She HATED the leash.
I tried carrying her.
She HATED to be carried.
I tried bribing her.
She decided if I was holding it, she didn't WANT it.
I kept it up... just trying to keep her milk up, and at the same time not making it stressful for her. It's been tough!!
About 1/2 way through the week, I asked Travis for some long rope. I made it into a kind of a lunge line. That way, I had control over her, but at the same time, I wasn't so close to her that she was worried about ME.
The first time wasn't a huge success.
The second time, she seemed to be more appreciative of the long lead.
She also seemed interested in the bucket 'O' food I shook to tease her in the right direction.
TODAY...
WE DID IT!!
She ran straight to the stanchion, and waited for me to catch up with her to pour the feed in!
She ate the WHOLE TIME I milked her, and using my Henry Milker, I got a little over the usual amount of milk I get from hand milking! YAY!!
I had a few reasons for buying the milker.
1. It's a closed system, so no more hairs in my milk bucket!
2. No hooves from a wiggly kicker in my milk bucket! (Ginger doesn't do this, but Ganja will I think.)
3. No sore hands after hand milking. Once I get more than one to milk, I don't know if I'd be able to!! lol
4. I can easily teach someone who has no experience milking how to use it. This means the kids can try it too!! (not that they couldn't have hand milked, but I feel better not subjecting Ginger to their inexperience.)
5. The breed of goat that I have and milk is a Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goat. They have smaller teats than other milking goats, and hand milking can be harder to do on them. This system helps with that.
Getting suction started:
Filling the Jar.
Milk in the fridge. To keep track of which jar we're drinking and which one I'm working on filling, I have written on the lids. FILLING. IN USE. :)
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