Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 31 Jan 2023...
Hey Y'all!!
Happy Tuesday! It is a frigid, icy morning. The weather apps say we had anywhere from 5-8 inches of snow yesterday but in reality, it sleeted for hours. This morning it is about 3 inches of solid ice. It was dry enough as it fell that it didn't build up on wires so we have had no issues with power outages. The animals all made it through the cold night with no issues. The guardian dogs are in their element. They much prefer this temperature to that of the summer. The guineas were sliding around as they tried to scurry about as the sun came up. They are always a bit scatter-brained but looked even more so this morning. We made a pound of Italian flavored cheese yesterday. Today we will focus our attention on things that we can do inside, like continuing our tax preparation and doing things with milk. Last week, we submitted our Business Sales and Use taxes due to Missouri. This week, we will continue preparing for the rest of the taxes so we can get the info to our accountant by mid-month.
The pic above is from last night as Shelley and I took a shortcut through the house to get from the garage to the milk barn. We try our best to milk on a schedule and want to get out there every 12 hours. This time of year, that means at least once a day we are milking in the dark. On most days, it is a bit warmer in the evenings so we choose to do out nighttime milking in the evenings. I am rolling the milker and Shelley is carrying a hot water bucket and the milk bucket. We use the hot water to wash down the udders which encourages them to let down their milk. When finished, we pour the milk from the bucket on the machine into the bucket with a lid. The milking machine has an electric motor that turns a pump drawing a vacuum in the tank below the motor. The tank has permanent metal tubing connected through the frame of the machine to plugs where the hoses connect. The hoses connect from the vacuum chamber to the bucket and to a device that turns the constant vacuum into a rhythmic suction of about 60 pulses per minute through the hoses connected to the teat cups. It is able to do in about 3 minutes what it takes us about 30-45 minutes to do by hand. The trade-off is in the time it takes to wash the machine hoses and bucket. Well worth it! Shelley said she never expected to be rolling a milking machine through the living room...but we did make our floors sealed concrete rather than carpet!
Local Farm Report:
Harvest:
23 Chicken eggs
4 Duck eggs
5 1/4 Gallons of milk
Sales:
N/A
Cheers!
Rich & Shelley
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