After all of this time, we actually now have four full sizes
does in milk on our hands, the kids are sold and milking
twice a day is a reality.
It is crazy.
We've milked a lot prior to this, but we've never
had this many full sized dairy does in milk at
once without their kids.
Milking four would not be a big deal. It can be
serene and a de-stressing time; however, milking
with does that do not want to come up the stairs
to the milk stands, with does that stands and then
try to get up on the stand with their pals while they
are being milked with two screaming babies climbing
all over the stand, under the goats and sitting
in the feed trays. . .
Well, that is a whole other scenario.
It is anything but serene.
However, I suppose this shows me just how dedicated
I feel we are to having our dairy needs met from here
on our farm by our livestock because through
all of that twice a day, I just think
"Well, this will sure be a nice pass time once the kids are
4 and 5 and the does know the drill." And that is about
the extent of it.
We did move the milk stands from the back porch, which
was too small to contain all of that chaos. We put them on
the front porch, though I'm sure the UPS man will find it all
very odd. It made sense to us. Much larger area, though I hate
that it is much further from the kitchen.
We took note as we moved them that we would ONLY
recommend the metal stand. The wooden stands aren't a
good choice for many reasons.The only reason I can think
of that commends them is you can build them cheap
or buy them used cheap.
You cannot sanitize the wooden ones and moving them
is a huge pain!
That person selling you a cheap one on craiglist either
realizes he didn't have what it takes to deal with a dairy herd
or he bought a metal stand!
Speaking of goats, I made a long trip to pick up a
Little Tots Estates Nigerian doe that is bred, an open
Little Tots Estates lined doe and doeling and brought
back 5 more on top of that. Two bucklings were for
locals buys, a doe and doeling for a friend of mine, and
then the lady gifted me a nice little Mini Nubian that
was 24 hours old because she doesn't have enough does
in milk to bottle raise her and for all my trouble
(which wasn't much, honestly) hauling
her buyers' goats back to WV.
I have sold the Mini Nubian to one of the buyer of a
buckling from the trip, but she'll be here for 3 more weeks
to be sure she grows well since she came to us so young.
After another long milking session this morning, we had a
full day of work ahead.
Our stallion, who has gives us headache after headache,
needed a shelter built inside the arena he has to now be
kept in because stalls will no longer contain him.
He is coming 5, and he has realized his full potential
as a stallion, we see. The riding arena is actually a
great space for him. There are about 50 corral
panels up and it makes for a large, solid area, but there
was no shelter in it.
The Floridian Farmer and I aren't much for construction,
but boy, can I ever rig! So we bought two cattle panels
and used the, to create, with a heavy duty tarp, a solid
shelter over top the corral corner.
Photos will come eventually. It turned out very well.
You can honestly make anything with a cattle
panel and twin!
We then added some nesting areas to the new
chicken coop, and we added straw to the coops.
A benefit to all the milk we have right now is we can
feed the extra to the chickens. Raw milk is great for them,
they love it and right now, it is supposed to be a hot new
thing in eggs. I imagine they taste the same with the milk
in the diet of the hens, but we'll soon know for sure.
After that, we plants the garden we've been working
on for months, slowly.
We have a late start. Our inside seeds never sprouted.
We ended up buying started plants.
We planted:
Squash
Cucumbers
Lettuce
Sweet Peas
String beans
Tomatoes
shallots
green onions
corn
broccoli and cauliflower
I did not want to plant more than we can actually use
and give to family members, so we will see how well
this works out for now.
I am not a green thumb, by any means, so if anything lives,
I will thank the Lord for his Mercy on the garden.
Lastly, I was fortunate to have, through many, many
mishaps (once again), 20 of my 30 Orpington eggs
hatch last Sunday and
Monday!
These will be the last chicks we set until fall or maybe next
spring. I need my kitchen back in working order and without
incubators everywhere and chicks smelling up the house.
I am still so happy to have gotten a lot of very, very rare
Lavender chicks in this hatch!
Before I go, I'll include some photos of the future
farm mousers recently in needs of homes and adopted by us!
Can't recall her name, but she is a sweety - take note, she is on the porch -
Darn it! Not at the barn catching one of the millions of
mice taking it over up there.
does in milk on our hands, the kids are sold and milking
twice a day is a reality.
It is crazy.
We've milked a lot prior to this, but we've never
had this many full sized dairy does in milk at
once without their kids.
