Reese Houdini

I milked Reese early yesterday. Phil was heading up to serve with our church, and I didn't trust myself to manage to open the electric fence while walking the rebellious cow all by myself. So from 3pm until about 6pm today, Reese and the rest were grazing on their own.

So we were horrified tonight when we went to milk to find that Reese had escaped. We figured she had headed down to the creek to cool off in the water and shade, but after hiking all the way down the hill, I found no sign of her.

After another hour of hiking and searching, I still found no trace. Phil drove around the area: no sign of her.

Argh!

We called the neighbors to warn them that we had a cow on the lam. Michelle Bessette reassured me that, when she was ready to be milked, she would return.

This was comforting. So much so that as darkness was falling, I headed over to check their paddock, just to see if she had returned.

And there she was! I milked her, and returned her to the electric wire, where we hope she will stay.

In other news, I harvested probably about 50 pounds of tomatoes today, enough that I filled my big red bucket and had a hard time carrying them up to the motor home. Isaiah and I pressed them with the Roma food mill, and came away with ten jars of tomato juice. I have them in the refrigerator, hoping that they will separate overnight. Then I will skim the solids and boil them down to make sauce and, perhaps, paste. I read that the refrigeration is a way to hasten the thickening process: let the tomato juice separate naturally.