Yay!
Hard, hard day for me, one of the very three hardest of the year, but I got a lot accomplished today. Josh took the kids so I could have a me-day. I was a good Flybaby all through the house and had some decent centering time.
The biggest deal, imo, was I milked a goat for the first time! It was way harder than expected. Rosie has never been milked before (Josh squeezing a bit here and there excluded), so we are all learning together.
Milking a goat involves:
* Washing her udders/belly down (not that it helped with the hair/dirt situation much)
* Giving her a bunch of grain in a (futile) attempt to make her hold still in the milking stand
* Josh laying across her butt &/or holding her feet so she'd stop kicking
* The girls chasing the chickens away as they scramble for the grain Rosie drops and scare her senseless
* The girls chasing the kids away when they squeeze through the gate
* The girls trying to pet Rosie and tell her what a good job she's doing
* Being ninja-fast to move the bowl when Rosie gets insanely kicky, despite Josh's restraints
* BACK OF STEEL
* Switching off with Josh because I do not have a back of steel
* Switching back because standing over her is harder on the back of noodle and scary when she gets too kicky around the baby belly
* Switching back and forth between teats, which startles Rosie no matter how much I give warning that a switch is coming
* Squeezing more than properly milking (not at all like the tutorials suggest)
* The milk stopping once I finally get a rhythm going, so switch again, more kicking, see all of the above
* Lots of stray hairs - in the milk and all over me
* Hurry get more grain! She's out! She's kicking! She's mad! More hairs!
* 1 hr of back-breaking work for less than 1/4 cup of milk (decidedly less than all the tutorials would suggest)
I hope that we will eventually all improve with this. It was not at all super-successful, but we do have a few tablespoons of milk! Yeah!
The biggest deal, imo, was I milked a goat for the first time! It was way harder than expected. Rosie has never been milked before (Josh squeezing a bit here and there excluded), so we are all learning together.
Milking a goat involves:
* Washing her udders/belly down (not that it helped with the hair/dirt situation much)
* Giving her a bunch of grain in a (futile) attempt to make her hold still in the milking stand
* Josh laying across her butt &/or holding her feet so she'd stop kicking
* The girls chasing the chickens away as they scramble for the grain Rosie drops and scare her senseless
* The girls chasing the kids away when they squeeze through the gate
* The girls trying to pet Rosie and tell her what a good job she's doing
* Being ninja-fast to move the bowl when Rosie gets insanely kicky, despite Josh's restraints
* BACK OF STEEL
* Switching off with Josh because I do not have a back of steel
* Switching back because standing over her is harder on the back of noodle and scary when she gets too kicky around the baby belly
* Switching back and forth between teats, which startles Rosie no matter how much I give warning that a switch is coming
* Squeezing more than properly milking (not at all like the tutorials suggest)
* The milk stopping once I finally get a rhythm going, so switch again, more kicking, see all of the above
* Lots of stray hairs - in the milk and all over me
* Hurry get more grain! She's out! She's kicking! She's mad! More hairs!
* 1 hr of back-breaking work for less than 1/4 cup of milk (decidedly less than all the tutorials would suggest)
I hope that we will eventually all improve with this. It was not at all super-successful, but we do have a few tablespoons of milk! Yeah!