Not An Exact Science

I mentioned here that our cow Jenny was due to have another calf at the end of June.

Taken on our milking day last Thursday. Does she look like she's about to pop? I hope so!

June 28th, to be exact.

Except...

Except, apparently, it's not exact.

Because here we are - over a month later - and she still has not had that calf!

We had her artificially inseminated (AI'ed) - so we know the date she got pregnant. And given the fact that cows have roughly the same gestation as humans, 280 days (I never knew that until we became cow co-owners)...how hard should it be to figure the due date?!?!?

We had her checked last week just to make sure everything was o.k....and the calf appears to be fine.

I suppose it will make its appearance when it's good and ready. Aye - yi - yi.

Right now, just from milking only Bobbie, we get between 2 and 3 gallons a week. Once Jenny has her calf and we begin milking her also, we'll probably get between 6 and 8 gallons a week. So this milking only one cow really puts a crimp in our style.

Our precious Daniel loves milk. That's not strong enough: DANIEL. LOVES. MILK!

We joke that he'd be happy to survive on just our raw milk. (Well, that and wonton soup...)

While we've let Jenny go dry these past few months, we've had to ration the milk we use. We've even had to resort to buying store-bought milk (gasp!) a few times. Mr. Daniel-Daniel-Bo-Baniel cannot drink regular milk (lactose intolerance)...so we either buy Lact-aid or Silk Almond Milk when we have to buy milk at the store.

(When we bought Daniel some Silk Almond at the store last night, he was so excited he insisted on holding it...and he hugged it all the way home!)

In the meantime, I'm having dreams about what I will make once Jenny has her calf and we start having milk come out our ears again: bigger quantities of kefir, kefir cheese, yogurt, homemade ice cream.....mmmmmm......

...and I've promised Jas that I will never again complain about having too much milk!