4.15.10 part two Anya, not Anna

Since this morning, the day has gone on well ...

among a few other things, today I ...
fed Kirin,
milked and was stomped and almost flattened
tended milk
did laundry, washed early but dried inside because of the pollen,
made biscuits for breakfast,
boiled turkey bones for broth,
have swollen feet and ankles for no apparent reason,
packed up and put away all the yard sale stuff from last week (we left it out for a sale this week but there's to be rain),
fed Kirin, who's starting to get his eyes open,
folded and put away laundry
washed down tarps that come back inside because of pollen,
set up a metal bunk bed frame outside to be used as temporary frame for a rooster pen,
made dinner of pork chops with cranberry sauce, sage cornbread dressing, green beans and garlic bread.
fed Kirin
milked
tended milk
fed and watered animals
worked in the garden,
watered plants

I'll feed Kirin again in about an hour and pass out for a few hours. Poor little Kirin is wearing me out.

But the news of the day is that Anya (Anna). When we got her, her name was Snowball. A very good name to be sure but it didn't seem to fit her with us. Nik and I discussed what felt right, I said Anya but I thought he said Anna (he sometimes has an English accent - long story). So i said "ok! Anna (with an English accent) it is!". But he was actually saying Anya all along, i was probably just to tired to comprehend. So her name is Anya, not Anna and yet, when I looked up the proper spelling I discovered that Anya is Gaelic for Anna soooo

Anya in Gaelic means Radiance Joy . When I looked up the spelling I also discovered that in Hebrew Anya means Favored by God. So Anya is defiantly the right name for her. What's more so, she seems to really like it :)

Milking tonight started out bad, she was horrible to get up on the milk stand and horrible and stompy before I could even get started milking. but we came up with an idea to keep her from hurting herself or me and so Nik doesn't have to stand there holding her. We wrapped a horse lead (which we use for her because she's to big and stubborn for the dog leashes) around her, around a post and tied off at the head stock. Not tight at all but just long enough that it came to just above her back knees. With it she couldn't raise her legs high enough to do much more than just adjust her stance and if she came toward me to rope would keep her from falling onto me. She didn't need the second part because once she realized she could stomp my hands or the milk pail she just stopped and stood for the rest of the milking like a very good girl.

I'm a bit worried about how I'll get her on the stand, I need to be able to do it alone but I'm hoping she'll get used to things and all will work out. I'm also going to make her a step, maybe it's a bit hard because she's so big.

Anyway, I was able to finish milking in no time and it was much more pleasant than this morning.

I also got some grape cuttings in the mail today. Very cool, I hope I can grow them properly. I don't know much about grapes but these were a gift and they're wine grapes :)

Anya and me this morning