Starting to Get the Hang of It

I am happy to say that we are finally getting better at milking. I no longer feel panicked as 4 pm approaches every day and I wonder how, how I am going to get the milk out of the cow's udder and into our milking pail.

First, I called Taci, who we bought the cow from, and said, "I don't think this cow LIKES me. What shall I do??" And Taci gave me some pointers about making milking time a special treat time of the day for the cow. She also told me that the cow loved to be brushed and to spend some extra time brushing her.

The next thing we did was to assign just one person to help me with milking. Prairie Spy was willing and ready to help. So now it is peaceful and quiet back at the barn with just the two of us. Prairie Spy really does all the work. He gives her the grain with kelp and salt mixed into it. He ties her up when she's done with her grain. He brushes her down. He ties her tail on the off side of her with baling twine up to her halter so she doesn't swish us with her tail. He washes her udder. He milks. I take over when his hands get tired and then he finishes up. Then Prairie Spy lets her out to graze and I take the milk up to the house, strain it, put it in a sink full of cold water and ice cubes, and then transfer it to the fridge.

And the milk! The milk is wonderful!

Milking Update

I don't know what I think about having a milk cow. On the one hand I absolutely LOVE her milk. It is creamy, light and delicious. I also love it that I always have good milk whenever I want. I don't have to go to the grocery store for disgusting cooked plastic stuff. I have lovely cream for whipping and I made blueberry ice cream the other night that was divine.

But, everything has its price, right?

Cindy is not easy to milk. I had fairly high confidence in the milking department because we've milked goats for years and years, but this is a whole different animal. Her handles are very small (tiny) and it is taking us about 45 minutes to milk.

At first she was very patient with our incompetence but I think each day gets a bit worse. Instead of us getting better, she's just getting less patient and she's starting to kick and toss her head.

So here are a few pictures of my two non-enthusiastic milkers. I have read that milking time should be peaceful and quiet with no distractions, and this may be part of our problem. We have goats banging against the gate and butting heads. The dog, Jack, is tied up so he won't disturb Cindy and so he usually barks and wants to join the action. We have someone on Kitten alert to grab the various barn cats that want to come try the milk. And then as milk is dribbling down Braeburn's fingers instead of swishing into the pail poor Cindy has to listen to, "I hate this. I hate this so much. Why, Why did we have to get this stupid beast? Oh, I hate smelling like a cow. I'm going to have to take a shower before I go mow lawns... The sound of this milk in the pail is all wrong. It should be gush gush foam foam, and instead it's a little sssshhhhh dribble sound."

Then Golden Delicious takes over and we hear, "I've got so much homework, so much homework. I don't have time to milk the cow. I'll milk my goats but this cow is just too much..."

The days the Spy Twins milk there is less complaining about the cow and more bossing each other around and way too much "expert" advice given freely to the other twin. I will forbear on details, but you get the idea.

So then Mr. Bechtel takes over and I take a turn and then we're finally done and then I wonder why I wake up in the night worried about cows and what to do when Mr. Bechtel goes out of town. And I know now why they say it takes a special family to have a milk cow, and today I'm feeling very average.

Horse Riding

I think I can safely say that the Spy Twins favorite "class" for homeschool is horse riding lessons. Once a week we drive across town and the boys get to ride. Their instructor is excellent and the boys ride several different horses. The first horses they rode were named Spur and Faith, then they were sold so now they're riding Little and Tyrone.

Here's Nova Spy brushing down Little.

And Prairie Spy getting ready to saddle Tyrone.

We can hardly wait for Wednesday Afternoons around here. And to top it all off we usually stop by Reed's Dairy on the way coming home for an ice cream cone.

Greg & Brig

I went to the antique store today and found lots of beautiful things that I didn't buy. But I found two pairs of overalls that I did buy. The Spy Twins need something to wear while doing chores and these were much less expensive than new ones at Cal-Ranch. Plus, you get the fantastic names free of charge. So we have Nova Spy as "Greg" and Prairie Spy as "Brig". Quite professional. They look like they could change your oil too.

And here Greg and Brig are circa 1920.

And 1950.

Important Events

I've missed reporting on so many things - here's a short roundup.

Braeburn and Mr. Bechtel went to England and happened to be in London on the Queen's birthday. Here she is straight from Braeburn's camera.

Golden Delicious once again won Grand Champion at the county fair with her Alpine Dairy Goat, Maggie.

We built a fence to keep our chickens from terrorizing the neighbors. The Jeep became the fence puller, tool storing vehicle for the project. Good fences make good neighbors and all that...

And lastly, but Very Important. Granny Smith was baptized by his Daddy.

Introducing Cindy!!!

"You ought to see my Cindy, she lives a way down south

and she's so sweet the honey bees swarm around her mouth."

Our family cow has arrived! Mr. Bechtel drove over to Twin Falls yesterday to pick her up. Here was our first glimpse of her...

She unloaded like a dream even though she'd been stuck in a trailer for 5 hours. Look at those beautiful eyes. Golden Delicious says they're so big you could swim in them.

And here she is checking out her new home. We hope she likes it.

We've been trying names out for days and days and when she was finally in the barn Golden Delicious said, "what about Cindy?" The Spy twins said, "Yes! Cindy it is!" But Granny Smith is still holding out for 'Toffee', which I have to admit is a great name too. Her name before we got her was Alaythea, but we don't think that fits so it's Cindy for now.

She's three years old, bred to calve in May, quite small even for a Jersey and as sweet as honey. Wait, maybe we should name her Honey!

Yukon

We are sad that Winesap and Alaskan Wild Berry lost their dog Yukon. We have lots of good memories of Yukon going back to when Golden Delicious picked him out as a little puppy.

He was the best dog and we love him. We hope Jack turns out to be just as good.