Hot Showers

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.  Frederick Keoning

Wow!  I know I'm a tad behind with my most recent post but it has been a crazy last few days for me and getting the hang of my new daily schedule and routine has made other things higher on my priority list.

Last week was my last week at my previous job and this week I "officially" started working alongside the hubby on the family dairy farm.  Along with that comes a new start time to my day of 4:00 am.  I know...that sounds crazy right?  And I'll admit, initially when I roll out of bed I'm not overly thrilled to be getting up, but by the time I leave the house to head to the farm and get to the farm it's surprising how easy it is to get going and find energy.  Maybe it's the one cup of coffee I pound down before heading out of the house, who knows?

My first job when I get to the farm is to feed hay to all of the empty stanctions for the cows we are yet to bring in the barn for the morning milking.  By doing this they are more cooperative when coming in the barn as they never seem like they want to stop eating.  Once I have that done I start hanging the milkers in the first few stanctions to await the start of the milking.  I also have to scrape out the calf pens in the barn (two of them) and bed them with straw when that is complete.  It is about that time that Jeff is done doing what he needs to outside with his feeding that he comes in and we start bringing "the girls" in.

It is quite amazing to me but for the most part the second you open the door they come walking in and the majority will go exactly in the same stanction each time and know exactly where they belong.  There are the occasional "bad apples" who just always seem to go in the wrong spot and mess things up, or maybe they are really blondes or something, who knows, but it does make for an interesting morning on occasion.

Once the cows are all in the barn the real work starts.  I have helped at the farm for quite some time already outside of my other job but I'll be honest, I didn't milk really.  I usually fed calves and did a bunch of other miscellaneous work but this week I have been doing the milking thing in the mornings and well, it's going okay I suppose, but I wish I would be catching on and finding a rhythm sooner with the cows on my side.  Wiping the cows down and putting the actual milkers on is for the most part going well.  I haven't gotten kicked across the aisle yet so that is a good sign I'd say, but each cow milks for different amounts of times and just when I turn my head to start prepping another one to be milked the cow down two from where I am is done and I have to get that milker off asap as its not good to leave them on too long.

And...some of the cows aren't always too cooperative and don't like to move over when I'm trying to make my way into their stanction with the milking unit and well, cows are obviously quite larger than I am, so I pretty much squeeze my ass through and hope they don't get too pissed off.  This morning by the time I was done milking my half of the barn, I was pretty darn dirty.

I am so hard on myself, so of course I hoped I would be able to get a hang of the milking thing better, I suppose I'm probably not doing too bad considering.  Thank goodness I have Bobbie Jo there to help "train" me and lend an extra hand when I fall behind and Jeff seems to be patient for now so once again I'll count my blessings. 

So yeah, this first week has been going pretty good so far.  Every day is completely different once the milking is over and I'm never quite sure when I'll be done, but Jeff has been letting me leave pretty early for the most part and the latest I got home this week was about 10:00 am so I still had a large portion of the day to hang out at home with my little Lukas and finally have a little time to catch up on the housework that needs to be done before heading back to the farm at about 3:15 pm or so.  Lukas loves to help me with vacuuming.

I've learned a lot so far this week.

1)  I am way stronger physically than I ever thought I was.

2)  Cows, although rather large, are for the most part very calm and cool animals with a lot more personality than one realizes.

3)  Work around a farm literally never ends despite what a lot of people think, there is always something to do.

4)  When it is getting cold out and you get filthy doing chores and milking, nothing feels better to me than a nice HOT SHOWER!!!

See?  Always something to be thankful for :)