Video: Learning to Milk a Cow at 36 Years of Age
We moved to this bare acreage nearly seven years ago with not much more than a head full of homesteading books and a dream. Neither of us had ever built a house, used solar power, kept animals, or built homestead infrastructure by hand. We still feel like greenhorns in so many ways and this video of milking Mabel tells part of that story.
Our book The Doable Off-Grid Homestead is coming out soon with all of the details of building and growing our homestead. You can pre-order today!
You are an artist! I love reading your adventures and I long to be your neighbor and off grid too!
Sherri – That’s so sweet! We hope to do more in the future, Lord willing.
This was so sweet. What a nice way to start my day. Thanks for sharing.☺
CShines – I am glad you liked it. 🙂
Congratulations on your new skill. Milking a cow is one of the most rewarding experiences one can have because of the value of whole milk. Plus, after a while, a relationship develops between the cow and those who milk her. My grandmother and my mother both kept milk cows, so it was only natural that I learn to milk. My grandmother’s cow was the easiest to milk and she seemed to enjoy seeing us heading to the barn where the milk stall was and where she knew she would get some sweet hay. My mother’s cow, on the other hand, was very ornery. She hit me in the face with her tail, tried to kick me, and tried to swing her head as a weapon. When my mother died, I moved in with my older sister and she and her husband had a huge dairy. I had never been to their dairy and just assumed that the cows were milked by hands. The first Saturday at their home, my brother-in-law asked if I wanted to go milk and I asked him how many cows and he said, 150 and I thought no way will we get all those cows milked. Imagine how surprised I was to learn milking just meant cleaning, hooking up the gadgets, cleaning, and watching the milk guy load it in his huge truck. Plus he had employees. My daughter has a milk cow and we have a goat that gives a ton of milk. I make cheese with the most of it but from her cow, I make butter, lots of butter and I further make ghee from the butter; it adds an amazing flavor to other foods. I am lactose intolerant and have always been but I can eat a little cheese and butter. I hope you have many years of milking happiness with your cow.