just another day...

Hello lovely readers, I thought I would share a few photographs with you of a typical morning milking session for us. The photograph above is of the view from the grassy patch where we milk – all part of the beautiful farm we live on.

After 3 months of trial and error, our milking routine is pretty good – we milk after breakfast now:) Besides the fact that the early mornings are just way too cold to milk, Nancy and I just CANNOT work without something in our stomachs – neither can the rest of the family!

Now Nancy and I warm our backs while milking in the mild winter sunshine...it is bliss milking in such conditions...

I love being able to milk in the open.  Whenever a patch of grass gets too dirty, we move to another area of the field.  Molly is tied to a fence post to keep her from wandering and Nancy gives her some food while I do the hard work:)  Lol!  We are currently getting six litres of milk in the mornings and we leave one teat for Dude, the foster calf.

Izzie always comes with to milking – Nancy brings treats for her and does a mini training session with her while I’m busy.  Kisses...

Dude having his morning drink...Molly isn’t very kind to him since he doesn’t belong to her so we have to make sure she is secure and can’t get at him.

Dude is then picketed to a fence post to graze for the day.

He is really cute...too bad he’ll end up as meat one of these days:(

Molly is then taken to her field for the day to graze and to make lots more milk for us!

A job well done!

Dude currently has a friend. Snowdrop will be leaving the farm very soon, but until she does, Dude is very happy to have her as a companion.

Every three days I make butter – Molly isn’t a proper milk cow so she doesn’t give too much cream. However, we are more than grateful for the little she does give – it saves us money and is much healthier than store bought. Plus we are able to have whipped cream whenever we like.

Just over two years ago I knew nothing about milking and milk products. Now I know how to milk and how to make basic milk products like butter and kefir. Next step: learning how to make cheese...

Thank you Lord for the privilege of living here. I never thought we’d end up in such a gorgeous place and have our own cow, veggie patch and soon, chickens:)

Kelly-Anne