Roots In Sweden

2012-02-05T18:15:00.000+01:00

(and now back to last summer...)

"Perfect Timing"

With the baby calves safely into their training pen, Pappa, Gustav and Antony started in on the pressing tasks at hand.

There was plenty to do in that precious ten day period of time.

One part of the threshing barn that had been moved the previous September still had to be dismantled and taken back to our farm.

We had experimented last Fall with dunging the kitchen garden and plowing it in at the end of the season instead of at the beginning.

So this Spring it only had to be harrowed before planting.

Gustav did the honors with some pointers from Pappa.

We saw right away that Antony was very quick to learn so he was trained by Gustav and took on washing the cheeses in the cooling rooms without a break in the schedule.

Spring is also when the Advent tree has to be stripped of it's lights and taken down, cut up, and hauled off into the forest.

Raising up the bucket on the tractor is the best method for doing that so the men had it down in a flash.

The three of them picked a bright, crisp day when the ground had warmed just enough and went out to plant the seed potatoes.
Pappa drove the tractor and the two boys rode in the back,
row after row, dropping the potatoes through the slots
of the rotating seeder to be deposited deep in the soft earth.

Gustav provided the tutorial and Antony followed suit,

shearing up all the sheep, ready to be moved out to the fields for the season.

But perhaps the greatest moment of all came very unexpectedly.

I don't know why it hadn't occurred to us before since we knew
Antony had been raised on a very large dairy farm in France.

Maybe it was the stress of having so much to do in a short space of time, worrying that we would fall behind, or that Pappa and Gustav would be stretched too thin with all they had on their plates already.

Early one morning, as Pappa was ready to go out
and start the Spring plowing,

(possibly the most demanding of all the Spring responsibilities),

Antony appeared in his calm and quiet way and said simply,

"I can do thees".

We stared at each other...

He knew how to plow!

And could he really do it?

You bet!

Look at that field.

Day after day, up and down, up and down,

until it was finished.

This was a gift from Heaven that made all the difference to us.

With Antony on board there were four of us and we were able

to finish up not only every bit of the plowing,

but eventually ALL the Spring work.

As the days passed we realized we were even a little ahead of schedule.

Mucking out.

Feeding hay.

As if the added momentum wasn't enough of a blessing, Antony was also right at home with a shovel, pitchfork and squeegee so the barn work was second nature to him as well.

Squeegee-ing the milk room floor.

It could not have been more perfect.

We were beginning to get the vision of what this could mean to us

for the coming season.

With Manny away we had worried about being able to keep up.

That worry was fading fast.

With his shy smile and a hat he had fashioned from an old t-shirt,

to shade him from the sun,

Antony was:

The right man,

in the right place,

at the right time!

2012-02-05T17:22:00.000+01:00

"I.Q.F..."*

(Look closely, it's a little blurry...)

That would be a description of me and Gustav running to the barn early this morning.

(And you thought it was only about vegetables!)

*Individually Quick Frozen

2012-02-03T23:34:00.002+01:00

"Dear Phil..."

We heard that you peeked out of your Punxatawny groundhog hole yesterday, sniffed the air, looked around, and announced:

"There will be six more weeks of winter!"

That was very kind of you.

But.....

when Gustav and I got up this morning it was

-30 degrees Celsius.

We quickly lit the fire in the woodstove in the kitchen,

waited to make sure it was really going strong,

put on the pot of hot water to boil, set the kettles to heat,

and headed outside.

*We each had on:

two pairs of long underwear,

thick woollen socks,

wool lined boots with wool insoles,

heavy winter jackets,

thick wool gloves,

and wool hats.

First it was "Big Red", the furnace out in the pannrum that fires the hot water system throughout the farm. Gustav built the fire in there.

Good, good.

Next to the icicle-laden pump house where the barn clothes are kept. Even with the floor heat on it barely

took the chill off!

Finally, winter coveralls fastened over the above-mentioned clothing items*,

we rushed to the barn where we hoped that

the body heat from all the cows would make it toasty warm in there.

No chance.

This was the INSIDE of the barn door covered with ice.

This was the INSIDE of the milk room window covered with ice.

And this was the INSIDE of the entry door covered with ice.

It was FREEZING in there for everyone but the cows.

They had their wonderful, warm, furry, skins to protect them and mountains of fresh, crunchy, hay to feed their internal heating systems while we flew through our barn chores as fast as we could.

(Lucky bugs!)

So Phil...

now that we're safely back in the storstuga,

huddled by the warmth of the woodstove,

we wanted to say,

"Thanks a lot for telling us

that we still have a fair amount of winter left to face this year".

But it's official...

here on the farm in northern Sweden...

...we already knew.

2012-01-25T11:58:00.006+01:00

"How Do We Get Them from:
HERE.......

.......to THERE?"

In the early weeks of June the weather had warmed enough that we could start to

"take out the cows".

We wanted to have it all accomplished before the haying season started at the end of the month.

The older cows were kind of "seasoned" professionals. They could feel the change in the air and after a long winter of being in the barn,

(warm and cozy as it is),

we only had to unhook them, open the doors and gates, lead them out,

and they were ready to roll!

The young calves, however, were a different matter.

They had been born indoors.

Their experience bank to that point had consisted of:

1. Being inside their mother (safe and warm),

2. Being in the birthing stall with their mother (also safe and warm),

3. Being in the secure calf box where two large bottles of warm milk were delivered to their tummies each morning and night along with no end of soft talk and petting (continuing the 'safe and warm' mode),

4. Being in Play Group with all their buddies to frisk with when they wanted to and snuggle with when they needed to (safe and warm AND fun).

Now suddenly they were haltered for the first time, however gently, and led out into the sometimes still-brisk early morning air,

on their way to--

who knows where or what!

(It was a total rodeo!)

In the late Spring we had been contacted by a French high school student,

Antony Louvel.

He was looking for a five week internship on a Swedish ecological farm to fulfill his school requirements. We filled out all the legal forms e-mailed to us by his Headmaster and sent them back. We wondered how he would do, being young and having somewhat limited English. He had been raised on a very large dairy farm, so that was a plus and we hoped it would be a factor in having him feel at home and comfortable with us. When he arrived he seemed quite shy and a little homesick.

