Milk Du Soleil

This morning I joined my neighbor in milking her goats for the first time since their babies headed to auction last night with my babies.  It was quite an escapade.  Her goats were engorged and uncomfortable and did not like us pawing at them.  When all was said and done we got 2.5 gallons of milk out of three goats in one sitting, not including the milk kicked out of our hands at various times during the milking sessions.

refusing to be milked

This evening was the first time I decided to milk a second goat.  She has always been a diva since I brought her home when she was two months old and she cried like a tiny infant the entire night.  I remember sitting up in bed listening to her sad cries from the barn.  She sounded like an tiny helpless baby and she made my heart break.  As she grew older, she became more and more needy.  Following the birth of her babies, she wasn't the best mother and acted as if the world had just ended because two large creatures just fell out of her back end.  The first milking on the milk stand, tonight, was no different.  I did try and milk her when she first had her babies to keep her from becoming too engorged as she was having a terrible time feeding them solo.  She required the upside down milking stance.  It was an acrobatic feat, but one that yielded good rewards to the patient.

You can see my boot in the background up under her belly
 holding her up so I can access her teats.

This evening as I tried to milk her, she folded her legs underneath herself and plopped down on top of them with her head still in the milk stand.  She could not breathe and her eyes started to roll back in her head but she refused to allow me to milk her.  Have you ever met a child who holds their breath when they do not get their way and then they pass out?  Yeah, this was the same thing, but MY GOAT!!!!!  I got so frustrated with her, I stuck my thigh under her stomach to hold her up and tried milking her as she kicked and fussed.  At one point I looked up to see if hoisting her backend up from the rafters was a possibility.  I worked out the logistics in my head and it required more time than I was willing to dedicate to the task.  Clearly this was NOT going to be a very positive experience for anyone, mostly me.

Thank God she is STRAPPED IN!

At the end of the fuss I was willing to extract about a cup of milk that I didn't even strain.  Instead I fed it to the dogs.  They enjoyed every last lick of it and I just raised my left eyebrow in disappointment.  Tomorrow we will try again and I will also separate her from her babies tomorrow night no I can get the most possible milk. For now I am going to shower and go to bed.  Remember that fifteen minutes of exercise a day I'm supposed to be doing on the treadmill?  Yeah, me neither.

I am thankful for a goat who reminds me how annoying it is to be a diva. (Day 182).  Goodnight Friends.