Milk Stand and Baby Nubians Nursing (Video)

My brother worked hard all day yesterday building a milk stand (that link goes to gnowfglins.com where there are more pictures and details of how he built it and how the first trial milkings went). It was great to have him pitch in with enthusiasm and support what we are doing here. He did a great job and should be proud of the stand! He says he’s just glad to do something with his hands that doesn’t involve a computer, but I still think we got the better end of the deal!

When Jeff got home from work yesterday, he finished cleaning up a hillside where he and the kids had been working all weekend, chopping firewood, cutting down damaged trees, and clearing brush. It was so nice when they finished that we ate our dinner up there by the fire. When we were up there, I caught this video of our new Nubian goat Mama and her two babies nursing.

It is exhausting to bring new animals home. The biggest trouble we have is facilitating the cow’s getting used to the new goats and vice versa. We were happy to see that the babies have a healthy fear of him and that is good, so they can run when he gets too close. He seems to just want to smell them and figure out who they are, but with him being so big and playful, we are concerned about accidents. So we either have them separated (either the goats or the cow sequestered in the barn) or we supervise if they’re all out grazing together.

We said goodbye to my brother this morning. He’s on his way back to Seattle. Our plans for the day include: naps, naps, naps. Oh, and catching up on laundry, bread baking, school (a little), and other little things. Jeff is super exhausted, too. It is a bummer he has a day job and can’t rest like we are planning.