Chicama Run Family Farm

as you start to be the one behind the computer.....

Last night and this morning I got to milk the cows.  Shocker I know - but my oldest girls were at friends' homes for the New Years Eve "stuff" and we gave our employee the evening and morning off.  The process is no big deal at all - kinda like riding a bike - you just go and do it.  But the thing you forget is the enjoyment in it.

No, it's not action packed or even remotely exciting.  However, it is a bonding, relaxing experience.  Joe likes the mornings because it's quiet and peaceful.  This partly true while you are milking the cows - only partly.

The cows are easy to get in the barn - they actually established their own line up of who goes first (you should hear how fussy they get if we alter this!!).  The vacuum pump is not quiet at all and neither are the rest of the animals once they wake up and see you.  Once you get started milking the first cow (Penny, our black & white Jersey) though (we do 1 at a time), the rest of the animals in the barn get fed and it quiets down dramatically.  Everyone is fed and then it's time for cow #2 (Snickers - the darker brown Jersey) - and she is never happy about you wanting to clean her udder.  She's quiet content once the pump is on her, but before that you really need to watch out because she can and will kick you!  Now that she's "hooked up" everyone else can get clean water.  By the time water is distributed, there are a few extra minutes before Snickers is finished but it doesn't take long and now it's time for cow #3 (Brenda - our first cow).  Brenda runs into the stanchion to be milked and is really easy to handle.  During her time though, we can sit back and just enjoy the time.  All of this happens in about 40-45 minutes (amazing huh?).

It's easy to forget these moments when you are behind the computer and doing paperwork.

I walk back to the house where Joe waits drinking coffee and first thing he asks me is if I enjoy being a dairy farmer to which I laugh and state that I wouldn't have gotten the cows if I didn't LIKE them.  But it is a different thing as a dairy farmer at our level (the whopping 3 cows - probably 4 in the spring) really connects with the animals.  We know their personalities, their attitudes/temperaments, and issues.  This doesn't happen with chickens at all - sometimes with goats but not as often.

It's just different - and in a good way.