Milking Lorray

Last Monday I started weaning our steer calf, Sausage. He was dragging mum down a little too much for my liking so put him in the cow yard and kept Lorray, mum, out. She has continued to hover around him and he is slowly starting to accept that he can't have mum's milk anymore. Was funny, last week after two days of mooing so loud and hard he ended up loosing his voice. He is smarter now and only very occasionally moos. That suits me just fine.

Since the calf was not having the milk, I had to start milking Lorray two times a day. I usually do this at 6am and about 5.30pm. She is usually waiting for me outside the shed, patiently. Gotta love that.

During the last week I have been getting between 5.5 and 6.0 litres on a daily basis. I am very fortunate that I have neighbours and friends that love raw cows milk as I can't freeze enough of it. On top of that I am using as much as I can. Will be getting Russell to get into the cheese making again this weekend and use up a heap hopefully.

One thing is for sure. I love milking that girl. She is so easy going. I just put down the bucket of grain and clean the teats, put on Dairysal and start away. The grains I use are just combo chook food and cotton seeds to promote milk production.

I am now wanting to use my special appliance, my electric single milking machine. I cleaned it out today and had it all ready to go tonight but the suction was not working. Therefore no pressure to suck from the teats. Will consult the manual again and see what I did not do right. For the sake of my very sore thumbs I hope tomorrow is a winner as far as milking with the machine is concerned. And I hope I also don't get too many kicks from her as she objects..... :)

Cheers Damaris

Our Babies

Above is my youngest, Joshua with our three dogs.

These are our babies. On the left we have Bailey, who is 5yrs old. Then we have Poppy and Nova in the middle and on the right, both aged 8yrs.

We are rather lucky were we are. Just before we moved out here, the boys had been at my husband and I for ages for a dog of their own. I already had Bailey and was quite happy for them to have their own dog as long as the council allowed it.

Well as it turns out our street is the divider for Southern Downs Regional Council rules on the other side of our street, our side belonging to DPI land. Which means we can have our three dogs. We then went on a hunt, what sort of dog, how big, what sex... All that sort of stuff. Well the boys ended up settling on Calavier King Charles Spaniels, just like Bailey. We found the two girls through a website that rehouses purebred Cavaliers. We met and answered all sorts of questions to ensure that we were a suitable home for them to go to. They were born three months apart but couldn't be separated as Poppy would fret.

We have had them now since we moved out here and they have run away a few times but have always managed to come back again. They have settled in rather well over that time and love being part of our family. As most Cavaliers, they love being in the house lying on your bed while you are reading a book or watching a movie.

I would not want to be out here without them. Though Poppy and Nova do try to get out of the house fenced area to catch themselves some chickens, so far they have not succeeded. Bailey, he just wants to sniff their bottom. He loves their pooh. Yuk!

Cheers Damaris

PS. Our incubator is due to start coming out with some chicks today. First time we have used our new incubator and so far two eggs are wobbling in there. Have 20 eggs in there... With the other six 2 1/2wk old chicks already in my bathroom, where am I going to put all of these chicks???? Time will tell....