Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Small steps towards self reliance .....

Thought it was time I explained the idea behind the heading on my side bar "Steps towards self reliance". You can get immersed in everyday life on the farm, raising crops, livestock etc, which isn't a bad thing. Add to mix homeschooling and soon the majority of, if not all of your day seems to whizz by. One day leads to another, a week has gone, then a month and so on........
Our aim is to actively set aside a bit of time to learn. Yeap, its as simple as that! To learn skills that help to take us a step, be it ever so humble, towards self reliance. This may not happen on a monthly basis but by putting it on my side bar will serve to be a reminder of what we have achieved along this path and help keep us motivated.
As a belated Christmas present to each other (Are we the only couple that do this I wonder?) We decided to take the plunge and invest in a milk separtor and butter churn. Presently the goats are supply our daily milk supply and "Molly" our jersey heifer is now in calf, it is from her milk that I am aiming to make cream and butter from.
I can still remember as a little girl, my mum separating the milk and having to take a turn at turning the handle while mum had a little rest. This was done on the verhanda. After separating our first lot of milk it soon became apparent that it can be a bit messy, as the milk sometimes splatters. I now know why mum did it out on the verhanda!

3 comments:

chook said...

oh Bec
i wish I still had Polly .SO is a verandah on the list of things to get done in the future??
I will do a post again as soon as I have something to say Hugs Beth

Bec - Farmers Wife said...

Thanks Beth, but alas no the verhanda is not even on the list yet! We are leaning more and more towards and outdoor kitchen area though.

Unknown said...

I like this post! No you're not the only one who gets these sort of presents for Christmas! I got a food dehydrator and my husband got a generator :) We haven't found a need for a cream separator so far, as I seem to be ok just skimming it off the top, but if we had more milk I'm sure it would be useful. Your future dairy cow is gorgeous, I look forward to reading more about her in future.