Still Milking

Every evening when I go out at 6:00pm, I have four girls waiting for me on the hill.

Astra, Caroline, Joy, and Ava

Well, sometimes, I have a couple more girls who think they should get to come in too.

Haley

They are really annoying, especially in the morning before I go to work.

Dolly and Haley outside the door. They literally try to push their way in when I switch milking girls.

After we are done milking, they head back out to pasture to rejoin the rest of the herd.

Ava, Joy, Caroline, and Astra

I am currently working on filling the freezer with milk for next year’s bottle kid(s) if I need.

I only have a tiny bit of milk left from last year.  When it’s gone, Pretzel will get weaned.

Pretzel running (and yelling at me) for her bottle.

Don’t worry, she’s plenty chunky.

And a couple of evenings, when she’s come running for her bottle, she’s already had milk on her mouth.

Pretzel

I think she and Hera have an arrangement so that Hera’s udder isn’t so full and Pretzel will try sucking anything that might give her milk.

Hera

Anyhow, I’m also still making a bit of mozzarella with the milk. That is for my mom. I’m still making soaps for sale.  I’ve almost restocked everything, and I’ve added some new fragrances to replace the ones I can no longer get.

Sunflower Sandalwood is new.

I’m hoping the soap room will be fully up and ready for sales again by the first of October.

Most of the soaps curing

Of course, I have a lot of soap labels to make now.

Weaning

Thursday morning, I moved my bucks back onto the front pasture.

Freddie and Xerxes

I decided Thursday afternoon to wean kids so I could start milking again after everyone got mixed back together.  I shut Perdita up north first.  When I went back out to catch Joy’s boys, she was already out.  I think she climbed the remains of the tarp hut and went over the fence.

Perdita and Astra in pasture

I put Joy’s boys up there but I never did get Perdita caught again because she was standing on top of the fallen walnut tree until dark.  I caught Swen and Olaf and shut them up there so I could at least milk Joy in the morning.

Swen and Olaf

The next morning, Joy’s boys were out.  Seriously?  I swear it has been harder to wean kids this year than ever before.

Greta and Gary, Joy with her boys Olaf and Swen, and Micah

Anyhow, I did actually get to Astra before Perdita had breakfast, so I got a pint out of her.

Astra

Then, after my coffee, I once again weaned the little stinker.  She’s lucky she’s so cute.

Then I decided to go with Ava’s kids.

Geo, Glory, and Gilbert

She’s had triplets on her and she could use the break.  It’s been a hard year on all of the moms with the poor pasture quality due to the drought.

Ava

I hauled all three of them up with Perdita and blocked the hole I think the other two boys escaped from.

Perdita looking for a new escape route

Tonight, I’ll try to get Joy’s boys again.

Joy

After my hands get used to all of them, I’ll think about adding Caroline to my milking.

Chunky and Caroline

Or maybe Cutie.

Cutie with Sylvia and Simone

Eventually I’ll be milking all of them (hopefully in just a few days.)  In another month or so, I can start milking Zinnia.

Zinnia

Maybe I’ll see about training Onyx.

Onyx–love that perfect udder

Bring on the milk!  Time to make cheese!

Together Again

For some reason, all three days of working on the chicken-of-the-woods also saw goats getting out.  Luckily, when they get out it is basically just coming up the road to wait for me to let them in.  Still, I prefer they are not eating in the ditches and on the road.  I tried hobbling it the first day.  The second day was late in the evening, and I figured I would deal with it the next day, but chicken-of-the-woods claimed my attention again.  Well, on day three it was probably three-fourths of the herd.  Since I was talking about putting them together again, I decided this was the time to do it.

The herd on the bottom of the front pasture

I’m sure the pasture does taste old and dry, but we did at least get some rain over the weekend.

Maybeline and Odie

Anyhow, they all got to spend the rest of the day on the front pasture.  That way I didn’t have to worry about them getting out again.

Bambi, Haley, Cinnamon, and Myson joining everyone else

Ivy

I went down in the evening and put another piece of panel across where they ripped up the old snow fence barrier.

Of course, having everyone on the front pasture means nobody is weaned anymore.

Perdita nursing Astra

Joy feeding Olaf and Swen

That means no milk until they get weaned again.