Looks downright ridiculous, doesn't it? Bonnie always has such huge babies, and then she doesn't get re-bred as soon as she ought to, so I let the calves nurse until time to go to the butcher shop. Max is eleven months old; he was born the day before the Missouri State Fair started last year. He will soon be leaving us; I took this picture this morning, thinking the people who are purchasing him might like to see what he looks like right now. They sometimes peek in on my blog. By the way, for you city slickers, that is a classic cow-patty near Bonnie's back foot.
I did my morning check of Craigslist and saw something I want. Unfortunately, if I bought it (a two-week-old Jersey heifer calf for $350), we wouldn't be able to vacation. I can't have my cake and eat it, too. Why doesn't anybody ever have these babies in November, December, January February, or March? I could raise a bottle calf during those months; we don't do any traveling then.
One of my readers was horrified to think that I would use peaches that have worms or bird-pecks, so I am going to carefully show you how easy it is to get rid of bird-pecks on peaches. Pay close attention, now... it's really complicated.
Behold the peach that birds have feasted on.
Now this is the tricky part, because you could cut yourself. (Yes, my tongue is in my cheek.)
Viola! All evidence of bird pecks is gone. And now you know. I was going to show you what to do with a wormy peach, but all the wormy ones seem to be gone for this year. You would have enjoyed seeing me remove all evidence of a tiny white worm using the same knife I used for the bird-pecked area.
Remember all those strawberries I was picking a couple of months ago? Now I've moved on to peaches. They are a lot less work, though. I don't have to bend over to pick them, for which my back is very grateful. My peaches aren't perfect; even in years when I spray them, a lot of them are still wormy. This year I never got to spray because it was windy every day. It's impossible to use a hand sprayer on a full-sized tree if it's windy. I wind up spraying myself more than I do the tree.
The wormy peaches ripen first, and with those, I'm lucky to get even half the peach by the time I clean out the mess the worm has made.
Bird-pecked peaches, like some of those in that top bucket, need to be picked as soon as possible or they will rot.
A lot of peaches fall on the ground. I can salvage parts of them if I pick them up soon after they drop, but if they lay there even twenty-four hours, they are pretty much spoiled.
Most of the peaches in these pictures are just a little on the green side, but the wonderful thing about peaches is that you can bring them in the house and they will go ahead and ripen in a day or so. I like to do this because the ones I bring in won't be falling on the ground to ruin.
Of course we are having peaches every day in our cereal, our oatmeal, and our cream of wheat. We're having sliced peaches for dessert. I haven't made a cobbler yet, but I'm sure I will before long. I've frozen three pints and one quart of peaches, and I'm just getting started.
There's a trick to eating frozen strawberries or peaches: You don't want them to thaw completely or they are soft and somewhat mushy. About half-thawed is perfect for eating with cereal, or in a bowl for dessert. Many times I use the "thaw" setting on my microwave and just leave them in a minute at a time, checking often to see if the fruit is just right so I don't overdo it.
