Milking, Day 1

Oh what a lot of trouble for a little bit of nothing!

I started with Chardy, who was uncharacteristically cranky today. She wiggled and kicked and eventually stepped in the bucket, ruining what little (very little) milk I'd managed to get. Her left side wouldn't let down anything at all, no matter what I did. I estimate that I maybe got 2 ounces out of her. :(

Next I tried Blue, even though I hadn't really had any plans to milk her. But she hopped right up on the stand, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Hooboy. If I thought Chardy was antsy... Blue was stepping this was and that, trying to elude my grasp. She honest to God looked like a flamenco-dancing donkey. I need to get this on video. No milk at all from Blue.

Last was Fritzen. She is turning out to be the most patient milker, even though she is physically a little more difficult to milk than Chardy. Her teats are smaller, and up until last week when Cassie shaved her udder for me, she was so crazy hairy that it was hard to milk her without pulling out a ton of hair in the process, which grossed me out and pissed her off, all at the same time. I got (after filtering) 4 ounces from Fritzen.

So after an hour or so of chase the goat/dodge the hoof, I have a whole 1/4 cup of milk to show for it. Things had better get better. Quick.