Yay!

[ahavah]

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

Comments

[maiabee8]

My knowledge that comes solely from the Little House on the Prairie Books suggests that you will only get a decent amount of milk if the animal is milked everyday at the same time of day. Is that what the tutorials say to do?

I love what you and your family are doing! I am living vicariously through you and it's so exciting! :)

[ahavah]

Well, she had been self-weaning her kids, so we decided we'd better jump on it and start milking before she dried up. I'm not sure if we'll be able to pull off the exact same time every day, as my work schedule often changes, but we're going to try to do it consistently and hopefully that will help!

[maiabee8]

In the books they milked their animals every morning at dawn. I am curious to hear what "experts" on milking say though since my knowledge comes from children's books :).

[ahavah]

Well I know from nursing myself that a body gets on a pretty decent schedule. I think that will help, if we manage to get one going. I'm not sure about quantity, but I do know that if she's not letting the kids nurse, she'll dry up. I don't want that at all! I worry that I didn't get enough out of her just due to my lack of skill, but I think if we do it much more often, it'll get going pretty good and she'll start producing more.

[lahermite]

want me to give your number to (formerly dread) amanda-with-the-goats, see if she can give you any helpful pointers?

[ahavah]

Thanks for the offer! I must admit, I'm not much of a phone person. Does she have email? I do have a goat raising friend that I have made sort-of close by. We email pretty often, and she's had us out to see her set up. I think it's probably just a case of all of us (Rosie included) needing practice. That's what I'm hoping, anyway!

[adoptedwriter]

A goat! Wow! I milked a goat once on a school field trip. My goat must have been well behaved. I was so worried I'd hurt her when I pulled!
AW

[ahavah]

Yeah, this one is not well behaved. lol She's new to it too though. But she likes to kick and throw tantrums.

[justkimu]

Ha ha! I had a dream last night that you had goats, and here you are talking about goats!

♥

[ahavah]

Did you really? That's awesome! Well, we've had the wethers for a long time now, but the milking goat is new. It's been a dream for a very long time!

[kali_kali]

Educational story! Remind me that when I've got my farm and I'm ready for my first milking goat to get one that has been milked before. One newbie at a time is probably best.

[ahavah]

Get one with nice, big teats, too! Rosie's are too little for me to really get a hang of the proper grip, I think. I probably should have had someone show me in person first. I was just watching youtube videos of goat milking. We just kind of went with the one we could find that was cheapest, or I would have gotten a really established milker from someone who could show me how. :/ Hopefully we'll get the hang of it. She did much better today! Stood still and nice for it. I just still don't have it quite right, so we're not getting a lot of milk at all.

[ahavah]

Well, I must say that separating the kids made all the difference! We hadn't separated them at first, because I wanted to make sure I knew *how* to milk before it was extremely necessary that I milked her (I know how uncomfortable engorgement can be!). But we kept them penned away and are working at weaning them now. Went out to milk and Rosie's udders were huge! It was so much easier - and she was eager to stand still and let it happen. We went from getting barely 1/8 cup (if that) to getting a whole liter today! It worked so much better. Today was a success. :D