You know Meg, you are a girl after my own heart. I was like you. I had five children and I loved cooking and taking care of my family. And like you, I made everything from scratch. And just like you, I had good quality equipment, and just like you, it never looked pretty because I was so busy cooking and using it that I didn't have time to scrub my pots and pans to make them look good. Sometimes in the winter time I would spend a few days scrubbing pots, but that was rare. But what I gained is that all of my children can cook, and I mean they can cook any kind of cuisine from all around the world. They are all self sufficient. They have always been practical and know how to keep a house, wash their own close, clean the house, wash the dishes, and some simple repairs. I lost my oldest son at the age of sixteen who drowned. But living, I have two boys and two girls. My oldest living is 42 and my youngest is 37. At one time I had five kids under the age of ten, and until the last, I always had two in diapers. Diapers of which I washed. Didn't do the Pamper route when everyone else did. I loved my life. Turned 67 this year, and my mind is willing but my body is not able to physically do all of that anymore. But I have loving children to do for their mom. I am truly blessed.
Hey guys, Living Traditions uses a large clear beverage container that has a spigot to collect their milk in. They let it separate then just open the spigot and let it out til you get to the cream. I think its a 4 or 5 gallon dispenser. I found some on Amazon. It may be much faster and just as much cream as the ladle method.
It is hot, really hot everywhere. We are on microwave meals, air fryer and sandwiches. Old houses take too long to cool back down. As soon as you mentioned the first mess your son started grabbing a towel. They are so in tuned to what both of you do. It is pretty astounding to watch the gears of your family life mesh so well. Take care, stay cool. peace
I use my propane camp stove out on the driveway to do big pot cooking and def processing my jars whether my water bath and my pressure canner....I prep everything inside and process outside....
@TheHollarHomestead A suggestion for EASIER and LESS EXPENSIVE cream separation: Use drink dispensers with a spout. Let them sit in the fridge, then open the spout and the milk portion comes out into a pot. Stop when you get to the cream portion (i.e. close the spout) then you have your cream separated easily and can make butter, etc.
Yes, that's the method we used. Just glass lemonade style jars from Walmart. We did replece the plastic spigots with stainless steel spigots from Amazon. Cheap...easy...cream separates all by itself. Also some cows produce more cream....we owned one cow that was a 50/50 cow! Half her "milk" was cream.
@@marylouise890 The portion left in the dispenser is the cream. The milk that you take out is usable to make cheese and is still drinkable. After you make cheese, the whey that's left is still a useful product for many things, including feeding to pigs and chickens. Some people make kefir or kombucha from it, I think.
I love how your cookware, stove, house is used and lived in. Some channels look like a magazine, and makes you wonder if they really do live there! I appreciate all you share with us, I love following you and your family as you grow your homestead! Thank you!
I get 6 Gallons a day and still use a 50 cc syringe to suck off my cream. I put up 50lbs of butter every summer for winter🤷. Takes 7 min to suck off the cream for 3lbs of butter & 1 min to rinse the syringe in hot water.
Thank you again for inviting us all into your homestead life and your beautiful family. I started on a homestead journey decades ago, got distracted by a career in medicine, and now in advanced age I'm retired, back into gardening and chicken-wrangling and composting and all. But what I *really* want to say to y'all is: You are so right to make homesteading the center of your life and livelihood. I don't actually regret my all-consuming career, but I do regret being away from homesteading for so long. Bless your hearts for doing what you're doing.
I love how real you all are. I am encouraged all the time by your videos to keep trying new things and to experiment. Ignore the haters, you inspire SO many!! God bless!
I'm impressed with how much you cook in the oven in the heat of summer. I always cook outside on the smoker/grill during the heat of the day. I refuse to heat up the house any more than I have to. We have mini splits too and they are a life saver!!
After a long day on my mini homestead I enjoy a glass of wine and watch how your day went. You make hard work look like fun! Your kids are learning great life skills as you teach your audience too. God bless you!
I grew up where we just skimmed it off the top by hand. After refrigerating it was pretty easy to see the layers between the heavy cream, the light cream and the skim milk. Heavy cream was always removed. Sometimes the lighter cream was removed but some, or all, of the light cream was left with the milk and before pouring a glass we would shake it up so the light cream would temporarily mix back in with the milk. I alway loved that. Of course if we needed to make butter or ice cream more of that light cream would be removed. My preference would be to do it manually to save time and more importantly for me reduce the things I would have to clean up - I hate doing dishes. Good luck.
