then Granddad requested some homemade cottage cheese for the Easter get together at his house the next day. We use the same recipe for this as for fry cheese but we do not press it. Instead we crumble with a fork and add cream. The only problem was that the citric acid was gone.
There was a lot of experimenting which used up some milk but eventually we got cottage cheese using tartaric acid.

So this is what our refrigerator looked like just before milking time that evening.
This is how full our sink was, even while constantly washing.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Midwifery facts and a link

Today I feel like a midwifery post because I got to feel a mommy's belly. I felt baby's little foot and head and back. I took mom's blood pressure and heard baby's heartbeat. So much fun! I only met the mommy today but she was so sweet and such a good sport about it. Maybe I will get to see her birth.

Now some facts.
  • Podalic Version is when the midwife turns the baby into breach position. This is attempted when the baby is transverse (laying sideways) and can not be turned to head first (Cephalic Version.)
  • Phenylketonurya is the inability to break down phenylalanine which is an amino acid. It is a recessive genetic disease and if a baby is born with it they have to have a special formula and eat foods low in phenylalanine all their life. (Look up the words on howjsay and then you can say them when you want to feel smart)
  • Pitocin is just synthetic Oxytocin which is a hormone that a lady makes naturally when in labor or breast feeding.
  • Do you know why pregnant women should not clean out the litter box? Toxoplasma gondii. It is a parasite that reproduces sexually only in cats. Normally it only causes flu-like symptoms but if a mother gets it, she could miscarry or have a still birth. If a baby lives there could be lots of problems for him.
  • Baby contributes to birth too. He has to rotate the right way for the best fit. First he lays on his side. As his head comes down the birth canal he turns face down and tucks his chin in. Then for his shoulders to be born he turns back on his side. My link has really cool information on this.

P.S. I started this post a week or so ago on the day I actually got to palpate a belly. :)

Saturday, April 19, 2014

My favorite Princess Bride quotes

"Life is pain Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."

"No more rhyming and I mean it."  "Anybody want a peanut?"

These two are the most quoted in our house.

"We are men of action. Lies do not become us."

For some reason I have always loved the word 'become' used this way.

"Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while."

While I do not agree with the movie's definition of true love, this line always made me think of Easter. God is life and love. Death can not stop him.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Daffodils

You will probably get a post about daffodils on this blog every spring. Fall is my favorite season but spring comes in second. Or maybe early summer when the mud is drier.
 First bloom on Sunday...
...and the same flower today.
Lovely pictures taken by Micah who, by the way, is now taller than me. Three siblings down, five to go. Maybe someone will be shorter. :)

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Beestings



Sorry for the long wait to find out what beestings is. I have been crazy busy.Beestings is colostrum especially from a cow. Many people just throw it out but in some times and places it is highly prized.
You can see here that the first day it was all colostrum, the next day separated some milk.
 The third day had milk, colostrum and cream in different layers.Our colostrum looked brown but a lot of other blogger farmers seem to get yellow like this.
Beestings has a lot of good stuff in it, not just for calves. webmd says:

 Some athletes use bovine colostrum to burn fat, build lean muscle, increase stamina and vitality, and improve athletic performance. Bovine colostrum is not on the banned drug list of the International Olympic Committee.

Bovine colostrum is also used for boosting the immune system, healing injuries, repairing nervous system damage, improving mood and sense of well being, slowing and reversing aging, and as an agent for killing bacteria and fungus.
 Sometimes colostrum is used to make pudding since it is so rich. My pudding did not exactly turn out because I cooked it too long but I think I found a good recipe (don't wait till it thickens).

2/3 cup white sugar 
1/3 cup all-purpose flour 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
3 eggs, beaten 
2 cups milk 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
2 tablespoons butter, softened 

DIRECTIONS 
In medium saucepan combine sugar, flour and salt. Add eggs and stir well. Stir in milk, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly. When mixture begins to thicken, remove from heat and continue to stir, cooling slightly. Stir in vanilla and butter until smooth. 
 Then there was a recipe from Shoshana's Making Babies book with colostrum in it that was very good.
We froze some colostrum so that we can add little bits to things whenever we feel we need it. :)