How To Milk

 

 Squeeze and pull, that's what they do on the old westerns to milk a cow but that's more likely to get you kicked than put milk in the bucket. 

First of all don't pull.The action does nothing but make the dairy animal uncomfortable and simply squeezing will more likely send the milk shooting back up into the udder than down. There is a bit of a trick to getting the milk out but hardly rocket science.

Proper milking is done by first encircling the teet with with your thumb and forefinger in the fashion shown in the above picture and lock them together. This keeps the milk in the teet from retracting up into the udder.

 

 

Then pretend you are playing scales on the piano. Encircle the teet as much as possible with your middle finger and press against the palm of your hand. 

 Then do the same with your ring finger and in doing so you will force the milk downward toward the orifice and out into the bucket. 

 

Don't let your pinky come near the orifice. This is an open passageway and bacteria from your hands can find its way into this  inside the udder. 

Release your grip but don't take your hands away. Simply grip the teet once more between the forefinger and the thumb to contain milk into the teet once more and play the scales with the fingers. I guarantee you will make music - swish, swish, swish. Do this in a rapid manner and before long the pail will be full.

To strip, don't encircle the teet and pull downwards like in the movies. This will bring your fingers in contact with the orifice. Remember that is a big no, no. Simply milk as before but reach higher up onto the udder and lock your forefinger and thumb and play your scales. The udder will be soft and saggy so this will be quite easy. If you feel your goat has not let down her milk fully then bump her in the udder firmly but lightly. I'm never as rough as her kids. It might take a few times but be sure and wait a moment between each one and check to see if the spout fills.

Then if that fails to bring her milk down then massage the udder. This has never failed for me. Milk a bit and when it is barely coming out, message once more. This is particularly effective on nervous new milkers or new to you milkers.

Now go inside and enjoy that wondrous milk. It is within the first hour that goat milk is super high in antibacterials. I often drink it warm at this time to take advantage of that.  

The Virtues of Ducks

Ducks may of done me wrong but I have an idea they might be back in the future. There are some great benefits to raising ducks according to research. My timing for raising duck was poor so I'll wait a while, think things over more, and I would not be surprised if they don't return in a few years from now when the rabbit and chicken self-sustaining set up is running more smoothly. Until then, I'm going to do some more research and some serious thinking. 

  These are the points so far that have me thinking duck:

 (a.) Duck lay better than chickens in winter. Just learned that ducks often begin to lay in February so maybe I was a bit hasty in getting rid of them except I desperately needed their coop and realistically, I'm not ready for them.  Since that is after the winter solstice and light is increasing, I'd guess that is why the timing.  So I'm going to think and watch my chickens to see if I need duck eggs to fill in a gap. 

(b.) Ducks have a larger egg yolk than chickens but when I measured Sasha's egg yolk and one of my Rainbow hen's they were equal in size but they lay extra large eggs. Keep in mind that the bulk of the nutrition in an egg is in the yolk. That is why a chick or duck forms in the egg white and the yolk is they food source.

 (c.) Duck eggs are alkaline and chickens are acidic. That is a biggy. It is one of the reasons why we have goat milk because it too is alkaline so adding duck eggs would be a really good combination.  

(d.) Duck eggs have 6 times the Vitamin D and 2 times the Vitamin A than a chicken egg, more protein too. Other than that pretty much the same as a chicken's egg in nutrition. With having to take 5000 units of vitamin D a day to stay at the lower end of normal and my husband 1000 units that could mean we could go off of supplements part of the year or at least reduce the amount.

(e.) Duck eggs have twice the cholesterol that chicken eggs do but have more Omega 3 fatty acids so don't be turned away. The whole cholesterol and its bad side affects is on debate right now. Cholesterol is far more complex than they first thought and cholesterol does play an essential role in the body. It is the basis of all hormones. Anyway you look at it more Omega 3's is a good thing.

(f.) Duck eggs are richer in Albumen which makes cakes and pastries fluffier and richer. 

(g.) Duck eggs are typically larger than chicken's.

(h.) They handle the cold better and forage better than chickens. I can testify to those two things.

(i) Duck egg shells are much thicker and I mean much thicker. It takes a pretty good wack to open them. This gives them a longer shelf life of six weeks in the refrigerator. They will keep up to six weeks in the refrigerator. As a side note of interest, the shell is much smoother than a chicken's. If you have ducks and chickens in the same pen, this is a way to tell the eggs apart if both lay the same size of egg like ours do.

As for flavor, we prefer chicken eggs slightly over duck eggs but there is not a huge difference in them. So taste is not what pulls me back to considering ducks again in the future. What keeps pulling me back to raising ducks is that their eggs leave a more alkaline atmosphere in the body. Cancer feeds on a acid environment and with it so prevalent in our society, that is a big deal. We definitely need to start changing our diet more in the alkaline direction. The other important factor is that we did not loose a single duck to predators last summer and fall. We did loose quite a few chickens. We have the last two years. I read in one site that raccoons are a duck's main problem. We definitely have those, just look at the claw marks by the latch on our chicken coop. Then there is the down. Something interesting I discovered when processing nine ducks of several breeds so stay tuned. 

