Drinking Your Milk Fast and Furious!

We have entertained a lot of family over the past month here on the Ten-Acre Ranch. I do the best I can to prepare for family visits by inquiring ahead of time about what foods and drinks I need to have on hand to make things easy on our guests. One thing I have found to be a staple in many folks diet, is milk. But FD and I follow the Paleo lifestyle, which does not include dairy. Even though we are not super strict about it and still indulge in cheese (from grass-fed sources), milk is not something we keep on hand at all. So when our nephew Sid found a few spare days to come to Oklahoma last week, I knew I would have to buy some milk, and a lot of it.

When I visited with my sister, Juli, before Sid’s arrival, I learned that I would probably need two gallons of milk to get Sid through the six days he would be spending with us. I was not really surprised about this, since I talked with her most mornings on her way home from working the night shift as an RN at a rural area hospital in Nebraska. It seemed she was always stopping by the grocery when she got off of work to fetch milk for Sid and his dad, both having hearty appetites for it.

Sure enough, during Sid’s time with us, he drank milk with every meal. Sometimes he sipped it leisurely, and other times he gulped it down. For him, milk went with just about everything he ate. I, on the other hand, never liked milk – not ever – not even chocolate-flavored milk. I hated the taste and texture. I didn’t even like looking at it. Even cooking with it presented a psychological conundrum… could I substitute something else instead? If I knew it was an ingredient in some food dish, I would not eat it, which was silly, because if it was in something and I didn’t know it, I would eat it and enjoy it.  But I marveled at how Sid enjoyed a big glass of milk. In some strange way, watching Sid down a glass of cold milk made me feel like I might be missing out on some great experience in life.

It was easy to feed Emma and Ronnie back when they drank just one bottle each!

I really missed Sid, and could not help but think of him that first morning after he had returned to Nebraska. He had been such a big help to me during Emma and Ronnie deer’s feedings each day. It is very difficult for one person to enter the pen while fending off hungry deer – with Emma doing her trick pony act of following me around while raised up and walking on her hind legs, and Ronnie crisscrossing in front of me and almost tripping me. Feeding both of them at once is a real frenzy!  Ronnie is the fast little fella, with suction like no critter I’ve ever bottle fed! He constantly collapses the nipple and gets frustrated when the flow of milk slows! He can down his 16 ounces in no time flat! As fast as Ronnie is with downing his milk, Emma is the furious drinker. She shakes the bottle so much, and attacks it with such a frantic frenzy, she ends up with a frothy milk-beard every time. I call her “The Milkshake Machine”.  Watching the two of them each morning, Sid and I spent most of the time laughing. Ronnie always whines when the milk runs dry. I suppose the whole experience goes much too quickly, and he just wants more. But Emma seems to be more enthralled with the taste. She often closes her eyes while she hungrily shakes the milk from her bottle. Reveling in the taste and the moment never lasts long enough for her either.

I think Sid’s approach to drinking milk is a good way to enjoy everything in life. Sometimes we rush into the moment, going at it with great gusto! We are hungry for the experience. Other times we are more leisurely – we close our eyes and just revel in the situation. We savor the moment. Life is about balance, isn’t it? I’m betting Emma and Ronnie figure that out one day when they are out on their own in the wild…

© 2016 Day by Day the Farm Girl Way…