Cows, fences, mice, vegetables and poop

The cows are in Sprite's back pasture. She graciously agreed to let me put them there for a bit.

I appreciate her generosity. The last time the cows were back there they followed some deer through a "dead" section of the fence. Sprite had one of the neighbors tell her that "her" cows were out. 

Sprite took chase.

She put a handful of gravel into a coffee-can, the only container close at hand. She played Pied Piper and convinced the not-so-smart cattle that the rattling container was filled with corn and she led them back to my pasture. She led the across a road and then through a quarter-mile of soybeans to get them there.

I spent a bunch of time fixing the fence before asking to put them back there. I will check it a couple of times tomorrow to make sure it is sound.

My best guess is that there is 100 cow-days of forage there if they grind it down to dirt. It should be obvious that they will eat the best forage first and eat the poorer quality forage later.

The raptors love having the cows in that pasture. The cows expose the mice a little at a time and make it easier for the hawks, owls (and coyotes, fox and feral cats) to harvest the field mice.

Baby Cook Baby-food maker

Link

Whirled Peas, frozen in an ice-cube tray.

 

Baby food runs about $5 a pound. Bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots and such run about a dollar a pound. Food from the garden is essentially free.

Quicksilver is going through a quarter-pound of "baby-food" a day. It is a tough economic case to make for the baby-food maker if you only plan to have one baby.

There are other factors to consider. If you are anti-packaging then the baby-food maker avoids most of them.

The big thing for Southern Belle is that she wants to expose Quicksilver to far more kinds of foods than shows up in commercial baby food.

Good-to-Go

• Butternut squash (from garden)
• Peas (Stiff poop that is hard to pass)
  
• Green beans
• Sweet Potatoes (huge favorite)
• Carrots (diaper blow-outs, avoid serving alone)
• Avocado
• Cauliflower
• Beets (Runny poop. RED!)
  
• Spinach (Stiff poop)
  
• Red Sweet Peppers (favorite)
  

On-the-list-for-future

• White potatoes
• Rutabaga
• Yucca
• Parsnips
• Tomato
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Zucchini
• Green Pepper
• Eggplant

Quicksilver's pediatrician recommends feeding vegetables early and fruits later. Once they taste fruits, which are sweet, it is an uphill push to get them to eat vegetables.

The game-plan is to feed a new food for four days with no other introductions. If there are no adverse reactions, then it goes on the approved list.

The grumpy part of me grumbles that we used to smash up foods with a fork. The baby-food maker steams the food and then purees it. Southern Belle tells me that the unit is MUCH easier to clean than our huge, ancient blender.

Grocery store report

No shortage of frozen pizzas in Eaton Rapids. I am not sure they could have stuffed very much more product on the shelves.