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.

Notes From Around the Farm

With putting the kids up north, I got to milk Zinnia for those few days.  I think she’s a little sad that she has her girls back.  Hopefully, it isn’t for too long.

Barbie, Jeanie, and Zinnia

Dolly and Heidi were glad to be released from the north paddock.  They both enjoy coming in for sweet feed. And I appreciate that I can have them both in there at the same time and leave them unattended.  It’s much easier.

Heidi and Dolly in the milk room

I think I have a ground hog problem.  Seriously. Why not?  The sad thing is that I might have one digging under my garage, but I’m afraid to go in there and check it out with Freddie still here.  I’m not sure what to do anyhow because I haven’t seen one, and I don’t shoot.  I wish they would just go find a pile of brush out in pasture to chuck wood and leave my buildings alone.

Poor Mr. Peacock seems to have caught a cold with the sudden change in temperatures.  He is getting a bit older, so that is a concern. I hope he can shake it off and recover.

Mr. Peacock–molting some of his topknot and growing his tail back in.

The little girls seem quite happy with room service in the Love Shack.

Terry and Crystal

I wonder if Ava and Heidi will develop a relationship now that Heidi is her only kid on the farm she gets to be with (and will be the only when Freddie is gone).

Was supposed to be a picture of Heidi and then I noticed Ava photobombing.

Poor Benji did not go to his appointment to get fixed. I’ve decided he must have spit out his last copper capsule (because it took three tries to get it to stay down his throat when I gave copper over the weekend).  He is in rough shape.  I gave him a larger dose and will keep feeding him hard and hope he can recover. Then I’ll reschedule his appointment.

Benji, with Simon and Frodo behind.

And it’s almost half way to the weekend.  Hopefully, this one will bring some better weather.

Evening Milking

When Ava and Joy came into heat right after I took them out of the Buck pen with Xerxes, they went a little nuts.  First it was Joy–she refused to leave Freddie’s side to come get milked in the morning. And in the morning I don’t have time to deal with that, so she just got milked that evening.  And let me tell you, it was still a whole lot of coaxing and begging and chasing and dragging her to the milk room.

Joy

Of course, the next day, I had to repeat the whole process and plus Ava jumped on the crazy hormone train.  So the long and short of it is that I’m only milking in the evenings now.  I have to say, it is nice not going out before the sun to milk.  In the evening, it’s right at twilight when I go milk.

Ava (my nightlight is already on when I come out to milk now)

It’s not a bad thing that I’m down to once a day.  My freezers are full; I have my supply of mozzarella and I don’t really have time to make more.  I kind of hoped that switching them to once a day would slow down their production. That hasn’t seemed to work.  Especially for Ava.  She’s kind of going wild with the milk right now.

Between the two of them, I’m still getting a half a gallon a day (or close to it depending on the weather). I don’t know what to do with it all.

By the time I get done milking and filtering it and come out of the milk room, the sun has already set.  All I get to see is the afterglow.

Dolly front; Onyx; Penelope, Trace, and Pretzel

Which is still beautiful.

Penelope and Trace; Xerxes on the other side of the fence

Penelope and Trace; LilyAnn (in front) with the moon over the garage

But I still don’t know what to do with all that milk.