I have to admit we were contemplating getting rid of Daisy throughout the last couple of months. As much as I love her it was starting to feel pretty full on - especially when Craig was out of town while the kids and I were taking turns being sick. The worst part of the conundrum was the indecisiveness. First I would suggest to Craig we should maybe sell her and then he wouldn't say anything. Then a few weeks later he would suggest the same to me and then I wouldn't say anything.
In my head I was imagining my mornings and evenings freed up from milking, getting me kind of excited, but then I would remember that I would have to buy milk from the store and then I was back on the keep her camp. And then I remember the solace I find during milkings; being outside, swimming out to the misty pasture to greet her, no one talking to me except Sage from Quirky Nomads and then I would be Daisy's number one fan again. This bliss has been especially pungent since we have recently dropped the evening milkings from our itinerary.
I came to the consensus that because this was our first year together there was a stressful learning curve. Next year we'll be more confident in what we're doing and have systems more securely in place: things like breeding her, her calving, what to do with the calf once it's out, contending with all that milk that happens after she freshens, getting her safe access to grass around the property and, most importantly, separating the cream from the milk to feed my morning raw breve habit.
So, the latest crux is figuring out when exactly she is in heat so we can call the AI guy to race on over and sprinkle her with some Dexter seed. I'm 95% certain she was in heat last Monday (she was mooing up a storm and she hardly ever moos and there was some other signs that I'll demonstrate on today's vlog episode) which is pretty cool because it seems like she and I are on the same breeding schedule. Girlfriend!
