For about 1 week out of the year (or 8 days as it were) I play animal farmer. It is the perfect amount of time for me to enjoy the company of hooved beasts- their personalities, the warm smell of large vegetarian mammals (except the pigs), and the chaos of a specialized high calorie per unit noah's ark of sorts. After one week, I am satisfied and pretty much good for about another 358 days or so, give or take a few. I began my farmsitting duties Sunday morning, and all has been well so far. The only SNAFU has been a sheep getting her head stuck dramatically in 2 layers of differently gaged fencing. Somehow. This morning Mom decided she wanted to come with me and learn how to milk a cow.
It was great fun, and only a tiny bit weird talking my mother how exactly to squeeze a teat just right. I mean, she is, after all, the Mother of mothers- if anyone knows about milk it would be her. With my sister, who was over 10 pounds at birth and was a lot of baby to feed, she still had so much milk she pumped it to donate to La Leche League.
Mom did great. Her form was stellar, and she wasn't the slightest bit jumpy when the cow shifted or moved her leg. Most people are pretty jumpy at first- a 1000 pound animal is a big thing when you are under its back legs... Mom and I shared the milk chores and she was happy to take home her hand milked goods!
3 comments:
I guess that's the milk that I got. It is delicious by the way. I had some for breakfast and am getting ready to get some more tonight. I enjoyed the visit yesterday and the tour. You have an awesome homestead there, you are a regular Ben Cartwright.
Yo mom is a natural! Let's have milkshakes?
It's always something dramatic on your farm sits.
And go Karen!
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