Feed the 4 cats, I have to carry Bandit to the barn, as I no longer feed him separately in the garage. I've seen him attack the girls, so he needs to protect his food from them by himself now.
Then I feed the dogs, Anni and Lisa in the garage, they need to sit and can only eat when I say OK, Rosco outside the garage, he sits too :).
If Maddie is waiting for me I give her the bottle and either some nuts or grapes, her absolute favourite. I need to give them to her one by one, otherwise she gobbles them up so fast they fall out her mouth. Then the cats and dogs scrounge around trying to find them as they think it's something good for them to eat too. I have started putting a rubber bowl of mixed corn and BOSS in the garage for Maddie, but she seems to still enjoy the dry dog food muchly, while the chickens eat the grain in preference to the dog food which is the more expensive option.
The sheep start yelling as soon as I cross from the garage to the shed to feed the cats, so I traipse down the hill to give them hay. Herbie pointed out to me today that they're building a new sheep mountain in front of their feeder again, and that we should take the tractor in with the rake on Sunday and remove it before it becomes an impacted mountain like they built in front of the previous feeder. I sometimes give them a little corn and BOSS which I pour into the feeder and then throw the hay on top so they burrow under the hay to find the grain. Usually have to break the ice on their water as their de-icer is too small for the size of the trough, although it is one of the smaller troughs.
Once they're quietly eating, I get the 2 buckets of corn for the poultry. One half bucket in the feeder inside the chicken house, with some tossed out the one little exit hole into the side yard, some up into the feed boxes where some of the chickens hover and the balance under the horse trailer, behind the large window leaning against the South side of the garage wall and under the dining room windows. I fling the other half bucket in a semi-circle in the back chicken yard for the ducks and geese.
Then it's check all 5 of the water troughs and the chicken water. I usually have to refill them all in the late afternoon, but always check in the morning to make sure there is no thick ice coating and that they all have enough to drink. Always ice to break on at least one cow trough.
I also unplug the one de-icer for the one cow trough, and plug the other one in. It's a nuisance not having sufficient power to run both at the same time. I've also unplugged the electric fence as it, together with one de-icer, trips the power. Fortunately, the cows and calves are respectful of the fencing. Once the new babies arrive, the fence will be on again as the de-icers won't be needed anymore until the next Winter.
Then I go inside and have my mug of hot water with lemon slices. On the days that I milk, Sundays, Mondays and Fridays, I put a load of washing in while filling the udder wash bucket in the basement, then walk through the tunnel with the 1/2 bucket of hot water and an empty, clean bucket and lid for the milk. Anni and Lisa always walk with me. I then switch the Gila Monster on in the milk parlour, and put the 2 ends of the vacuum hose, the 2 ends of the milk hose, the udder dip cup and the metal claw with 4 inflators in the hot water while I pour the soaked beet shreds with molasses, soya meal, corn and BOSS into the 2 feed troughs. I assemble the milker, throw corn for the lower barn chickens, (otherwise they hop into the feeders to eat the cows' grain) switch the lower barn light on and open the door for the milk cows, currently Daisy May and her daughter, Eleanor, to enter the lower barn and then step up into the milk parlour. The past few days Daisy May hasn't wanted to go into the milk parlour and I've had to go up to the top gate to chase her down. After she ran past the door to the North side of the lower barn enclosure a few times, I took a rope and tied it to the door support out to the fence so that she couldn't do that anymore. It means I can't pull the roller-door down as far as I used to, but so far, although the cows can see into the lower barn, they haven't tried to push their way under it. Now if it was Star or Dolly I was milking, they'd've been in the lower barn in a flash. I turn the salamander off before opening the door, as it scares them. I think it's the noise rather than the heat. Then once they're attached to the wall and eating their rations, I turn it back on. Took nearly 2 weeks, but they're used to it now :). I wash Daisy Mays' teats first, and if Eleanors' are caked with poopy mud, I give hers a wipe to start softening it, and then once Daisy May is clean, strip each teat 3 times and dip them in the alcohol. Ensure they are dry and then attach the milk machine while I move the bucket over to Eleanor and clean, strip and dip her. I lift the milk bucket to gauge how full it is, and when the milk stream slows, disattach Daisy May, re-dip each teat, pull the vacuum hose off and go empty the full milker bucker into the waiting white milk bucket. I unclip Daisy May from the wall, but she stands eating until her trough is empty. She's good about cleaning up around her feeder as she's a rather messy eater. I attach the milker to Eleanor who milks out much quicker than her mum, although she holds more for her calf too. I watch her feed trough, because as soon as it's empty, she wants to leave and she's yanked numerous butterfly shanks clear out the wall and then trails the lead as she won't let me near to unclip it. As soon as she's finished milking, I disattach her, dip her, then walk around her and unclip her from the wall. If she's being skittish, I talk to her in a low, soothing voice and move slowly. I pour milk into the rubber bowl in the lower barn for the dogs, cats, chickens, or whoever, and then the balance is added to the bucket in the feed room and the lid clipped down on both sides.
