Milking week 1

Trial and Error: This week of milking has been quite the little adventure. I am happy to say my hands, back and hamstrings have never been more sore. I can usually milk Betty out in about 20 minutes and then throw hay and let Siri out so total it takes about 30 minutes.

 Catching Betty is getting easier too. I just put the grain bucket in front of her, wait a couple seconds, move it a little closer, and she usually goes for it. If not I'm close enough to just grab her halter. She has been leading in to the milk barn with minimal pulling too so that's way better than when we started.

I milk morning and evening, leaving the calf on 24/7 and get a pretty big range in volume and cream as pictured below. We aren't keeping it for ourselves yet but I'm still trying to filter and cool it so I can see how much we are getting and to get into a good habit. I feel like my technique is getting tons better and faster too. I unfortunately sliced my pointer finger pretty good during dinner prep on Monday and sprained my ring finger on the same hand so I am having to milk mostly one handed. I can do a little bit with my right but it's really awkward with the big bandage and a little painful still too.

I ordered an 8 qt seamless stainless steel milk bucket that should arrive in the next week or so. Nate has been working on our cooling system too! The plan is to attach the funnel and filter to the top coil after milking to rapidly cool the milk and have an out of the way place to store it too while it separates. We plan on getting 2 two gallon glass "ice tea" dispensers to filter into (but mason jars until production is up/we separate overnight). One will be sitting/separating while we pour the fresh milk into the unused one. I'll drain the skim milk into the jars we have for the house, the cream into a separate container, and then wash the collector to be ready for the next days milking. 

 Nate bent the copper pipe, drilled the holes, and then reinsulated the freezer part of the fridge/freezer combo. We are planning on testing it out either tomorrow or Monday.

 Blain and Avenlea reading books together

Silly babies - Chloe and Blain were "resting" on the floor after some hard play and Avenlea came right over and lied down with them. Love those cuties!