The first task at hand the next morning was taking out the calves, (talk about being thrown in at the deep end....), but at the beginning it felt like maybe it would be OK. The baby calves seemed like they were going to co-operate....

not a chance.....

The minute they were out the barn door those beasts headed in every possible direction but the right one.

Take a look at Gustav on the left side of the picture...he was barely keeping his balance with the calf at the end of the rope yanking him

back and forth.

And then an amazing thing happened.

With all hesitation falling victim to the inborn need of every male of the species to COMPETE, Antony yelled in his French accent:

"We see who get there first!"

And the race was on....

Antony looked like he had it in the bag (or in the field) but suddenly his calf took a hard turn to the left and he had to fight to get it back on track.

Meantime, Gustav and his calf had charged into the lead and made it through the first gate only to have the calf break free and run through to points unknown, leaving Gustav scurrying from one end of the small field to the other in a vain attempt to catch it.

That allowed Antony to leap into the breach with his savage after which he very magnanimously went over to help Gustav corral his and get it back where it was supposed to be.

In the end, both of them were laughing, breathing very hard, and

calling it,

a draw.

Finishing up the gates for the new training field.

It is so often said that one of the most valuable things about living the farm life, and there are many valuable things about it, is that you are always facing a new challenge. There is always a way to try and do it better.

For these small calves we wanted to try and do it better this year in providing them with an added step in the transition from being in the barn to being outside. We understood that it is a big change for them spatially as well as in their diet.

When they were in the confined area of the barn, after they had been weaned off the milk bottles, they had hay from the past year's crop, buckets of grain, and fresh water every day.

But when it was time to take them outside they would be in a very large field with the lush green grasses of Summer all around. They were only eight weeks old and that could be an adjustment for them in their surroundings as well as in their still young and sensitive stomachs.

We had learned that from previous years with the new calves.

Before we took them out we made a much smaller "training field" with a finer gauge fence for increased safety and a stationary feeder that could hold a bale of hay. We wanted to see if they would settle down better in a space that was a reduced size and 'self-police' with their eating so that their new-grass intake would be in better proportion.

It worked beautifully.

We left them there for a week or so until they were more accustomed to being out.

That first day with Antony was one to always be remembered.

It confirmed once again that there is no language or cultural barrier that cannot be removed by working together side by side.

With the calves safely into their new training pen, the boys were ready for a hot shower, an evening snack and a bowl of homemade ice cream from our dairy.

One thing we had learned for sure...

Antony was a gem.

But even after that day, as successful as it was, we could not have known how far-reaching the effect would be that this young man would have on our family and our farm.

For the busy summer season that was unfolding he would make a major difference.

We grew to love and appreciate this French farm boy who came to us at exactly the right time to move not only our baby calves, but us as well,

from here to there!

2012-01-19T22:22:00.011+01:00

"War and Peace"

(with apologies to Mr. Tolstoy)

(Goofing on the kitchen sofa with Gustav)

The time that Lauren was with us was the shortest of any of the wwoofers we have ever had....just two weeks.

But eleven of those fourteen days were the vital period between the blooming of the hägg tree and the blooming of the lilac (syren) bushes.

In northern Sweden everyone understands the incredible pressure that exists "Between the Hägg and the Syren".

The earth is awakening for another season of growing, the lambs and the calves are being born, preparations for the the critical haying time are being made, gardens must be tilled and fields readied for plowing.

No battle field could compare to it for sheer chaos if you aren't focused and efficient.

It was Gustav (arguably the most experienced),
Lauren (ready, willing and able),
and Me.
As soon as the cows were milked in the main barn, there were bottles to fill and carry to the small animal barn for the morning and evening feeding of the calves...

and here she was with "the savages" as they were called because they

RACED

up to the bars every time,

slurping up the warm milk, pushing and shoving and butting each other out of the way.

For the record..you couldn't do this job without simultaneously laughing and gently scolding the calves during each and every session. It was such a zoo.

In the grain room between the large and small animal barn, in an area called the höladsporten,

the barley had to be crushed and bucketed out to all the animals. While I was milking and tending to the new mothers, Lauren was holding the fort in the "kornkammare" and doing a terrific job of both crushing and cleaning up.

And as if there wasn't enough going on......the trucker with an entire year's worth of chopped wood, arrived and had to have help with the unloading from the main road. So Lauren hitched a ride on the tractor and if you look very closely you can see her out there helping with the transport back and forth.

Did we mention the indoor duties? It just never ends!

Feeling tired yet?

Take heart.

One of the most unexpected things about life on the farm is that there are moments of deep peace that come even during the most demanding of times.

It is a peace that seems to instantly satisfy every need or longing in your soul and it appears just when you think there could not BE any peace with all that is required of you.

These four pictures (two above and two below) are an example of that experience.

I asked Lauren one day if she could get us some flowers for the kitchen table and she went out to the hägg tree, cut an armfull and brought them in the house. It was still quite cold and the air was really nippy. When she came in with them their scent filled every corner of the kitchen and drifted through the entire home. Later there was a quiet tranquility as she worked with and cuddled the animals in the barn.

Gustav says that there are times when he just dreads going to the barn, but once he gets there he always feels good. It is so true, because that same peace seems to come as you enter the barn even when there is a lot to do.

Maybe it's because you are working with the animals and that in and of itself has a very calming effect.

I'm not sure what it is in total, but I do know how it feels.

The great Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, is described not as one who wrote

"a novel"

but, more importantly, as one who wrote

"a piece of life".

The day Lauren left we talked about how much she had affected our family in such a short space of time.

She worked hard, she participated with us in every kind of dinner table discussion, she had a great sense of humor and a loving heart.

In just fourteen days, she became a very real

piece of our lives.

2012-01-18T21:54:00.004+01:00

"Track Record"

Calving time is always intense.

By the middle of March, when the worst bite of winter has passed, the bulls and the female "mellankalvar" (heifers that were born the previous year), have to be moved out of their winter stalls in the small animal barn,

to the "gated community" out in the open air

of the new doorless hay barn.

There they have enough shelter and deep, fresh, straw in their pens to give them warmth and protection that is more than adequate in the still brisk Spring air.

Their departure to the great outdoors makes it possible for us to power wash that area of the barn and scrub up all the necessary facilities to make room for the mothers who will be having their babies within a few weeks.