Ben, I don’t think you and Meg should ever have to explain how you two spend your money. I think you two are the most frugal couple on you tube. Plus you’ve always stayed true to who you are from day one. When Buggy leaned over and kissed the beard as she said I thought that was the cutest thing ever, along with her going to get ready for her bath. You two are very blessed. God Bless young man.
Great job on repairing the mini-split. My husband has been a hvac tech for 44 years. He is the go-to guy for mini splits, communicating systems and anything that requires "thinking". The young guys don't want to be bothered by anything that requires thought. Hubby is talking about retirement this year. Company owner has begged him to reconsider.
Certain background noises like a loud fan running, are definitely an irritant, like a mosquito in the ear. I love watching you and your beautiful family. It makes me wish that I could go back to when my four kids were young, and do things differently. God Bless!
The biggest advantage to a separator is if you can deal with the milk as it comes in from the cow. If you have time to let it sit around, skimming works as well and is a lot faster.
Showing the good and bad, the cute and ugly of real home and homesteading, and with the kids helping as much as they do, it is a good thing to see "real family" and what it is all about ... the kids have thier jobs and it appears they do them really well but always there to lend a hand if and when needed ... love your videos and channel ... please, keep up the good work and show-time ...
Given all the manufacturing issues now, consider ordering another motor now for one of the other two mini splits you have in the home that might have problems in the future.
Thank you for all your homey videos. Such a beautiful family. I miss my own days and years gardening, canning and cooking. You bring me back to great times, without ME GETTING HOT AND BOTHERED. YOU ARE THE GREATEST!
So glad you were able to fix your AC with how hot it’s been that noise would have made me crazy too. Love watching all your projects even when they don’t work the way you hoped. Biscuits look great Meg!
When we used a separator, we always used warm milk straight from the cow. We milked, took the milk to the house, pour it into the separator. It was a fast, easy operation. You might try this and see if it works for you. Good luck!
We did exactly the same. Had the separator in the kitchen pantry. Sometimes we were allowed to hold our cups under the cream spigot, mix in a bit of sugar and had a glorious warm dessert.
Thank you for being real and showing the successes and failures along the way. You are our (one-way) homesteading community. We appreciate you and enjoy your posts. THANKS!
The plus with the cream thing was... it was a wonderful learning experience... for everyone. That first cream looked insanely thick... so yea, for most people the ladle method just makes more sense. Nice to know there are options though.
I am going back and blog from 5 years ago because I really enjoy the channel. You guys have evolved so much and for the better. Keep up the good work and videos coming
How cute was Buggy giving her Daddy a kiss….cuteness overload😘😘!! Trial and error is the name of the homestead game! I have things I’ve bought thinking it would really speed up a certain process…just to discover it didn’t work as well as I anticipated!! The lesson is we were doing it the best way for our situation! I love how y’all are so real and honest and you give us a video that helps everyone🥰🥰🥰🥰!!
Really liked your decision on the separator... good logic. Great job fixing the air con - love your family and your daughter is just so cute. I pray God's blessings on you all... pity New Zealand is so far away and my wife and I are in our 70's else we would love to visit with you.
Thanks for showing the real process and pointing out the reasons for pro and con. I love your videos!! I wrote to the Freeze Dryer Company and told them to send you one so you could show it off!! :)
Well done fixing the split system ac! Usually people just go ahead and replace things when they're broken. I'm impressed. Shame about the separator. Got to admit.... it's a lovely looking machine! 😆
Thank you. I have been wondering if it would be worth it for just one cow. I had my doubts that with time and clean up it was just too much. If you are up to trying something different, I saw people put fresh milk into 1 gallon jars with a nozzle on it. Place in fridge. After cream comes to the top open nozzle and pour milk out until you get to cream now all you have left is cream.
Had not seen your channel is a while, so refreshing to see your beautiful family in your simple daily living. I love the way you guys get along so well, your like best friends but married. God bless y’all Hollars.
That was great that you fixed the air conditioner yourself. Ask your community if they would trade for the cream separator... if you can not return it.
