Raw Milk

This is our gang, on the way to a friend's house Saturday afternoon.

 Have you ever tasted "raw milk"?

Milk right out of a cow.

I have always wanted to taste "real" fresh milk.

So, we took a trip.

 We drove past Gee Hill...

(Todd's Mom is a Gee-- wonder if there is any relation?)

 We always travel with a whole gang of kids.

 Look at those lovely ladies.

Some had utters just begging to be milked.

One lucky lady was in the barn hooked up to a machine that sucked the milk through tubes right to this container--

 This milk was still warm.

 That smaller container emptied into this big vat of raw milk.

 (The milk truck had been there recently so it wasn't very full.)

 For $2 a gallon, we scooped our own milk and left the dollars in a coffee can on the shelf.

Sounds neat, doesn't it?

 On the way home, we stopped by a donkey/cow farm.

Leah loves her donkeys.

(I think this was the first time she has actually seen a real donkey.  I'm wondering if they are bit bigger than she was imagining them to be.  We're still planning on a trip to see some miniature donkeys.)

Leah has been asking for a donkey, for months.

 Back at my friends' farm, my big kids were determined to catch the rooster.

 That old cock-a-doodler was eventually caught, but I'm afraid he might be forever traumatized.

Poor fella.

We cooked our milk at 140 degrees for 15 minutes and then used it like normal.

My opinion-- raw milk tastes...

just like regular whole milk, with some floaties in it.

I'm surprised.

I thought our store bought milk was a bit more processed.

It didn't seem that different to me. 

(But, I'm NOT one that would ever spend inordinate amounts of money on organic foods.)

I like cows.

I like roosters.

I like milk.

But mostly, I just like this kind of life.

I like that my kids know where their food comes from.

I like that they touch things that are REAL.

I love to see them playing together, outside, in this beautiful earth.

Life is good.