Cowgirl Lessons - March calving season

I am so over losing baby calves to this crazy winter.  I also hate when my husband brings in a newborn calf all wet and cold in its birthday suit.  No blanket, no toweling off.  He has no mothering instinct and he has been doing this way longer than I have been around.

We had a blizzard blow through last night.  A bomb cyclone they called it and I have been out today in the aftermath, more than ever before, bringing in 3 newborns in the back of a mule to the warming box.

Each time I had a blanket to wrap them up in so they weren't shivering and the last time out I even took off one of my sweatshirt jackets and braved the cold myself to wrap it up so it could get drying off.   Running calf bus with more than one passenger is quite the challenge.  A bigger challenge is unloading a calf from the back of the mule 4x4 all by myself and getting it into the shed where the warming box is located.  I definitely do not know the proper way to carry one of these not so little ones.

None of the calves that I have wrapped up and started drying off have died in the warming box.  Maybe it is the mothering instinct I have in me to preserve life and get the baby the best start to life.  The first one (323) has already gone back to momma and was all dry, warm and fluffy.  Baby #2 (161) is in the warming box and baby #3 (???) got to stay out with mom but is in a temporary shed where it is dry and out of the cold wind.

Of course, all my clothes are now in the laundry because baby slime gets on everything.

Baking 101

I recently attempted homemade bread using my mother-in-laws fail safe recipe that she uses constantly.  She says she mixes it up in the bread machine sometimes and sometimes she uses her mixer, just depends on how many batches she is making. . . . .so I thought, okay I can do this with the bread machine and make some homemade wheat bread just like mom-in-law does.

I very carefully followed the directions after going to the grocery store to get a few things I didn't have.  I was so excited when the dough about pushed the door up it was so raised up.  I didn't even really let it raise in the pan other than until the oven was warmed up.

Great now I have 2 loaves stacked on top of each other.  Guess I should have split it and put it in 2 pans.

Great, so lets try again, first time worked out so well.  I followed the instructions and did everything exactly the same, except I managed to get out of bed when my alarm went off instead of turning it off and turning over until I woke up an hour later.  

So this monstrosity is what came out of the bread machine.  I left it to raise thinking it just needed a little more time.  FAIL!!!!

Right? Not even close.  Ok, so maybe if I put it in the bread pan and bake it, then it will raise some in the oven.  NOPE, this is what it looked like afterwards (see above.  BAKING FAILURE!!!  Needless to say, the dogs got a not so yummy treat and the rest went somewhere for the coyotes.

 Do I dare try a third time?  I decided to give it another try.  This time, I did not use my bread machine for the mixing and raising part.  I used my Kitchenaide Mixer with the dough hook and my mom on the phone cheering me on and providing some encouragement and tips.  So when I took it out of the mixer to raise I had a nice dough ball.

 After the proper baking time I had 2 nice smaller loaves of bread that I had split 2/3 in the big pan and 1/3 in a smaller pan.

But as you can see, this method was successful.  I was so excited I cut the smaller loaf before it was even cooled off so I could give it a taste test with some good old fashion butter on the bread.  I do say, it was quite tasty and I will try to make more next week.

Do I use the Mixer or the Bread machine?  Cast your vote in the comment section!  Thanks for laughing right along with me!