My Friday Afternoon Project...

Ever since I messed up my back a couple of years ago, I've tried to find ways to do things "smarter", and to make things less stressful on all of our aging ?!? bodies.

When we milk, we have two buckets that follow us around the cow stable. One has steaming hot water in it, and the other holds our biodegradable paper towels, a cow thermometer, a scissors, extra milk tubes, etc.  We also each use a sprayer filled with an iodine spray, used to spray the cows' teats after we take off the milkers.

The way we used to do it...carry the buckets over from the milk house...bend over each time we wet a paper towel...pick up the buckets and move them ten feet...repeat over and over until we're finished milking. Believe it or not, seemingly innocently bending over like that, time after time, day after day, year after year is hard on your back.  (Imagine bending something over and over in the same direction.  Eventually it weakens and can break) So...a simple solution was to put those buckets on a wagon, getting them up off the ground.

The wagon we had been using rusted out, so I found a replacement online.  It was delivered yesterday, and this was my project for this afternoon...

I enjoy projects like this...

My helpers slept through almost the whole process...

It took about 30-45 minutes, and it's all finished and ready to go!

The wagon came with removable sides, but the jury is still out on whether or not we use them.  I put them on for tonight, and we'll see how it goes.  You know...I had to take pictures of this, because it's the absolute cleanest that this wagon will ever be!

More likely than not, it'll be splattered with pazutski inside of five minutes!

Meet Mary...

Meet Mary...

Even back when Jim's dad was farming, the nicest cow in the barn was named Mary.  She wasn't necessarily the heaviest milker, but definitely had the best personality.  Our last Mary hung around until she was eleven years old, and that was a few years ago.  There haven't been any stand out personalities until this past week when #399 freshened!  She's a beautiful two year old...first calf heifer...and it took only a few days until the name Mary started coming up in conversations.

She hasn't lifted a foot yet while being prepped or while being milked...

Here's to a happy heifer!

Farm Memories #5...Dairy Farming in the 1950's...

Once again, I have the privilege to share with you a story from a guest blogger...my father-in-law Lloyd!

He writes about what it was like to milk cows in the 1950's...in particular how the milk was stored and transported to the dairy.  Enjoy!

DAIRY FARMING IN THE 1950's

My father remodeled our barn in the early 50's, taking out the old wooden stalls and replacing them with metal stalls and all new concrete.  We had four short rows, with nine stalls in each row. (which we still have today)

Milking was done with Surge milkers...

These milkers had vacuum pulsators.  We could run three milkers.  When the electricity would go off, we would run the milkers with the tractor. (just like now, when the power goes off, we run our generator with a tractor)  This sure beat milking by hand!  My Mother was far better at hand milking than I was!

From the Surge milker, the milk was dumped into a bucket.  We then dumped the milk through a strainer, which sat on top of a milk can...

When finished, we would roll the cans to the milk house.  We cooled the milk by hoisting the cans into a cooler tank that was filled with water at 38 degrees.  Sometimes Dad would drop a couple of watermelons in too...a good summertime treat!  Those cans full of milk were heavy, so Dad rigged up a system where we could maneuver them into the tank ourselves, if he wasn't around to lift them for us.

After the morning milking was finished, we would load all the cans into our pickup truck and head for Lancaster city, where the Penn Dairy receiving plant was located.  

Dad would back the truck up to a conveyor.  The cans all had our farm identification number painted on them.  As the cans went up the conveyor, there was a gentleman who would knock the lid off each can and smell the milk.  It the milk didn't smell right, he would reject it and send it back to us. It was then fed to the calves, cats or chickens, or thrown away.  This didn't happen often!

After the milk was approved, it was dumped into a big tank, our milk cans were washed and loaded back up onto our truck, and home we went.  I always enjoyed this trip to the dairy.

Some years later, we put in a bulk tank on our farm.  This was quite a change!  We then put in a dumping station.  This is where the milk was dumped from each milker into a holding tank in the cow stable, and then pumped from there into the bulk tank by a glass line.  Our first tank was a 400 gallon Mojonnier Brothers bulk tank.  The milk truck came every day to the farm to pick up the milk.  

Eventually we put in a pipeline milking system, and the milk now goes directly from the cow to the milk tank without us having to lift the weight of the milk.  Who knows what changes are next?


I've included a few pictures of the bulk tank.  The first picture is of the original 400 gallon Mojonnier tank that Lloyd wrote about...

In 1995, Jim and I decided to put in a larger tank, to save on hauling charges. We are charged each time the milk truck picks up our milk, and by putting in this 900 gallon Mueller tank, we were able to have the milk truck come every other day, cutting our hauling charges in half.  The "new" tank soon paid for itself.

We bulk headed the tank, which means that rather than building a larger milk house, part of the tank remains outside, with the wall built around it.  The tank is well insulated, and the milk inside remains at a safe temperature, regardless of the weather.  The old tank was removed and the new one put in place between morning and evening milkings...

Project complete...

I hope you enjoyed the farm memories.  I love it when someone else does the writing for me!

