Lucy was actually up for evening chores but most of them had already been done so I volunteered to help with goats. More precisely, I announced that I was going to help milk the goats. I set Lucy up with some toys near by, including Rescue Pack from Diego, and her Cozy Coup. Luke, aka the quiet intern, set me up with an easy going goat. She was one of the ones who kidded last week, so she has plenty of milk but I couldn't get a drop. Luke told me to be patient and that she wasn't easy, so I was. She is a super sweet and docile goat, and put up with me trying for far too long. He milked two goats in that time and then took over for me. I walked his two goats down to the field and put them away.
Putting away goats seems like an easy task. I've watched the eight year old, who probably weighs 70lbs do it a hundred times. They follow her along like she has molasses in her pockets or something. Not so much for me. It was like walking an untrained great dane, on a slippery floor. Keep in mind it's really dark by this time so I have to hold a goat with one hand and Lucy's hand with the other, at some point she demanded I hold Rescue Pack too. So it's goat, Rescue Pack, and Lucy. You'd think the goat would be begging to go back to his nice, safe, Lucy free field, but nope. Maybe they like squawking.
So back I go to the goat barn, where I proceed to get another goat. I grab the goat I want just as five others run out. I shove her back in and start grabbing others, luckily Luke is faster than I am and manages to actually catch all of them so we didn't have to hunt for goats in the dark. I tried to milk goat number two. Tried, being the important word here. This goat was the exact opposite from the other one. I couldn't figure her out either. I got a couple of tiny streams of milk from her, he checked and declared that normal, so I took her down and tried to move on.
He strongly discouraged me getting another goat out. Apparently I had been really helpful up until that point and he could totally breeze through the rest of the milkings without me. :)
So I failed at milking two goats, let five out, had one escape from the field, and then held a flashlight while he gave them hay. I am clearly a pro at this. I am waiting for the eight and ten year olds to get home so they can give me some more lessons on hand milking. I firmly believe this is the way to milk goats, especially when someone else is doing it for me. Not really, I really want to learn how to do this. Goats are not my friends tonight, and I'm surely not Luke's friend either.
I did catch a chicken today though, by myself and without too much squawking. I also got to feed the baby goats. I'm a little in love and a little not... they whine so much and so loudly. They're gorgeous and sweet though.
