The First Official Milking

       Sean here.  As Sonja and I are working closer and closer to running a functional farm, we are confronted with numerous "firsts" to deal with.  Today was a rather important one.  After spending a couple hours building a milking stand, we were rewarded with our first "goat-milking" experience.
       Firstly, everything that I expected was pretty much thrown out the window.  Our doe, Ellie, actually knew a lot more about the procedure than either of us.  After I brought her out of her stall, she eyed the milking stand and made a bee-line for it.  After popping her head in the holding slot, I secured her and we took our positions.  Sonja was in charge of getting everything cleaned and sterilized and was wonderful as always, while I would be doing the hands-on business.  While she was contendly munching on her grain, Ellie scrunched down so I could get to it.  I will the first to admit, it's going to be a while before I get really good at milking a goat.  I pictured the process in my head before, thinking I would be a milking fool with no training at all.  Well, of the little milk that I was able to coax out of her, the majority ran down my arm and didn't go near the 16" opening of the bowl that I was aiming for.  After about 10 minutes of trying different finger positions and techniques, we ended up with about a quarter of a cup of milk to bring into the house.  Far from the 4-6 ounces that we are hoping for.  But we will persist!  After reading some online, I feel better prepared for tomorrow morning where we will hopefully have more success.

--Good night all!