2005-06-08 - 7:45 a.m.

The Family Cow

First of all this is not my normal diary writing. Every once in a while I write things that will be an html page that will become a page for my website. This happens to be one of them. Look at the bottom of the page and hit the last diary writing I had did to read it.

I have always loved milk, and all of the things associated with milk. I have always made sure my family has plenty of the milk products. After our move I was getting really bad pains in my stomach I found out I had an ulcer.

I figured with the stress of the move and other things I wasn�t too surprised so I took the meds when it acted up and everything was a bit better but I hated taking the meds, it seemed I always had to take them. My chiropractor (yes my chiropractor is that good, he is one of those old ones that know everything the way they are suppose too)

suggested to me one day that I stop drinking milk for a month to see what would happen. What give up milk? I was horrified, I just couldn�t, I wouldn�t but I did and the ulcer pains went away and so did my meds.

After awhile the thought of eating cheese was like eating nails I couldn�t even think of it, but craving a nice cold glass of milk with cookies didn�t go away.

Then one day I came upon a site called realmilk.org and it was suggested that people allergic to milk like myself could drink raw milk, when milk is pasteurized it kills the enzymes that helps you digest it, so drinking it raw would be better.

Long ago they did this to kill off things they thought were bad and even though most facility�s today are clean and inspected and the cows are vaccinated the farmers kept doing this cause of the prolong use of how fresh they could keep their milk which means farther delivers.

I tried this with my neighbor�s goat milk. It worked; I tried it with cheese I made with the goat milk it worked too! After awhile though the milk sometimes had an awful smell to it, it smelled like the buck urine.

I think they had their bucks to close or just weren�t cleaning it properly. I lost the taste for goat milk. Besides the thought of raising goats was going to be a pain. I had just recently gotten rid of mine cause they were constantly getting into trouble. My family also didn�t care for it much. Daughter drank it but didn�t really like it.

So I started looking around on the net for different cows and found out I had always wanted a New Jersey. I have always loved those light brown cows with the big eyes; they are a gentle breed it was said.

The problem is going to be trying to get an adult or even a calf from someone. They are like gold around here. The dairy�s that do have them won�t give them up. They keep their little heifers too.

The other problem would be time to milk them. Twice a day, same time every day, keep everything really clean, and the equipment to be automated. There was going to be no way that I milk her by hand every day when I had so many other chores around the farm.

I didn�t realize the cost of a milker and not just the milker you need the pump to work the milker and so much more. Could I do this I thought? For my family yes I could, for the love of milk I could.

Another problem that arose is I could not profit from my cow. Its illegal to sell raw milk, unless you have a state certified milking room; a family can drink their own raw milk. The list went on for this, as much as I would like to do this someday it would take time and money. I would like to start off small.

There are so many people like myself that want raw milk. They have what they call Cow shares. You sell parts of your cow to other people so they own the cow too. They help with the shots each year for their cow and they pay you for board and feed and you milk their cow. They don�t pay you for the milk its their milk.

It�s a loophole that has worked for a while. Problem is these state certified inspectors don�t like this idea that we have a loop hole and have recently began taking small farms to court over this.

You can sale cheese after 60 days. I guess they figure everything is dead in it after that time. The older the cheese the better sort of like wine, so I may do that, however for the time I just need to concentrate on getting the equipment and saving up for a cow.

It�s the last animals next to a yearly pig that I want for the farm. When we get our cow we will have everything needed to be self-reliant. Every payday I will be saving some money from my allowance for my Cow fund. I will be having a yard sale too and hopefully other ideas will come to me to save up for my cow fund.

Here is the list of things I would like to get I might add or take things off as I get them:

Book �Keeping a family cow�
Milker Machine & Pump $550 or higher depending on size
Cream separator $325.00
Stainless steel milk can $169.00-Would like two or something similar
Cheese making book $16.99
Cheese press $129 Eventually have this�
Curry brush
Electric butter churn $239.00 Manual $124
Butter molds $15.95 eventually have this�
Dairy Thermometer $19.95
halter for cow and rope

So there you have it, the reason why I want a family cow, my next dream to become self-reliant on our family farm. Our dream someday is to be able to sit down for a meal and have everything from our own land on our table. Fresh meats, breads, nuts and fruit, our own honey, and of course our own milk with butter and cheese.

The Cow Fund - Farm work