Fail. She is ornery enough that Phil has attached a second length of rope, so he doesn't have to get too close to her to grab her. But her halter was wearing away the hair on her coat, so he took the halter off; she's just clipped in to her collar. Well, as you may know from dog training, it is much more difficult to control an animal if you just have their neck than if you have their head and face; the neck is strong!
Worse, Charity's rope ran down her backbone. I have dealt with this before, though, so I grabbed it. Her right hind leg stepped over easily. She was close to the post where she needed to be tied. I tugged, and she moved.
But she could not, or would not, get her front hoof clear of the rope. She put her right rear leg back over the rope (back to where we started), then put her left rear leg over the rope. The rope was frozen, covered in manure and mud, and I had no gloves on (my mittens are warm, but also light-colored, and I wasn't going to sacrifice them for a rotten cow). I think there is little more painful than the cold wet of chipping something out of the freezer, or holding a frozen lead rope: deep, painful cold.
I held on, though, until Charity managed to wrap the lead rope around her leg entirely. I loosened the rope so she could step out, but she took that loosening as a license to leave. I let her.
After warming my hands inside under warm water and putting on gardening gloves, I went back for another round, but although the rope was fine, she was now far from the milking spot and rebellious and strong enough to resist. Her bag appeared flaccid (when it's so cold, the cows don't drink much), so I let her be.
Phil milked out over a gallon this evening, so we didn't lose much productivity, we hope.
That was a crummy way to start a day, though. Cold, furious, defeated, 20 minutes wasted. I took a shower, and exercised for the first time in about a month, but the feeling of gloomy failure lasted until after a late afternoon nap. Sometimes a little more sleep makes life better.
After picking up our bathroom light in town (ordered last November, and finally reached us after taking the slow boat from China!), Phil stained the top of the bench. He also sanded down one of the exposed columns, a wood column with a lot of black streaks.
The other two columns are not as discolored, so we decided not to do them. Well, one is discolored on the side, but I like the darker color of the patina on the wood on the clean face.
The boys were up early this morning and wanted to make Lego land. Jadon spent most of the day taking out each set and repairing it, until the floor of the playroom was entirely covered. They look forward to playing with them all tomorrow. I don't look forward to eventually having to help them match up all the pieces with the sets, but I always like a day when the four get along with no frustrations.
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