So, the first week I let Clara and her steer calf get settled in. I spent a lot of time with them, but I didn't have a stanchion to try milking her and as was relayed in the previous posts about Clara, I was calf sharing with her steer calf Billy, so I didn't have to milk her right now. He was doing all the milking for me for the first little bit which was perfect...
The second week, my husband made me a stanchion and the milking began. Aside from the delay getting Clara up on the stanchion and the circus getting her calf penned off of her to get any milk, I was starting to milk out 3/4 gallon for home use. It was going great. I was penning Billy at night, so I could get the morning milk. Clara was kind of working into a routine and it was getting easier. Then, it started to get cold at night and Clara started to hold back her milk. She was only giving me 2 cups now. No matter how hard I tried to get more milk, it wasn't happening and I was changing schedules milking in the morning and at night trying to get more...
The third week... October 21st~~~
October 21st is a day that will live on in infamy at our farm...
My cousin had never been to my house. She lives about 4 hours away in the city. It was Fall break in Utah, so she had asked if she could bring her kids down for a visit and for them to see all of the animals. My daughter brought over my Grandsons and the kids had a chance to go on a short horse ride, chase the chickens and turkeys and hold the new baby lambs...
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New triplet lambs and 2 older lambs from another mother...
I had been milking Clara at 4:00 in the afternoon trying to get a bit more milk from her and that was the time I was penning up her calf for the night. I thought it would be neat if the city kids could see how a cow was milked and my grandsons enjoy brushing Clara and watching.
My stanchion is wide, in case, in the future, we decide to get a larger milk cow.
My arms have a hard time reaching from one side to the other to milk Clara, so on the right side of the stanchion I sit on a 5 gallon bucket to milk. On the left side of Clara, I sit on an old stool I inherited from my Grandfather a few years ago...
The kids helped me get Billy into his pen and we chummed Clara up onto the stanchion with some Fall carrots leftover in the garden that the grandkids picked.
Our 4-year-old Grandson stood on his great grandpa's stool and helped brush Clara out after her head was firmly secured in the head catch of the stanchion. He just loves brushing her, petting her and helping me.
I cleaned Clara's udder well and stripped each teat, explaining to all of the kids what every step meant and... She pooped on the stanchion...
I cleaned the poop off the stanchion with a shovel and put down some clean dirt to cover the poop stain. And, a fresh cow poop stain stinks when your face is so close to it if you don't cover it with dirt.
All the city kids were hooping and hollering and causing a riot. It scared the bejeezus out of Clara. I should have just calmed the situation down and released Clara and realized she was scared, but my hands were full of grandkids, buckets, jars, etc. It was chaos...
Then, Clara peed on the stanchion. There was pee splashed everywhere and I sat in some of it accidentally and the city kids started to hoop and holler again. and Clara was scared. The cousin's kids down from the city are like 13, 15 and 18. They are teens and they were rowdy.
My 8-year-old grandson really wanted to see if he could get some milk out of Clara. I petted her, I talked sweet to her and reassured her. I explained where to stand for my Grandson, so I could protect him with my body should she decide to kick, which she never had, but I always try to be so safe. I got a few squeezes of milk out of Clara and she was ok with it. My grandson reached under with me explaining how to do it. He squeezed her teat once and a big stream of milk came out. He had a huge smile on his face. He reached under and squeezed twice and...
Clara kicked me clear over backward off my grandpa's old metal stool...
My grandson was ok, her foot missed him and I took the whole brunt of the kick, thank Heavens...
I had milk all over my face dripping from my eyelashes and dirt and hay all over in my hair. I just laid there looking up at a beautiful blue sky thinking to myself... "Self ~ you earned that one!"
My grandson was crying and my daughter panicked and came running over to see if I was ok. I picked myself up and told her I was just fine with a smile upon my face, kind of chuckling. I hugged my grandson and told him I was just fine and that I was sorry that I scared Clara that way.
My cousin and her teens were laughing so hard she had tears running down her face...
I patted Clara on the back and told her what a good girl she was. I picked up the stool. I brushed myself off. I gathered stuff up and asked all the kids to please go into the house and get their things ready to go as it was getting late. Part of me wanted to let Clara loose, but I knew if I did I would regret it later and she would probably try the same thing twice. It's like the youtube videos you watch with people milking cows and the cow kicks the bucket over, over and over again. It's insanity, for Pete sake, stop the cow from kicking the bucket over already ~ Sheesh...
I walked in with my grandsons, hugged them both, reassured them I was ok, asked everybody to stay in the house and I washed my hands and got a clean jar. I walked back out with Clara, gave her a bit of grain like we were starting from the very start. I walked around to the side she kicked me over on and I got a lead rope and tied her leg to the back beam of the stanchion tight. She didn't put up a fuss. She didn't pitch a fit. She just stood there eating her grain, so I tightened that rope tight...
I moved the stool into place, patted her on the side telling her what a good cow she was and I started to milk her. As I suspected, she tried to kick me again. I stood up. I tightened the leg rope and sat back down. I started humming "Amazing Grace" and I filled that quart jar...
That night, my wrist swelled up to about 3 times its size with bruises everywhere and a butt cheek bruise I'm quite proud of from my grandfather's metal stool. But, I was victorious and...
I Never Gave UP~!
A strange thing happened with me and Clara on this day of October 21st. Clara kicked me over because she was scared and the epiphany happened that Clara is only my cow... We bonded in some strange way on this date.
Has Clara ever tried to kick me again - well, in the next blog post you'll hear about the rodeo that happened with Clara the very next day and what I did to stop it and get things on track, so stay tuned...
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