Hello my favorites!!! Things are improving each time you all make a video which is awesome. I like the cream separator which will get thick or thin cream. When it’s working Meg can be doing something else besides watching it once she get use to it. Ben get a second milk cow then you will have much more cream to make ice cream, cheese, yogurt, etc. Ben you are a Jack of All Trades, putting the new motor in without any problems. Good job 👍🏽. I only wish I was close to you all so I could buy some homemade butter. My mom and I use to make butter and buttermilk and people would order a pound of butter and a gallon of buttermilk once a week and we only had one milk cow. I love your videos, it bring back my teenage memories I will never forget. Thanks for sharing your homestead journey with us. Bye for now and God bless you all.
Beautiful to see a family having a great time together. The homestead life is the Life God wanted for us. God and Family , To many men go to the world or women thinking their missing out in life. Beautiful to see the way life should be. God Bless you for sharing your family, nice to see your boys growing and your little baby girl is so sweet. Great Job.
Well, that's an excellent idea, to take a picture of something before disassembling it, so you can put it back in the correct way. Blessings and greetings from central Florida.
Hey ya'll! Looks like another awesome day on the homestead😊 I look forward to your videos you have the most amazing life going on, thanks for sharing it🥰
One thing about the separator is that you can choose to get really thick cream or thin cream. You can putter around once you get used to it and maybe not have to heat the cream so much now you have the knack of it. Or you can just ladle cream off!!
Laddle the cream off then go to antique shop look for a glass jar with wood paddles and wood handle to churn it doesn't take just a bit. Take butter off and wash it till all the buttermilk. Or whey is off. Takes no electricity,!
Have a told you this is my Favorite channel?!! The Love and Respect you show each other, what a wonderful world we would have if everyone acted like the Hollar's. Love your channel.
I would try to send it back. Living Traditions Homestead as others have mentioned uses a jar with a spigot to separate cream, the cream rises to the top and then remove the skimmed milk via the spigot and the cream is left behind.
Some other homesteads use a cream separator and I always think it's so many more dishes and time. We milked 4 cows by hand. (Each child + me had a cow to milk) off grid so skimming was the way to go for us. Miss that butter, whole milk yogurt & cheese. Thank you for your HONESTY!
So enjoy your family. Thank you or sharing. Meg I could listen and watch you cook all day. You are by far one of the best cooks I watch on You tube. I cook alot like you, use what you have to make a meal. Thank you from Mid Missouri.
Love your whole family and how you work together!! About the cream separator, check "your orders" at Amazon, you should be able to return it. God bless!
Wow, you bought a cream separator. That's a lot of milk. I sure hope it works well for you. Thanks for showing the process. I'm glad it didn't make the mess it did with the water. That does look like very thick cream. Yum! Too bad it wasn't worth it. I hope you can return it and get your money back. I like the cheese you made. I hope the fan goes in easy. Yay, quiet again! Roast, biscuits, and green beans for dinner! Looks wonderful Meg. Thanks for this Hollars. I'm finally caught up after visiting family for 3 weeks and getting Covid.
When I was young in northern Maine most people had a cream separator in the kitchen. I remember helping my grandma with hers and that was almost 60 years ago
We had a larger separator, held 2 gallons, and the motor may have been larger. We had goats so waiting for it to separate was not an option. We would heat the milking from the night before while we were milking then run it after the milking. To save a step the milk was filtered into the separator as we did each goat. There was a hollow set screw that the cream came out of which could be adjusted to the thickness of cream we wanted. At the peak of our operation we were milking 20 goats. My favorite was to simmer the whey sown until the water was all gone and the sugar would carnalize then mix that back int the curds.
Yeah, I would return it and put a detailed review on Amazon and trust me you will get a refund. With the mini split in the kitchen/living area I recommend washing those filters out daily. Easy enough to do right in the sink. This will help the life of your motor. Those filters are catching all the kitchen grease that is airborne etc. I have a mini split in the same type of area in my place and I used to burn out motors constantly and found out it was due to the lack of airflow from the kitchen gunk buildup on the filters. Now I wash them daily and no longer replace the motors.
Great video, sorry about the cream skimmer but you don’t know until you try! Fantastic that the family eats together rather than kids on their electronics in different rooms! Thanks again for sharing! Blessings to your family!
