I've now helped with the milking three times. I'm amazed. The being amazed bit might wear off some day, but for now, I'm amazed. Being around goats is one of those things that isn't quite captured by reading about them.

They've got personality. They problem solve. They like to eat. They don't like to walk backwards. They sound like people when they sneeze. It's all pretty funny until I try to make a big ol' doe do something she doesn't want to do. Then it becomes hilarious. See, a goat has four cloven hooves and a low center of gravity and would rather walk 15 feet around a milk stand than back up six inches.

Most of them enjoy being milked. Except when they don't. Maybe they like eating and because they're being fed, they put up with being milked. Sometimes. Most of them anyway.

We open the door and they funnel into the room, eight at a time.



Then they hop up onto the milking platforms, except when they don't want to. Sometimes they stare at each other.



Sometimes they stare at me.



Anyways, we take the milk, fill them full of snacks, and then we send them out the other door. Except when they don't want to go out. Or when they want to come back in, like the one in this picture. Sometimes they get in and we have to walk them around the room and out the door again. And they'll try to eat anything they can reach.



A lot of the time, it looks like this and it's pretty mellow.



Some of the gals don't like being milked and get all kicky. Some are quite happy to help. They'll lift a leg to let us at the milk or stand wide in a good milking stance. It's pretty awesome and I find myself laughing a lot.

Oh yeah, this is what it looks like right outside the door. It's deeper in some places. This is mostly mud.



One of the things I'm most surprised about is the way the farm smells. Anybody who has ever smelled a cow dairy might be able to guess what I thought this operation might smell like. The farm doesn't smell like that at all. Goat poop is so awesome that the chickens eat it, or at least peck it open and snack on the tasty contents.

That reminds me. Erin hopped onto the tractor and plowed up a bit of the yard today so we can extend the garden.



After she finished, the chickens moved in to eat all the newly accessible bugs. This is a view from the back porch.



Chickens would be kind of scary if they were ten or fifteen feet tall. I wonder if they'd eat people. My guess is that they would. Now I'm glad that chickens are little. And I'm rambling so I'm going to bed. I hope I don't dream of being eaten by big chickens.

- Steve