Milking in the Rain

I'm sure there are plenty of people who are upset by the fact that my area is in a drought--farmers, gardeners, people who care about their lawns, etc. I am not one of those people. 

I've been DREADING the day that it would be raining during milking time. Goats are like cats--they HATE the rain. They run for cover at the first rain drop, so I knew it would definitely not be fun to get them to the milking stand while it was raining. My stanchion is outside, because the only option for an indoor milking spot was the garage/shed thing, which is Spider City and I'm not ready to die yet.

I dealt with the idea of a rainy milking like I deal with most unsavory things--I refused to think about it until I had to. Fortunately, with this drought situation, I didn't have to worry about it for a long time. But, eventually the day came.

I usually milk at 7:30 am and pm. At 7 pm, I noticed it was raining. NOO! So, I decided to go out early to set up some umbrellas and hopefully I'd be done by my normal milking time.

Both Paisley and Hermione were hiding in their house, like smart animals, while I was setting up the umbrellas. We have an umbrella on our outdoor table that I usually put all my milking stuff on, so that was already out there, but it wasn't big enough to do much good for protecting the goats (or me, but I was less of a priority). We also have a big beach umbrella that can be screwed into the ground that I brought out to put over the stanchion. I got that screwed in, then tried to put the two umbrellas touching each other so they'd provide cover, but noticed the rain was dripping between them and would have been right on the goats' faces.

Great.

So, then I started rearranging things. All the while, the goats are watching me with curious faces from the comfort of their dry house while I'm getting rained on. Must be nice to be a goat.

I moved the umbrella I'd screwed in to the front of the stanchion and the table umbrella to the back of the stanchion, tripping over a hose and dropping all sorts of things in the process. That didn't really seem any better than the first configuration, so I switched it back to the way it had been. 

THIRTY MINUTES it took to arrange the stupid umbrellas to provide the most coverage possible. When I was finally finished, I looked up and saw Paisley looking at me from by the fence.

By the fence, as in out of her house. As in something she wouldn't do if it were still raining. Which it wasn't.

By 7:30, AKA milking time, it was finished raining, and I didn't need the umbrellas. -_-

Doctor Husband got home from work shortly after I was finished milking, and was apparently taken aback by my appearance. I was moist, my hair was a mess, and I looked like I'd been in a fight; which I had, but it was with two umbrellas, and losing a fight with some umbrellas does nothing for your street cred.

I'd like to say I learned something from this experience, but that's not really true. I'm back to avoiding the thought of rain milking, and I'm just happy it hasn't rained again during milking times. Ideally, it won't rain again at 7:30 am/pm for the next few years until we have a barn and I don't have to worry about it at all. Right?!

Totally legit possibility.