Post by Lannie on Sept 13, 2008 19:53:07 GMT -5
Wow, what an afternoon! We have a storm blowing up, with very high winds (30 to 40 with higher gusts) and a likelihood of thunderstorms later. But because of my post earlier about Bandit's udder dripping, I really wanted to try to milk her properly tonight, so we did. Rich helped! ;D
I really need to work on teaching Cricket to lead. This falling-over baloney is starting to get old. Good thing she's so cute. She stretches up on her toes and just goes flat over on her side - WHOOF! and then lays there. Of course, then Bandit thinks we killed her or something and has to sniff her all over until she gets up again, then 3 more steps and WHOOF! over she goes again. Rich carried her into the barn and only dropped her twice (she was trying to kick him in the nether regions), but we finally made it.
Cricket went in the little calf pen and Bandit went in her stanchion. The wind was blowing so hard, the whole barn was creaking and the power lines out to the barn were making a roaring noise from the wind. I was thinking we couldn't have picked a worse day to get serious about milking. I got my wash bucket and cloth and was washing her udder when she decide it would be a fine time to pee. (Deep breaths, Lannie, deep breaths...). Then she pooped. At least she did it BEFORE we started. Bandit fussed a bit, mooing to Cricket, then Cricket folded her legs and laid down and Bandit relaxed a lot and started eating.
She tried to pull back at one point, and realized she was locked in. We both held our breath and waited to see if she'd give up before she snapped the uprights or if she was just going to take the stanchion apart right there. The wood BENT. Then she stopped pulling, stuck her face in her hay again and was relatively still the whole rest of the time. She shifted her weight a few times, but there was no foot-lifting today.
I had Rich start the milking, and we were using a quart jar to milk into, then dumping it into the bucket as we went, but (you're going to laugh out loud at this one) I kept asking him if he wanted me to spell him because he was going SO SLOW! LOL! OMG, I'm already twice as fast and can get more milk out per squeeze than he did. To be fair, it's probably been 30 years since he milked a cow, and he was a bit rusty. But we traded off a couple of times and managed to get a little over a half gallon out of her two left quarters, which are the ones Cricket seems to be ignoring. They were nice and soft when we finished, and I squeezed the last little bit out of each of them. At least it felt to me like they were empty. I guess I'll learn more about this as I go along.
Both her right side quarters were relatively soft already because those are the two Cricket usually nurses from. I wish I could get her to use the left quarters, because I sit on Bandit's right side and it would be a lot easier on me if I was milking the near ones rather than the far ones. But whatever, I'll have to milk them all at some point, so I might as well get used to it!
It only took us 30 minutes to get both quarters done, one teat at a time. That's probably pretty slow, but I figure if I'd had the bucket and been able to use both hands, I could have done it in 15 minutes, so doing all 4 quarters shouldn't take me longer than it takes for Bandit to eat her hay. I know, it looks good on paper, doesn't it?
She finished up her hay just as I was finishing up milking, so I backed her out of her stanchion and put her in her stall in the barn. Rich carried Cricket over and put her in there, too, so they're both snug in their nice cozy stall for the night. Maybe I'm a wuss, but with these winds, possibly heavy rain later, and a low of 39 predicted, I just felt better having Cricket inside for the night.
Anyway, I'm just really excited that I have over half a gallon of CLEAN (NO POOPY-FOOT!) milk sitting in my fridge. I don't know if I got any cream - I'll have to wait until tomorrow when it's had time to separate to see if I got any. It sure looks good, though, and I'd like to just drink it all right now!
~Lannie
I really need to work on teaching Cricket to lead. This falling-over baloney is starting to get old. Good thing she's so cute. She stretches up on her toes and just goes flat over on her side - WHOOF! and then lays there. Of course, then Bandit thinks we killed her or something and has to sniff her all over until she gets up again, then 3 more steps and WHOOF! over she goes again. Rich carried her into the barn and only dropped her twice (she was trying to kick him in the nether regions), but we finally made it.
Cricket went in the little calf pen and Bandit went in her stanchion. The wind was blowing so hard, the whole barn was creaking and the power lines out to the barn were making a roaring noise from the wind. I was thinking we couldn't have picked a worse day to get serious about milking. I got my wash bucket and cloth and was washing her udder when she decide it would be a fine time to pee. (Deep breaths, Lannie, deep breaths...). Then she pooped. At least she did it BEFORE we started. Bandit fussed a bit, mooing to Cricket, then Cricket folded her legs and laid down and Bandit relaxed a lot and started eating.
She tried to pull back at one point, and realized she was locked in. We both held our breath and waited to see if she'd give up before she snapped the uprights or if she was just going to take the stanchion apart right there. The wood BENT. Then she stopped pulling, stuck her face in her hay again and was relatively still the whole rest of the time. She shifted her weight a few times, but there was no foot-lifting today.
I had Rich start the milking, and we were using a quart jar to milk into, then dumping it into the bucket as we went, but (you're going to laugh out loud at this one) I kept asking him if he wanted me to spell him because he was going SO SLOW! LOL! OMG, I'm already twice as fast and can get more milk out per squeeze than he did. To be fair, it's probably been 30 years since he milked a cow, and he was a bit rusty. But we traded off a couple of times and managed to get a little over a half gallon out of her two left quarters, which are the ones Cricket seems to be ignoring. They were nice and soft when we finished, and I squeezed the last little bit out of each of them. At least it felt to me like they were empty. I guess I'll learn more about this as I go along.
Both her right side quarters were relatively soft already because those are the two Cricket usually nurses from. I wish I could get her to use the left quarters, because I sit on Bandit's right side and it would be a lot easier on me if I was milking the near ones rather than the far ones. But whatever, I'll have to milk them all at some point, so I might as well get used to it!
It only took us 30 minutes to get both quarters done, one teat at a time. That's probably pretty slow, but I figure if I'd had the bucket and been able to use both hands, I could have done it in 15 minutes, so doing all 4 quarters shouldn't take me longer than it takes for Bandit to eat her hay. I know, it looks good on paper, doesn't it?
She finished up her hay just as I was finishing up milking, so I backed her out of her stanchion and put her in her stall in the barn. Rich carried Cricket over and put her in there, too, so they're both snug in their nice cozy stall for the night. Maybe I'm a wuss, but with these winds, possibly heavy rain later, and a low of 39 predicted, I just felt better having Cricket inside for the night.
Anyway, I'm just really excited that I have over half a gallon of CLEAN (NO POOPY-FOOT!) milk sitting in my fridge. I don't know if I got any cream - I'll have to wait until tomorrow when it's had time to separate to see if I got any. It sure looks good, though, and I'd like to just drink it all right now!
~Lannie