This year we had done everything we could think of to be prepared but we got hit with an
unexpected glitch
that we never could have foreseen.

Normally the process goes like this:

The mother has her baby in the soft, clean straw in the birthing stall and the two of them stay together by themselves for five days. During that time the mother feeds her baby and takes care of it.

Then it's time for the baby to be outfitted with an identification eartag.

(SUPER IMPORTANT!)

The ear tags are the system that allows us to keep track of which calf has come from which mother. That birth record must be submitted to the government since we have pure-bred animals.

Once it is safely tagged, the baby is taken into a calf box where it is taught to drink milk from a bottle. For the next five days it will be fed it's mother's milk from the bottle, and have access to fresh water and hay.

Finally, when it can drink from the bottle well enough it goes to a larger pen with the other new baby calves who have also graduated through the calf-box training process.

We call that larger pen "Play Group",

where the calves will continue for eight more weeks to be bottle fed until it is time to go out into the field for the summer.

When the baby goes to the calf box, the mother goes back to the main barn and into the milking line.

We have learned that "5" is the magic number for both mother and baby.

If they are separated earlier than that the mother cries and so does her calf, but if they stay together for five full days, they both seem to make the transition just fine.

This year, with the calving in full swing, we discovered that the stash of government-issued ear tags that we had in the drawer of the big storage cabinet of the ladugårdsporten (entry to the barn), were...

SHEEP TAGS!

This was very bad news....After #119, we ran out of CALF TAGS completely.

When we called to get the next numbered sequence of tags from the government control office they said,

"Sure...we can have them to you in about three weeks"!

We made a desperate attempt to keep track on the chalkboard in the milkroom.....not working.

Meantime, the untagged calves were adding up in Play Group at an alarming rate and we were beginning to panic.

We tried giving them descriptive names like "Full-Dip" (see the one that looks like it's entire ear was dipped in ink?) or "Half-Dip" (front and center), or even "Bambi" (that would be the one in the back that is brown and white).

But there were just too many!

Pappa's good idea in action.

It was Pappa who came up with the idea of taking a close-up picture of each one of them and writing the date of birth, mother's identification number, gender, etc. on the back.

Brilliant.

When the tags finally arrived Gustav and Lauren went to work and while she was feeding bottles to one group, Gustav was tagging the others.

It was such a blessing that we had the pictures with all the information.
We never would have been able to remember without them.

Maxie always says,

"There is no problem on the farm that can't be solved",

and maybe this proves that he's right.

Look closely at the tag numbers on those fluffy calf ears and you'll see they are..

All Done!

2012-01-11T21:20:00.000+01:00

"Pouring ~~SALT~~,
(Oh wait! - I mean..)
SUGAR,
on the Wounds"

Right around the time that Lauren came, Gustav, to his great delight, became the proud owner of a new
l-o-n-g-b-o-a-r-d.!

We tried to snap pictures of him speeding along with the wind plastering his hair back from the sheer force generated by riding this new and wonderful item,
but no......
the only shots we could ever manage were of the multiple wounds he inflicted on himself in his attempts to master the instrument.

The amount of cream, rubs, gauze bandages, saunas, and sympathy was reaching epic proportions, but somehow it didn't seem to be enough. After a while we weren't sure how to comfort him anymore - each day seemed to bring a new scrape or graze or bruise.

But Lauren knew how.

With her kind heart and deep belief in the old adage

"the way to a banged-up teenage boy's heart is through his stomach",

she baked and cooked up a storm on Gustav's (and the rest of the family's) behalf.

And she was a formidable force herself in that respect!

Pictured above is a Princesstårta, one of the classics of Swedish baking.

Not only did she make the "from scratch" cake with it's rounded top draped in bright green marzipan, but she hand-fashioned the pink marzipan flowers that decorated it.

It was deluxe!

And guess who was first in line to dig in?
You got it....(notice vestiges of wounds on lower forearm).

She made cream-filled, fruity masterpieces, she made super frothy smoothies,

but her pièce de résistance was unquestionably,

The Swedish Pinocchio Cake.

She made so many of them we lost count and every single one was vacuumed up by the family in record time.

A light meringue-y top and bottom housed a luscious billow of sweetened whipped cream in the middle and toasted almonds crunched up the top.

Flake-A-Riffic!

We loved it all, but even more we loved her kindness and sweetness as she worked away on the treats every day, even with all the other responsibilities she shouldered with us on the farm.

It is still such a happy memory.

2011-11-13T00:08:00.008+01:00

"Our Cup Runneth Over!"

This Spring, Summer and Fall on the farm has been like no other.
We never could have imagined the enormous progress we would make and how having the wwoofers and members of our family here would "fast forward" our efforts to beautify and complete the farm.

The coming posts will chronicle the whirlwind that was May to October and in the process we hope you will come to know our dear friends, feel the miracles that took place, and rejoice with us in the blessings that came to us as a family.

Gustav and Lauren Haddad creating the new perennial flower bed.

The early days of May were cold and wet but they brought us our first-ever wwoofer from the U.S. and she was anything but chilly! Warm-hearted and willing to try anything, this cute girl who had two degrees from NYU under her belt already, was as fun as she was beautiful.

She and Gustav addressed the formidable task of creating a new perennial flower bed at the front end of the vegetable garden near the storstuga. We wanted to bring the heritage peonies, miniature purple iris plants, and dazzling yellow lilies that had been down by the pump house up to where they could bloom for all to see at the entry to the farm, but we worried that they might not survive the move. Hand carried from their ancestral home in the far north of Sweden, they had been nursed along for four years and had only barely bloomed the previous season.

Gustav decided to do a trial run in the transplanting department with the six lagging rhubarb plants that had been isolated in a patch of grass by the red currant bushes instead of being over lined up in "rhubarb row" that runs along the side of the weaving house. Of course we knew that rhubarb could survive just about anything and still live, but he figured it would give him an idea of what the soil was like and how to deal with the root balls in the best way.

And it worked.

Moated and watered profusely, within just a few days the plants had taken hold and began to send out strong stems with their ruffled leaves that promised enough cobblers, pies and saft syrup to last through the coming year and beyond.

