I like to be able to picture him working. It is a habit I've grown fond of. Steve milking in his barn at midnight. I just read that the passenger trains all stop and wait for the time to catch up. But it isn't the habit of habit I am thinking about tonight.
Every gesture is regulated on a dairy farm.
When I am up there, each cow usually gives a few pounds of milk fewer because my presence throws off the rhythm. No, routine is a given. That is one thing that makes a dairy attractive, gives the whole business its strength. The vacuum pipe runs around the barn, circles over the stalls like a halo. It drives the claw milker, sucking the milk from the teat, and draws it into the pail.