Cows and one old sewing machine.

I wrote somewhere (here or in an answer) that I would show photos from the farm someday, well it's not so much to see outside in the winter and hard to get decent photos of the animals inside although the houses are well lit with floor lights they don't light up the photos. But it's the beginning of spring and we have better daylight so now you will meet a few of our cows. The first one is Brydja, her color is brindle and she has just given birth to a beautiful little heifer.


Here she is, the color is not quite right in the photo, she's much darker, but will most likely end up with the same color as her aunt (mother's sister). Our calfs that are born red can grow up to be dark or light brindle (no calf is born brindle), sea gray, or sea gray brindle or all kinds of red, light (sometimes pink), medium and a few shades of dark red, like the aunt in the next photo.


Here is auntie Brussa. She has red ears, the top of her head is red, around the nose is a very light red color and a line that runs from head to tail on top of her back is also red. The rest is very dark, almost black.


Next is Lygi, she's the only cow we own at the moment that is pure black, well, with some white. I think the red you can see is from the camera flash. The red one beside her is Sleggja.


This is Grabrok, she's sea gray brindle. That is not a common color.


Karma was born red and white, but turned out the same color as Brussa.


Now this is Hogvaer,that means modest, she was the picture of modesty when she had her first calf's last September so that was what I named her. It only lasted about a week, that cow is pushing, really pushing, but she is ever so modest in her pushyness so she got to keep the name.
She had twins, they had bin dead a few days, most likely because they were so huge and all tangled together, this is the second time in 20 years that a cow has twins the first time giving a birth. She is light red and white.


Here are the first twins born from a young heifer and luckily for the mother they were very small. This is Dyrd, she and her sister are light red and white with just a few slashes of brindle here and there.


The other twin is named Dasemd. They are so much alike and very close, they don't like it if they are not side by side.


This is Litla-Raud (Little-Red). She is light red and had her first calf about two months ago. She has not produced any milk that has bin good enough for selling, hm, could not even be used to feed the calf's. We are waiting for her to get the penicillin out of her system so we can slaughter her. We don't like to use penicillin but in cases like hers we have to. She got so sick after giving birth, got a high fever and the works and would have died if not for the penicillin. But that meant two months waiting after the last injection. By then we were pretty sure she would never be any good , she only got better of the fever but nothing else got cured.


And last, but not least. Here is our Hyrna. She's a dark red lady of an unknown age. We are her third owners. The first one died, I think in 1997 and then our friend bought her. She had given birth to at least two calf's by then. A year later the new owner moved to another part of the country so we bought her. She is still very light of movements, and only got an udder infection for the first time when she last had a calf. That was in September, ehem, 2007.

Yes I know, I know, it's not efficient and profit giving to feed an unpregnant cow for such a long time, but she was put in a stable for a few days with some other cows and a bull. They were all waiting for the car that would take them to the slaughter house, while waiting she got in heat and the bull got loose and impregnated her, at least that's what hubby hoped for so he held her back when the car came. She will give birth next September and that will be her last time. It's bin getting harder and harder to get her pregnant and I'm pretty sure this was her last egg.

She's quite a character, she's easily offended and shows it by not looking at you and not allowing you to pet her, which is something she dearly loves. When hubby put her in the horse stable last autumn (we needed all the stalls in the cow stable for milking cows) she got so offended she did not look at him for all the weeks she was there. When I came to check on her and she was so moody that I just had to laugh, she gave me one wounded - murdering look and it took me days to make it up to her.

She has the most beautiful horns and is very careful where she positions them when we are near, unless she's grumpy, then we need to push at them to get her to behave. And she's plenty grumpy these days, she's gotten so fat that hubby is feeding her less quality hay, it does not do animals good to be too fat.


Now then, here's a sewing machine that I got last autumn. When my mom visited her brother one day, he and his wife were cleaning out a storage room and asked if she thought I would be interested (was I ever) in this old sewing machine that had belonged to my aunts mom or granny. I'm not sure which and have bin meaning to phone to get more info. It's so beautiful, it was really, really, dirty and black all over. You could not see the name plate at first look, but now it turns smoothly although I'm told there are some things missing. Like the shooter? meaning the bobbin in today machines. I think.


I've tried to search the Internet for information about it but have come up with nothing. The plate says CLEMENS MULLER (with two dots over the U) DRESDEN and then TRADE MARK under the magical beast. If anyone knows something about it or where I can find info, I would be so happy to hear about it.


