Adding color to our kids faces...

Jason, milking away. I love how he trusts Abigail now (and how Abigail trusts him!). At first, he would sit far back and reach his hands underneath her. Now his legs are all the way underneath her as he milks.

The view from above. Yes, there is a piece of hay in the milk. We are beginners here!

Our daughter right after she milked a teat for the first time!  She wants to raise the baby calf up to be HER milk cow that SHE milks.  Jason is wearing protective eye wear because our cow swishes her tail a lot to hit the flies, and sometimes (okay, a lot) she hits him in the face trying to get them.

See the fancy handwork?  Squeeze at the top first and then with each consecutive finger. Jason is holding the milk pail between his legs to protect it from Abigails movements.  She doesn't kick anymore (Praise the Lord!) but its fly season and so she steps back and forth and swings her tail frequently to protect herself from their bites!  We don't blame her!

I wanted to end this short post with a quote from Nourishing Traditions, written by Sally Fallon.  When I first got the book and started researching raw milk and how to make amazing things from it, this quote stood out.  (One of the great things about this cookbook is all the sidebars with interesting stories and facts). The below story strikes such a chord in our hearts, as THIS is what we want to be able to offer our children:

"(The Rosickys) had been at one accord not to hurry through life, not to be always skimping and saving.  They saw their neighbors buy more land and feed and more stock than they did, without discontent.  Once when the creamery agent came to the Rosickys to persuade them to sell him their cream, he told them how much the Fasslers, their nearest neighbors, had made on their cream last year. "Yes," said Mary, "and look at them Fassler children! Pale, pinched little things, they look liked skimmed milk. I'd rather put some colour into my children's faces than put money in the bank." - Willa Cather Neighbor Rosicky

Amen.

Love,
the farmer's wife