Getting into A Good Routine

Life contains routines.  Since we are limited by a finite amount of time, it becomes important to become efficient in what you do.  It is true in a work setting, in personal projects, and even things on the farm.  We were already milking two goats twice a day.  Adding in milking LuLu once a day, as we share the milk with Betsy, her calf, and that's a lot of additional time to daily chores.

We milk LuLu in the late afternoon.  So far she hasn't gotten into the routine of coming to the barn to be milked.  But she will.  Right now we have to call her and walk way out into the pasture to get her and walk her to the barn.  Betsy will follow her on some days.  Most days, she's spirited and will run around and go exactly where you don't want her to go.  She hasn't figured out the concept of walking through an open gate yet!  It normally takes two people to get them both in the barn.  You may ask, why even bring Betsy into the barn at milking time?  It's important to have Betsy beside LuLu in the barn as LuLu will get nervous if her calf isn't beside her.  Furthermore, she won't drop her milk for us. 

In the past several afternoons, we haven't had to walk quite as far out in the pasture and Betsy has become more of a willing participant.  They're gonna get it.  It's a function of showing them that there is a reward for them doing what we want them to do.

The second routine is milking.  Even though a cow has been milked before, they have to get back into practice.  First thing, in the photo below, you see Betsy positioned by LuLu's head.  That way it comforts LuLu.  She's not worried about her calf.  She's a good momma.

Once we have LuLu in the milking stall and Betsy in place, we hobble one of LuLu's back legs.  This keeps her from kicking.  We pour the feed in the trough and start milking.  To hand-milk, it generally takes about 20 minutes.  This presents a problem, because LuLu is impatient.  If she finishes her supper, she backs up in the milking stall, making it hard to finish milking.

Over the past several evenings, LuLu has settled into a groove and stands still when she finishes eating.  It has to feel good and relieving to have her udders emptied from all the pressure of a full bag.  Routines are a part of life and as we go, we fine-tune the processes to see if we can make things better, more efficient and timely.  Some things we try and it doesn't work.  In that case, we revert back to the old routine.  But we're always looking for a better way.

I know you may be thinking that a better way would be to purchase a milking machine rather than milking by hand.  That day may come as we're getting older, but what we find is that any time you save by milking mechanically, you gobble up that time saved on the back-end in sterilizing the equipment.  For now, we'll stay with hand milking.

A Repeated Pattern

Do you ever notice how many times in life you catch yourself in routines and patterns?  The alarm clock goes off and you hop out of bed, shower, shave, dress, and grab a cup of coffee on the way out of the door.  You turn on the radio and you can judge if you are running late or early because the news comes on at the top and bottom of the hour.  The farm report comes on at 5:45 am and if I haven't passed Welsh, Louisiana yet, I'm running late.

Life ticks off the clock minutes at a time, marching on, stopping for no one.  Spring arrives with brilliant green growth followed by what seems like endless heat of summer.  By the end of summer, the grass has gone to seed and the bright green grass of spring has been replaced by dull, drab green colors.  The tallow trees (chicken trees) and cypress trees begin to turn colors, signaling the coming of fall.  Each year these routines repeat themselves. 

This changing of seasons, if you have animals on pasture, tells you that there is work to do.  As the grass goes dormant and the north winds begin to blow, it is important that you have hay put up in the barn or a good source to purchase it from.  Also, it means it is time to remove the temporary electric fencing that separated the pasture into separate paddocks. 

During the spring and summer, the pasture was broken up into separate paddocks with temporary electric fencing powered by solar energy, and the cows were rotated through each paddock throughout the week.  With the grass no longer growing, it is pointless, so I begin rolling up the poly rope with embedded wires onto my reel. 

It is amazing that a tiny "string" containing energy harnessed from the sun, can control a 900 pound animal and keep them where you want them.  The cows are very afraid of getting popped by the electric fence.  They respect it.

The sound of me rolling up the fence on the reel always gets the attention of the animals as they equate it to the opportunity to move to a new paddock with fresh, tender grass - only, at this time of the year, there's not much fresh, tender grass.

I walked through the pasture, removing the 'jump-wires' from the perimeter hot wire, rolling up the electric fence onto the reels and pulling up the step in posts and that transforms a pasture that was broken up into 7 individual pastures for 1-3 day grazing, into one 3 acre paddock.  I put all the electric fence equipment up in the barn.  It will sit there for another five months until the familiar sights and sounds of spring beckons me to begin the routine all over again.

Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name:  Jeremiah 31:35