05/20/2026
🌿 My First Cup and a Half
Some of you know me, some don’t — I’m Lauren, the girl who gets excited over the smallest things. I bought goats because I wanted to make my own soap after goat milk soap helped my rosacea. My breeding plan didn’t go as planned because Rolo decided he was the CEO of Reproductive Operations and bred the girls on his own schedule.
Then maternity leave ended, postpartum hit like a freight train, and I thought I missed my chance to milk this year.
But Friday… something shifted.
I put the stroller in the shade, dragged out an old chicken‑coop door, propped it on four logs, leashed a goat, and created the very first “Hartley Special” milking stand. The girls were squirrelly, Im an amateur thats just watched YouTube, but I didn’t even care.
And then it happened —My first cup and a half of milk from Opal.
It might not look like much, but to me it was proof that I’m still here. Still trying. Still finding joy again.
Yesterday, Rob watched me struggle to convince these circus animals to get on my makeshift stand. After watching me practically stand on my head to see what I was doing, he finally said, “Send me the blueprints.” So now he’s building me a real milking stand — one I can actually sit on instead of performing barnyard acrobatics.
And since Friday?I’ve got half a gallon of milk from Stormi and Opal. They’re starting to get the hint… even if they still act like they’re auditioning for a TLC special called “Milking Mayhem: Goat Moms Gone Wild.”
Cup and a half or half a gallon — every drop feels like a win.
