A Walk with Me

Heading for the upper pasture gate

 
Today one of my friends, on hearing it was time for chores, said, "I wish I could walk with you!"  So, come and walk with me.  It is tending over from mid to late afternoon, and the goats become a little restless, eager for their evening routines to start.  Warm boots, gloves, a barn-proof, and for today, weather-proof jacket, a clean and scalded milk bucket and half gallon jar for receiving milk. 

Gear donned and tools prepared, it's out the door with the junior Livestock Guardian Dog who still has play time rather than work time during milking.  First stop is to set the milking equipment ready and pick up the feed buckets, then down to the brooder shed where the feed is kept.  Two buckets, filled with a mix of "super goat" feed blended with calf feed for more energy in the cold and dairy pellets for milk production are prepared for the two small herds.  In the upper pasture, where the mamas and babies are housed along with the half grown wether and the small pregnant doe, and the "nanny" nanny goat who cuddles everyone's babies while they're busy, there are 5 feed stations.  The turkey gets a scoop of feed at evening feeding, too.  The girls rush back and forth to see if there's something "better" in the next dish, then settle down to eat. 

There are two stops to get eggs on this side.  The first is in the bantam house, where the girls go into the tiny "broody hen" house inside to lay eggs even when there's no one broody.  The second is in the old coop that the goats share with a few birds that still hang out there.  A handful of green, brown, blue and white eggs are the harvest.  I stash them in the round, oak wythe egg basket I made years ago from a white oak split in this very county, strips riven by hand and laced into the old traditional pattern, and head back to feed the girls in the second pasture.

Next we drop off the empty bucket and pick up the second filled one and head into the lower field.  The girls are eager to be fed.  There are 7 stations here for feed, and the goats push each other more here than on the upper side, so the littler ones run back and forth from station to station.  There is plenty for everyone, and enough stations that all are fed, but they think they might miss out.  Today because of the rain, sleet, and slush, we use inside feeding stations for them except for the few that the goats insist are "ALWAYS" the feed stations and MUST have something in them.  They eat the feed quickly enough that the weather doesn't affect it, then run for cover.

Now it's time to pick up the milking equipment and call Nightfall, the little cou clair (black and gray) Nigerian doe who is the first milker.  She pokes her head out of the warm barn, sees the milk bucket, and comes running.  I open the gates through to the lower pasture and she runs in, eager to challenge any of the big goats that think they might be in a higher herd position than she is.  In her eyes, she is the queen of the whole herd, and she will take on even the giant Saanen/LaMancha doe that is herd queen in the lower pasture.  Her advantage is that, even tiny, she still has horns, and she knows how to use them.  Separating them like they were fussing kindergartners, I usher Nightfall into the milk barn.  There is no need to tie her on the stand, but she does not want me to start milking until I have clipped the milk stand lead to her collar.  It's just the way it's done, she says, and she won't settle to milk unless I do it.  She dives into her private portion of feed after she checks to make sure I am sitting down beside her with the silver milk pail, and then she sighs with pleasure as her udders are relieved. 

She milks a pint and then I unclip her and she hops down, ready for a drink and to return to her own pasture.  When we go to the door, Spring is ready to come in, because she knows she is NEXT.  I let her in to clean up the feed left on the milkstand tray while I stash Nightfall back in her pasture.

Spring is a big girl, an easy milker.  She is near the end of her milk cycle so she just gives me a little over a quart each day on a once-a-day milking.  When she is newly freshened, she needs to be milked 2 times a day, and she would prefer 3, as she gives so much milk her udders are very tight.  After I've refilled the feed bin for her, she is happy to stand and be milked until she's empty.  Then she can stay to finish the last of her feed, as she's the last of the two I have to milk today and there's no hurry.  Come on Spring, it's time to go now.  No, the food is gone, it's time to go.  Reluctantly, she gets down from the milk stand and goes back out to the pasture to check the community feeding stations to see what's left there.

After each milking the milk is poured from the pail through a fine strainer to take out miscellaneous hairs and hay bits into a half gallon jar.  On the way to the house, there are two stops, one to give the puppy some milk in her bowl, and the other to pour out a little for the outside cat, who often comes and perches on the half-door of the milk shed to watch milking, counting the minutes until she gets her snack.  Once the feed buckets are put up and the milk stored in the fridge, work is done for now and it's time to poke up the woodstove and sit down and put your feet up and visit with friends.

Thanks for your company!  Come again another day.