Well, she's mostly black with just a tiny bit of white on her udder, but the rest of this Robert Louis Stevenson poem is true of our Siobhan.
Check out this video of Siobhan giving us milk, thanks to Jenny's filming skill and Kara's help milking. It was great to have Jenny there to document this for us. Now you, too, can enjoy that wonderful tinkling sound as the stream of milk hits the bottom of the pail!
And check out our almost-a-quart, which we've been drinking ice cold. The previous batch got made into delicious, creamy yogurt. When I ate some with meusli, topped with nectarine chunks and fresh milk, I was in heaven!
Siobhan got a couple days off because I stepped on a nail right before Jenny made these videos, and it was too painful to hobble out to the barnyard for a while. (Not to mention that my tetanus shot made me feel like I'd been hit by a truck.) But tomorrow I plan to get back to milking. I'll miss my milking and filming partners. Jenny had to go back home and Kara is back in school, so it will just be me and my friendly cow.
| THE FRIENDLY cow all red and white | |
| I love with all my heart: | |
| She gives me cream with all her might, | |
| To eat with apple-tart. | |
| She wanders lowing here and there, | 5 |
| And yet she cannot stray, | |
| All in the pleasant open air, | |
| The pleasant light of day; | |
| And blown by all the winds that pass | |
| And wet with all the showers, | 10 |
| She walks among the meadow grass | |
| And eats the meadow flowers. |
Check out this video of Siobhan giving us milk, thanks to Jenny's filming skill and Kara's help milking. It was great to have Jenny there to document this for us. Now you, too, can enjoy that wonderful tinkling sound as the stream of milk hits the bottom of the pail!
And check out our almost-a-quart, which we've been drinking ice cold. The previous batch got made into delicious, creamy yogurt. When I ate some with meusli, topped with nectarine chunks and fresh milk, I was in heaven!
Siobhan got a couple days off because I stepped on a nail right before Jenny made these videos, and it was too painful to hobble out to the barnyard for a while. (Not to mention that my tetanus shot made me feel like I'd been hit by a truck.) But tomorrow I plan to get back to milking. I'll miss my milking and filming partners. Jenny had to go back home and Kara is back in school, so it will just be me and my friendly cow.
Oh, I love RLS's poems! And what an appropriate one for your post!
ReplyDeleteBarbara
I love his poems, too, Barbara. It took me a while to realize that I could just change "red" to "black" since Siobhan has a tiny bit of white on her! :)
DeleteWow! She's really come into the whole routine so nicely. Happy for you! I hope we're as fortunate with our April!
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm thrilled, Teresa. I milked her alone today for the first time after her being shut up all night. It was an exercise in patience! My shoulders are killing me--weak as a kitten--after holding the bowl with one hand and milking with the other, switching back and forth. It took me an hour of milking, but Siobhan stood for it, and I ended up getting over 5 cups of milk. I had no idea it was so much, and I filtered it into the 4 c./1 qt. measuring cup--and it poured over! I was thrilled with the great results. Hopefully she'll let down easier as time goes on, and I think I'm figuring out which of my various attempted techniques she prefers.
DeletePlease let me know when you milk April how it goes!