Checkpoint Charlie

Phil needed to get more wire for his fencing project, so he ran to the hardware store. Unbelievably, there was a CHECKPOINT on the road right by our house. Really. Like we live in the West Bank or something. Is this a common rural practice? I can't imagine driving down any road in Boulder and having a checkpoint set up. Really.

He was cited for an unsafe vehicle (we have a broken windshield; we almost always have a broken windshield); for not updating his license in a timely manner, and for not updating his plates.

Incredibly frustrating. He has actually gone to the DMV multiple times since moving here. But because we don’t live in a permitted structure, we don’t have an address. Because we don’t have an address, we can’t register our vehicles. When he went to Vermont to get the cows, the clerk couldn’t figure out how to register the truck, so she put down our old Boulder address—in effect, she perjured herself.

As a rule follower in general, it ruined my afternoon. First, to be stopped at a checkpoint like we all are criminals living in a nanny state. Second, to have tried to do the right thing several times and be cited for lack of compliance, when we have no ability to comply.

So maybe I need to say, “We do our best to live rightly, and that doesn’t always mean legally.”

Enough on that depressing topic.

Phil almost finished surrounding the meadow with fence. (By the way, a “meadow’ is a field for grazing, not intended for haying. Hay is simply grass that is cut, dried, and baled in order to use as feed at a later date.) It was a long, hot day, but he is ready for the cows to be more comfortable.

With the strawberry rains of last week, their paddock quickly became inches deep muck. It had been a fairly solid surface until the strawberry rains, but we were both surprised at how unpleasant the terrain became, almost overnight. We aren’t thrilled with the number of flies breeding there. On the other hand, composted organic matter absorbs water quite well, so the fact that the paddock retains water is, perhaps, a good thing in the end. Just not for the cows right now.

I spent a good hour on the phone with the talkative expert on the genetics of the American Milking Devon. He, too, said that the Milking Devons are extremely challenging to artificially inseminate, but, if we wanted good milky lines (and, oh, we do!), there are a few good straws available. And, if we wanted to improve our chances, we could try to use AI twice in the same heat, about six hours apart.

Sadly, Milking Devons don’t have obvious heats, and their heats are shorter than average, running less than 12 hours usually. Most Milking Devon owners also own a bull.

Our plan at the moment is this: we’ll pray we see when Fern, our only cow to breed, is in heat in mid-June, and have the technician come twice that day. We’ll have two more straws ready, though, for three weeks later (early July), when we’ll try twice more.

If that one, also, doesn’t take (and we ask the Lord that it PLEASE will), we will hopefully know by the end of July. At that point, we’ll reassess.

So I know where to order straws, and I know what straws I want. Next step: how to store straws. And, not surprisingly, you can’t just keep them in the freezer (more’s the pity).

No, you need to keep them in a liquid nitrogen tank. And since we don’t have one of those lying around, we’ll need to find a place to store them. I called the vet, but they close early on Wednesday. Wait until tomorrow.

To round out this day of many new experiences, I finished spraying the apple trees with kelp; I mulched my strawberries; and I weeded several of my garden beds (my dear, neglected garden). I pulled up this monstrous example of a single bolted spinach. The chickens were happy to have it.

We also have both oats and spelt growing. Oats have the weeping willow look, while the spelt looks more like wheat. Both very pretty.

When we look out our trailer window, we can see a lot of spelt growing. It’s taken over, out grown the weeds! And outgrown the trees, too, just about, so it’s good that the spelt will be ripening here soon. I’m amazed at what a great stand we have!