our universe is all about milk these days. we are getting over eight gallons per day. what is a little family supposed to do with such a quantity of milk. all planning aside it seems an insurmountable task to adequately package and store that huge quantity of milk. we want to see how things settle out before we solicit too many regular customers. but we are almost so overwhelmed that we need to get those customers and get them now.
our system isn't refined yet so milking takes a huge portion of the day. last evening we lost the calf for about 20 minutes. nimue obviously told phoenix to go hide--and hide he did. i think i stepped directly over him at one point. he didn't reveal his hiding place until she called for him. crazy.
jocelyn is flourishing. she is such a slick calf compared to phoenix. she almost glows while he looks a little scruffy--albeit cute. feeding jocelyn is being a pain. our bucket feeder lost some of it's critical parts. we ordered another bucket feeder and parts for the old one so we'll have two soon. i'm using a lame bottle in the interum.
one might ask, why don't we just share with the calf? well we have always had tragic results whenever we have tried. at best, we miss out on all the creamiest milk which the cow holds back.
tabitha has a new blog. she is a much better writer than i am and has more time to blog. check it out http://omelay.wordpress.com
5 comments:
Where I live, central B.C., no one has milk cows - all the farmers raise beef cattle. A spare Barn, and your blog, has certainly given me some ideas. Just don't know how to go about it. Yet. I would have to get into haying some of our quarter section. Have you thought of making cheese?
Cows are moms, too! Welcome to the world, little Jocelyn and Phoenix.
I want to remind everyone to be sure your voter registration is in order this year :)
Here's a great mom's site with tools to help you ensure your registration.
http://www.momsrising.org/momsvote
Eight gallons=lots of cheese!
You guys may want to consider making and canning butter. I had never heard of it before but I read about it and it sounds interesting, not to mention a good way to preserve that milk without refrigeration. And cheese is fairly simple to make too. Good luck!
Hi Karl! I just tapped you with a Brilliante Weblog award over here:
http://peekhomeschool.blogspot.com/2008/09/at-last.html
Thanks for the great posts.
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