December 4, 2018

Another day in the milking adventure.   Well, last night I was able to get Brownie (the calf) in the correct stall by putting Sage in the milking stall, and basically running the calf around the barn enough times unitl he got tired and just gave in.  LOL.  I had the stall gate open and it is at the back of the barn, so that worked.  Plain old dumb luck probably.  I told my husband that I was working hard at getting all the stupid mistakes out of the way so it would lead to success.  ha ha.

This morning I went out to the barn knowing I could easily lure Sage into the milking stall with a bucket.  I remembered to close the stall gate this time (points for me), but it didn't take me long to realize that I had designed the stanchion on the wrong side of the stall.  Sage did not want to turn to the side to get on the platform.  However, the basic premise is good (I think), and I don't think it will take much to move the headgate part to the other side of the stall.  I learned yesterday that the manger could not be independent of the stanchion and fixed that with a couple of screws (it was getting knocked over).  So today, I will try to find time to rearrange the stanchion and further organize the area.  Life is a series of tweakings, isn't it?

Well, I didn't let the stanchion stop me in my tracks.  While Sage was in the stall, I gave her a bucket of grain and milked her anyway (or tried to).  She seemed to let down better when I sang to her.  She liked the chorus from "Brass in Pocket".  Today I achieved one goal.  I now have enough milk for my coffee for the next couple of days!!  A whole cup of milk.  I got my dairy filters in the mail yesterday so added them to the wide mount jar funnel I am using to strain the milk. 

Progress. . .