(Hot Fudge Sauce)
I was sitting on my little crate next to Georgi, the Brown Swiss, one morning last week while she was being milked. I’ll massage her udder, keep the hose out from under her feet that don’t always hold perfectly still, watch so an inflation doesn’t slip, etcetera, while sitting there. It’s dark out when we milk, and I’m always fresh from bed, quiet, calm, and cozy in my coat and gloves. My husband slipped out of the barn, and then I saw it, Georgi’s tail. Her tail started arching up then her back arched as well and I screamed “Nooooo!” as the pee started raining down onto the rubber mat, she was standing on, splattering up onto the claw, my boots and legs, anything within a couple feet of her rear end. I shot up and ran to get the bucket, the bucket that should have been by my side for instances like this. I was more trying to startle Georgi with my loud, high pitched, wake-up-the-whole-barnyard “Nooooo!”, my Jerseys are sensitive and sometimes a little scolding will make them not to repeat what they are doing, peeing in the stanchion for example, I didn’t think about the husband who’d just left the barn. He was back in a flash to witness my wide-eyed sprint to the bucket as pee showered everywhere. I’m not sure if he envisioned something else happening, maybe death by milk cow or, you know, bad placement of my foot. Whatever it may have been, I’m sure I woke him up a little more too. Now, Georgi, I think I just annoyed her rather than startled, she’s not sensitive and does not have a care in the world. We have tried other things rather than just my screaming to stop her from peeing. If she is laying down when we go get her to milk, she gets walked around in circles like a dog, giving her plenty of time to relieve herself before going into the barn, but really, it’s her choice whether she is going to cooperate or not and actually go in the time we give her. We really did read that some cows do not like the sound of their “mess” splattering in a bucket or catching the other “mess” with a shovel against her back legs, but our Georgi, she doesn’t care. She really doesn’t make a mess routinely in the stanchion, she just likes to throw us off once every couple or few weeks, like, ah, looks like a good day to get the milkmaid messy. Though she doesn’t mess in the stanchion too often, she does mess outside of it a little too often. My niece asked recently why there was so much poop in the barn, my answer, “Georgi”. She makes what we call a “poop trail”, the name should paint a picture for you on its own, while walking back to her pen. I frequently ask my youngest “what’s at the end of the poop trail?”, the answer is always “nothing” or a dirty look depending on the day. Georgi has come a long way since coming to our homestead and becoming a family milk cow, something she was not before, so even though she makes her messes, I still have to say she is a great cow, and her abundant milk is amazing. I’ll keep dealing with her occasional bad habit in the same way she deals with my hugs, just a shake of the head. Now, onto a cleaner subject!
My oldest started a new sewing project after quite some time away from the sewing machine, she, just as I, struggles with having enough time to do all the projects we want to. She’s always wanted to try her hand at making her own clothing, so she found the simplest project she could, a pair of shorts. We printed and cut the patterns, and she was off. In the span of about a week, she’d work on them when she had time. She only ran into one confusing bit where we had to figure out the next step together, other than that she produced a pretty cute, maybe slightly too balloon-y pair of shorts, that I had no critiques for at all. She was hooked. The husband and I ran to town over the weekend, and upon getting back home, she stepped out of the house in another pair of just-made shorts. I exclaimed in excitement then noticed her sheepish look and chuckled as I seen the reasoning, her chicken pattern was upside down. She didn’t have to pay attention to the pattern on the first pair, now she’ll always pay attention to the pattern. She did re-size the pattern, so they were a better fit for her. I have a feeling the next pair are going to be fair-worthy and that’s exactly where they will go, into the fair as a 4-H sewing project.
Enjoy the week and hopefully the rain that it will bring! Find us on Facebook at “Vintage at Heart Homestead”.
I made this fast and easy fudge sauce for our Easter morning crepes. This sauce paired with cream and strawberries made for some amazing crepes. I bet it ends up on some homemade ice cream next!
Hot Fudge Sauce
Ingredients 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 teaspoon oil ½ cup heavy cream 1 tablespoon granulated sugar ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract 1 tablespoon unsalted butter Instructions In a medium bowl, mix chocolate and oil, coating chocolate evenly.
In a medium pot over medium heat, add heavy cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla, bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Whisk in butter, then pour over chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes, whisk until smooth. Keep fudge sauce in an airtight container in a dark, cool place for 7 days.
