Progress

Michael petted the big cow and got close to the little one.

Bessie gave 1 1/4 gallons of milk both times today.  

I feel like my hands are uncramping and that I'm working WITH her instead of fumbling through the milking.  

The entire rest of my body is sore and stiff.  Who knew that milking a cow uses so many muscles?

Jeremy and Michael made butter with the cream skimmed off yesterday's milk (a whole gallon of which was given to the chickens and dogs this morning....  What a waste!).  Michael's comment was, "Well, even if I won't drink the milk, maybe I'll like the butter".  They got a little golf-ball sized clump from a quart of light cream, and proceeded to make a bag of popcorn and put HALF of that ball of butter on the popcorn.  Not a kernel was left by the time they were done snacking!  :)

Shadow and Rocky loved their cup of milk this morning, and now greet me eagerly each time I bring in the milk bucket from the barn (threatening to upset both the bucket and me with their enthusiasm!)

Huskies trying to "play" with a cow have the same intense look in their eyes that a pack of wolves trying to bring down an elk have.  Kind of unsettling to see that much intensity in his startling blue eyes as he jumps around such a huge animal.  The pup will no longer be allowed to be in the cow pen (not that he was allowed to be there in the first place)!  I thought he must be jumping the fence, but he'd found a tiny "seam" in the wires to squeeze through.  Hopefully closing up that seam better keeps the wolf-like stares to a minimum.

Just took Shadow out for the last time tonight.  She had to go over and greet the cows.  Two sets of big, soft brown eyes peered out from around the barn door to watch what was going on.  Nice and curious, not scared, as if they'd always belonged there.  It would make a wonderful Christmas card photo with all the white snow in the background.  A beautiful sight!  ;)

So this is a big surprise to some of you, since we haven't talked in the past....oh....3 weeks or more.  We (mostly me) started liking organic whole milk more and more, and one thing led to another, which led to checking Craigslist ads, which led to a massive internet search when I couldn't find what I wanted.  We went to look at cows between Christmas and New Years, talked about it for a couple of weeks, thought we couldn't do it when transportation seemed impossible, and then everything fell into place.  The cows arrived on Wednesday when the weather felt like early summer, and yesterday the big and (so far) only snowstorm of the season hit.