Family Cow Forum

In one large room put 8 tables, add some chairs, 6 loaves of bread, a dollop of cream cheese, tea and coffee and lots of like-minded cow people, mix and you get? A Family Cow Forum!!
The agenda?

Affordable Do-it Yourself Barn Building
Panel of Family Cow Keepers
A Quiver Full of Fencing Tips
Oxen Tails and Demo
Great Lunch and Chat Time
Back Yard Vet Care

Brigitte Ruthman has built her own barn and had lots of things to share with us.

Brigitte
and her Barn
Brigitte's barn is built on an Alaskan slab foundation, which is a concrete slab poured on packed gravel. She said you can't build very tall on a Alaskan Slab Foundation maybe 1 or 1 1/2 stories. She told us that one of the key things you need to do is to know your land because water is a very destructive element. If you can watch your land for about a year it's a good idea. The siding is southern yellow pine 2" thick tongue and groove laid horizontally. Because the boards are horizontal they also act an insulation. For all the interior fittings www.gardnerbarn.com.

Panel of Cow Keepers
Micki, Emily, John, Vicki

Tracy, Maria, Perry

The panel was then asked a series of questions:
How many cows do you have? What are there names and breed?
Micki: 3, Jerseys, Luna, Marcie, Halle
John & Emily: 2, Jerseys, Rosie & Roxie
Vicki: 1, Miniature Jersey, Brieanna
Tracy: 2, Jerseys, Patches & her companion cow Kokah Rose
Maria & Perry: 1, Randall Lineback, Noreen

How do you tie your cow while milking?
What do you sit on?
How do you deal with breeding?
And much more was discussed.


A Fencing Routine
Debra Tyler gave us her take on easily movable, user-friendly fencing and thoughts on best posts, insulators, wire and routine ideas. The backpack/quiver was designed and built by a fellow cow keeper because it can be very useful to have both hands free. He has nothing against others taking and improving the idea.

Oxen Tails

Chuck Duncan a work week salesman and a weekend ox trainer.

Jolly and Jigger
Chuck has been training two steers from Local Farm for a year and a half.
Chuck showed us how to put the yoke on them. There are 4 basic commands: Hep (forward), Wh (stop), Gee (right) and Haw (left). Then he let us take them for a walk if we wanted to.

FOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!
Lunch and a time to ruminate


Angela Greco talked to us about how to take care of your cow on your own and what the vet needs to know when you call.Angela showed us different cow care stuff.
Bolus Gun for giving pills.
Drench Gun for giving liquid orally.
She then took us outside and showed us how to check a cow's breathing and pulse, how to tell if they're dehydrated or not, take their temperatures, check mucus membranes... and much much moooooore!!

We are planning next year's and hope to see you there!


For more Motherhouse events go to www.motherhouse.us

Family Cow Resources

Some resources shared at the February 27 Family Cow Forum are:

The fair trade, organically grown Chai Tea and Coffee we enjoyed come from: www.Coffee-Tea-Etc.com in Goshen, CT. Naren Sonpal started the business in response to the economic and environmental devastation caused by conventional coffee production that he observed while serving in the Peace Corps. He roasts the coffee at his home in small batches. Any electricity used in the process is indirectly supplied by a bank of solar collectors mounted on his barn roof. Call (860) 491-9920 or visit the website to order.

The whole-grain, sourdough bread is hearthbaked at Bantam Bread in Bantam, CT by Niles Golovin. We had his Holiday Bread and his Cinnamon Swirl Bread at the forum. Stop in at 853 Bantam Road or call (860) 567-2737 to be sure he's baking your choice before pick-up.


Brigitte Ruthman at bruthman@msn.com offered to trailer heritage breed milking shorthorn livestock (see photo) from her favorite source in New Hampshire for the cost of gas and a cup of coffee on the way.

Her farm website is JoshuasFarm.com, phone: 860 671 0327.

Visit GardnerBarn.com in Wisconsin for interior barn fittings.

Chuck can be reached at duncan.chuck@gmail.com. His favorite DVD is Training Oxen: Rural Heritage Video 2007 from www.ruralheritage.com. The book Oxen: A Teamster's Guide by Drew Conroy and published by Storey Publishing can be found at Blue Seal Feeds in Torrington, CT. Helpful websites are: the site of Chuck's favorite charity www.CareForCows.com, BerryBrookOxSupply.com and NewEnglandOxSupply.com.


The display on Management Intensive Grazing was supplied by Gund Sonpal of Sonpal Power Fence in Goshen, CT. She has a variety of Gallagherusa.com fencing equipment for sale from her home. Her phone number is (860) 491-2290.

The farmer Micki Pratt works with to impregnate her cows via embryo transplants is Tom Breakell of Goshen, CT 860-491-3085.

