Lots of Milk!

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful week! We did a lot of work around here. We always work hard, but it seems that when fall is on the way we do more work. We try to get the stalls cleaned, the chicken pen cleaned, and garbage picked up out of the pasture and other areas. We get new animals, and sell the ones we don't want anymore. We make sure all the animals have good shelter for the winter, and that the fences are in good repair.

Today I thought I would show you a little bit more about Echo and what the milker looks like when it's milking her.

Often I'm the only one out in the barn milking. Bryon and Matt are out and about doing other chores so I'm the one that has to get the milker on all by myself.

There are four inflations (those are the silver tubes) that need to be put on all four of Echo's teats.

This is what it looks like when the pulsator is going.
That's a lot of milk that's being sucked into the tank!

While the milk machine is milking Echo I hand milk the goats. The milker milks out four gallons of milk from Echo a little bit faster than I can milk one gallon of milk from Matt's goat, Annie.

When I'm done I filter the milk and put it in gallon jugs, cool it a little bit in ice water, and then put it in the refrigerator.

How many gallons of milk are in the refrigerator today? 

Are they all from one day? 

Somedays I don't put the milk in the refrigerator. Either Bryon or I separate the cream from the milk. 

The milk goes into the big container in the sink.
The cream goes into the jar.
I love to watch the milk and cream in the two plastic pieces
near the middle of the milker.

I got almost 2 quarts of cream from 4 1/2 gallons of milk.
The jar in the middle is a quart jar.
The jars on either side are pint jars.
Two pint jars hold the same amount as one quart jar.
That may not seem like a lot of cream but our cream is
so thick that you have to scoop it out with a spoon or a knife!
It doesn't pour out of a container like the cream from the store.

Last week I showed you the squeaky cheese that Quin and I made. Your teacher said you read a poem last week about Little Miss Muffet. I thought you would like to see what curds and whey look like together.

The curds are in the spoon.
The whey is the liquid in the pan.
I give some of the whey to the chickens.
Most of the whey goes on the garden.
Whey makes good fertilizer and helps the garden grow!

Quin loves curds! Whenever we make cheese he always
wants a little bowl filled with soft curds to eat.

We got a new animal this week! His name is Sully.

Sully is 8 years old.
That's older than most First Graders!
He's a good cat.
He loves living on a farm.

Can you tell this is his favorite chair?
He doesn't like the dogs very much so he finds a spot in the house
where he can sit and relax with out the dogs bothering him.

Maybe you are wondering why we didn't get a kitten. We love kittens, but there are so many older cats that need a home. Sully's old owner was moving to another place that doesn't allow cats so he wanted to find a new home for his furry friend. He thought Sully would love living on a farm instead of living in an apartment. 

Do you think Sully looks happy?

If you have to write a story, maybe you can write a story about Sully! Or about any of the other animals on the farm! 

If you write a story about the farm I would love to read it!

Have a great week filled with learning!

Our Milker

Here is what our portable milker looks like, how we set it up, use it, and how we clean it.

The pump itself doesn't have a switch. It is plugged into this outlet strip so we can turn it on and off easily.

The pump is in this bucket with a towel wrapped around it to reduce noise. We used to put the pump outside the barn door each time we used the milker, but this keeps the noise down. Since we don't leave the milker on for long periods of time, I don't think it will over heat the air pump.

This is what the gasket looks like on the inside of the lid. The lip on the gasket is facing into the bucket, not into the lid.

Here is what the lid looks like when it is set up and ready to use with the goats. The double hose on the left of the lid goes into the inflations, one side into each inflation. The large hose right under the handle and heading out to the left also goes to the inflations. It carries the milk into the tank. The hose that goes down towards the bottom of the picture heads to the air pump. The double hose and the air pump hose both attach to the pulsator which cannot be submerged when being cleaned.

The pump has to be on before the infations are put on the goat's teats. If the inflations don't attach fairly quickly and you hear the pulsator working (you will hear a 'click, click, click, click'), then check all the hose connections, even the one on the pump. If any of the connections are loose, then the suction is reduced.

Once in a while, even when all the connections are intact and secure, the suction isn't enough. Check the gasket on the inside of the lid. Every once in a while I have to open the lid and just lift the gasket away slightly from the lid. Then replace the lid and, voila! suction again!

One of the brass connectors at the bottom of the inflations isn't as snug as the other one. After the doe is done being milked and we shut off the pump, we release the pressure by disconnecting the looser of the two connections. Then we gently pull the inflations off the doe's teats.

Cleaning Step 1
Check the tank to make sure that you emptied all the milk into the holding bucket before you start the rinsing and cleaning process. We've forgotten that a few times and end up having to throw out anywhere between 1/2 gallon to 2 1/2 gallons of milk depending on if we are weighing milk between does or just filling the tank with everyone's milk.

In the photo the bucket is set up with clean water and the inflations are submerged. This is the first cleaning step--rinsing the milk from the inflations, hoses, and inside the tank. Turn the pump on and suck the water out of the bucket.


Next we throw the water from the holding tank out into the dirt area in front of the barn.

Cleaning Step 2
Disconnect the hoses, brass fittings, and inflations. We leave the inflations attached to the double air hose because that hose never touches the milk, however, all the hoses are inside the bucket. Add about 1/4 cup chlorine dioxide, then fill the bucket with clean water and let everything soak for about 60 seconds. Chlorine dioxide will continue to work as long as there is a little yellow coloring to it. Most bacteria and viruses cannot survive 60 seconds in the solution.

 Set the lid on top of the hoses, but don't submerge the pulsator (the gadget on top of the lid) or the hose connector (the part my finger is pointing at) under the water. Use a clean paper towel dipped into the bucket to wipe the handle and any other parts that shouldn't be submerged.

Re-attach all the hoses so you can suck all the chlorine dioxide from the bucket into the tank.

Wipe the inside of the tank with a clean paper towel after the chlorine dioxide has been taken up by the tank.

Swish the water and chlorine dioxide around in the tank and dump it into the dirt area in front of the barn. Rinse the outside of the tank with water from the hose.

Storage

 Take the gasket out of the lid, place all the hoses, lid, and tank in the laundry basket that is lined with a towel.

Cover with another old towel. This allows the tank and hoses to dry without getting covered with dust or dirt.

Put the bucket in the old table by the water. Keep the chlorine dioxide stored out of the sun--it degrades very quickly in the daylight.

It takes me about 8-10 minutes to clean the milker and put it away.

All done!