Post by gjhinesjr on Mar 14, 2017 12:53:43 GMT -5
As I get ready to start milking this year, at the start of next month, I have been thinking more and more about improving my equipment. I just upgraded my vacuum pump.
My next quandry is that I hate cleaning everything.
I've bee scanning all sorts of ideas for a bulk tank as well. I would love to buy a Milkplan tank, but for this year that's off the table. A little while ago I came across Gianaclis Caldwell's book "The Small Scale Dairy" on google books and it had a picture of a chest freezer, filled with glycol, with milk buckets in it. I sort of immediately thought that was brilliant. Exactly the same idea as the old school "spring box", but with modern refrigeration.
I've been basically thinking I would do that this year. But I happened to come across her youtube videos yesterday where it shows that she has her milk hoses go directly from the inflations, through the wall into the milkhouse, into her milk bucket, which sits inside the chest freezer. When she's done she takes the milking lid off, and puts another solid lid on. Never pulling the milking bucket out of the freezer.
So in my case, my stanchion sits on the outside corner of my shop. Which is just a metal clad building. I could potentially put the chest freezer right on the inside of the shop, on the other side of the wall, and do the same thing. But since the shop has no water. I would have to bring the claw and milk hose back to the house to clean, but that would be really nice not to have to drag the bucket back and forth all the time.
Ok so here's my question. Why couldn't I just leave the lid on the milk bucket and just pull the milk hose off? Even if the lid of the bucket has open "ports", it's all sitting inside the 34 degree air of the chest freezer. And whatever residue of milk is left on the lid, is still being cooled just like the liquid milk in the bucket. I realize the obvious response is to say "it's just a small lid, why not just clean it" But if it saves time why not?
I would basically have to make myself a hole in the wall, that I'd have to go hang the claw on the stanchion, fish the hose through the hole in the wall, then walk around to the inside of the shop (no door near the stanchion), hook the hose up to the bucket. Then hook the other hose up to the vacuum as well. Then walk back outside to milk. Maybe not quite as user friendly as I'd prefer. But I'm thinking still better than hauling a 30lb milk bucket back and forth and having to clean it, and transfer all the milk to a 1/2gallon glass jar to cool.
What do you guys think?
My next quandry is that I hate cleaning everything.
I've bee scanning all sorts of ideas for a bulk tank as well. I would love to buy a Milkplan tank, but for this year that's off the table. A little while ago I came across Gianaclis Caldwell's book "The Small Scale Dairy" on google books and it had a picture of a chest freezer, filled with glycol, with milk buckets in it. I sort of immediately thought that was brilliant. Exactly the same idea as the old school "spring box", but with modern refrigeration.
I've been basically thinking I would do that this year. But I happened to come across her youtube videos yesterday where it shows that she has her milk hoses go directly from the inflations, through the wall into the milkhouse, into her milk bucket, which sits inside the chest freezer. When she's done she takes the milking lid off, and puts another solid lid on. Never pulling the milking bucket out of the freezer.
So in my case, my stanchion sits on the outside corner of my shop. Which is just a metal clad building. I could potentially put the chest freezer right on the inside of the shop, on the other side of the wall, and do the same thing. But since the shop has no water. I would have to bring the claw and milk hose back to the house to clean, but that would be really nice not to have to drag the bucket back and forth all the time.
Ok so here's my question. Why couldn't I just leave the lid on the milk bucket and just pull the milk hose off? Even if the lid of the bucket has open "ports", it's all sitting inside the 34 degree air of the chest freezer. And whatever residue of milk is left on the lid, is still being cooled just like the liquid milk in the bucket. I realize the obvious response is to say "it's just a small lid, why not just clean it" But if it saves time why not?
I would basically have to make myself a hole in the wall, that I'd have to go hang the claw on the stanchion, fish the hose through the hole in the wall, then walk around to the inside of the shop (no door near the stanchion), hook the hose up to the bucket. Then hook the other hose up to the vacuum as well. Then walk back outside to milk. Maybe not quite as user friendly as I'd prefer. But I'm thinking still better than hauling a 30lb milk bucket back and forth and having to clean it, and transfer all the milk to a 1/2gallon glass jar to cool.
What do you guys think?