Milking, a little haven of tranquility in a rushed life

Last night milking Gracie was one of the more tranquil and soul-feeding moments I've had of late.  The heat and humidity is becoming oppressive as the Oklahoma summer progresses, the flies are out and just generally, it's nasty.

My weekday goes something like this:  Get up, drink a hurried cup of tea, drive to work (an hour's drive) since I've switched to milking only once a day now.

I leave work around 6pm and then run errands on the way home so I arrive anywhere between 7:30pm and 9:00pm in the evening.

Then it's time to greet the husband, the dogs (in that order!), and the rest of the farm critters on my way in to the house to change from work clothes into farm clothes.

If I'm on time I have the luxury of sitting down for a few minutes and perhaps eating dinner before heading out to milk Gracie.  Hubby is accompanied by Kweeba and Libby as he deals with feeding the barn cats and putting the chickens up for the night.  He also brings with him CatieBug's bottle.

While he's busy I call the goat ladies, and little CatieBug, in for their evening feed.  Hubby needs to be on hand so he can feed CatieBug (Freckles daughter) while I'm milking or else she pesters me to death, climbing all over me and nickering softly for her dinner.

Gracie and Freckles know exactly what is supposed to happen.  I open the gate to the barn and trot around to collect them and once they see me, they charge for the milk stands and it's a race to see who gets to the gate first, them or the geese!

I keep the geese out since it's very distracting trying to milk with geese poking me for treats and I don't have eyes in the back of my head!  Besides which, Libby is still under a year old and we are trying to tone down her barking (she's an Icelandic, it's kinda tough to get them to pipe down when they are outside and working) and she believes that geese shouldn't be seen or  heard anywhere near where my husband is.

Then I get my milking tote in place and get the Ladies situated on the stands with their grain.  Then I get to sit down and clean Gracie's udder and start milking.

So, last night it just happened that the geese were quiet, the ducks were quiet, Libby was quiet, and there was a lovely cool breeze blowing while I milked.  And I remember thinking that moments like this make it all worthwhile, somehow.

Tomatoes Galore!

For the first time in 6 years, we didn't buy any tomatoes from Lisa Merrell (the Tomato Man's Daughter) since we thought we would have a terrible year, like last year.  23 plants and very little to show for it.

So what happens?  We have scads and scads of heirloom tomato volunteer plants popping up everywhere!  Now the fun is going to be trying to identify which are which.  So I'll be posting pictures and would appreciate it if Readers would chime in on the identifications.

I have no clue which these are, since I have bought a variety of tomatoes over the years.  I'll be tracking their color with great interest!

I think that these MAY be San Marzano's

 

and these as well - San Marzano's

You can see two large San Marzano's, then I think the teeny ones may be Red Currant, and I think the others are Porter Tomatoes.  I am familiar with the Sweet 100's and I haven't seen any of them, yet.  I think I may also have a zillion Roma tomatoes coming up, wbut will post pics of that Tomato patch later.

Chevre

First ever Chevre is draining thanks to Gracie's over abundance of wonderful milk.

Tracking

Skundi (Icelandic Sheepdog) and I are going to attend tracking classes this April.  I'm really looking forward to it since he has a super nose (at least I think he does since nothing gets by him) and I think it will be a lot of fun for us.

Cuteness!!

Acting asleep

Sleepy eyes