Hot tulsi tea (homegrown "sacred basil" from Alicia's garden) and cooling foraged sumac berry, fresh ginger tea were donated for lunch by Cornwall's resident herbalist Alicia North of www.NorthstarBotanicals.com. Call her at 860-672-6854 for all herbal needs.

www.CrystalCreekNatural.com is a good mail order source of organically-approved veterinary supplies.

A few other choice farm supplies including stainless steel milk pails for the price I paid 25 years ago, can be found at MotherhouseMarket.com... and don't forget to visit my favorite: RLocalFarm.com!
Click the highlighted link to read the Lakeville Journal story about the forum.

Visit Motherhouse.us for more events.

Scent-sible Herbel Gifts

Alicia North of North Star Botanicals led a bunch of 7 in making great gifts to either give away or use ourselves.

Alcohol-free Hand Sanitizer.
2 cups pure aloe vera gel
1-2 teaspoons witch hazel
30 drops eucalyptus essential oil (1/2 teaspoon)
20 drops rosemary essential oil (1/3 teaspoon)
1o drops lavender
8 drops cinnamon essential oil
8 drops clove essential oil



Herbal Eye Pillows
Flax seed because it's cooling.
Lavender flowers for soothing.
Mint to make things look brighter (but go light on the mint 'cause its a stimulant).
Hops if you want, to help you remember your dreams, only a little bit (it smells like dirty socks).
Stitched up tight in a pretty fabric pouch, frog shaped or mask like or a starry blue sky.



Calendula Salve
3 oz. calendula infused olive oil
1 oz. beeswax
Calendula salve is an all purpose healing salve. Good for cracked hands, to keep cow udders from getting chapped, helping heal burns and other things of this nature.


Christmas Tea
1 cup each dried cut rose hips, lemon verbena leaves, and orange peel
6 cinnamon sticks broken into small pieces
1/4 cup cloves
Infuse 1 tsp tea blend in 1 cup freshly boiled water for ten minutes. Serve with honey if desired.

Fizzy Bath Salts
1 cup Epsom salts
1 cup sea salt
1 cup baking soda
8 drops lavender essential oil
6 drops orange essential oil
6 drops neroli
4 drops peppermint essential oil
1/2 cup citric acid
Mix dry ingredients first except citric acid. Add oils, mix, add citric acid and mix thoroughly.
We had an accident with the bath salts because we used Celtic sea salt instead of regular sea salt.
After riding home we discovered the salt had pulled enough moisture out of the air to cause the bath salts to fizz right out of the bag!


Corning Spices
1/2 kosher salt
1 Tbsp cracked pepper corn
3/4 Tbsp cloves
1 Tbsp thyme
1/2 Tbsp paprika
1 4-6 lbs. beef brisket or tongue. Rinse and pat dry.
Rub each side evenly with salt, mix, place in 2 gallon Ziploc bag and force out as much air as possible. Place in a pan, cover with second pan and weight with 2 bricks or heavy cans. Refrigerate 5-7 days. Turn once daily. To cook, cover with water and boil 2-3 hours.

To perches these and others go Alicia's website www.northstarbotanicals.com

Contra Dance

On the cold and snowy night of December 5th contra dance caller Fern Bradly and Still the Home Grown Band gathered at the Cornwall town hall to call and play for two families plus roadies and we had a tiny but lovely contra dance.

Shave-Horse Making

Joe Brien and a lively bunch of 7 wranglers embarked on a wild ride to capture, train and ride a shave-horse.
Joe had a table with the shave-horse parts already cut out and ready for assembly. There were several work stations set up. We all needed do was plane edges, drill mortises, cut tenons, and assemble a jumbled assortment of wooden pieces into something resembling a four legged, very loose necked, slow moving but once its dumb-head gets ahold of something lets go only when asked, wooden creation. In short a shave-horse.

The Whey of Cheesemaking

Angela Greco, an experienced kitchen cheese maker, led the whey through the process of making "Meso Fresco".The first step was to warm up the milk. The pot of choice was selected by Angela for each table to use. A good place to get stuff http://www.cheesemaking.com/ Warm the milk to 90 degrees F through indirect heating in a water bath of 110 degrees F. Then sprinkle the culture on top of the milk and let sit for 30 to 60 seconds. Stir GENTLY!!!!Dissolve 1/4 rennet tablet in 1/4 cup water.
The correct whey to add rennet:
The culture bacteria make the milk acidic and rennet likes acid and 110 degree heat but if it's too happy the curd turns out rubbery, so we only give it 90 degrees. It took a group effort to keep the milk at the correct temperature.Then we let the curd set. After getting a clean break in the curd we cut it. A clean break is when you make a small cut in the top of the curd and it breaks cleanly and fills with whey.

Cut the curd into 1 inch cubes and give it a stir.Warm the curd to 95 F ( by adding hot water to the water bath) while stirring.
Then put the curds into a stainer lined with butter muslin or cheese cloth. Let drain for 15 minutes.
Then mix 2 1/2 tsp of salt in with your hand GENTLY.
And then put the mix in a basket mold and let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
Cut serve and enjoy!