# managed to milk a whole 2 1/4 cups today!



## vegaburm (Jun 30, 2011)

You may laugh, and yes, I know weight is the proper way to measure, sue me, but this is the best I've managed so far. If that darn left foot would just stay down and stop trying to get me of the teat it would help a LOT! lol. But hopefully we are making progress, as I am getting more. Whether it is me getting faster or whatever, I don't care. I just need to be able to milk her dry by the time her kids wean so that I can do that regularly!


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## Livinwright Farm (Jun 30, 2011)

2.25 cups is 18 ounces  or 1lb 2oz


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## vegaburm (Jun 30, 2011)

Yeah, I have a scale, I just keep forgetting to calibrate it to hte bucket, and remember AFTER I have milk in the bucket. Whoopsie. The last couple days I have milked into a quart jar instead of my tiny little bucket. I think it may be helping. Smaller opening to keep that annoying foot out of. There's no way I can milk two handed, she dances too much. I have to have one hand on the container to move with her or move out of the way. I'm hoping we are finally getting a system down though.


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## SuburbanFarmChic (Jun 30, 2011)

You can always just weigh the whole thing and then subtract the weight of the bucket alone.


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## vegaburm (Jun 30, 2011)

Yeah, I just need to put it on there ONCe before I milk and it will stay set until I change it...I just keep forgetting. Silly me. It's not difficult, I guess I'm just a little one-track when I head out to milk in the morning. Or it could be that I usually haven't had my coffee yet!


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## miss_thenorth (Jun 30, 2011)

Do you haver hobbles?  Best invention for kicky milkers.  My doe is great now, but whenI first got her, she would do handstands, even with the hobbles on, so we attached a bungee cord from the hobbles to the milking stand.  Worth the money spent, and they were not that much.


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## vegaburm (Jun 30, 2011)

Yep, have hobble, can't get it on her. She freaks and kicks so badly I worry she is going to completely lose it. I'm going to try some clicker training and see if i can train her to stand still rather than trying to restrain her. She seems to just freak out worse and worse when restrained.


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## freemotion (Jun 30, 2011)

I have never weighed milk and have no intentions of doing so!  How does this sound:  Hey, honey, would you pour me a half pound of milk?  Or this:  Hey, darlin', can you put 1.5 ounces of milk in this coffee?

Nah, that is not how I think and who wants to do all that math while enjoying the meditative and right-brained task of milking?  So keep on measuring it by the cup.  The canning jars have those nifty markings on the sides that make it so easy.


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## Chirpy (Jun 30, 2011)

I've never weighed mine either...  if someone really needs to know how much by weight - I do the math for them.    But, I'm a gallons type of girl.


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## vegaburm (Jul 1, 2011)

1# 3 oz. this morning, or a little more than two cups in the jar. I actually remember to calibrate the scale. Getting a little better behaved this morning and I actually felt like I was getting near the end of the milk when I quit. I was having to bump and work for it more and she was feeling really loose. I let her go so her kids could have the rest, but maybe with a few weeks more practice I'll be able to clean her out in a milking.  Feeling a bit better about the whole milking thing these days. The start was a bit rough!


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## vegaburm (Jul 6, 2011)

Wow! 30 ounces today! Almost had to get out a second jar when I was straining! And she was well-behaved so that I was done while she was still eating and I even had time to give her a nice brush and rub session. Whew! things seem to be finally working out with her settling into milking. Thank GOODNESS! It was So frustrating in the beginning. But seeing that full jar of milk in the fridge makes me really happy. Might even need to pull out my cute Goat Milk 2 Q glass milk bottles soon.


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## Livinwright Farm (Jul 6, 2011)

Congrats!


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