First Milking

Oh my laws, the day is here.  It's finally here.  May 10, 2017.  The first day of milking in the new barn.

Craig was pretty nervous.  We both had a gut ache that something was going to explode, something was going to catch fire, cows were going to fall off the turntable, equipment was going to fall off....  Craig went to the store and bought himself a new pair of milk boots in honor of the occasion.  

The new boots must have been a lucky charm because nothing bad happened!  It went well!

Between Craig and Hayes and the kiwis and the NorthStar guys and Mark and Mundo and Jorge, there were about twelve or thirteen people in the barn, watching and helping.  I watched them try to get the first cow onto the turntable and it took about four guys pushing it on to make her get on.  I thought, "Oh, no, if every cow takes this much work, it's going to take forever to get done."  But she was the worst.  Once she was on, the other cows followed much easier.  They weren't super excited about it, and some of them took a bunch of pushing.  They were nervous and pooped ALL OVER.  That nice clean new barn doesn't look so nice and clean.  Everything took about three hours but Craig says that it will get quicker.  

We think it went really well.  Nothing exploded.  Everything worked pretty much the way it was supposed to.  Craig is pleased.  I was so relieved and happy watching those cows go around.  That's the first time in a long time that I've had any kind of positive emotion towards the new barn.

This day has been a LONG time coming!