A week after the birth of her first kids, Artemesia has already given us nearly half a gallon of milk. Yes, I know you usually don't milk a goat so soon and the milk does have a slightly bitter colostrum taste to it. But it was necessary, as you can see by peering at our doe's udder in the photo above. Artemesia is so productive that the kids are keeping fed by drinking nearly entirely from her right teat, so it's up to me to keep the left half of her udder drained every night.

I would worry that the kids aren't getting enough to eat, but their bellies are often full and their energy levels are always high. Well, until they suddenly decide it's time to nap, at which point the buckling settles down in my lap for an extended petting session while Aurora snuggles up against her mother.

Artemesia is a joy to milk compared to Abigail. Her huge teats allow me to use two fingers instead of just one, and the milk squirts out about five times faster than it did from our other goat.

Lest you think Artie is invincible, though, I feel obliged to mention that she had a fit during her first two milking sessions. Despite all of my pre-milking training, when it came time for the rubber to hit the road our doe fought the headlock, stamped her feet, and tried to sit down to hide her teats.

Then, two days later, it was as if a switch flicked on. Or perhaps the change occurred because the kids were getting old enough to jump on the milking stand and hang out? Whatever the reason, the milk started to flow fast and furious and I haven't had any trouble since.

(Well, yes, it is a constant necessity to watch out for flying goats. But such is life on our farm.)

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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