Spurred on by his success, he measured out the area for the new bed, calculated where the plants should be placed, and cut the sod. Our clay filled soil needed a fair number of turns with the rototiller to loosen it up enough, and then it was time to bring the first peony.

It seemed to go OK...lots of soil around it and gentle handling.

Before we knew it, he and Lauren had all of them dug up and into the bucket on the front of the tractor, then down to the new bed where the they were snuggled into the waiting holes, flooded with water and filled in.

It was so slick!

What had started out as a blustery, windy morning (look at how Lauren is dressed in the first photo), turned into mild and almost balmy afternoon.

It was perfect, a good job done and we were filled with hope.

And did they make it?

This picture was taken twelve days later when the first buds on the iris plants appeared.

In fact they bloomed so profusely that we took some of the leftovers and put them in the ground in yet another new bed, beefed up with some yellow daisies.

And here's a close-up of that test-run rhubarb plant, flourishing complete with dandelions!

(We're on a roll...)

But for the

final triumph......

This picture was taken just over a month later. The irises had bloomed beautifully and then the buds on the peonies began to appear.

Only a few days later we saw the lilies begin to swell at the ends of the stems.

We were so excited and felt overwhelmed with happiness to see each flower arrive...so healthy, so sturdy and such a beautiful display.

It was better than we ever could have hoped.

It was a miracle!

(..and there were more to come.)

2011-05-21T00:02:00.001+02:00

"Yes, Honey, we know...

Strima, our cat who has been gone for about 8 weeks and just arrived home
VERY pregnant.
She felt the need to flop down
in the middle of the main aisle of the barn at milking time.

...we all get tired at the end."

2011-05-19T00:31:00.008+02:00

"Mother's Day"

"Styvmorsviol"

(Stepmother's Violet)

Provincial flower of Angermanland, Sweden

"Last-last Sunday" (as they say in Sweden) was Mother's Day in the U.S.

In Sweden it happens on the last Sunday in May,

just a week or so from now.

This year I have had some quiet time during my barn duties to reflect on my feelings about motherhood in a way that I have seldom done in the past.

Those reflective moments have given me some increasingly clear insights.

Here are seven of them:

1. I have loved the role of motherhood from my earliest childhood memories.

I always wanted to be a mother first and foremost.

2. For me no other calling can compare in importance to that

of a mother.

It has bound me to Heavenly Father in a very singular way

that has influenced all aspects of my life.

3. Being a mother has meant loving my children during their best and worst times of life,

no matter how they behave towards me or others.

4. Motherhood will always require absolute truth.

Even if it means it will be hard to hear and the relationship will be strained,

the truth is always the only way.

5. Mothering will never be a popularity contest.

It is not possible to be one WITH the kids if you are one OF the kids.

6. Inviting a child to the earth brings with it eternal responsibilities

that must be carried out.

No exceptions.

7. When you give your heart to mothering,

you give your heart to all humanity.

The Stepmother's Violet (Styvmorsviol) is one of the first blooms to appear on our farm after the long, hard winter each year.

It holds a special significance for me at this time in my life.

When I first came to Sweden a man in our village pointed it out and explained it's meaning.

He said:

"This beautiful flower, seen upside-down,
means that a stepmother sits on two chairs

and holds all her children in her heart and in her arms -

the ones she bore in love and the ones she chose in love -

they are the same."

I bore six children in love and from those children I also received four sons-in-law and one daughter-in-law.

When I married Hans I chose eleven children in love and also received their marriage partners.

I hold them all in my heart and in my arms,

and I love them all.

They are the same.

We hope you had/will have

a wonderful

Mother's Day.

2011-05-11T11:05:00.016+02:00

"Monson and Lopp, Esq."

Doesn't this title sound like a:

High quality

Gentleman's

Tailoring

Firm?

Well...in many ways it is.

Pictured here on the left is Elder Monson from Alpine, Utah and on the right is Elder Lopp from Orem, Utah.
Without question, these two young missionaries are

HIGH QUALITY

men.

Usually dressed in dark suits, white shirts and conservative ties, sporting the traditional name tags of missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these GENTLEMEN arrived at our farm after a full day of missionary labors, and as you can see above, traded in their day clothes for some well-worn navy blue Blåkläder Swedish farm coveralls, and hopped to it with the mucking out in the main barn.

Their next assignment was TAILOR-MADE for those who are as willing and anxious to serve as they were that cold Spring evening.

After a short tutorial from Gustav on the joys and effective techniques of calf-feeding,

they started right in.

And were they good at it?

Look at them!

Monson is feeding two ravenous baby calves simultaneously in two different pens,

and Lopp, not one whit behind him, is switching out the feeding nipples according to the age and abilities of the younger calves,

like a Pro!

Incredible.

Their faith is FIRM in the Master
they follow and serve.

After feeding them a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, salad, garlic bread and a take-home bag (so they could be home on time) of two containers of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, we sent them on their way to drive the hour and a half back to their apartment in Örnsköldsvik.

We love these good young men.

They were an answer to our prayers when we needed some very real

HIGH QUALITY HELP.

THANKS ELDERS!

2011-05-08T11:03:00.000+02:00

"B-r-r-r-r" said the Robin,

(upsize pictures to see whirling snowflakes..)

May 5, 2011
Vävstuga, pumphouse, stable, garden.

"I thought it was Spring.

It's ~~March~~ MAY and I know

I am ready to sing.

My beak doesn't move,

my feet hardly move,

May 5, 2011
Källarboden, lillstuga.

if THIS month is Spring,

then...

I DO NOT APPROVE!"

(Welcome to "Spring" on the farm in northern Sweden...

hot chocolate anyone?)

2011-05-07T23:26:00.002+02:00

"Finish Strong"

Look up in the top window - yes, he is in fact smiling.

We were scheduled to say good-bye to Corvin at the end of the month.

He and several of his friends were putting together a presentation for the upcoming Human Rights Convention in Switzerland and needed time to prepare.

But an unexpected call from his father in Hanover, Germany telling him that his grandparents and brother were going to be able to come for Easter, made it necessary (and desirable) for him to leave in time to be there with all his family for the holiday.

He hurried to finish up the last few projects that we had planned, one of which was emptying the top floor of the old threshing barn.

