Thursday, May 8, 2008

Don't cry over spilled milk!

You sure can get in a good laugh over it though if the situation is just right. I have had many times lately that my dairy goat kicked over the milk pail and I did not laugh. Today however was different. You see in my quest to be a pioneer woman and self sufficient I felt that I had to put all this good fresh milk to good use and learn how to make goats milk butter.

In order to do so the milk has to be separated with a machine. I won an auction for a nice cream separator last week on Ebay, one of my favorite pastimes-- ebaying!!! The much anticipated day came today when the separator arrived. I could have hugged the UPS guy but I didn't, I didn't want to scare him off, I still ebay you know.
Any way I read over the manual and I knew about as much afterwards about how to separate milk as I do rebuilding a lawn mower engine. SQUAT!!! But my dh was raised on a dairy farm where the milk was separated to make butter! ah ha!!!

Well my dh came home and of course he knew how to use it. I milked the evening milking obtaining a little over a quart. Remember this amount. While the milk was warm we put the newly washed and dryed separator together on the dining room table. He said "pour in the milk" so I always do as I am told and poured all the milk in while he started cranking and all of a sudden the table and the floor was full of milk. OOPS!! did we do something wrong? DH was OK at this time.

We were able to retrieve about a pint of fresh milk. We moved the machine to the kitchen counter and reassembled the machine and tried it again. While watching the skim milk come out of one spot and the dribble of cream out the other spout I was really interested in the process and did not realize that I was leaning over and holding on to the top of the separator and all of a sudden the bowl popped off and we both got a sudden milk shower!!! So did the upper cabinets and lower cabinets, the dishwasher and the entire kitchen floor. What a mess. It was only a pint and I had almost a pint in the milk can. How could so little milk go so far.


I laughed and dh stomped outside saying "I am going to go work on my bulldozer." I went outside in a few minutes and asked him "What makes you think you can work on something that big and can not use a cream separator?" He growled at me!! LOL

3 comments:

Sage said...

oh what I wouldnt' have given to be a shadow in the back of the kitchen snappin' pictures! Thanks for the laugh this morn!!

Dalyn said...

Too funny. Four years ago that was me. Early in the morning, I'd go out to milk myfirst milk goat, Clair. She would kick the bucket over or put her foot in it everytime! I would yell and scream and stomp back to the house...but not beofre my neighbor, a seasoned rancher saw me and laughed his head off. Mostly at my behavior, but also at me and my PJs and muckboots, with hay in my hair and a scowl on my face *U*

Then I bought the hobbles...aha ha ha ha!

Unknown said...

Oh Dalyn!! If you only knew how many stomps, screams and tears came about on this little farm due to milking a little ole bitty goat!! I have milked great big holstein cows that couldn't show her anything new!! I have got it figured out now. I have to tie, with a small soft rope, 3 legs. Hobbles didn't work, she would just jump into the milk pail or lay down on me. Too smart for an animal....

My family has really gotten a kick out of this. Hubby loves to tell of our fights in the milk barn.. the last time she kicked it over he walked in right afterwards and I just gave him "The Look" and I said "Don't speak to me right now. You turn her out if you want if not leave her there all night" He loves to tell that on me. hehehe