Guess What?

It is good. I've been just dying to finally know for sure. I've been waiting so long to taste it fresh from the source. I guess that I'm doing something right, because our milk doesn't have that goaty finish that I've tasted both times that I was brave enough to drink the stuff. Before, I figured that I was getting the freshest goat milk possible, after all, the milk was from local goat farmers; which in my mind, are the most wholesome, hygienic, forthright, and and just plain good folks on the planet. I'm not sure why the milk from the store tasted bad. Perhaps it wasn't as fresh as I thought. Maybe its shelf life is only a day or two. Perhaps the housing conditions or the handling procedures weren't great. I don't know. But I know first-hand that Ginger's milk is sweet and delicious! No goaty taste at all whatsoever! Tomorrow's breakfast cereal will be topped with our own farm-fresh goat's milk. Yum, yum, yum!

Milking is going well

Ginseng says hello.

Check out this nice, strong milk stream!

At first, I was only able to milk one teat at a time, and forget about aiming the stream! I just set the bucket wherever the stream happened to land... Now, two weeks into this venture, I can milk both teats at one time, and aim them both exactly where I choose! My hands still get tired pretty quickly, but I know that my muscles will only grow stronger, and I will not tire out before I am finished with the job.

Right now I am getting four quarts per milking from Ginger. I plan to only milk once a day - in the morning. Four quarts a day is way more than enough to work with! The boys are put in their own pen at night with food, hay, minerals and water. All night long Ginger makes milk - and at 6:30 in the morning I go out to milk her. When I'm finished milking, I let the fellas out of their pen where they join their mother for breakfast and all day long they have free access to her and her milk. When they leave her for their new home on Father's Day - I can have double the milk each day; or choose to continue milking once a day. A gallon of milk every single day is going to be very difficult to keep up with! We'll see what happens when the time comes.