I was so proud of myself yesterday.  I was finally getting a hang of this farming and milking thing.  I got the kids ready for school, then fed the pigs, calves and goats.  Returned from dropping the kids off at school and walked to the barn.  I found Ruthy (she is the one with the long horns), our milking devon cow.

Ruthy                                     -picture taken by Marie-Anne Decourcy

I walked her into the barn, put her in her stanchion, then turned around and remembered to close the door behind her.  I cleaned her teats, and turned on the vacuum pump, and put on our old surge milker.  After several minutes, I checked to see if milk was still coming into the milk container by squeezing the tubes that attached the inflation tubes into the bucket.  After she was milked I removed the bucket, sprayed her teats, and let her back out of the barn onto pasture.  We had fresh milk that day, all was good.  First time milking by myself…not too bad.

Gallon and a half of fresh milk

TODAY, however, was bad.  I forgot to close the door behind Ruthy…

Immediately, three other cows followed Ruthy into the barn… And then one, the biggest thousand pound Charolais hiefer, named Elsa) walked right through the barn and escaped through the front door…into our yard and around the house.  Shoot!  If the boys were here, they would have remembered to close that door.  Now, I was by myself chasing the biggest heifer we have, who, by the way wanted to kick up her heels and prance around like a brand new calf all around the yard.  The other two, I was able to secure… but Elsa, well,  she went exploring.  Eventually, she would head back to the barn, but as soon as she saw me, she would run away.  I finally got smart (after trying to grab her collar, getting a lasso, getting a bucket of grain…which all didn’t work).  I opened one of the barn doors that they are used to going into, tried calling Dale on my cell phone from the car (which meant I was no longer by the barn) and Elsa finally pranced her body back into the open door. I ran like I was finishing a race, and closed that barn door. Whew.  Dale returned from his ER shift…Recounting how he nearly missed Elsa or Rosie (another large and definitely smart heifer) from walking right out the front door as well, and so now he makes sure that closes them… now he tells me…

Elsa, my least favorite running partner…