Several years ago we were offered two beautiful Nubian kids (a.k.a. baby goats by the franch layperson) for free if we promised to provide them with a loving home. \u00a0These goats came with paperwork verifying their outstanding pedigree with great milking lines. \u00a0Yes, someone actually keeps records of how well certain goats produce milk over the course of history. \u00a0We knew if we just left them in the front pasture to eat our weeds, it\u2019d be a waste of all the careful planning and time of the breeders listed on the pedigree. \u00a0Anyhow, I was ready to get them milking after reading all the existing literature on the health benefits of goat milk. \u00a0The demands of the franch often leave little time for exercising, so I was all for a healthy beverage option. \u00a0I was also starting to plan how I\u2019d spend all our savings at the supermarket\u00a0not having\u00a0to buy milk every week. \u00a0I think my husband was anxious to get milking because he wanted to show off his pinch-n-roll technique he mastered milking cows in his youth. \u00a0At first, I thought this would be an easy endeavor. \u00a0Well, of course, goat utters don\u2019t just start producing milk because you want a cold cup with your cereal every morning. \u00a0They need to have babies. \u00a0So, the buck arrived and, if you remember, ruined the innocence of my children. \u00a0After five months of\u00a0waiting, there was finally milk! Though it wasn’t for me yet – the goat kids had first dibs. \u00a0So, there I was with three more animals to care for and my cup was still empty. \u00a0My anticipated savings at the grocery store was spent on a homemade milking stand, udder cream, teet wipes, milking buckets, milk jars, milk strainer and filter, and more. \u00a0I needed to get drinking to make up for all that. \u00a0Finally, the day came when the kids were weaned, and it was time for us to enjoy some wholesome milk. \u00a0It was truly wonderful (after I got over that the milk was just squeezed with my own hands out of the udder of an animal in my backyard). \u00a0Well, we certainly got what we wished for as the milk just wouldn\u2019t stop flowing and flowing and flowing. \u00a0Our goats were together producing about 1 to 2 gallons a day. \u00a0That pedigree was no joke. \u00a0We were milking twice a day every day. \u00a0Our refrigerator was filled with gallons of milk. \u00a0Initially, I didn\u2019t want to waste even one drop. \u00a0I made the children feel guilty for not finishing their milk by saying it\u2019d make the goat sad (not my finest parenting moment, I admit). \u00a0It just kept coming. \u00a0We were soon exhausted. \u00a0Instead of quiet evenings gazing at the stars, we spent hours learning how and making almost every kind of goat cheese possible. \u00a0And still there were jars of milk on the counter. \u00a0I\u2019m tired even thinking about it again. \u00a0It\u2019s important to give goats some time off from milking for them to stay healthy and, we learned, for us too. \u00a0After months of milking, it\u00a0was truly a relief to see “milk” scribbled on my grocery list again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several years ago we were offered two beautiful Nubian kids (a.k.a. baby goats by the franch layperson) for free if we promised to provide them with a loving home. \u00a0These goats came with paperwork verifying their outstanding pedigree with great milking lines. \u00a0Yes, someone actually keeps records of how well certain goats produce milk over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}