Oh boy, did Daisy May make it difficult for us today. For the last few days she's waiting at the roll-up door with Dolly and Eleanor, but won't come up into the milking parlour. So I tempt her with the grain scoop, then shoost around her and pull the door down so she can't escape. Not today. I couldn't get around her, she entered, then left the lower barn twice. Thought I'd just leave her, but was a little short of 3-gallons from Dolly and had a new herdshare family starting today, Manda and Daniel and their kids. So went to catch Daisy May. Around and around we went, but not getting any closer to the lower barn door. She wanted to go out to the pasture with the others, and then I saw that the truck was home, and Herbie appeared at the side door so I called for his assistance. After she pulled Herbie down, we eventually got her to the doorway, but couldn't get her inside. I don't like hitting them, but she was all flaring nostrils and stubborness. With Herbie braced inside and pulling on the lead, and me pushing from behind with the squeegee, we got her in and I pulled the door down. Some more milling around before we got her up into the milking parlour. She promptly tried to leave, so I closed the cattle panel door and shoo'd her in. Clipped her to the wall, and she chomped her grain as if the last ½ hour didn't happen.
Two of her teats are peeling due to getting a bit of frost bite - probably because Eleanor nursed in fridgid weather and they didn't get dry. Had to peel off some of the healing scab as it was blocking the milk duct on one of them. That quarter has rock-hard full as Eleanor could obviously not suck, or Daisy May wouldn't let her. Got her emptied, dipped each teat and then applies the emollient I made yesterday. Been using it on both girls teats, plus on my hands and feet.
Once I was finished with her I unclipped her and patted her chest and told her to "out". Off she went, as happy as Larry. Dreading tomorrow. Can't figure out why she is behaving like this. She was so good stepping up to be milked, nothing horrible had happened to her up there, there's grain, I brush her. I just can't figure it out.
The garlic / molassas bag expanded overnight and tipped again, I should really get a bucket to hold that bag, so had a new mess on 2 shelves, a stanchion and the floor. Wonderful. Got it cleaned up, at least the water pipes weren't frozen this morning. Not happy with the temperature of the hot water coming out of the instant water heater though. It doesn't click on if there isn't sufficient water pressure, but it gets hotter if the flow is restricted, so I play with it, turning the knobbie open to start it so that the heat element clicks on, can hear it if I hold my ear to it, and then dialing it more closed to get the heat, but sometimes it goes to ice-cold after I've felt it being hot. Damn equipment. Getting a half bucket of cold water means I have to go empty it and try again, adding to the ice outside the door. Maybe that's what Daisy May doesn't like.
Went to drop the movies back at the library, but they were closed so I couldn't choose more. Just dropped them off through the book-bin door. Maybe tomorrow. I've nearly caught up with Downton Abbey.
When I drove up our driveway, saw a red van backing down, so I pulled into Jason and Cindys' drive to let it pass. Met Daniel. Seemingly, Rosco had once again stood in the driveway in their way, so he'd stopped and then couldn't get traction to move from a standstill and started slipping backwards. So Manda and 5 of their kids walked up to fetch their milk. I offered to tow him up the drive and positioned the truck in front of him, only to discover that there wasn't a hook anywhere on the front of their van to hook the tow-rope. By this time Manda and the kids came walking down, the younger boys having a whale of a time in the snow. I advised them not to stop for Rosco, he'd move, but to take it relatively fast and steady. Jim had picked up his milk around 2pm and he had a little car and made our driveway fine. I'd just parked the truck when they appeared at the curve, moving well up to the top of our drive. Manda smiled and said 2 reasons, firstly they had to see if they could get up, and secondly, did I have eggs for sale. Nope, sorry, 100+ chickens and nary an egg to be found. Rotten weather.
Rustled up a quick meal, white rice from the other day - that stuff is just like stodgy filler, with a peanut Thai sauce (I cheated and opened a store bought bottle), broccolli and peas from frozen and sweetcorn I canned for Herbie. Found an unmarked bag of protein in the freezer which I thought was lasagna meat and turned out to be a marinaded home grown chicken in two halves. So popped it into the oven to bake - lunch tomorrow.