It took an entire day and he pronounced the number of nails he had extracted in the process as

"3,000,000!"

But there was one project waiting for him during his last night on the farm that none of us could have ever anticipated.

Remember in the last post where I said that the calving experience also involves inspiration?

Here's the proof:

I had gone in one day to load the furnace in the pannrum near the young animal barn.

As I stood there I had the feeling that I should go through the adjacent carpentry and look in the window of the young animal barn where we had two young heifers tied up in a stall.

They were not ready to have their babies yet (we thought) so they were double-stalled in there.

When I did, to my complete shock, one of them was in labor and struggling.

I was home alone.
I had a swift word of prayer, got my barn boots and ran into the barn where I quickly loosed the other heifer (the one who wasn't in labor) and got her moved out of that stall and into the one next door.
Then I scraped down the birthing stall and filled it with soft, clean straw.
Finally, I loosed the struggling heifer so she could lie down, and in answer to my prayers, almost immedidately, both Gustav and Corvin came home.
I was mighty glad to see them,
(and so was the laboring heifer.)

This was the first baby for this heifer and it was turned the wrong way. Instead of the front hooves coming first, the back hooves were already partially delivered. It took brute strength on the part of both Gustav and Corvin to try and pull the baby out each time they saw the mother push. They had to be incredibly careful not to injure the mother in the process and that meant they had to also be incredibly patient. This was a longgggg, slowwwww, process.

After several hours of this we didn't think there was any chance that the baby could possibly survive. Our primary aim was to help the mother as much as we could.
But when it finally came out of the exhausted mother, to our complete amazement,
it was alive!
The boys carried it right over to the mother who lifted her head, sniffed around a little and began to clean it all up.
Such a miracle!
Both Corvin and Gustav took a tender moment and petted up the new mother for the great job she had done.

It had been quite an experience for everyone.

We went to bed that night dead tired and with very mixed feelings.
We knew we had done all we could and that the baby was living and the mother was taking care of it the way she should.
But we wondered if it would be OK in the end result.
Such a trauma makes it very difficult for the newborn calf and there is so much that can happen no matter how gentle and careful we try to be.

We needn't have worried...
When we got to the barn just a few hours later the next morning, we found this spunky little character cleaned up and prancing all over the stall,
and she was a girl!

After a night like that, with all that had gone on, we really had to rush in the morning to make the early bus on time for Corvin to get the connection in Sollefteå that would take him on his way home to Germany.

There wasn't the time we thought we would have to tell him that we had loved having him so much that we hated to say good-bye.
But we hoped he knew it.

P.S.

I am told that this post would not be complete without one more addition:

During Corvin's stay with us there was a fair amount of goofing around between him and Gustav.

This is a picture of Gustav pinning Corvin down in the freezing snow and rubbing it all over his face outside the barn.

At the beginning I worried about incidents like this, knowing that Gustav has a lot of physical strength from his years on the farm and wondering if it was unfair to someone who hasn't had the same developmental opportunities.

Rest assured that I have come to understand that there is more than a little Karma at work here in situations like these.

A. Gustav smashed Corvin into the snow and washed his face with it,

(end of subject).

B. Corvin, with his wealth of technical knowledge of every gadget, phone, computer, ipod, etc:

Changed the language on Gustav's mobile phone so he couldn't use it,

(I'm sure they heard the wailing from Gustav all the way to Junsele)

Muted Gustav's ipod with a code so that when he got on the school bus in the morning for the hour-long ride, he couldn't hear anything,

(THAT was a golden moment)

Waited until one of Gustav's building days at school and set the volume control on his MP3 to medium and coded it again so that when the loud woodshop machines were going at school Gustav couldn't hear any of his music,

(...getting the picture?...)

I didn't have to be concerned about Corvin's ability to keep up with the pranks.

Auf Wiedersehen Corvin,

Vi älskar dig!

2011-04-25T23:42:00.003+02:00

"Judgment Call"

One of our cows in the birthing stall waiting to have her baby.

The whole calving experience is one of trying to make the best judgments possible for the welfare of the animals. It is not an easy task.

You are always hoping you are doing it right.
There is absolutely no room for pride.

Like the children's game of musical chairs, the goal is to have everyone be in the right place at the right time so the mothers and babies are safe.

Gustav shuffling one cow out to make room for the next one coming in.

It is almost automatic to do an assessment every morning and evening, checking to see which cow or heifer is moving along in the process and which one is next to be moved into a birthing stall.

After doing that for a few calving seasons it is easy to start considering oneself "discerning", "capable", or better yet, even "knowledgable".

So it was a little unexpected when Corvin,

who had the sum total of nine days of experience on the farm,

approached me one morning in the barn, after all the cows had been appropriately shuffled for the day and said:

"Nainy...I think we have made a mistake.

I think we should be moving this cow into a birthing stall instead of that

other one".

We weren't sure he was correct,

but we thought it was important to respect his feelings.

So we did exactly as he suggested and traded the two cows.

Corvin watching as the mother licks her newborn baby clean 5 minutes after the birth.

This picture shows what happened

one hour later!

(You go Corvin!)

If Corvin wouldn't have been so caring and observant,

or if Gustav and I would have been too arrogant to consider

the 'new guy's' opinion,

this beautiful little calf would have been born in the dung ditch

to a mother who was tied up and unable to take care of it.

Instead it was born into a warm birthing stall,

onto a bed of soft, clean straw,

with it's mother at it's side.

I love the words of Rudyard Kipling's hymn

'God of Our Fathers, Known of Old'

that say:

"The tumult and the shouting dies;

The captains and the kings depart.

Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart."

We know that when we are humbly trying to do our best,
and are open to inspiration,
we will be blessed.
And we were.

In the case of this particular judgment call,

all three of us got it right!

2011-04-25T07:03:00.003+02:00

"When Corvin Came..."

...we didn't know he'd work out so well.

he scrubbed floors,

He painted ceilings,

he mucked out,

he fed calves,

he hung fat for the birds,

he hauled milk,

he was our first vegetarian,

and the one who found our first lambs of this season.

Having him in our home made life on the farm even richer than it usually is.
Maybe that's one of the greatest compliments anyone could recieve.

2011-04-24T18:57:00.004+02:00

"Plus and Minus"

Corvin was upstairs in his bed reading...