Milking four would not be a big deal. It can be
serene and a de-stressing time; however, milking
with does that do not want to come up the stairs
to the milk stands, with does that stands and then
try to get up on the stand with their pals while they
are being milked with two screaming babies climbing
all over the stand, under the goats and sitting
in the feed trays. . .
Well, that is a whole other scenario.
It is anything but serene.
However, I suppose this shows me just how dedicated
I feel we are to having our dairy needs met from here
on our farm by our livestock because through
all of that twice a day, I just think
"Well, this will sure be a nice pass time once the kids are
4 and 5 and the does know the drill." And that is about
the extent of it.
We did move the milk stands from the back porch, which
was too small to contain all of that chaos. We put them on
the front porch, though I'm sure the UPS man will find it all
very odd. It made sense to us. Much larger area, though I hate
that it is much further from the kitchen.
We took note as we moved them that we would ONLY
recommend the metal stand. The wooden stands aren't a
good choice for many reasons.The only reason I can think
of that commends them is you can build them cheap
or buy them used cheap.
You cannot sanitize the wooden ones and moving them
is a huge pain!
That person selling you a cheap one on craiglist either
realizes he didn't have what it takes to deal with a dairy herd
or he bought a metal stand!
Speaking of goats, I made a long trip to pick up a
Little Tots Estates Nigerian doe that is bred, an open
Little Tots Estates lined doe and doeling and brought
back 5 more on top of that. Two bucklings were for
locals buys, a doe and doeling for a friend of mine, and
then the lady gifted me a nice little Mini Nubian that
was 24 hours old because she doesn't have enough does
in milk to bottle raise her and for all my trouble
(which wasn't much, honestly) hauling
her buyers' goats back to WV.
I have sold the Mini Nubian to one of the buyer of a
buckling from the trip, but she'll be here for 3 more weeks
to be sure she grows well since she came to us so young.
After another long milking session this morning, we had a
full day of work ahead.
Our stallion, who has gives us headache after headache,
needed a shelter built inside the arena he has to now be
kept in because stalls will no longer contain him.
He is coming 5, and he has realized his full potential
as a stallion, we see. The riding arena is actually a
great space for him. There are about 50 corral
panels up and it makes for a large, solid area, but there
was no shelter in it.
The Floridian Farmer and I aren't much for construction,
but boy, can I ever rig! So we bought two cattle panels
and used the, to create, with a heavy duty tarp, a solid
shelter over top the corral corner.
Photos will come eventually. It turned out very well.
You can honestly make anything with a cattle
panel and twin!
We then added some nesting areas to the new
chicken coop, and we added straw to the coops.
A benefit to all the milk we have right now is we can
feed the extra to the chickens. Raw milk is great for them,
they love it and right now, it is supposed to be a hot new
thing in eggs. I imagine they taste the same with the milk
in the diet of the hens, but we'll soon know for sure.
After that, we plants the garden we've been working
on for months, slowly.
We have a late start. Our inside seeds never sprouted.
We ended up buying started plants.
We planted:
Squash
Cucumbers
Lettuce
Sweet Peas
String beans
Tomatoes
shallots
green onions
corn
broccoli and cauliflower
I did not want to plant more than we can actually use
and give to family members, so we will see how well
this works out for now.
I am not a green thumb, by any means, so if anything lives,
I will thank the Lord for his Mercy on the garden.
Lastly, I was fortunate to have, through many, many
mishaps (once again), 20 of my 30 Orpington eggs
hatch last Sunday and
Monday!
These will be the last chicks we set until fall or maybe next
spring. I need my kitchen back in working order and without
incubators everywhere and chicks smelling up the house.
I am still so happy to have gotten a lot of very, very rare
Lavender chicks in this hatch!
Before I go, I'll include some photos of the future
farm mousers recently in needs of homes and adopted by us!
Can't recall her name, but she is a sweety - take note, she is on the porch -
Darn it! Not at the barn catching one of the millions of
mice taking it over up there.
The goat milking interests me more and more. I don't know if it just impulse to copy you or that I am really digging this stuff.
ReplyDeleteOh! You'd be able to to make soap - you'd have the coolest soap ever because of your crafty nature - haa haa - look up goat's milk soap on ESTY.COM to see some homemade soap there - it looks pretty awesome. . .and the feta cheese the man who I'm getting the Saanen doelings from tomorrow - it blew my mind.
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