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It has really been great! We just opened a 5lb wheel of cheddar and it is truly unbelievable.
I thought that I've tried some great cheeses, but this is THE BEST CHEDDAR!!!!!
  This was the last one that I waxed, as we open them  from here out they will all be natural rind...
oooooooooo I can't wait, but i will
                                                    Jaspar

Now that we have a crying smiley I can cry all day long         

I tried to build a floc of goats for a herd share scheme but the real problem is milking. Some milking machines go for $1350 on Ebay and we need at least 10 people (may be more) to get the funding. Looks like I will never get a chance of getting my hands on raw goat or sheep milk.           

you can find them around at auctions, craiglist, etc.

we've got one.... errr... 6 or 7 

my dad kept finding them for cheap, couple of them for 25 bucks.  i'm speaking of the milk buckets - surge brand milkers.  i thought i had time, as our (his goat that he bought for my daughter) dwarf nigerian is about a month or so away from kidding, then they say you have to wait 2 weeks for the colostrum to clear out. 

then he bought one that was milking, yesterday   

we've been milking by hand (which sucks), but not keeping, due to not having any other equipment (don't even have a stanchion, been milking her on a hay bale).

none of our milk buckets have been used in at least 10 years, so we need to get new leathers to rebuild the pulsator.  also need to get the cleaning supplies to clean the equipment, new inflations (definitely can't use cow inflations on a dwarf nigerian )

anyway, you can find them around if you look in the right places.  just be sure to find a seamless milk bucket.  ours have the pulsators on the bucket, so it's just a matter of hoses, inflators and vacuum pump (we have a pump, too)

still, i don't think you can own a goat and milk it for 2 bucks a gallon.  that's a steal!

4 bucks for the goat and 2 of the cows milk, sad thing is that I haven't had time to make cheese
we've been doing a lot of canning 
                                            Jaspar

Thanks Saltysteele, in Oz especially in Canberra, resources are very limited. If/when we get the goats, I am sure we will look into every resource that we can get a milking machine.

oh, okay.  Gotcha! 

I've got a couple soap-making friends down there, and their resources are limited, too.