I was downstairs hanging some laundry...

Gustav was in the shower...

Pappa was working by the tractor garage...

and we all heard it at the same time:

Moo-ooo-ooo!
(Not good.)

Corvin came running downstairs. I called for Gustav on my way upstairs. He threw on his clothes and raced out of the shower room.
The three of us hit the front door as fast as we could to see what was going on.

The heifers were out!

How did they do it? We didn't have any idea.

How could we get them in again FAST?

Like this...

Corvin was the "human fence" so they couldn't come back that way. Gustav herded them towards the gate and gave them a talking to at the same time.

You can't see me or Pappa but we are over to the left of this picture blocking the road so they couldn't run that way either. Pappa, hearing the shouting from where he was in the tractor garage, had hurried out to see how he could help.

And we got them back in again.

When the heifers get out it is a three-fold problem:

1. They could be injured by running somewhere that isn't safe for them.
2. They could run onto other people's property and do significant damage.
3. They are large and powerful and could injure a human being or smaller animal.
All of those scenarios are minuses.
But there is one giant plus in situations like this as well.

When something unexpected occurs - and there are many instances in farm life where that happens,

We snap into action as a team.
We drop whatever we are doing and race to solve the problem,
together.

There is no jockeying for position or trying to be the "big boss". There is no pride or arrogance involved.
It is just everyone pulling as one to insure that all is set to rights.

Because of that,
we succeed each time.

I LOVE that part of our lives.

2011-04-22T22:31:00.015+02:00

"The Duett Garage"

This is the Duett garage.

It is supposed to house the Volvo Duett, our "do-everything" farm vehicle.

Instead, for a long time, it has housed various pieces of equipment, car parts and accessories, but mostly wooden boards that needed to be dried to later be used for panelling inside a house.

The drying was now more than accomplished so it was high time for the Duett garage to

"fulfill the measure of it's creation".

Gustav and Corvin were elected to do the job.

True, unloading the contents seemed like a formidable undertaking, but the boys got right started and in no time they had made quite a dent in it. They had a great system where one would unload and the other would position himself at the end of the flat bed trailer to make sure the boards were on straight.

Corvin loaded....

and Gustav made sure it was straight.

And vice-versa.

It was a good day, a little bit overcast, but not too cold when they were out there working.

All that was about to change.

As the last few boards were being loaded onto the trailer and they were driving away with the tractor, the snow began.

A few flurries at first, and then...

It really started!

The empty barn where they were taking the boards was five minutes away from our farm and this is how it looked when they got there. They surveyed the situation for unloading and decided to lay down some of the boards to make a walkway to get up and in with their cargo. The wind was howling, the snow was blowing and the boards were heavy.

But they muscled it up and got it done, emptying the entire flat bed, even with the horrible weather conditions.

Everyone was pretty happy when the deed was done and the snow-covered boards were safely into the old barn.

This is how the Duett garage looked the next day when the snowing had stopped and they were able to sweep it all out.

And this is how it looked an hour later with the Duett in it.

I suppose that reading this post one could say,

"Well, wasn't it good of those two young men to accomplish that feat even when the weather turned so bad so unexpectedly?

GOOD FOR THEM!"

And they would be right.

The two of them did a great job.

But to us it represented much, much more.

It meant one more step forward in

"Completing the Farm"

which is our overall goal.

We want to
get it all done.

We want everything to be
where it is supposed to be.

We want to go into a building or a barn or a Duett garage that functions
the way it is intended to.

And to Gustav and Corvin who were willing to keep on even when it was tough, and help us achieve one more part of that goal we say:

Thanks Guys!

xoxoxoxo

2011-04-15T22:08:00.001+02:00

WWOOF! WWOOF!

Corvin Busche - our current "WWOOFER" from Berlin, Germany

My husband, Hans Göran Karlsson, is an outdoors-y,

nature-loving man. He has no desire to 'conquer' the elements or physical fortresses that abound in this part of Sweden (or anywhere else for that matter), he just loves to be one with all of them...to drink them in.

But for at least a solid week out of every month, morning till evening, and sometimes longer, he is a prisoner inside the small office just off the front hall of our storstuga (main house),

" doing the papers".

These dreaded papers consist of the seemingly endless government forms that must be submitted or updated, the bills that must be paid, the orders that must be put in, the information leaflets or brochures comparing farm equipment that must be read and evaluated...

you name it - he hates it.

So when he called to me on one such morning to come into the office to
"look at this",
I hurriedly punched down the bread dough, covered it with a cloth and went right in.

W.W.O.O.F volunteers on an organic farm.

He had seen a small advertisement in one of the farm magazines about an organization called

W.W.O.O.F.

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

W.W.O.O.F links up young people who have a desire to spend time working on an organic farm with farmers who would be willing to provide that opportunity for them. There is no pay involved, it is strictly volunteer, and it is happening all over the world.

We went to their website immediately. It looked great. We signed up and began to post pictures and information on our profile.

We wondered if we would get any bites with our

alcohol-free/tobacco-free/drug-free/devotional-at-every-meal standard.

The handsome young man you see in the picture at the top of the post is
Corvin Busche, a student from Berlin, Germany who is working on his degree in chemistry/biology.

He saw our profile and contacted us instantly for a six week time slot

beginning in mid-March. We agreed just as instantly, the arrangements were made, and before we knew it we were picking him up from the bus at the ICA parking lot in Junsele.

The long bus ride had taken it's toll, so we encouraged him to rest up a bit that evening and be ready to start work the next day.

Trust me on this one....he was READY!

Bright and early the next morning he was up and into the barn with Gustav and I, doing all the barn chores with gusto...even mucking out with the wheelbarrow and scaling the heights of the dung heap.

Once breakfast was finished and Gustav was off to school, he and I were back into the barn again where he was powerwashing stalls in the young animal barn so that we could set up the maternity wards for calving time.

After a short tutorial, he headed to the dairy and began washing the cheeses.

Remember washing the cheeses - the job everyone hates to do?

Corvin is smiling, and he did it perfectly.

Later, when Gustav got home from school, they went to the carpentry and constructed this excellent feeder for the outside animals, carried it over to the pen and set it up.

It was a big hit with the heifers who were so anxious to use it they even criss-crossed each other to dig into the grain it held.

