I have to brag on my husband...

I have to  brag on my husband for a little bit.

When he was born, the doctor pulled him out by his arm because he "had to get to a football game."  This severed the nerves in his right arm and until he had surgery, couldn't lift his arm over his head.  To this day, his right arm is several inches shorter than his left and not as strong. My husband never let this be a disability though;  If there was something he couldn't do because of his arm, he would find another way to do it.

The other night while he was learning to milk our cow,  he looked up at me and said "I don't think my right hand can do this."  We were both sad, cause we wanted to hand milk our cows, but we accepted it.  That night he milked the cow with his left hand and we started searching for machine milkers.

The next milking Jason's one handed milking turned out to be a blessing.  The calf was in a playful mood and wouldn't stay beside us while Jason milked. This REALLY upset mama cow. He eventually had to hold the calf in his right arm and milk the cow with his left.

Before I tell the rest of the story I have to tell you my experience of milking.  It is really easy to milk with your dominate hand.  But, your non dominant hand is a different story. You  have to really think with each "pull" or else  you won't milk the teat right. You milk right, and then you milk wrong. Its very intellectually challenging!  Jason says that he can't "feel things" with his right hand, so I can't imagine the difficulty. 

Well the next milking, Jason looked at me with shining eyes and said "I'm feeling it this time." He sat down and milked over a gallon out of our cow with TWO HANDS!  Apparently, he had been practicing the movement with his right hand the day before in his spare time.

I was pretty impressed. And proud. But not surprised.

Here is a pic of some of our milk. See the amazing gold cream?  Def one the top reasons for having your own cow!  We are getting more cream everyday as we are learning how to milk the cow dry. Today, I was even able to step back and put the tail down.  Jason milked a cow by himself; and the cow didn't kick him! (We did only get a half gallon though.  The cow wouldn't let down one of her quarters, even after we nuzzled her calf up against them.  But that is farming. Always new challenges.)

love, the farmer's wife