Life has been crazy for the past few months. Every time I sit down to start a blogpost, something takes me away again after a few sentences. Needless to say, my draft box is full of half-posts that are incomplete and now also largely out of context and irrelevant. Ahh...the life of a working mom! Hence, I do apologise for the lack of witty and entertaining posts over the last few months, but now I hope to beguile you once again with my scribblings, as I seem to finally have mastered the art of parenthood...hah!!(Not really, but I'm trying to convince myself that I actually have my sh*t together and I'm not a complete gibbering wreck of my former self...)
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| Dismantling the parlour in the old dairy at Fordoun |
Now - I realised yesterday that, amidst all the chaos of becoming parents and struggling with our worst drought in a century, I never updated you all on the move into the new dairy! The last time we spoke of it was a few days before Isla's unceremoniously early entry into this world. That was over 9 months ago...crazy, I know. So I wanted to get you all "caught up" on the goings on at Kildare Farm!
Moving an entire dairy operation in one day is no easy task. You have to still milk the cows, twice a day, one way or another. So, our day started bright and early (whats new) on Fordoun farm, where we milked the whole herd from 4-7:30am. A daunting task lay ahead after that morning session - to dismantle the entire parlour and move it across to Kildare in time for afternoon milking at 2:30pm. And lets not forget that I weighed about as much as a cow at the time - 38weeks pregnant and feeling like my drying-off period was way overdue! Needless to say, I think I was about as comfortable as a hippo in a leotard...
Once everything was stripped out of the old parlour, and after it had been cleaned and tested, it was then reinstalled in the new dairy, one stall at a time! A laborious task indeed... and finally, at around 4pm, the girls all queued up for their afternoon mammary massage. Don't they look excited?
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| The first milking in the new dairy, 15 September 2015 |
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| All stations go! 15 September 2015 |
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| Support crew - making dinner |
A few teething problems here and there, and a lot of dunging cows that required some protective clothing on our part (and a good shampooing later on), resulted in a successful first session that wrapped up at about 10pm - clearly far too strenuous for this pregnant mama who ended up popping a whole week early as a result! Luckily it was a whole team effort, and many happy smiles and helping hands really pulled everything together.
After eight months of watching the new structure come together, our patience and tenacity was finally rewarded as we watched those buxom bovines enjoying their new high-tech dairy. It was almost as though they had a twinkle in their eyes and a spring in their step as they crossed the threshold into a new era of dairy farming on Kildare farm.
I cannot believe that it has almost been a year already that we have been in the new dairy, time has flown past! Just shows you how preoccupied one gets with having a little person entering the equation! Now all we need is some rain, and hopefully these cows will start to earn their keep again.
Come on Spring - GET HERE!
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| Champagne to celebrate a successful first milking in the new dairy! |