Any thought of breaking him in gradually to the joys of farm life with it's abundant opportunities for work were dismissed as he and Gustav hiked over to the little stuga to bring a dresser up for him. They moved so fast I couldn't even focus the camera, and just a little while later when the timer went off and I was hurrying back from the pack room I came into the kitchen to find Corvin taking the sourdough bread out of the oven - WITH the wood peel.

It was official...we had a winner!

(Stay tuned for the further adventures of "Corvin Comes to the Farm")

2011-04-15T20:50:00.002+02:00

"Look Who's Here!"

Up in the fields behind the farm our sheep are having their lambs in the snow.

When I went up there to check on them it occurred to me that:

They are born into a cold hard world and they are happy anyway.

Some of them are black and some of them are white and it doesn't matter.

When they want to feel safe they just stay close to the ones who love them.

I think these babies are onto something!

2011-04-11T21:56:00.002+02:00

"New Life"

These are the first three calves of the season.

There will be 18 all together when all are born.

The brown and white one is a girl and the other two are boys.

The girl is named Taffy, and the boys are Newsy (mostly black),

and Zeb (black and white).

Newsy thinks he owns the place and runs all over the barn if we leave the gate open for even one second.

He likes to visit around.

They are in Play Group now because they have learned to drink from their bottles so they are in the big pen.

Soon there will be a bunch of little calf friends to join them.

Aren't they CUTE?!!

2011-03-25T22:27:00.007+01:00

"Move 'em on, Head 'em out...!"

Part II

With the pen set up in the new hay barn it was time to start moving the animals out one by one.

Pappa was directing operations with the rest of us giving our support and his method was so good, it really worked well.

Here's how we did it:

Pappa drove the big tractor right into the passageway of the old hay barn and up to the door where the animals were.

Meanwhile, Gustav and Maxie were in there and Gustav put a halter onto the first to be moved - the big bull. Then they attached a spännband (webbed tow rope) to the halter, fed it out through the door,

and secured it to the front end loader of the waiting tractor.

While Pappa backed the tractor up slowly, Gustav coaxed the bull out into the passageway. Maxie and I watched from behind a barrier, at a safe distance.
At first it looked like the bull was going to cooperate, but you never know what a bull might do, so we felt it was a wise choice.

And we were right.
It was only a second until all the kicking and yanking and snorting began in earnest.
See the dust cloud forming by the front feet?
There was a lot of pretty fierce stomping going on.

And it got worse before it got better.

Back and back and back Pappa went, keeping it slow and steady with the rope taut. The bull ran this way and that way, lunging and charging as hard as he was able.

But before too long, they got him safely in the gate. Gustav talked to him so soothingly as he took off the halter and the rope,

and Maxie was on hand with the pitchfork to make sure the hay bale was loosened up so the bull could eat easily.

Safe and sound!

This was nowhere near how it had been in the past. It was smooth and safe and the big bull was in more quickly than we could have anticipated.

Using the tractor was an excellent idea.

So now, with the largest animal moved, it was time to do the others.

The young bull, not as big and strong but still with a mind of his own, danced around a bit, got tangled up in the tow rope, but eventually went in as well.

These two heifers took the scenic route into nearby snow drifts,

while the last one got the "Miss Congeniality" award, walking happily along and right into the pen without a hitch to be with the rest of the gang.

Mission accomplished!

It went slick as a whistle and in record time.

With the winter sun still shining through the trees, Pappa and I felt that the boys deserved to have something really fun after such an adventure. They had worked hard and done well.

Both of them asked if they could go out into the forest on the snowmobile to build a campfire and have a cookout together.

We thought that was a fitting reward.

While they cleaned up outside, the hot chocolate was made on the woodstove inside, poured into the thermos,

and loaded into the backpack with the other food.

As dusk settled in, they were off,

(and they had a glorious time!)

There are so many things to be learned in farm life.

They say that's the beauty of it...that there is always a new challenge,

a better method, a clearer insight of what to try or how to do something differently.

I know that it is true.

Our success in getting the bulls and heifers out so well this Spring was due in large part to Hans' dedication to providing the very best treatment of all living things.

He had the idea, he led the way, we offered our support, and all were blessed.

They're moved and they're out!

2011-03-25T11:59:00.015+01:00

"Move 'em on, Head 'em out...!"
Part I

When this....

starts to melt away to this....

it's time to

'take out the cows'.

Moving out a tractor from

the main haybarn
this Spring.

Putting away the haywagon
in the extension wing of the haybarn
last Autumn.

The farm vehicles that were put "under roof" so carefully last Autumn must be rearranged.

We have to make an outdoor pen for the animals that were housed for the winter in the ungdjursstall (young animals' barn).

This is done in preparation for the start of the calving season in late March,

when some of the young animal stalls are needed as "maternity wards" for the pregnant mothers approaching delivery.

Last year with Manny on his mission and Pappa away, Gustav and I were on our own and had to borrow the metal gates to make the pen.

The bulk of it fell to Gustav who loaded the gates up on the trailer,

hauled them home, unloaded them and set them up.

It also goes without saying that he was the 'lucky winner' who got to struggle each one of the young heifers and bulls out until they were all safely corraled in their temporary apartment.

No wonder the picture was blurry!

But this year we had our own brand new set of gates to use

AND

Maxie and Pappa to help.

Good news for us!

First on the list was getting out the tractors and some of the other smaller implements.

Then the big combine had to be moved from one side to the other to make the end-of-season woodbags more accessible.

Pappa did the driving on that one.

Enlarge this and look at his face....

do you think he enjoyed it?

Maxie carried over two pallets, and step-by-step,

the Three Amigos moved this dry manure spreader sideways from one pallet to another, then repeated the process until it was lined up and in position,

and finally pushed the last few meters in using the forklift and a log.

Such good work.

Just so you know how efficient these men of ours were that day..

I ran into the house to get new batteries for my camera,

ran back,

and the "Bovine Biltmore" was totally set up already.

The gates were connected, the feeder was erected and the bale was inserted.

Ready to go!

