Free's kidding journal 2011: Plum's death wish p 42

[ohiofarmgirl]

that is a lot of running and jumping! wow!

that little banded buckling is the business - i love his coloring.

 

[freemotion]

All five kids are now living in the same stall together and getting along famously. The triplets sleep under the heat lamp, and the twins sleep in a storage tote tipped on its side with straw in it.

You should see me trying to feed five kids their bottles all at once! Gotta get dh to video that soon, it is ridiculous but fun. I love the late night bottles because everyone is sleepy and wants to get on my lap. I have five kids trying to get on my all at once. Usually the bigger twins win and are both squished on me, with their butts hanging off. Then the little doeling from the triplets tries and usually succeeds in getting on my knees.

After I dump them off, I stand up so I can snuggle the other two bucklings one at a time. The small brown buckling from the triplets gets his physical therapy on his crooked leg.....well, not anymore, it is straight and working now! So he gets a sweet snuggle, then the big tan banded boy gets a turn. One more turn for my favorite, the La Mancha-eared doeling, then I try to get out without five goats following me into the night. I love it!

But I'm exhausted! Twenty bottles a day! I am keeping the older ones on a four bottle schedule so everyone will be on the same schedule. One more week or so then I can go to three bottles for everyone.

Today we fired up the milking machine for the first time. There are a lot of little things to remember, but they all make sense....just gotta remember them! After a couple of days, maybe 3-4 milkings of 3 does each time, and I'll be an old pro.

Here is a video of our very first time, and on PEACH, too! She is only on the fifth day of her very first lactation.....isn't she a peach? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh5M1lwbn0U

 

[TanksHill]

What a cute video. Thanks for sharing.

g

 

[big brown horse]

How much did you end up getting?

 

[freemotion]

They all withheld a bit, which the instructions say is normal for the first couple of days. I milked Ginger into the same bucket with Peach's milk, since I mix it for the five kids. It is still not enough so I pasteurize some of Mya's milk to make up the difference. This is a lot of work! But for each snuggle session with the babies....it is so worth it! I just came in from about 40 minutes of snuggling. I always plan on 10-15 minutes, max. It was warm and rainy tonight and there were inexplicably no mosquitoes. I didn't want to come in. I was seriously tempted to just curl up in the straw with the five babies!

I emptied the bucket after the first two and got about a quart and a half, so down somewhere between a pint and a quart for the two. I also milked a couple hours early.

I only got a quart from Mya, and she has been giving a bit over two quarts per milking. I expect some 'splosions tomorrow morning!

Once we get the hang of it, I just know it is going to be a life saver.....er.....a hand saver! They seemed more comfortable with the inflations than with my hands, even though they withheld due to the strange sensation. My hands get achy and I have to keep changing positions. It must drive them nuts. Besides that, they each have their own quirks. Ginger prefers that I start on her right and quickly switch to her left, ending with her right side. She lets down her milk better this way. I figured it out by accident, from switching around when my hands hurt.

Peach does not want me to milk from her right side at all and will get kicky.

Mya prefers to be milked two-handed and from her right side. As long as I don't ever, ever dare to brush up against any part of either of her legs, she will be good as gold. I can milk her out in a fraction of the time of either of the other two, although Peach holds a lot of promise.

They've got me trained, huh?

 

[glenolam]

Glad it's working out for you!

I was thinking last night as I milked Fudgie and Opi that next year I'm gonna have a lot of teats to grab and was wondering how I'd do...I'm scared.

 

[glenolam]

got to watch the video tonight since they ban you tube at work....holy moly does that milker remind me of my breast pump!

And those goatie kids are way to darn cute!

 

[freemotion]

Start saving for a machine if you are so inclined! It went much more smoothly tonight. I was on my own. This morning my dad came over and helped me....good thing, too, as we had problems again. We couldn't get a vacuum going and couldn't get the pulsator to work. I ended up hand-milking Peach while my dad fiddled with the machine, unsuccessfully. I gave Peach her Pen G shot (she doesn't need restraint anymore! And she doesn't fight the stanchion at all! Even for a shot! I just LOVE her! ) and took her back, then called Mike Perry.

He worked with my dad over the phone for a while. It went something like this (illustration purposes only, this was not the real conversation!) Nods to ofg for the clever style. She is rubbing off on all of us.

Us: The cat keeps getting out.
Him: The door is open.
Us: Why is the cat in the front yard now?
Him: You left the door open again.
Us: Hey! What is wrong with this! The other cat is in the back yard now!
Him: Will you just close the stinkin' door???

Us: Hey, look, the door is open.

We were simply not getting the lid on correctly so the vacuum didn't build up inside the bucket. But while on the phone Mike could hear that the pulsator was too fast, and he helped my dad adjust it (simple allen wrench adjustment) so that it pulsated at the proper rate, which is healthier for the does' udders. He is so nice! He really could have pointed and laughed, we really were dunces! But he was so nice and patient the entire time and never used the word "stinkin" once.....so my cat illustration is not completely accurate.

I made sure that the vacuum was working properly before I went to get each goat tonight. I have to get the feel of the lid and when it is seated properly, and learn to hear the change in the motor. For now, I keep checking the gauge, but I think I hear the change in the vacuum pump sound. Gotta focus on that more tomorrow.

I certainly did not save time tonight, but my learning curve went WAY up and I felt quite confident and not the least bit frustrated. The most important part is that I saved my hands for massaging clients.....got some extra horses tomorrow at a nearby horse show and I have to teach a class at the massage school tomorrow night, so I really need my old hands!

I was thinking about it tonight and this is my math. Would I pay 50 cents to rent this machine for 3-4 does for each milking? Absolutely. In that case, it will be more than paid for before three seasons are over. Then the next couple of decades will be free.

Don't go shopping with me. I can justify a lot of things!

 

[Henrietta23]

Glad it's working now and the cats are behaving better!

 

[glenolam]

So..can I rent out the $200 electric breast pump that's just sitting in the closet?

eh...prolly not

ETA - so totally meant to make that a