Morning chores

     Opening the chickens is the first thing to do outside every day.  There is a little door, just the size of a chicken, and it lifts up when the rope is pulled and hooked on a strategically placed nail.  If the chickens come blasting out of the chicken sized door then it could have been opened earlier.  I like to find that sweet spot of opening their door when its light enough to see as I’m walking down the path towards the coop, but before they all hop down off the roosts and start scratching around on the floors.  There is a pecking order and for some of the chickens it can be really uncomfortable to be trapped in a building with particular members of the flock.  Its nice to open their door early and let the chickens exit peacefully instead of running for their lives.  The rooster starts to crow and I am already up and about well before daylight.  Opening the chicken door too early presents the possibility that a night creature may enter and take a chicken for a meal.  Possums and raccoons find the roosting chickens such easy prey so the door must be closed as darkness falls each evening and only opened as morning light brightens the sky.  

Then a bit before chore time, I head out to the milk house and begin.  Chore time lately has been about 8:30 am and it adjusts with the seasons.  The water heater gets turned up to high after resting all day on low.  Two 5 gallon cans sit waiting, mostly full of clabbered milk.  One can gets emptied into a bucket and the other can is lifted and about 3/4 of the thick, sour milk is poured into another bucket.  The empty can sits by the sink to be washed later, when the water is nice and hot.  Milk remaining in the 2nd can returns to its place by the door and will be added as the starter, to skimmed milk, for another batch of clabbered milk.  Buckets are moved into the holding area and eagerly await their trip down the lane to feed the piggies.  I think of these as buckets of sausage and they are precious, not to be spilled.  A bit does get poured into pans in the yard where cats, chickens, and dogs gather to enjoy their morning treat.  

Now its time to skim the cream.  Two milk cans, each holding around 4 gallons of milk, have been sitting in the refrigerator for two days.  Over that time, the cream has generously risen to the top and can be easily skimmed off.  Transporting these cans involves careful attention to the contents.  They must be lifted and moved in a way that does not disturb the cream layer, which could be easily mixed back into the rest of the milk that it sits upon.  These cans are heavy and they must be sort of levitated out of the refrigerator and held quite still until coming down to rest where the light is good.  Normally when carrying a can full of milk, say for cheese making day, the weight of the can may rest against the legs and the whole body used to move the can around.  For skimming cream, the can must be brought out of the refrigerator and held out away from the body, clear of the legs which are moving, walking towards the final destination.  This technique allows the cream to remain on top, in skimmable position.  Its quite satisfying to be able to move a full can in this fashion and I feel it demonstrates my love for, and devotion to, cream.

To receive the skimmed cream, an empty two gallon stainless steel can rests between the two full cans and the large ladle is rinsed in hot water.  I take my place on the green crate and lean over a can for the best view.  The forward edge of the ladle is pushed gently down to break the surface and thick, heavy cream reluctantly releases and flows into the bowl of the ladle.  The angle is changed as the ladle fills and then the load is carefully poured into the receiving vessel, minimizing drips and saving as much cream as possible for butter, or ice cream, or coffee, or whipped cream, or just plain drinking.  The cream almost displays layers as it is removed, changing from thick, heavy, and sticky to thin and loose.  There comes a moment when a distinct color change appears under the lifted ladle as the bluish-white of the skimmed milk shows itself.  This can is through offering cream and now cream from the second can may be lovingly harvested, beginning again with the thick cream that clings to the ladle.  At the end of a can, It is fun to try and skim off as much of only the cream as possible, playing with the color change as the pale blue skimmed milk tries to slip in to the ladle along with the yellower cream.  It reminds me of video games played as a young child.   Any anxiety about “getting all the cream” or “not too much milk” in the cream can is soothed with the knowledge that it all just becomes sausage.  Cream not harvested from a can will be fed to the appreciative piggies.  Milk put through the butter churn will drain out as butter milk and get carried down the lane in a bucket to the happy pigs.  Just relax and skim in joy.