Did someone say Moo??

Ok, so this isn't exactly tomorrow as I stated in my last blog. Things never seem to slow down no matter how little I seem to be doing. :)

Yes, Thanksgiving is over, but the holidays are just beginning. -- At least for some people. Then there are those who starting playing Christmas music the day after Halloween! What happened to Santa issuing the season at the end of the Macy's Parade. Oh well--

So as I promised, here are some pictures from our journey to Shamrock Farms:

You know, the reason why milk is so expensive??? It seems that "the girls" have their very own Desert Oasis! Yeah, they get the spa treatment! I don't have a picture of the tents but this Oasis is 7 football field lengths and probably just as wide as one too. They eat 6 hours of the day, lay in the mud, and in the shade. they get pedicures, room service, air conditioning, wide open spaces, private eating booths. They get the works! On a daily basis one cow eats 100 lbs of feed, drinks 35 gallons of water, produces 30 lbs of waste and makes 8.5 gallons of milk. That's quite a bit of everything for just one cow in one day. And I believe this dairy has 15,000 cows! You do the math.

So here are the girls taking their turn on the machine. They are milked twice a day, once in the morning and in the evening. They all follow the same cow into the milking barn each time. Milking takes about 7 minutes. When the last cow is down the stanchions (the bars in which the cows head is) rise at the same time and the cows walk out. It reminds me of the horse races, but these girls don't go anywhere in any hurry. Just as soon as they walk out, the next group is coming on in down the row lining up.

And finally, here's Iolana about to climb up the giant milk bottle to go down the slide.