Down on the Farm

Hi y'all,

Even though I was born and raised in Texas, I've never milked a cow. (shocker to you non-texans? I also never rode a horse to school) And then I lived in a remote village for over a year with many opportunities to do such a thing. But lo and behold, a few days ago I got to milk one of our finest Mattaw cows.

Here's our temporary milking station. They round 'em up in that pin at the back, then one at a time they come up to park and get drained. Maybe that isn't the terminology used to explain it to me but well, that's what appeared to take place.

Caleb, you remember, is part of our family and lives with us. He picks up the milk every afternoon and delivers to those in our neighborhood that buy.

To keep the cows still and happy, they feed them while milking. Elisha likes to help with this part. (yikes, glad this picture cut off the part where you could see he had no shoes walking around a cow pin, eek)

So, first tip in milking a cow: don't wear a skirt.

If you look closely you can see I was able to keep my aim in the bucket. Guess I can check this off my bucket list? :/

Our house three dad soon took over and milked about 5 times as fast as I was. I found it a bit humorous he was wearing the shirt he was while milking.

There you have it. A bucket of milk. Try not to look too close. I try not to think about how there is hair and who knows what in this milk and now this morning Claire is drinking it. We do strain and boil it though.

We had a beauty contest with our cows and Stella won. Isnt she purdy?