Life off the grid

Bruce from Can. · Jul 9, 2016

Lightning blew the breaker at the power pole at the road last night. Milking on the generator this morning

larry@stinescorner · Jul 9, 2016

How many cows are you milking now?

Bob Bancroft · Jul 9, 2016

Southeast of you, across the lake, we can't even get that much. 1.5" rain in May, which was OK, .75" in June, not good, nothing so far in July, terrible. Things are really suffering.

Bruce from Can. · Jul 9, 2016

We got 1" in June and 1" on July 1rst, we got at least that much again last night. We were very dry.

Bruce from Can. · Jul 9, 2016

70 Jersey girls to milk this morning Larry, cream for those strawberries has to come from somewhere, lol.

Geo-TH,In · Jul 9, 2016

From 57-67 I grew up on a dairy. Dad milked 70 Holsteins, should say us kids milked 70. We pasteurized, bottled and delivered it too. It didn't take me 10 years to learn milking cows wasn't going to be in my future.

In those 10 years, we were never without power. Good think, dad didn't have a backup generator. Do you power your milk cooler with generator too?

I went to college and never went back to the dairy. Still enjoy living in the country.

I'm am glad someone likes milking cows.

Bruce from Can. · Jul 9, 2016

Yes the genset plugs into a switch at the pole, and we switch off the grid. This way we won't electrocute power workers with our generation when they come to fix the line. So house and barn are all powered up just like any normal day. Cool milk , milk cows, take a hot shower , make breakfast, do anything just like normal. All for about 2 gallons per hour .

01gentdc · Jul 9, 2016

glad you are ready when the electric gets compromised, bruce //// mom and dad had jerseys , they milked about 20 by hand , until 1961, when dad , part time town job went fulltime .then sold them off,.and my mother cried.,, we kept 2 ,, jerseys do indeed make the best cream , and they are gentle as lambs ..

MARK ROBKE · Jul 9, 2016

I too was raised on a dairy farm.Until the state highway came along and took out the all of barns,when I was 13,in my life anyway,the power never went out.Dad milked by hand until the late 40s,but I only remember milking machines,tie stall barn.Mark

Geo-TH,In · Jul 9, 2016

Making electricity is always more expensive than buying it from power company. BUTTTTTTTTT well worth it not milking 70 cows by hand. We had milking machines, no pipe line. Had to carry milk to tank cooler. Glad someone enjoys cows more than I.

I do enjoy steaks. Some of our old cows were so tuff, they were turned into hamburger. Never went hungry.

coshoo · Jul 9, 2016

We had 2 milking machines- Surge pulsator type. Dad had a petcock on the intake manifold of the 8N Ford, and could generate enough vacuum to run one milker OK. So milking took a little longer when the power was out, but it did get done without resorting to hand milking. Cows went down the road in about 1961. Many went out about that time, when it became clear that they weren't going to recover from the milk price crash of '58.

K Effective · Jul 10, 2016

Bruce, I hope your grid power is restored soon- and thanks for looking out for the repair workers by disconnecting. That is usually an automatic function, for if you were to leave the connection closed and hook your generator to the system, well, let's just say it won't power your whole neighborhood for long. But it would send dangerous current on the line briefly.

I toured a brand new dairy facility nearby yesterday- two robot milkers and two brand new fabric barns, beautiful. The family has been milking cows there since the 1880s, so glad to see the two youngest generation boys wanting to keep it going. The owner says it is really great to walk into the barn in the middle of the night and find a cow being milked, on her own schedule, with no one around. They have a mix of Holsteins and Jerseys, those Jerseys are sure cute!

Life off the grid

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member

larry@stinescorner

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Bob Bancroft

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Bruce from Can.

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Bruce from Can.

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Geo-TH,In

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Bruce from Can.

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01gentdc

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MARK ROBKE

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Geo-TH,In

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coshoo

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K Effective

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