Happy Babies

Alan likes to be pet under the chin. Jinx likes to be pet between the ears. They always come to me after Daisy is empty. She still doesn't let them suck unless she is tied up. She is starting to let them come close. Alan almost sucked without her being tied up but she didn't have any milk left. They drank all the milk and then started shivering. All the warm milk in their bellies made them cold. I also pet Ruby on the neck. She doesn't leave as often because she isn't with her mom. She sticks around for the grain.

So Happy!! :)

I got my calves today. The dark one is Jinx and the light one is Alan. They are adorable! They were sucking on Daisy really good. She wasn't too happy but I tied her up. They almost sucked her out! Hopefully she will learn to love them tonight. I can't wait to go back tomorrow to take care of them :)

So Exciting!

On Saturday I am going to go to La grande to get a ton of hay. Then I am going to Milton freewater to pick up two jersey calves. I am going to bring them home and put them on Daisy. I saw online some ways to make the cow take the calves. I am going to rub them with salt so she will lick them and bond with them. It also said to rub her baby's poop on her nose so they smell like her baby. I am very excited to start and tomorrow is going to be a bunch of boring waiting. :)

Big Plans

I have very big plans. I am going to take Ruby and Daisy up to the ranch house barn. It is more stable than the barn I use for milking. I have been looking for bottle calves. I am going to get a calf to put on Daisy. I will put Ruby in a separate pin to halter break her. I am also going to be halter breaking the new baby so I don't have to worry about it when it gets big. I have not found anyone who has any new babies yet but I am really excited to get one or two.

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.