Henry and Addie milking away!

Life is truly different now that our goats are in milk. Twice a day, no matter what, we have to be out milking the goats! The sun rises and the girls start getting eager for their milk pressure to be relieved. If we are running late they will be beside our bedroom window with a little wake up call! Thankfully Henry and Addie are extremely eager to milk the goats and so they are our morning wake up call! 7:00am rolls around and we hear little feet running up and down the hallway, they are quickly getting dressed and waking us up. After Im finally up and around, the kids grab the milking supplies and we head out to our very anxious goats. The evening routine is pretty much the same and we try to milk about 6:00pm at the latest, mainly because we figure all of our neighbors are eating dinner about that time and we do not want the girls "screaming" while the neighbors are trying to enjoy their meal! About 5pm Henry and Addie start getting excited to milk and it is a good reminder for me to get all the milking supplies cleaned and ready. Then we head out for the evening routine!

We have been milking these girls for several months now and we are all adjusting quite well. As soon as the goats gate opens they are running for the garage quickly followed by Henry and Addie who are eager to do all the work! (Yes, they are eager to work...and Yes, I have heard many many times that their eagerness to work will fade with age...but Hey, let me enjoy this small window in time and hope that maybe just maybe they will always be this eager to wake up early and milk goats, collect eggs, and weed the garden!!). They get the first goat all set up on the milking stand and off they go! Since we first started milking the girls, Henry and Addie have been eager to learn. And honestly their little hands are perfect for the milking of the small goats! We would occasionally let the kids try to learn (mostly on Peaches because Poppy used to get a little temperamental when the kids would try to milk). Then about a week ago, we were out milking and George suddenly needed a serious diaper change...no waiting around on that one! So I asked Henry if he could milk all by himself (something he has constantly told me he could do) and he said "Yep!"...I figured that the worst thing that could happen would be all the milk would get dumped. Well, I ran inside and changed George (diaper and clothes...yes moms, it was one of those diaper changes!) and by the time I came back out Henry was almost done! I couldn't believe it!! He really could do it all by himself. I thought we were at least a year away from the kids milking alone. From that point on we have let the kids do most of the milking. They are surprisingly quick! Peaches is great with the kids, but Poppy is still a little hesitant to let them milk her...but before long Im sure she will be fine too! 

Here is a little video of the kids in action!