Well that's it for now. I'm off to bed, this post took way to long to make. But that's okay, it was fun.

Sunna

Signature blocks.

I have traded a siggy twice now and gotten two of them in return, first (some weeks ago) I got one from Mary and she told me that the sunflowers are the state flower for Kansas where she lives. She appliqued this gorgeous little Sunbonnet Sue on it, the blocks are 5" with seam allowance, so you can see how small the pieces are.


This one came last week and is from Annelies in the Netherlands, in Iceland it's called Holland. She told me that she's bin collecting the three monkeys who hear no evil, see no evil and say no evil since she was 15 years old. They are beautifully drawn here.


I scanned the siggi's (learned that from Mary) and the quality of the pictures is much better than of a photo. I've learned so much about computers and such since I started blogging. The English tech words are still a problem but I'm hopeful I will eventually learn how to use all the gadgets on blogger, you know all the sidebar things and stuff.

Sunna.

Thank you's and Boxy Star swap.

First of all I want to say thank you to all the lovely ladies that commented and wished Ebba happy birthday. She tried to comment to thank you her self but does not have a Google account or something, so on her behalf I also say: Thank you.

I of course forgot to take a photo of her on her birthday, but here she is last Christmas, waiting for her dad and brother to watch a movie. I listened to it from the sewing room, next to the living room, I don't watch TV much anymore, I like sewing or reading better.


In a recent swap on the Quiltville Swap we swapped units for Boxy Star (you can find it here). Here are the sets I sent. Seven sets of four units, one block is made of four units.

Here Is one block I made when making all the units.

Karen, our lovely swap mistress sent a surprise with the units I got.

And here is one of the sets I got in return. I liked them all.

Due to a misunderstanding on my part, I made much to many units, so I had enough to make this quilt. I put one swap unit with three of mine to make most of the blocks. What I like most about swapping is the variety in the sets I get in return. And I think they all play nicely with mine. It was so much fun sewing these blocks, and whats more, I even had fun putting them all together in a quilt. Lol. I have never made a quilt with sashings and cornerstones before. It's super easy and I'm sure I'll use this method again someday.


There was so much wind when I was taking this photo that one corner got badly frayed. I think I'll have to cut 1/4" of all around the top to make it better. I'm going to use thin fleece batting and flannel backing. It's going to be a present so it will be revealed later where it goes.

Sunna.

Birthday girl.

And today is the day, 17 years old and a long awaited driver's license in just a few days for Ebba.

We got married on June 15 1991 but didn't have time then for photo session. Then one day in November I woke up and realized that I would not fit in the dress much longer. She used to tell people that she is in the photo too.... in mommy's tummy.

She had so dark skin in her first year.

And proudly shows the gaps .


On horseback with daddy.

With twin calf's that her cow Bukolla gave birth to.

She just loved to ride the vacuum cleaner.
In a national costume I made (with help) for her older sister.

Now her teeth have started over growing so no more open smiles.
She's in orthodontics now and has started to smile with open mouth again. Beautiful.

And lastly, here she is, not wanting to stop to pose, unlike her sister.

Proud brother's also in in new outfit (but not a costume) It's me on the side.

Clean house and some baking.

I've bin busy both yesterday and today cleaning out winter dirt and baking. Why? Well the house really, really needed a good cleaning and all of a sudden DD2 who will be 17 tomorrow wants a cake party instead of soup or steak. For years it's always bin: "Oh, just something simple" but now there must be this cake... because dad likes it so much and that cake... because dad likes it so much and this..... you get the picture, only one cake she mentioned was for her, because she likes it. After two days of cake listings and what dad likes I finally asked her: "What is it with your dad and the cakes?"

"Well you see it's actually dad that wants the cakes.....obs"

You know something, every December (well almost) I offer to bake all the cakes he wants, but no "It's not that important event" (it is to me) or " Nothing fancy, you're tired" (true, sometimes) or better jet "Don't bother, no one will come anyway" Yeah right, his whole family lives in this town and always shows up for birthdays, invitation or not. LOL. So come December there will surely be another cake party and....... that man will not be asked again.

Here is my Ebba on her fourth birthday

From left to right: DS1 Johann, DD2 Ebba, DD1 Steina, their cousin Ragnar and Ebba's girlfriend Kristin.

Oh, and spring visited today, lets see what tomorrow brings.

Sunna