Showing posts with label milker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label milker. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Milker issue Resolved and other Mundane Things

7:00 AM.  I am sitting here in near darkness and listening to the beginnings of a thunderstorm.   I was so afraid it would  move on before raining but this time, I was wrong.  We are now  (9:40  AM) at 2 inches and it is still raining lightly.  We have moved the herd east of us and I can watch then enjoying the cool rain.  I don't think they have lifted their heads from the grass.



The Gods are smiling on us this morning.

The last time we shopped at our local market  they had Boston Butt pork roasts (boneless) on sale for $2.39.  I bought 2  weighing over 3 lbs. each.  I also noted that sausage was between $3.99 and up.  I decided to grind the roasts and make my own.  I wish I had taken pictures of the process, but I didn't.  I used the grinder attachment (Mom's that fit her old KA mixer and that also fits my new Pro Model.
Worked like a charm.  I didn't have sage, of all  things, so I had to stop midway and let it rest overnight in the Milk Parlor fridge which wasn't a bad thing.  That allowed the seasonings to meld into the meat.

Bought the sage and then decided to make it half breakfast sausage and half Italian Sweet Sausage.  I had all the spices for the Italian. 


The long tubes are the Italian and the rest is breakfast.  I had to make some small links because one of our GD's likes them that way.

We had some for breakfast and it was very tasty.  I still can't taste the sage.  I think my home-grown sage is much stronger so I will be planting another one next spring.

For lunch I am making a pizza using the Italian sausage.  I will let you know what we think.

On a more personal level, I am having a lot of trouble with my right knee.  I finally gave in and will be seeing the rheumatologist tomorrow.  I am torn between just working through the pain and keeping on keeping on or staying off it as much as possible.  The last choice won out.  DH did all the mowing this week and he is also milking Willow using the new milker.  I haven't even  gone to the barn.

The story on the milker was there was nothing wrong.  They are just more sensitive to loosing vacuum than the inline system and we were doing a minor thing that reduced vacuum just beforetrying to attach it to Willow.  It has worked like a charm once we found that out.  We still haven't  found a calf to put on Willow.  I am guessing that more people are keeping them now beef prices are so good.  I hope to try more  cheeses that I can freeze.

To that end, I bought a dairy thermometer and muslin for straining the curd.

Now if the doctor can just improve  my knee..........................