Boy! I remember when we had a cream separator. It has many small parts, is a chore to clean. We had seven cows and felt we NEEDED it. Lol. We probably got tired of washing it and it lowered our butterfat so much that we got a much lower price for our milk. Coupled with the fact it was so easy to skim off our needs , we stopped using it. Mom washed it for the last time and then it became a unique decoration in our milk house. Lol. But hey, since you don’t ship your milk, it’s very likely you will use it more than we did.
Nice work on the A/C unit! That separator looked frustrating, I hope you can return it, as you said you want to, Thank you for the video! What a lovely family!
Thank you so much for sharing about the cream separator. Our cow is due the end of August and I will be milking for the first time. I am so excited! We are on a budget and so I am trying to just get the necessities. Your videos are so helpful and fun to watch.
Here's hoping that you may be able to return the cream separator if that is what you decide you want to do. That is too much money and takes too much of your time for it not to perform as you want. Glad you got the mini-split repaired. I would hate for you to have to go the rest of the summer/fall in this heat without some relief.
So Interesting, well you would never know unless you tried... living in central Florida I never put on my oven in the summer, I have a oven outside on my patio for that works great. Thanks for sharing...
On the ranch (back in the '40's and '50's, we had a humongous separator that took the fresh milk from the cows and did it's magic in, like, no time. Now, keep in mind I was a wee lad of 7 or so, so my perspective and understanding of that machine may be just a wee bit wonky, but not by much. The Gridlessness channel ( I may have their name wrong. . .) got a used separator exactly like the one we had and it worked like a charm for them. Them old fashioned mo-sheens did the job! Wish you could land one of them and you'd have some huge smiles doing the cream separating for sure.
Cream separators are REALLY hard to learn to use if you have never used one before b/c of all the stinking parts. Once you get the hang of how to put the thing together, you will just know and you are off to the races. You guys did GREAT! YES, you do get more cream using a separator than you do with just skimming. Our separator was really quick, didn't take nearly that long. We loved it. Took me three times to master ours. We sold our milk cow a few years ago and our separator. Hope we are not sorry we did! All our kids are grown and gone. :)
LOVE seeing your wonderful family! You guys are always so real! Buggy is growing So Fast and it was sweet seeing her Daddy the "Beard Kiss." I think you are right the cream "monster" is NOT worth the trouble Thanks for Sharing Your WONDERFUL FAMILY with us!!!
Great job fixing the mini-split. What was for dinner? That meat recipe looked delicious. Sweet baby is adorable, sweetest smiles, and smart. Thanks for the honest review on the milk separator too.
I grew up using a cream separator. It was fairly fast. We would bring in the milk from the barn pour it into a strainer in the separator bowl and separate the milk and cream. Then ship the cans of cream to the creamery. Too bad that one isn't working like it's supposed to
Great information on this video, and it is a shame that you do not like the milk separator. I remember my grandmother having a hand milk separator and stories from my dad of how he would use that and how long it always took to use. Anyway, may God bless your days the way He always blesses ours!
If it's hot there...the mercury went over 40C for the first time in the UK. That's 104F. We arent built for those temperatures. Just like Texas ain't built for snow. And to top things off we now have wildfires too....not just in typically rural areas, but in open spaces of East London.....
I'm in Texas. You guys are on all our minds. I know most of you do not have ac. The heat is deadly. There are several videos on RUclips of how to make your own temporary things to cool you down. Some involve ice chests, ice and fans. Please check them out. The heat will creep up on you. Take care, we are praying for y'all. peace
@@cheriekreusel3756 our homes tend to be built to keep heat in - not let it out.....at least where i am we "only" hit 34C (which still beats our record here in Northern Ireland -which was only set last year!) I'm semi-used to it - well more than most - i've lived in South Africa and India before moving back to the UK and Ireland.
@@cheriekreusel3756 Our UK houses aren't built for the heat, it was over 100F today and it's about 80F outside now (11pm at night) but my house is still at 95F. I've got the windows open but there's a wildfire about 10 miles from our house they've said will burn until at least tomorrow so we're getting smoke from that. It's either try to get the house a bit cooler with the windows open and deal with the smoke (it's far enough that it's not unsafe, just not very nice) or shut the windows and deal with trying to sleep in 95f house. I don't know how you all manage it over there all summer, I really feel for you hearing about the droughts and other issues. Thankfully it's cooling off a bit here tomorrow but hot again at the weekend. We've got no rain on the 14 day forecast and haven't had any for weeks now. It's quite worrying!
