Morning Chores

It's Saturday, but since Jeff is out of town it's my day to milk the goats. Usually, I try to get up before the kids... or at least before the girls. This morning, however, they were both up earlier than usual. So, I had to set Ivey up with a sippy cup of milk and an episode of Dora and take Olive with me in her bouncy seat. Olive is usually happy out there in her seat for the first 10 minutes. After that, she's mad and lets us know it.

First, I prep the milking pot. I take our stainless steel stock pot and place a cloth on top for a filter. I use Gerber Birdseye Weave Flatfold Cloth Diapers that I had originally purchased as burp cloths. They work great! I place it on top, give it a little slack and attach it with a bungie cord loop. I then take a clean washcloth and my homemade teat wash and head out the door. For a teat wash, I use the exact same recipe as I use for my cloth baby wipes solution. Water, a drop of tea tree oil and a couple drops of Dr. Bronner's Hemp Soap. If you don't use Dr. Bronner's, I suggest it for everything! It's great. We love the peppermint variety.

Let me take this opportunity to give Jeff kudos for my milking parlor! It's a great size, keeps the rain out and gives me a space that can be used only for milking. I love it. The best part? He made it out of scavenged tin roof from the dilapidated house on our other property and pallets that he pulled out of department store trash. Total cost? $20.

I usually milk Gretta first, as she usually demands it. Milking is a time that they get to stand there and stick their head in a grain bucket and chow down, uninterrupted by their stall mate. They love it. I open up the milking parlor door and Gretta hops up and sticks her head through the station. I close her head in with the bungie cord and wipe down her teats and udder, as needed, with the solution. Next, I put on the goat hobble. This was a little pricy ($15), but it has been very worth it! It keeps their legs nice and still. No more kicky goats, knocked pails, or ruined milk because a goat foot plopped inside! Very nice.

After the hobble is in place, I get to milking. It starts out nice and easy. Toward the end, the flow slows down. I massage her udder and the flow returns. I usually have to repeat this about two or three times before she is completely empty. I wipe her down again, spray her teats with "Fight Bac" and let her loose. Okay, so with Gretta it's more like dragging her away than letting her loose. With April, things are a little different. She is still a bit skidish, so I have to do a little trick to get her on the stand. I take Gretta out and leave the parlor gate open. As long as I'm not really close to the milking stand, April will jump up and stick her head right through to eat. Then, I can reach over the parlor wall and latch the bungie cord on the milk stand to hold her in place. Once she's in place, she's perfectly fine. She stands still and is easy to milk. She's only a first year milker, so we're only getting 2 cups or so from her, but that will increase wiith each kidding.

I repeats all of the milking steps with April and then head back in the house. The milk comes straight out of the goat and through the birdseye cloth filter, but I then filter it again as I pour it into jars. The total this morning was 7 cups. We were milking twice a day, but we just recently weaned them down to once a day, which will be much more manageable. I am much faster at it than Jeff, but I get a ton more practice. Once Olive starts crying, it's motivation to move super fast. My record time is 16 minutes to walk out the door, complete the entire process and get back in the house.