2011-03-21T10:19:00.012+01:00

"Birds Singing in the Barn"

Edhegård, Eden, Sweden

This view of the barn entry doors shows the snow that has broken up and slid off the roof as we are beginning to have a day or two that is above zero. We know that there is still a while until Spring is actually here, but there is a feeling in the air that it's on it's way. And for now, that will have to do.

Dean Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania

Surprisingly, sometimes I catch a whiff as I come out the door of the storstuga (main house) that smells exactly like West Chester, the beautiful town on the East Coast of the U.S. where I lived on Dean Street until I was twelve years old.

Temple Boulevard, Logan, Utah

Logan, Utah, where I raised my children, is poles apart climactically from our dairy farm in the village of Eden, but there have also been times when I have walked across the snow towards the vävstuga (weaving house) and felt the same hint of warmth in the wind that I felt in the air in the Intermountain West at this time of year.

These memories are dear to me,

but I can never remember anything that has affected me as much as the arrival of the birds on the farm this Spring. Maybe it's because we have had a challenging winter with the broken bones. Or maybe it's because we have worked so hard to get some of the projects done that there has not been much of a lull. I'm not sure.

The hay barn that was packed to the brim is starting to go down fast and at this time of year there is a big change in the natural light in there...it streams through the slats and floods over the remaining fodder.

But the greatest change is in the sound.

Where there is normally silence in the dimness during the winter, all of a sudden you hear just the faintest little flapping noises high up in the rafters.

You know the birds have come and are in there,

but it takes another few days until you hear them

singing!

It is so wonderful.

This year it happened on March 12th for the first time, a little over a week ago and almost a month later than usual.

Since then I have tried and tried with the telephoto lens to see if I could get a picture of ANY feathered creature,

but the only member of the farm family I could find up there was this rascal.

Undaunted, I flashed outside to see if I could cheer up my heart with some other signs of the hoped-for change in seasons, and this time I succeeded. The ice in front of the old machine hall where we park the car was melting. There was a circle of exposed grass around the planter by the threshing barn,

and look closely... even a drip from the downspout into a small pool of water in the snow.

Hooray!

To add to this great feeling, when I walked by the Advent tree in the yard, all the lights that are still on it were twinkling.. the reflections of the newly directed rays of the sun. And finally, there was a patch of grass on the driveway by the vävstuga.

A significant spirit-lifter on this beautiful farm that I love.

This morning, nine days later, I decided to try one more time before I send this post off into cyberspace.

Gustav had come in from the barn to tell me there was a small group of rådjur (raw-yure) out in the field. These animals, which I have never seen in the four years I have been here, are somewhere between an antelope and a deer and proportionately small even at full-growth.

They were beautiful so I snuck up as close as I could to get a better picture before they ran away.

I was on a roll...

Coming back toward the house, I heard some chirping and spotted this little Fluff-o on the left under the eaves of the main house by the porch door, and one of his relatives on the edge of the roof at the right, tweeting away as he sat in the snow.

My luck was still holding as I approached the barn doors and this Puff-ball was warbling it up from his perch above the window. That gave me even more hope so I hurried through the ladugårdsporten (law-gords-por-tunn) and made my way past the resting cows and into the hay barn.

And there it was!

Yes, the picture is blurry and it's dark.

You have to really look hard to see the 'world's cutest songster'

sitting on top of a board almost dead center in the middle of this picture.

But he was there,

and he was singing his heart out!

Spring is definitely coming.

How do I know?

There are birds singing in the barn!

2011-03-20T00:41:00.012+01:00

"Semlor, Sportlov and Other Delights"

The front door of the bakery in Junsele advertising "Today - Semlor - 15 crowns (about $2.50) each".
The minute there is even the smallest sign that winter is about to break we see this sign by the door of Brödboden (The Bread House) Bakery in beautiful downtown Junsele.
Traditionally, semlor (the plural form), would be eaten on Shrove Tuesday as a kind of voluminous indulgence before the start of Lent with it's prescribed dietary limitations.
But everyone loves them so much that now they start to appear in February, and sometimes even earlier,
and today in the middle of March, to everyone's delight,
the sign is still up.

They are so simple that you wonder why everyone in every culture doesn't just make them.
And they are incredibly delicious.
So here's how it usually goes in our kitchen at home....

Bake up a batch of normal yeast buns with just a little extra sugar, not a lot, and when they are cool slice off the top of each one.

Next hollow out the bun and put a generous slice of almond paste in the bottom. *

These use a LOT of whipped cream and the secret seems to be not to sweeten it too much, just a touch. With the piping bag bulging, start down on the mandelmassa (almond paste) and fill 'em up!

The top goes back on.

Dust, dust, dust with powdered sugar and finally

nestle each one into a large soup bowl.

Pour steaming hot milk slowly into the bowl until the semla starts to float.

Sprinkle with cinnamon all around and on top and

it's ready!

The singular form of this noun is semla, but you hardly ever hear that form

because....

no one ever eats only one!

As delightful as the consumption of semlor is,

on it's heels comes a corresponding treat:

Sportlov!

In the year 1940 children like these were in small schools in farming communities all over Sweden.

By the time March came, the resources for heating the schools were running low. So the decision was made to give the children a week-long holiday in the waning weeks of winter.

They called it "Koklov" (Heat Holiday) at first,

and then later "Sportlov" (Sport Holiday),

(a little more politically correct).

But whatever they called it, it was a delightful decision.

As the long Swedish winter began to break,

it brought a lot of happiness to the kids.

This year it brought a lot of happiness to us as well.

After only eight weeks of absence since his Christmas visit,

it brought Maxie back!

Quick as a wink he was into his old familiar routines in the barn and "doing the wood" for the pannrum furnace with Gustav.

Look at this farm-pro hooking the woodbags onto the forklift, giving Gustav the signal in the tractor, and then hopping up onto the side himself for the ride back to the woodpile.

He and Gustav had some quiet moments together on the kitchen sofa,

and of course, some 'not-so-quiet' tumbles in the snow.

But whatever they had,
for two solid weeks
(one of Maxie's Sportlov down south and one of our Sportlov up here in Norrland),

to our great delight,

we had him back!

* This year while Elli was visiting she told us of an alternate method to make the Semlor filling. We combined the torn crumbs from the inside of the buns with shredded instead of sliced mandelmassa, added a little hot milk to that mixture and then refilled the buns. It was even better than before!