A Comparison of WWII and Today.

Instead of just telling you how to do something. I'm going to begin explaining more of our motivations for what we do. I prefer to think of our journey as trying to become more enlightened. We try to be realistic and see things for what they are. The past prepare us for the future and gleaning things from what once was make us more whole. Some would call some of our thoughts - doomsday but I prefer to think we are realistic. We may prepare for disaster but we pray it never comes.Yet, we know that history repeats itself and that patterns tell us that rocky roads are ahead.

What will happen when WWIII arrives? Will life at home be the same as the last world war? These two questions have been roaming around in my brain for a long time. I’ve done some research over the years about WWII and how the home front fared in England and in the USA. Most of you probably have heard of Food Stamps and Ration Cards that were in effect with price controls placed on goods in WWII. But did you know that twenty million Americans were on the verge of starvation despite a greater number of jobs and higher wages? One has to wonder why especially when we were having bumper crops despite a 17% reduction in numbers of people on farms? One reason was that the food we produced was spread between US civilians, the military, and our Allies, the military taking priority. Another is many of the ships laden with food were lost to opposing forces whether sank or stolen. And 5 million widows were left alone to care for their families and that took its toll.

 A total of 12,209,238 Americans were in military service by September 2, 1945 which is 9 percent of the 131,028,000 population.  Interestingly, Germany had a grand total of 22,000,000 serving in some capacity out of 69,850,000 and that was 31 percent. I'd say the difference being war was abroad and not on the home front despite the battle in Hawaii. 

Today our population in the USA is 324,910,953. So doing the math if things were the same, there would be 8,610,140 million near starvation. But things aren’t the same. Today, gardens are simply a summer treat or a money making project. People want served. Even mechanics have their oil changed by someone else. In my childhood days, dad’s changed their own oil and fixed things around the house. My dad did and I can remember how that made me feel – secure. Later like everyone else, he hired everything done. It is the fashion.

No doubt WWIII  won’t be the same as WWII in a vast number of ways. IN part because Wars are not fought in the same manner as before. How will this change things? I don't know. I do know that the mindset of the people during WWII was different. They had done without during The Great Depression and knew how to sacrifice. They were humble, appreciative, and they were from the do-it-yourself era. These people had confidence. “I have done hard things and I’ll figure out how to make it through this too.”, was an attitude that I see now only in older farmers and ranchers. Replaced is a sense of fear. Ask someone what they would do if they had to be responsible for any or all of their own water, food, warmth, clothing, road repair, transportation, sewer, protection etc. if war came to America? See the panic flash across their face especially if you ask in detail. I pray it never reaches our shores but realistically know, it could come.

In WWII Washington Carver, in an agricultural tract promoting home food production, encouraged citizens to grow a garden. He called it a Victory Garden in an effort to boost morale. Twenty million gardens were planted creating 40% of the vegetables eaten by families. Many ate healthier than before the war. Lawns were tilled up, flower boxes converted to vegetables. Today, how many would grow a garden especially of the magnitude to produce 40% of their vegetables?  My observance is that people are happy to eat poor quality food as long as they don’t have to produce it themselves. 

In WWII 95 percent of the clothing we wore was being manufactured in the United States - now, none.  Even of the 2 percent some claim is made here, parts like fabric, button, etc. are still purchased elsewhere. Even if something is totally American made, the parts are manufactured from all over America and shipped to one spot to be assembled. Great now but if like in WWII gas and tires are rationed, then those goods all of a sudden become expensive and scares. Today, “Made in the U.S.A.” is most often stamped on heavy equipment or the circuits that go inside other products than on televisions, toys, clothes, and other common items found on a store's shelves. Companies have moved toward high-end manufacturing. Less costly goods have moved overseas where the labor costs are far less. This is the items we use most. It (seems like) China makes most of what we buy. China is even finding their way into our food market. We know of their low standards especially in food and yet we buy. What if in WWIII we went to war with China- a scary thought? As this thought passed through my mind, I was curious so I looked at various country's military and how they were ranked and why –interesting and unsettling. Some of the most unstable countries are the most prepared for war.

No, things won't be much like WWII. Far fewer of our needs are manufactured in America and even fewer created in our homes. Americans do not have the same mind set. What exactly will come to pass and when, I don't honestly know. I do know that the more we prepare, the more secure we feel. Peace of mind is worth a lot. It matters not whether it is a loss of job, health, natural disasters, or war, we can "ride the river" as John Wayne says and stay afloat if we are better prepared financially, skills wise, and have stores laid up for a rainy day. So I don't think it hurts to think, 'What if?' if it motivates us to create a more personally secure future.