In Summer I fill the 3 buckets, wash, rinse and sterilise, while setting up the milk parlour, but in Winter I only fill them after milking to keep the water as hot as possible. I carry the buckets from the feed room to the milk parlour to start the washing, keeping a close eye on the cows to ensure that they don't finish eating and start pooping in the stalls. Eleanor tends to leave as soon as I unclip her, but then she comes back up into the milk parlour to finish her beets. She still poops in the lower barn fairly often but Daisy May hardly ever does, although Eleanor's usually good about not pooping in the milk parlour. I shoo them straight out the bottom door as soon as they're done. I have an aromatherapy oil mixed for their teats in Winter to help with chapping, cuts and freezing which I rub on after the alcohol from the dip cup has evaporated. It smells of geranium with undertones of garlic :).
I walk to the roll-up door with the buckets of water and throw them outside rather than down the floor drain in the lower barn in Winter, as the water freezes and turns the lower barn into a skating rink and cows falling on their full udders isn't fun. I hang all the pipes to drain and turn the milker bucket upside down on its shelf, but take the lid with the pulsator and the rubber gasket and hang them under the red heat lamp in the feed room. The pulsator doesn't want to work if it gets too cold and I leave the heat lamp on 24/7 to stop the water pipes from freezing in Winter. Although I have heat tape wrapped around the pipes and pipe insulation over that, they still freeze sometimes. I drain the oval pipe between the vacuum hose and the actual pump after every milking too, and then rehang it over Eleanors' stall. All water and milk spills in the milk parlour are squeegeed up, and if it's very wet, I run the Gila Monster a little longer to make sure we don't get an ice layer.
Climb the ladder to the upper barn and go around to the top gate to take the cows back to the pastures, Daisy May to the other girls where JuneBug is patiently waiting for her share of mums' milk, Eleanor in with the boys in the veggie garden where IRS rushes to nurse as soon as she's inside the gate.
Back to the shed, down the ladder to collect the milk. The dogs are shoo'd out the milk parlour and I close the cattle panel gate, tip the feed troughs on their sides so the chickens can't lay eggs or poop in them, switch off the lights and carry the milk and empty udder wash bucket, together with any eggs through the tunnel to the house. I don't usually let the dogs come back with me as the tunnel often has water in it and drying 8 paws before they flee upstairs is difficult. The washing machine has usually finished it's cycle when I walk back through, so I just press the button for the extra rinse, pull off my boots and carry then upstairs with the milk. The jars are collected from the garage, the fresh, warm milk is poured through a flour sack cloth filter, wiped down, lids screwed on, rinsed under hot water, labeled and put in the garage fridge for the herdshare owner to collect after 2pm. Return the used milk bucket to the basement where I wash it with bleach and leave it upside down with the others to drip dry, and lob the flour sack cloth into the wash.
That's my morning chore routine. Then I get to drink a usually cold mug of Earl Grey tea :)