Thanks Lloyd!

Sky Red at Night...

Sky red at night...sailor's delight!  Sky red in the morning...sailors take warning!

This is the sky out my west kitchen window at suppertime tonight...it's red enough for me...

I'm sure most of you have heard that saying...I sure hope it's true!

This morning started out warm and humid, with rain showers.  We had all the fans running in the barn. 

 I was just telling Jim this morning how I'm so looking forward to the day when we don't have to run any fans in the barn.  They make so much noise, and I have to admit that we are both losing some hearing!  (today we went out for a lunch date, and one of us...I won't say who...couldn't even hear the server as she took our order!!)

So...after a rainy morning and dreary, windy afternoon, the temperatures dropped down into the high fifties, and we turned all the fans OFF in the barn for evening milking. 

It was blissfully quiet!

*Linking to Farm Friend Friday

Milking Time...

It seems like every time we turn around, it's milking time!

It's routine for us...and sometimes we get asked questions about milking that we never really thought about much before.

Today we were over visiting our neighbor before evening milking, and he asked: "How long does it take to milk a cow?"  I had to think about that for a bit...and guessed that it's probably around five minutes per cow, on average.  Then we headed out to the barn, and I decided to time a few cows just to see if I was right...

Here, Jim is washing off "the Twin", preparing her for the milker.  We wash and dry each cow's teats with an individual, biodegradable paper towel.  The end of the teat needs to be clean and dry in order to keep the milk clean and to prevent infection from entering the udder.  The stimulation of washing her also causes the cow to "let down" her milk.

Now the milker is on "the Twin"...and I've started watching the clock, just to see...

She's a good milking cow, about 120 days into her fourth lactation. (She's had her fourth calf)  

When the milker came off, I looked at the clock.  Five minutes and ten seconds!

She's likely milking around eighty pounds per day...but we don't know for sure, since we don't weigh the milk individually for each cow.  The herd as a whole is averaging seventy pounds per day, per cow.

I timed a few other cows as well...and came up with milking times anywhere from four + minutes to seven + minutes for a new first calf heifer who milks out hard (and who kicks the milker off whenever she's tired of it!) 

It's interesting what little details we learn from the questions we are asked, so go ahead and ask... 'll try to find an answer!

Winter solstice...

 Well...today marks the "official" first day of winter...the winter solstice. 

Brrr...

I woke up this morning, listening to the wind howling outside, and looked at the clock.  I was disappointed to see that we'd missed seeing a historical event.  If we would have only forced ourselves to get up at 2:15 am or so, we would've been able to see a total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice date; an event that hasn't happened since Galileo's day! Now I'm kicking myself; the kids will be disappointed too...at least one of them will be!

I guess I need to get over it, and start the day...which leads me to my original thoughts...


Our sermon on Sunday began with a comment about how much the preacher enjoys this time of year...the way it gets dark at 4:30 or so...the long evenings...

I have mixed feelings on the subject.  You see, light motivates me!  When I go into a room, the lights go on...when we watch tv, the lights go on...when we're milking in the daytime, the lights go on...there's something about darkness that can be a little bit depressing.  It's the way I'm wired.  (and maybe a little bit because my eyesight is aging along with me!)  When our oldest leaves for school in the morning, it's still dark...when our youngest gets home from school in the afternoon, it's almost dark again!  And...my chickens don't lay very many eggs on these short days!

There are definitely some positive aspects of the short days/ long evenings though...when we're finished with the evening milking, it feels just great to be able to shower and relax...no pressure to go back outside and get back to work!  The equipment is put away and stays there for the winter...and there's something to be said for curling up with a blanket and a good book (with the light on, of course!)

One thing for sure...tomorrow we will have just a little more daylight than today!

What are your thoughts on the subject?

Days Like Yesterday...

I love days like yesterday!


I don’t really have a good reason, but yesterday was a day where I felt like I could conquer the world, and I got a lot accomplished!

It started out no different than any other day; I crawled out of bed before I was ready, and headed out to the barn with a steaming mug of coffee. By the time the cows were tied in their stalls, the coffee was lukewarm, but it didn’t really matter… It tasted good anyway!

Jim and I milked together until we were about half finished; then he left to do the feeding while I finished milking the last two rows of cows. After milking, it was on to feed the calves and chickens. One of the chickens was out exploring, so I picked her up and tossed her over the fence where she belonged! She must not mind, because she does it repeatedly!

Breakfast was next on the agenda; I don’t usually have time to make the family a hot breakfast, but one of the kids had a friend overnight, so this morning they got pancakes with fresh peach syrup. (the syrup didn’t turn out so good, but oh well!)

Then it was on to an appointment … then lunch, making pizza sauce, selling a puppy, being “Mom’s taxi”, meeting new school teachers, canning peaches, visiting a neighbor and back to the barn for evening milking.

I wish I understood why some days turn out this way…kids enjoying each other and lots getting accomplished! Even the weather was delightful!

Today has already begun in a quite different fashion, but it’s early yet!  For now I'll just relish the joys of yesterday, and work on today.