Monday, April 11, 2011

April Showers in Vermont

15 hours of heavy rain.
And 6 hours of thunder, lightning, downpours, electrical outages and no Internet.

But its all for those "May flowers" that everyone keeps talking about and wishing for.

What does spring look like in Vermont, everyone wants to know.

Here is what it looks like this morning:

Wet cows, deep puddles, soggy manure and one very smart calf who knows how to get out of the downpour!




Now that "most' of the snow has melted, it reveals the nastiness of the winter we left behind and somehow survived:




This hoop barn will be taken down, dismantled and hopefully recycled into something else we can use.           It hurts to look at it.


The rain has also totally uncovered the remains of the barn fire as well.
The smell of melted iron, plastic and burned wood is as pungent today as it was in December.       Still no tractor.







Yesterday, before it started to rain, I took a few photos of that darling calf of ours.     He is growing every day.  Mom has lots of milk.   Simmentals are used as dairy animals in some European countries and there is a special cheese that is ONLY made with Simmental milk in Switzerland.   Can't think of the name of it, can you?

UPDATE:
Simmental milk is exclusively used for Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée cheese.
(Thank you for that info!)


3 comments:

  1. I could not imagine the hardship you endured this winter...
    From what I have read in my cheese book, the milk is used for Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée cheese, AOC.
    I hope things start to look up for you...

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  2. You have had a tough winter. How depressing to see it laid bare now that the snow is gone. You have plenty of clean-up to do. The young #1 calf appears to be doing well. Hope the weather dries up for you. cheers. ann

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