Pansy arrived with only a 2 hour notice on a late Monday afternoon...just as supper was ready .  Neverthless, we all rushed outside to greet our new arrival to the ranch.  This much awaited, MUCH anticipated addition to our small group of animals was warmly welcomed.

Pansy is a very sweet girl, about 4 years old, from a grass-fed raw milk dairy.  She is a Holstein/Jersey cross who had been bottle-fed from a baby.  She will give us milk for a few more months before she will need to be dried-off due to her upcoming calf she will deliver about December.

Pansy has turned our last 2 weeks upside down.  With no experienced milkers in our family and no milking machine, our novice family quickly became sore and tired from our feeble attempts to milk her.  We quickly found out that neither the boys nor Ted have the strength in their hands, so the task has fallen to me.  While I had begged Ted for a dairy cow for some months, I was not expecting to be the main milker.  It has been quite a task even for me and has taken my body this long to start recovering.  My first attempts at milking yielded 1 pint in 1 hour!   (This girl normally gives 4 gallons!)  Today, I can say that I can accomplish the task of getting over 2 gallons in 45 minutes.  Also, thanks to our little Jersey heifer, Rose, who's also getting milk, we only need to milk Pansy once a day. 

Pansy has settled into a comfortable routine of being milked in the morning, then after feeding Rose, is let out to pasture for the day to graze on grass.  In the early evenings, Pansy is let back into the pen  where Rose is, allowing them time together during the night. 

Rose, our little 3-week-old Jersey heifer, came 4 days later than Pansy.  Pansy has settled into being a nurse cow for Rose.  It's so interesting to watch the dynamics of this adoptive mother and baby.  While Pansy is a good mother and keeps a close eye on Rose (even when she's out in the pasture, she's never far away), Rose on the other hand has different ideas about staying close.  Could it be that when the original mother/baby bond is broken, the attachment is never quite as strong?  We've let Rose out in the pasture twice, both were disasters!  She's so little she can get through the barbed wire fence in several places.  The first time, our dog Darlin', barked and chased them to the far corner of the pasture.  Rose found a place to get through to our neighbor's field, thus started chase #1 for us.  After an hour of chasing Rose through our field (after we get her out of the neighbor's thicket), we finally had both Pansy and Rose back safely in the pen.  (Pansy wouldn't budge towards home without Rose, but Rose wouldn't come on her own free will.) 

Chase #2 came a few days later.  We tried again, being careful not to let the dogs scare them off.  Pansy and Rose again wandered to the far side of the property that borders a neighbor's field who has lots of beef steers.  Come evening time, we went in search of them (so we wouldn't be doing it in the morning milking time) and found Pansy happily muching on grass on our side of the fence, while poor Rose had gotten through the fence and was just a a few feet away, but in the midst of a large herd of beef steers and calves.  Jonathan and I gingerly went through the fence to corral Rose.  For the next 20 minutes or so we tried unsuccessfully to find a spot for Rose to get back through, all the while chasing back the neighbor's herd.  They definately knew Rose wasn't supposed to be there and poor thing got frequently in their midst.   It wasn't a predicament I want to be in again.  This time, after getting Rose back in our pasture, we were able to lead Pansy home with a bucket of sweet feed and Rose happily followed behind.  Attachment was beginning .

What was the 1st thing we made with our cream?   ICE CREAM!  We haven't gotten raw cream for a couple of years, so this was a real treat.  (If you haven't ever had raw cream ice cream, you are missing out!)  What was the 2nd thing we made?  WHIPPED CREAM with fresh-picked blueberries!  We also LOVE Pansy's milk and yogurt.  In the next day or so, butter is on the list! 

I can't end this story without thanking some dear friends of ours, Robert Hutchins and family.  They received a frantic phone call from us the morning after Pansy was delivered.  We were trying to milk her, but without a stall, stanchion or halter, the effort was fruitless.  She didn't know us, this wasn't her routine, and she wasn't going to cooperate.  Robert kindly dropped his work at his ranch, and came over with 2 of the boys.  Four grown men, one grown woman, and one child finally got Pansy in a halter and in a make-shift stall for milking.  That afternoon, another friend who has been working at our ranch, came over and stayed till 10pm building a suitable stall and stanchion to use.  After a few days, we finally got the design and proportions right, and now have a comfortable milking parlor.  Robert has also lent us one of his sons, Stephen, whenever we ask to come help out with milking.   It has allowed my hands to have a much needed rest and recuperate as they build up strength. 

Who else likes the milk?  Just take a look at the rest of the animals who live at Turning Ranch .