It's hard to find good horse milk

I am looking forward to spring, though I did enjoy the storm last week.

Timmy and I were hunkered down in the house, but we had to shovel our way to the woodpile. Fortunately the wood was under a tarp so it stayed dry. The wood pile is very low this time of year, and now with all the snow, it is difficult to get out and cut more. But it will warm up soon.

There are many changes in the air and now with this season of rebirth, people's energies will soon be renewed. I am surely ready to be renewed. My son, Dan and his wife, Mary will be having a new baby any day now. It is great to see their family growing. They have one son, Tommy, who will be two in April.

This season of rebirth reminds me of an April 21 years ago, when our draft horse, Nancy, gave birth to a filly. On this day, Tom had been out planting oats with the horses. He had returned to the yard with Nancy and the other draft horse, Sadie. Tom put the horses in their stalls, still in their harnesses, and came into the house to get something to drink. Our neighbor John was visiting, and we were sitting in the kitchen having a snack.

Dan was 8 years old at the time, and he burst into the kitchen all excited and said that Nancy had a baby horse lying behind her in the horse stall. We all ran out to the barn, and sure enough a very wet filly was laying in the straw behind Nancy. Tom and John quickly took Nancy's harnesses off while I dried the filly with towels. The filly was strong and alert. She got on her feet to nurse and was nuzzling for Nancy's teat. We were all watching for her to latch on to start sucking when John said, "Oh no! We've got a big problem."

It was a big problem. It turned out that Nancy's bag was ruined from having mastitis. We didn't know this when we had purchased her. She had gotten bred by a two year old stud that we had sold the fall before. We called up our other neighbors who had horses on to advise us what to do. Our neighbors, Dick and his wife Ada drove up right away to take a look at Nancy and advise us on how to feed the filly.

Dick said, "Yeah, her bag is ruined. But the filly's got to get colostrum. You can't feed her straight cow's milk. That will bind her. Mare milk is very rich, but it is thinner than cow's milk."

I asked, "Would goat's colostrum work?"

Dick said, "Yeah, that would be a good start."

"Okay, I know where to get some," I said.

My neighbor Shirley had goats, and she was in the midst of kidding. I drove to her house and she had only a small bottle with fresh goat colostrum left over from the latest goat to give birth. I took the colostrum home and added it to watered down fresh cow's milk along with molasses in a large bottle with a nipple attached to it.

The filly sucked the mixture right down. She wasn't out of the woods yet, as Dick told us that we would have to feed her every two hours. We were milking a cow to have milk for the house, but this wouldn't give us enough milk for the filly. We brought up another cow from the pasture and began milking her and also bought one of Shirley's milking goats.

The filly did get a naval infection the second day, but we had the vet out right away to give her penicillin. For the next six weeks, Tom slept on the couch and fed the filly every two hours. We named her Blaze because she had a small white strip on her forehead, and the rest of her was coal black. Blaze knew when it was time to be fed and she would come to the kitchen door every two hours for her bottle.

She grew fast and was extremely gentle and friendly. She grew to be one of the largest draft horses we had. She in turn gave birth to three mares and had no trouble nursing them. We were really proud of Blaze and all the effort we put into keeping her alive. She was a great addition to the farm, and we kept her for a while even after we kept farming. It was a sad day when we sold her, but she needed to be worked, and our interests were elsewhere. Happy Easter to everyone in this time of rebirth and renewal.

The roller derby queens' debut

I saw a bald eagle last week high up in a tree. It was probably looking for something to eat.

The next day, Timmy and I were driving home from his piano lesson when we saw over 30 deer grazing in the neighbor's pasture. Then last week two skunks walked across my husband, Tom's path when he was driving home. The other morning I awoke to hear an owl hooting outside my bedroom window. All the activities by the wild animals are definitely signs that spring isn't too far off. I am looking forward to warmer weather. The wind has been so raw lately, that it shoots right through me.

My three oldest daughters, Mary, Bridget and Molly, along with 57 other girls, had their Minnesota Roller Girls debut in Coon Rapids at Cheap Skates on Sunday. There are four teams in their roller derby. My daughters' team is called the Garda Belts. Garda is police in Irish. The Garda Belts' uniforms are tartan skirts and Kelly green blouses.

Since their dad looks just like a leprechaun, he has become their unofficial mascot. The team had shorts and a shirt to match their outfits sewn for him. Each roller derby girl has her name printed on the back of her shirt. Tom's shirt has Tom the Leprechaun printed on the back.

For the Garda Belts' debut, Tom led them onto the roller rink and threw out chocolate candy covered with gold foil to the crowd. He is a leprechaun after all. Not your typical leprechaun, in that I don't think that a leprechaun normally shares his gold. But he is a mortal after all.

There were over 1,300 spectators that were watching the Minnesota Roller Girls debut. This number of people far exceeded the girls' expectations.

They have gotten quite a bit of press lately. Saturday they were written up in the Variety section of the Minneapolis Tribune. They have been in City Pages, Women's Press, on radio programs and numerous television stations. Sitting behind me at the derby were two boys around ten years of age. I heard the boys talking about the little man that led the Garda Belts out.

"That really is a little man," one of the boys said. "Yeah, he is really little. He is littler than me," said the other boy.

The girls on the other teams, which are named the Atomic Bombershells, Silver Bullets and Dagger Dolls asked my girls where did they hire that Leprechaun from?

The girls laughed and said, "Oh, that's our dad."

Tom had a great time being his impish self out in the rink. He hid the water bottles from the water boy from the Silver Bullets team that the Garda Belts were competing against. Tom high-fived the girls when they made points and yelled so much that he lost his voice by the end of the night. It was a fun night and no one wanted it to end. The four teams did two bouts each and a band called the Soviettes played during half time.

The band sang a song that was written just for the Minnesota Roller Girls debut. I had never seen the girls perform, and I was impressed by their athletic abilities and how fast they could skate.

The roller derby girls had the crowd rapt with excitement. The crowd was oohing, and aahing when the lead skater called the jammer would skate through the tough blockers. The crowd would groan when a skater would take a fall or if there was a pile up of skaters. The crowd was on their feet cheering and laughing when two or more girls would get into a tangle. This sport is not for wimps. These girls are tough and have great showmanship. I can't wait for their next bout, which will be on March 20. I just wish I didn't have to drive so far to see their games, but it is really worth it.