The Milking Disaster

One day I was milking daisy. She hadn't been milked the day before so it took a while. She ran out of hay. This is not normally a problem, but she was tired of sitting there. She took a step forward looking for more hay. She kicked the bucket and a little bit of milk came out. I wasn't concerned because I could just fill the bucket up again. She took another step and hit the bucket again. I was starting to get angry because she wasn't standing still. The third and last time that she took a step she tipped the full bucket of milk over onto the ground. I was so mad. I only got one fourth of the bucket full again before she was dry. I had gotten a total of two full buckets that day. The dog and the cat didn't mind one bit. They got a snack.

Making Butter

When I make butter, I put all of the cream from the milk into a jar. I shake the jar until the cream gets thicker. After the cream gets thick with liquid also I stop shaking it. I pour the liquid, butter milk, into a separate jar. I then put some salt into the butter and shake it some more. I let that sit in the fridge until it hardens. Once it is harder then I squeeze the butter under cold water to get the rest of the butter milk out of the butter. That is how I make butter.

Today's Milking

Today when I milked Daisy I noticed that Ruby had sucked on the front right teat instead of the front left teat. I did not know why she had just now decided to switch her eating habits. She had used the front left one so much that it was starting to become scabbed and sore. I had an idea why Ruby switched. The left teat was so scabbed that no milk was coming out at all. I have some ointment for a scratch that Daisy had. I had been putting this on the left teat because of the scabbing, but Ruby had been sucking some of it off. I milked the two back teats and only got half of my three gallon bucket full. I put a lot of ointment on Daisy's teat and will put more on it later. The scratch got better and hopefully so will her scabs. I will just be able to milk the back two for now.

First Milking

I started milking a couple of days after Ruby was born. Ruby only sucks on one teat. I milk the other three daily now so that Daisy doesn’t get mastitis. In the barn where I milk there is a head catch just for milking cows. Catching daisy was difficult. She didn‘t want me anywhere near her or the baby. I got her in the barn and she went into the far corner. I held one end of the halter’s rope in each hand. I rapped my hands around Daisy’s neck. She started pulling me out of the barn. I grabbed the rope in a loop around her neck and pulled. She stopped and I got the halter on her face. I put her in the head catch and tied the rope to a post just so she couldn’t get out. I put a hobble on her back legs. Daisy had never been hand milked before I started doing it. She kicked at me every time I touched her. My method of milking was closing my fingers around her teat at the top and working my way to the bottom. She stuck her foot in the bucket three times and kicked it over once. I put the milk in one and a half gallon ice cream buckets. It took me three hours to get a fourth of one of those containers. I was exhausted. The walk up the hill from the barn to the house was horrible. I was dreading milking the next day.

Ruby

Daisy was due to have a baby on September 11th. After the long trip she took coming home, we were watching her closely to see if she would calve early. After little signs we would get very excited and watch even closer. She took her time having the baby. She was two weeks late. On September 25th she had a baby girl. I named her Ruby. Ruby has very long legs. She could not stand up on her own for almost the entire first day. She couldn't suck on her mom because she couldn't get up. We caught Daisy and tried to show Ruby how to suck. She couldn't do it. My dad milked into a bottle. Mandy and I fed it to Ruby while he milked more into a bucket. Later that night we milked more into a bottle for Ruby. The next morning I went out to milk more for the baby. I tied Daisy up and Ruby started sucking on her own. I waited for a bit to make sure she stayed that way. I untied Daisy and Ruby stayed on her. I brought some hay into the barn and Daisy moved to it. When I came in with more hay, Ruby had started sucking again. I was very excited that she could do it on her own. I went to school and came back to see Ruby sucking again.

Getting a Milk Cow

I bought a milk cow on September 8, 2013. She is a Jersey cow and I named her Daisy. I got Daisy from a woman in Milton Freewater. I found an ad on craigslist after deciding that I wanted to get a milk cow. I sent an email to the woman and she responded as we tried to decide if we were going to go through with this. I had not gotten a response in a couple of days so I sent another email. It turned out the email I sent didn't go through. The woman told me we had to hurry because Daisy was very close to having her baby. She called and said she would meet us in La Grande that day. We used my Uncle's trailer and drove to La Grande. She met us there and we brought Daisy home.That is how I got Daisy.