I am currently interning on a small raw milk dairy farm, Fernwood Creamery. I milk cows and live in a tiny house on the property! I don’t know why trying to describe living and working on a dairy is so hard for me. Usually, I get a spur of the moment idea for a post then it turns into some kind of story. This is a post that I have wanted to write since I started in November, and it has taken me that long to come up with a way to show you what I have been up to. With a video!
This video is a time lapse of me milking 4 Brown Swiss and 2 Jersey cows last Wednesday evening, and bottling that milk the following morning. {My favorite part is watching the window in the milk house, as the sun is rising, it brightens}
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMhll0nDhgp/?taken-by=rebecca_lynn11
If the video above is not working, I also have it loaded: Here
That basically sums up what I have been up to on the dairy! I milk and bottle 5 times per week. Which takes me about 2 1/2 hours to do by myself. The rest of the day I keep an I on the milk house, washing jars and rearranging the milk in the fridge. In the barn, I feed the cows, knock down and stack a few bales of hay from the loft, once a week clean the chicken coop. I also get to hang out with some pretty cool kids. The family that owns the farm has 5 boy that are always running around. The 4 year old is my biggest helper! He loves to help me shovel the dust from the hay to use as bedding for the cows and chickens.
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One more thing before I go. I posted this on Instagram last week. This is Marshmallow one of the 2 heifers here at the dairy. She is my buddy. I was walking along the road when she spotted me. She raced me to the fence so I could pet her. They are so cute when they floppily run towards you.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBoMUjLBi-d/?taken-by=rebecca_lynn11
If there is anything you want to know more about: living on a farm, milking cows or living in a tiny house, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments below. I would love to share more, it is just hard knowing where to start!
Thanks for sharing the videos. Really neat. I love dairy cows. My neighbors where I grew up milked cows and it was fun to go watch. Of course it was machines not by hand but still interesting.
What made you decide to become their intern? Do they have other animals besides the cows? How long will you be there? I bet Benjamin would like to pet Marshmallow.
We milk by machine, too!
Carla, I sort of decided to intern on a whim. The owner of the dairy is the oldest son of the family that owns The Farm at Swan’s Trails, where I grew up working in Snohomish. He asked if I would come be their knew intern, and I said yes! I pretty much said yes with out thinking it through. It has turned out to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I have gotten a lot stronger from all of the heavy lifting, but a lot of bumps and bruises too.
Besides cows we have 2 chocolate havana rabbits, one of the boys breeds them. We have about 20 chickens that are free to roam the pasture as they like, and 2 with ducks! 🙂
I will be here for about 3 more weeks! Then I have to find a new job..
Thanks for the questions!
I wish Ben could come pet Marshmallow, she has the softest cheeks.
Thanks for sharing. Brave of you. I make cheese and like to use raw milk…somehow that got me to your blog. I wish you well on your journey.
-P-
Thank you for wandering over to my blog and sharing a comment! Best of luck on your cheese making! Milking cows was a wonderful experience and I enjoy hoping around to different farms as the seasons change.