I had a horrible night. I am tense with worry over my milker and the stone in her teat. I should have gotten up and taken some kava kava, but I didn't. I finally managed to relax my shoulders and neck so I could sleep. After midnight. Then I was up at 4am. No feeling of hunger, but I know when I wake up this early, it's hunger. I realized I haven't been having my daily broth! I pulled out a frozen cup and sauteed some mushrooms. Very delicious.

I'm going to have to go back to bed soon. It's 6am and my husband just got up. I will have to tackle the stone in the teat by myself, later on this morning as he has work scheduled for today.

I just feel horrible for my milker.

I think I ate too many cherries last night and messed up my blood sugar levels. I have been avoiding fruit pretty strictly. I will need to remember this. It seemed to cause cravings last night.

More later.

I finally got up again at around 10am. My mom had called me, wondering where we get our beef bones – to make stock! I told her we have mostly been focusing on chicken stock.

12:18pm. Thanks be to Jesus! I finally got the milk stone to come out! I was so nervous and upset that I was literally shaking physically. I made sure to have something to eat before I went out, I had leftovers: two carrots, a bit of cauliflower, about half cup of green peas and about an ounce of roast beef.

I used the crochet hook again, and poor girl, I was trying to see if I could get hold of thing somehow. Since it is a little piece of calcium, it's sharp and I was cutting the inside of her teat so she was bleeding a bit. I started crying, I hate causing them pain. She was so good though, just kept standing still for me. She was headlocked into the stanchion on the milking stand. I tried again to squeeze the thing out by sheer force, nothing. Finally I thought maybe we'd have to just resort to what my husband and I had discussed earlier… just let her dry up. I am loathe to force dry my girls, if they are continuous milkers, I want to foster that. I'd rather milk my girls, every single day and get a quart or half gallon, than to have to worry about what to do with the kids, year after year.

Anyway, finally I decided to get into my normal milking position (the affected teat was of course farthest from me so I had to work from the opposite side). I sat down and took hold of her teats and began to milk. And two squeezes later, the tiny little thing popped out! I almost shrieked with joy. I stood up and danced around, panting and laughing. I had brought my cell phone out. I found the stone in the milk bucket and took it out. I sat down and milked her once more, to make sure I wasn't imagining anything, and her teat is free and clear! I called my husband and gave him the wonderful news. He was relieved.

I feel so much better, but drained.

Here is a photo of the stone with a gold safety pen, a cherry pit and a penny for representation of size. If you know what hulled birdseed (millet) looks like, that is the size of the stone. Hardly enough to cause all this stress and commotion!! Click on the photo to see a much larger version.

I had to lay down and take a nap after all the excitement and emotional stress. I slept a couple of hours and got up by 5pm. Hubby had arrived home so we went out to milk. Such a relief that my girl is okay and I can get her milked out!

Dinner was stir fry.

OOPS! Accidental breach. I didn't consider bean sprouts would be on the non-approved list. Okay, pretend there are no bean sprouts on the plate and it will be full GAPS. I “riced” cauliflower so it would look like we were getting to have rice, which we always would have with stir fry. I sliced the meat thin, sauteed it in butter which made a delicious sauce to pour over the veggies. The veggies were onion, carrots, bell pepper, cabbage, mushrooms and the NON-approved bean sprouts. No soy sauce. Hubby asked what about soy sauce, I said I guess you get to use sea salt [affiliate link]. 😉

The top sirloin that hubby brought home had a LOT of fat on it. We aren't very good at eating that kind of fat, so usually I would trim the meat and the dogs would get an extra special treat (we feed RAW anyway but the don't usually get top sirloin). I took what was left over, ground it in our Kitchenaid and put the ingredients into it to make Italian sausage. It has to sit 2-3 days in the fridge in an airtight container so the flavors can marry.

In spite of the stress of the day, I still had the energy to make sausage, which isn't the simplest thing to do. I was on my feet a lot in the kitchen, and it is just so fantastic that my feet don't hurt!

Tomorrow's update may be late. I made extra dinner so I can take it for lunch at work tomorrow. I need to get to bed because I have to get up at 4am. OH, the sauerkraut was done today and I put it into the fridge. I also started some pineapple vinegar.