2006-05-18 - 7:36 a.m.

Second week Milking

I am a pro now! Hahahaha far from it. My hands are aching still I can milk with two hands for a few min before it starts to squirt all over and I have to use one hand and one teat at a time. The good news is she is tolerating me a lot more now so she only bucks or kicks at the end of the milking determined for me not to take that much milk. Her boys shouldn’t need that much milk anymore; they are big boys eating full time now.

By the end of weekend they should be off of her milk what we want to do with them I have no idea yet besides sell them for goat meat. I have feeling for the older he is so sweet so I am going to have a hard time doing this. She is producing for me in the mornings now 2 quarts I am so proud of her, now the question is will she give me this much at night too?

I wish I could just go on like this for longer not having to milk at night unfortunately if I don’t get them off they will drink less which means she will start to produce less. At the moment I have 1 gallon and half in my fridge. I can’t make anymore cheese till I buy more ingredients for my cheese making. I have orders for making mozzarella cheese.

I have still not gotten used to the early mornings though I do love them I can’t get to bed early enough yet. She had a slight cold the start of the week but I gave her a lot of vitamin C in the form of unsprayed rose leaves and that seemed to help.

Sometimes at night I have trouble putting the boys in the separate cage I have to put there mom in there first to get them in there. The white face male is getting wise to this and I am having a harder time putting them in cause of this, they are starting to cry a lot more in the mornings which is irritating when I am trying to milk her and she is trying to eat I can tell she is distressed about them crying.

Its funny though in the mornings my small goats are crying and my neighbors across the street too cause she is milking. It’s a morning of baby goats crying our poor other neighbors!

End of the week Milking - Local Yokel