What I Did this Weekend
Sharon August 4th, 2008
I know this is a P-A novel day, but I had to share with you all how I spent my weekend - Selene and Maia, our new dairy goats came home!
Eric went to get them - now remember, we no longer have a van, so they rode in the back of our Ford Taurus, which only smells a little bit like goat since then . Selene is definitely the adventurous one - she was at home pretty much instantly, and just wanted to check everything out. Maia is more nervous, and is much more skeptical about her new home, but she’s starting to get into a routine. Maia is also a kick-ass milker - Selene is very good, but we’d been warned their production was down (their kids were sold off a few weeks ago, and Jamey and Carol who own them only milk once a day), but Maia is coming back like wildfire, while Selene is building a bit slower.
Meanwhile, Eric and I are getting familiar with milking. We bought a Maggidans Milker, a manual milker for a couple of reasons - first, their original owners had been milking with an EZ milker, which similar, but more expensive. Second, I have wicked carpal tunnel syndrome and third, we’re going away in 2 weeks, and the primary milker will be a teenager - we wanted to give him something foolproof. Oh, and we could use some idiot proofing ourselves.
Because whether it is us or the milker, we’re not much liking the Maggidans Milker - when the vacuum is working, the suction often needs to be reset, sometimes the milker sticks (and doesn’t extract milk) and I keep ending up milking her out by hand anyway. We’re not quite sure what to do - send it back? Keep playing with it? Spend more money and replace it with the EZ milker? If anyone has advice, I’ll gladly take it - we can milk them just fine by hand, but the goats aren’t as accustomed to the slower manual method and get impatient and jumpy, and I’m concerned that our helper won’t be able to handle it.
We’re also getting used to fitting the routine of milking into our daily lives - it isn’t hard, just new - in the same way I once found it disorienting to have to remember to nurse, burp, etc.. the baby, now the milking is a new routine. I’m still not sure how all of this is going to work with our energy reductions as well - there’s so much warm water involved . But I have reasonable confidence we’ll figure it out. Any suggestions out there?
Still, things seem to be going well - they are by far the most appealing and enjoyable animals we’ve ever raised. And we’re getting the hang of the girls, and they are getting the hang of us. I’m sure they’ll have us trained shortly .
Sharon