Milking Three Girls

Well, since I sold Zinnia’s babies, she’s determined she is going to get milked.  I mean, she pushes everyone out of the way to get to the door.  I sometimes have to remind her that she has to let me get to the door in order to open it.

Zinnia (busy chewing cud)

It’s completely dark when I go out to milk now even though I switched to milking at 5:30 when the time changed.  And since I’ve been catching up on hooves, I have more girls trying to come in than I have girls with milk. (Sorry about blurry pictures, but phone, dark, and actually milking.)

Popcorn by the door; Astra, Ava, Zinnia, Perdita, Miss Goose, and Joy; Antigone behind the fence

Ava is first even though Zinnia really thinks she should be.  Ava has gotten to the point that she really doesn’t even want to eat that much because I’m giving them grain every afternoon.

Ava waiting impatiently

I tell her she doesn’t have to eat, but I can’t only half milk her out.  It’s kind of all or nothing.

checking out my phone

She’s ready to go back out.  Then there’s no stopping Zinnia.  I hold Joy off while I try to get Ava out and Zinnia is already eating before I can shut the door.

Zinnia already eating

And she isn’t going to to stop shoveling the sweet feed in.  Even when I’ve gotten the last drop of milk from her.

I have to take her by the horn and turn her back to the door.  But she’s pretty good about leaving once I tug on her horn.

Then I open the door and out she goes while Joy comes in.

Joy coming in; Zinnia heading out

Bless Joy. I do love milking her.  She’s so easy.

Joy

Although she’s the hardest one to get back out the door.  I think she gets that from her Grandmaa Haley.

I’m still getting a pretty good amount of milk between the three of them.

Saturday evening’s milk

It’s enough to do stuff–I actually made another batch of mozzarella over the weekend.

fresh mozzarella–it’s still warm

Cleaning up after making cheese.  I love my soap room!

Sometimes, when I open the door to let Joy out or when I get ready to head back to the house, I have someone else trying to sneak in (remember trimming hooves).

Victoria trying to push her way in.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll keep milking.  I know I want to milk through winter break because it gives me the milk for all kinds of delicious baking and cream of soups.

Canning and Milking

Well, last Sunday was too wet for me to dig potatoes, but I ended up picking more bell peppers and tomatoes.

Salem checking it out

So I made my taco sauce.  It’s good.

Look at all those spices!

I might have to make another batch.

I have adjusted whose getting milked.  I had already cut Antigone and Astra down to once a day because I wasn’t getting very much from them.  Then one afternoon Antigone didn’t come up to get milked when I called, so I just quit milking her.

Antigone regrets her decision. She’s still begging to come in.

My other girls are not about to skip getting milked.  Ava and Astra were waiting under the walnut tree for me to come out to the barnyard and start milking.

Ava and Astra

Astra is still getting milked once a day.  She doesn’t give me a lot, but it is a bit more.  And it’s good for her to come in and eat.

I try to do her last and let her eat a bit longer when I can.  But sometimes Joy makes me call to her.  Then she’s last.

Joy coming up; Astra leaving the milk room

I am thrilled to have all this milk for mozzarella and yogurt.

starting a two-gallon batch of mozzarella

And I am getting my freezer filled back up. in case of bottle kids next year. And I’ll still get to add Zinnia to the lineup when I wean her girls!

Catch Up

Now that I am back to teaching full time, my weekends are for catching up.  Last weekend, I had to do copper in the goats again.  I still prefer the peanut method.

copper hidden in the peanut shells

Some goats cooperate with that.

Cupid

But there’s a whole lot of them that make me use the pill pusher.  I’m not a fan of this new pusher, but at least it can’t come apart and end up in a goat stomach.

The goats were not very cooperative (shocking, I know), so I swear I was catching those stragglers all week.  I just finished with Benji and Frodo today.  But it’s done!  I’m caught up with copper for a little while.

The garden is another thing I have to catch up on.  I’m struggling to get it picked.  I have to pick the tomatoes when they are just starting to turn or the bugs get them.  The bugs are horrible this year.

I already spent Friday evening canning tomatoes.  This is a box ready to go to my mom.  I have one more batch, and then I’ll be done canning for me.

This is my plan for tomorrow.  That is more than enough to finish my canning.

Of course, I am still planning on doing a lot more canning for my family.

Now that I’m milking again, I have to play catch up with it on the weekends too.

Thankfully, Heidi and Simon drank a lot of milk, so I can just freeze it and throw it in the big freezer for next summer when I’m busy during the week.

Heidi coming to see if I brought a bottle.

The weekend is for making Mozzarella cheese and yogurt.  I’ve already done one double batch of mozzarella and plan on doing another tomorrow.  I also hope to get a gallon of yogurt incubating this evening.

grating mozzarella

This weekend, I had to do something with my yard.  I haven’t mowed in probably three weeks, and with the drought, it’s mostly just weedy, but I had to do something with it.

dormant grass; weeds everywhere

So Saturday was a catch up day for the yard too.

Sky (I can’t get him to pose for me)

It’s not the best, but I did get a lot taken care of, and now I need to get back to tomatoes!