Day 30

This weekend I awarded myself the title of goat-milking goddess and boy oh boy was it hard to earn. My best friend Elan came to visit the Kibbutz this Shabbat because he had a weekend off from the army, and Friday afternoon we learned how to milk the silly and sometimes stubborn goats. What a thrill it was! We squeezed the utters in every which direction (and into our mouths to have a taste of their warm, sweet milk) and learned how to latch on these suction devices that slurp out the milk while we give the goats a sort of weird utter massage. Compared to the cow milking on the Kibbutz, which is completely mechanized, it was fun to have more contact with the animals and learn to be in tune with them. A lot of the goats, especially the mamas, were really feisty and would kick and stomp and go wild, so we had to stay patient and calm and send them our positive energy (yet another test of my 2012 resolution for courage). It was all a lot of fun, and hey maybe I'll become a goat farmer!
Anyway, I was more happy than words could say to see Elan this weekend and introduce him to the kibbutz and all the cool people I've met here. And I only have a week or so left, how wild! But I'm always on to new and beautiful things. Today while we were straw bale building I saw a butterfly and of course took it as an omen.

Attempting to squirt goat's milk into my mouth