Happy Homesteading

In our evolution as a family, we've slowly leaned towards becoming homesteaders.
Well...more like hobby homesteaders. We're not exactly hardcore.
Last week it was time to do away with old hens that were refusing to lay. I've always either given away these kinds of hens or had Hubs do away with them (far, far from my sight), but a thought had been brewing in my head for a while... "why waste?" And so, we had them processed (that's a nice word for slaughtered), cooked them up and ate them. My Kaytlin was the only one who could stomach watching the process from start to finish. And she ate every last bite. She may be more hardcore than myself.
I know that sounds bizarrely inhumane. But anyone whom has raised chickens understands they're not quite like the family kitty cat. They're not exactly cuddly. Or even cute, really. So, I justified the fact that their death served purpose, and that purpose was chicken and dumplings on my dining table. And lots of chicken stock in my freezer. It was surprisingly tasty, and only one of my girls took issue with the consuming of our bird...so she opted for peanut butter and jelly instead.
To each their own.
Our latest ventures in homesteading this week involved obtaining some good ol' raw milk from friends down the road. They're hardcore homesteaders and with two milking cows, and they live off the rich stuff. Since I'm still a little trigger-shy on giving the family unpasteurized milk...we instead made some butter, buttermilk and yogurt.

Separating the milk and the cream.

Whipping the cream up...which seemed like a hundred years to do.
Pretty sure I heard my Kitchen-Aid moan a little. 

Morphing into butter!

The end result: A slab of butter and a jar of buttermilk.

 Since the butter making was a bit laborious (more for my stand mixer than for myself) with little yield (our family will consume that little pat of butter within a few days...if I let them; right now it's the sacred butter that we only use on special occasions), I probably won't choose that again. However, it dive give me a nice amount of buttermilk in the process, so that was a plus. (Mmmm...biscuits, anyone?) The rest of the milk I heated up and made some yummy yogurt with....which should be ready to try tonight. (Woo-hoo for probiotics!)

Heating the remaining milk to just the right temp..

A nice, hot water bath for the yummy yogurt to finish processing..cooler-style. 

 And don't even get me started on the rich, thick, fresh organic cream in my morning cup of coffee. Holy. Hannah. Coffee just kicked up to a whole new level of awesomeness. I have no picture to show for this, because I was in a trance while sipping the amazingness and chanting, "oh my gosh, oh my gosh...this is soooo good." I'm officially an addict...

I'm super tempted to try some cream cheese. Or maybe sour cream. Or maybe just cheese. The possibilities at this point are endless. And my mouth is salivating at the options...
And now I want a milking cow.