The silence is broken as the alarm sounds of in the darkness that is our bedroom.
It is 5:45 one of my days off as I have this week booked off from work. I have slept in till this point as normally I am already at work.
I let Amanda stay in bed this morning as she normally gets up to milk the rest of the week (even on days that I am home she typically gets up to milk and let’s me sleep in a little longer or just so we can hang out while we milk).
Our youngest got up to help me with milking (he enjoys the homestead life).
Once again the silence of the night is broken as the snow crunches beneath our feet as we walk towards the barn with milking bucket in hand.
As I enter the barn I am met with quiet darkness which is broken with a bleat from Millie and some answering bleats from her kids (who are in a separate pen over night).
I lead Millie over to the milking stand. She steps right up as she has become accustomed to our new morning routine. The sound of her hooves upon the wood disturbs the silence even further.
Our youngest is sure someone is at the barn door but it is just Blaze in the next stall over scratching his head on the partition wall.
Spray down Millie’s teats and udder to make sure she is clean the sound of the spray is loud in the stillness.
Pat her dry and place the milk bucket under her and gently milk her into a strip cup to check that everything looks good and she is healthy. The youngest takes a turn stripping out some milk from Millie into the bucket. We switch who is milking as his attention wains. The sound of the fresh milk against the side of the stainless steel bucket has a satisfactory ring to it and is almost relaxing as I get into a rhythm.
Millie relaxes as the swelling in her udder receds. She starts to munch away on her grain chewing loud enough that you know what she is doing even though her head is out of the circle of light produced from the flashlight.
Milk collected the youngest and I reunite Millie with her kids. Headed back to the house the snow crunches under our feet once again.
The house is quiet as everyone else is still sound asleep. The clock ticks on the wall. We get out the filters and the funnel. Put a filter into the funnel/strainer and pour the fresh milk through it sounds almost like coffee dripping in a brew cycle.
Put the milk into the fridge and wash everything up.
The youngest decides to go back to bed. I sit down to drink a cup of coffee.
Finally some quiet in the morning.
SPLITROCK HERITAGE HOMESTEAD 