Got me some milk!

I got me some milk today! Real milk. I drove over the river and through the woods to find the sweetest Jersey girls.....six of them to be exact with 3 more little girls hanging out in the barn out of sight. I took their pictures (blurry, of course) but I couldn't get very close. This area of Montana is already in the midst of break up or break out or whatever you call the time of year that is totally muddy from all the melting snow. And the pasture/ yard that they were lounging was REALLY muddy. This picture doesn't do justice to the knee deep mud. (Don't ask me how I know it was knee deep. Just know that I tried to get close enough to pet the cows but something wet and brown got in my way, and on my pants, and almost came up and over the top of my shoes. Like the smart Texan that I am, I just took the dang picture and got out of there before something other than mud squished into my shoe between my toes and socks.)

Anywhoo, here's a picture of the girls. I don't know their names yet. So I will assign names until I know different.





Helen




Jennifer






Jeri

Jeri is laying down, hiding really, because she's a little conscientious of her unsightly coat. But what's a girl laying in the field to do? It's OK, Jeri. I have bad hair days most often, too. And I don't live in a barn so I don't have an excuse!


And this is a picture of the great stuff that emanates from them (I don't think "emantes" is the right word, here.) When my youngest son saw the jars of milk sitting in the car, he cried out in an astonished voice: "Wow! Look at those jugs!" I don't think he realized the significance of what he was saying. But kind of poignant just the same.






The plan is to skim the cream off the top for sweet butter. Then I'll make yogurt from the rest of the gallon. I know we could just drink it, but the whole gallon could disappear in a meals time. To make several dairy edibles instead of imbibing the whole thing in one sitting seems like a better use of the one gallon of raw milk that I possess this week. Oh, and I did skim a little cream off the top for use in my coffee tomorrow morning. So, if anyone notices that the cheeks......of my face......seem to becoming more rounded, it'll be a testimony of the goodness of the cream. Maybe I'll go skim a little more. I'm not sure one morning's worth of cream will be enough.