Buttercup, meet The Blog. The Blog, meet Buttercup. I think you two will like each other.
As I sit here finishing off my fourth (yes) bowl of ice cream of the day, I thought I should show y'all what takes up an hour of our lives every evening.
It starts out with Emma and me hopping in the truck with the above shown pots, bowls, and empty peanut butter jars filled with warm soapy water. Usually I have to scoot the seat up majorly and lower the steering wheel, because other persons have been using it. Having to do that never fails to humble me. "Nothing like a little 'letric shock to keep ya humble!" (Three cheers and a Hershey Kiss if you can name that obscure movie reference) Above I'm showing what it looks like if I don't change things. :P
The truck side mirrors never cease to be a source of entertainment for us Howards.
But! Alas! It's time to fetch the cow and swat the flies!
Elsie (my sister, not the cow) this evening climbed all over the watering tank in the back of the truck and sang "I've Got A Dream" from Tangled in her pink gingham dress and cowgirl boots while we milked.
This is the set up. After tying Buttercup to a post, we brush her down, sanitize her udder, position the "stools" (that is, if she decides to stand still for us. Sometimes we're moving every 30 seconds), and start milking into a bowl. We have yet to get proper milking supplies. We have to empty the bowl into the stock pots every quart or so.
Ready?
Let the milking commence! Sometimes we're slower, sometimes we're faster. Our best time yet is milking 2.25 gallons in 9 minutes. Plus another 6 minutes for the especially productive teat.
To other new-to-milking-teen-girls: Watch out for that tail and don't wear 4.5" hoop earrings. The former can be brutal and get easily tangled in the latter.
Just trying to make the world a safer place, y'all.
But Emma's smart. She knew that already.
Don't be so sly about it, Cow.
Yeah. Cows can wink. I'm jealous. (Three slaps and a glare to anyone who will bring up what I'm talking about)
We're really realizing what it means to live in a land flowing with milk and honey! Hope I didn't bore y'all too much with this post!
5 comments:
Oh this is cool. I am loving some sweet bokeh which is telling me that someone is seriously liking seeing the number 1.8 on a 2 inch by 3 inch LCD.
You know though, the opening portrait of Buttercup isn't going to cut it. Everyone knows that it is an entirely acceptable and common procedure to cut off a person's head while shooting, but you never ever cut off their chin. Now, you can't just go around publishing imagery of poor Buttercup with her chin all chopped off like that! The focus was spot on those enormous eyes though.
Now, the clarity in the shot of you driving is great. But, really, why do you have a random red circular sticky thingy affixed to the window beside you? Is there a hairline crack in the glass which is being prevented from deepening?
Yeah, the window mirror shots are all neat. Emma's face is unique in that one!
As for the milking, well that is quite something. 2.25 gallons in 9 minutes is impressive. What's the cobleville record though? 9 gallons in 9 minutes?
Gorgeous pic of Emma milking and then I just love how the next one is right after her face is graced with the swishing of the cow's conveniently positioned fly eradicator. (that would be gobbledygook for tail...)
You certainly did not bore me to death with this post. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. Great to see some recent pics of everyone. Aren't you just lovin the sharpness you're getting everywhere? Yeah; it's great.
What.... Don't bring up the fact that you can't wink? ;-)
Just focus on your right eye, then sloooowly close it while holding your other eye open... if you do it enough, you might be able to do it naturally!!!! jk
Just remember, you brought it up first.. :-)
Ryan,
Yes, I love my lens. It just makes life about 154 times better every time I use it.
As far as that first portrait goes... Buttercup is self-concious about her chin. She has some unsightly hairs there that she prefers the internet not know about. So, she'd kindly thank you not to point out their absence. ;)
That suction cup keeps the window up. :) We leave it down when it's not raining. Just another quirk of life.
Official Cobleville record is 2-3 gallons in 6 minutes, I think, held by the Bradshaws. Although today I'm pretty sure Emma and Daniel beat that, but we didn't time it so it's not official. :P
No need to resort to baby words (goobledygook) to translate your high-falutin vocabulary, Ryan. I think I can translate it by now. :P ;)
Glad you enjoyed the post.
Emil,
I can interpret your comment three ways:
1) I'm really really bad at being non-obvious and you totally figured out from the post that I can't wink.
2) You have major tattle-tale friends down here.
3) I forget the third one.... *blonde moment* oh! Somewhere I've said before that I can't wink. :P
It's not that I haven't *tried* to learn... I just CAN'T do it! :P My face gets all contorted and I look like I'm grimacing.
*goes to slap you publically on your facebook wall*... ;)
LOL...
No... I compliment you on your non-obviousness... :) And I do have major friends down there... though I don't call them tattle-tales... ;) Gotta love Blonde moments.... I have them on occasion.. even though... I'm not blonde.... but anyway!!
Ok, I guess if you tried hard.... and your face looks contorted, then you might as well give up trying.... I gave up trying to learn how to cross my eyes a long time ago... I figured there were better things to learn. And my Mom telling me that they'd stay that way sort of helped me stop. Even though I never really believed it... :)
Sadly, I won't see it on my FB Wall until next week, but I guess I'll endure the public humiliation.. ;-)
Buttercup does have pretty eyes, Tina, but I still will not milk her.
Elsia you are absolutely beautiful!!
Mema
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