Cooke's Frontier Radio Hour Show Notes

Another week, another new podcast! It's really amazing how quickly the weeks are going by for our family right now. You can find this weeks show Family Milk Cows and Recipes! at this link. Want to listen to something new? There are hosts on The Survival Mom Radio Network covering topics from prepping to homeschooling to living off grid. There is something for everyone!

I have 3 Recipe's of the Week this week. All 3 of these are simple, no bake treats that your whole family will enjoy.

Minty Grasshopper Pie- a creamy, delicious no bake pie that has an incredible minty flavor!
Banana Split Pie- Ice cream combines with bananas, strawberries, chocolate syrup and whipper cream to create this cool frozen treat.
Almond Joy No Bake Cookies- Everyone loves no bake cookies, but these take it one step further by adding sweet coconut and crunchy toasted almonds.

This week I also discussed the Family Milk Cow. Here are some highlights:

1. Decide what you are going to use the milk for and how much milk you think you are going to use. From there, do some research and decide what breed of milk cow will fit your needs. For example, a smaller family might be better off with a breed like a Dexter, while a larger family or a family looking to  make a lot of dairy products (cheeses, sour cream, cottage cheese, ice cream, cream cheese, etc) might be happier with a larger producing Jersey. 
2. Look in your area to determine what types of milk cows are available. Combine that information with your prior research and decide which cows you should take a look at. 
3. Go look at some cows. Get in with them, touch them, see how they act. Cull out the cows that are skittish, have a mean temperament or the ones who the owners aren't willing to let you touch. Spend some time looking them over to see how they act around people. 
4. When you have the animal picked out, have a vet check her over. If the owners aren't comfortable with this, it's time to find another animal. When the vet gives her a clean bill of health, take her home!
5. Begin milking, either with a milking machine or by hand, and get your cow set up on a twice a day (or once a day, if you are doing that) schedule. 

A couple more things to think about: Cleanliness is VERY important. Your equipment, hands and the cows' udder must be immaculately clean. There are dairy cleaners available or you can use one of the many formulas you can find by searching "udder wash" online. Also, get that milk chilled to 40 degrees as fast as possible, especially if you are planning on drinking it raw! One last thing to think about while deciding if a milk cow is for you is this: you have to keep that cow having a calf every year or so to keep her milking. Do you have the ability, or does someone you know have the ability, to AI her or bring a bull (or take her to a bull) so she can have a calf each year? Buying a milk cow won't do you any good if she isn't giving you any milk! 

Let's Just Be Nice

Yesterday I had a very disappointing experience with a fellow human that left a sour taste in my mouth all night. You see, I had reconnected with a woman I knew years ago, back when I was still single and working, through Facebook. Oh Facebook. If it wasn't for this blogs page on there, I would delete my account altogether. Anyway, I sent off a cheery "so good to hear from you again, what have you been up to?" message to her, excited to catch up. 

Her response stopped me dead in my tracks. SHE was a high level CEO in an accounting firm, SHE was married with one child (in private school, of course), SHE just got back from a trip to Paris and, best of all, SHE had the audacity to tell me she had always assumed I would make more out of my life that to "just" be a housewife and stay at home mom. 

I deleted her with the speed of light and never looked back. 

Ladies, why all the worry about what other women do? Why does it matter if I stay at home, or if you work or if you are single and do it all? Newsflash: It's ALL hard. I'm fortunate that I can stay home. That said, if anyone thinks it's easy I welcome you to spend a day in my shoes. You see, it's more than JUST staying home; there are kids to take care of, finances to wrangle, meals to fix, loads and loads of laundry to do- and that's just how my list for the day starts out. Staying at home comes with a lot of boundaries and limitations. I stay at home because 1) I think it's my place to be in our home, making a safe, comfortable and loving environment for my family and 2) because with 4 kids, a job would be worthless. Childcare alone would eat up anything I would manage to bring home. There are other reasons why I stay home, but they really don't matter. They are MY reasons, not yours. The reasons you have for working, or not, are just as important and matter just as much. 

I work hard to make one paycheck take care of all 6 of us. I bring our bills down to as low as possible, I control "fun" spending and manage the grocery budget with an iron fist. If you think this sounds like fun, you are wrong. I get discouraged sometimes. I want to be able to just jaunt off on a whim and spend 4 or 5 days not worrying about stretching our dollars to make sure we get through the month with money to spare. 

I don't "just" stay home and raise a family, I do this job because I love it. It's challenging, rewarding and the paychecks are easy to cash. You work your job, or go to school, or whatever it is you have decided is best for you because it's what you want to do or NEED to do. And that makes it important. 

Ladies, please don't judge each other so harshly. I'm no better than anyone else because I stay at home AND you are no better than me because you spend you day away from home. We're all just doing the best we can with what we have available right now. Maybe if we would stop the stay at home VS working mom war, we would find ourselves in a better place. You gotta do what's right, right now, for you and your family. 

Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, keep your negative thoughts and feelings to yourself if you must have them. You gain nothing by making another woman feel inferior or beneath you. You are only hurting yourself and putting a wedge between you and friendship. 

Stop the hate and start supporting each other. No job is easy- stop making it harder than it has to be to do what you love, or what you MUST.