Did you inquire from Rebekah and Jess which cream separator they got and why? I know ya'll will enjoy the quiet, there is nothing worst than a noise constantly going at a level louder than is comfortable. Nerves and irritabilities should settle down immensely now!
We have the same separator and it took us several runs to get it dialed in. Just like you, at first I thought.. oh boy I just wasted $300 😳 Just last week I did an experiment where I hand skimmed the milk prior to running it through the separator to see if it was worth the effort of washing all the peices. I was amazed at the amount of cream I got from the hand skimmed milk. I kept it seperate when making butter. The hand skimmed milk had a little higher yield per quart, but not significantly. The other thing I found to be time saving was to use one of my 5 gallon pots for heating the milk and the other set down in the sink to collect the skim milk. That was super helpful in not having to switch out bowls.
And I thought my cast iron enamel pot had wear and tear! Yours looks 100X more worn than mine and it's still going strong. I will keep on trucking with it! Also, if that cream separator isn't working the way it should, return it! It's really a shame how many crappy products are being sold to people these days, so it's probably just a poorly designed product.
Handy is always better than looks. Looks are usually perishable anyway. Besides the more things fixed or built, the better the person who did those things looks!
Refrigerator beverage storage container with large fill cap and dispensing spigot. Let the cream rise, drain the "skim" out of the spigot. Taa Daa! You can get a three gallon container for under $20. Worth a try.
What would happen if you did a second run with the skimmed milk? As a chemist I'm familiar with the concept that most of your product is lost in purification. That's why you sometimes double or triple distill the original material if you want ALL of the product.
We actually tried running it through a second time and found that we didn't gain anything. It did expell liquid out of the cream spout, but it was the same consistency as the skimmed milk. We had hand skimmed the milk prior to running it through the separator, because I wanted to see if the time and effort of using the machine was worth it. So, my data may be skewed. I might try it one more time with a second run, without hand skimming first.
Hey yourself I be off those 1 - 2 gallon drunk dispenser jars from Walmart with a spikit (similar to the one at the bottom of your Berkey water filter). Poor the milk in let it seperated and drain the milk from the bottom, leaving you with the cream.
I grew up on a dairy farm. We had metal gallon containers that we used to collect our milk for drinking from the bulk tank in the barn. It sat in the fridge, we poured the cream off the top when separated. I guess it's a learned thing for how long and how much to pour off. Mom had it down! I'm sure you guys can easily do that, no fancy gadgets. Or mess! Love your life! 👍❤👍
I have a goat. I have seen multiple people say that you must use a cream separator to get cream from goats milk. I have been looking at them, but like you said, they are VERY pricy! I haven't started milking my goat a lot yet, as she is nursing twins. I hope to start milking her in a month's time. I did see where one person says you can get cream from goat's milk if you let it sit long enough, but you do get more if you use a separator. When you are on a fixed income, $300 is a major purchase. So I think I will try leaving the milk in the frig for a few days and see what I can get.
You can get that exact same model for a much better price off Vevor and its perfect for goats milk since its naturally homogenized and doesn't separate like cows milk in the fridge. (It will separate some but most of the cream stays mixed within the milk) so a separater is necessary.
get a spigot jar -- large enough to hold a full milking. Filter the milk into this jar.and close the jar and put it in the refrigerator. The cream will automatically raise to the top of the jar. Through the day, as the milk cools AND you use the milk the cream continues to separates to the top. When it's time to milk again remove the jar and collect the cream that's in the jar can be removed into a new jar (just or cream collection). Now you can strain the new milking into the spigot jar so you can repeat the previous days holding jar. It's best the jar is is clear so you can easily see the cream line. It'd be best to clean the holding jar between the milking. Good Luck
Your blessed with beautiful and good kids - enjoy them while they are young because before. you know it they will be big - some of my best thoughts are when my kids were small - God bless
you should try and find an old hand cranked cream separator., like from the 1940's I bought one years ago for $75 and if works great and doesn't take long to separate milk at all, You can also electrify them quite easily.
oh dear ! a heads up about prying lids off canning jars , oh please use a bottle opener to pry open , can openers usualy have one . from experience i cut a finger open using the knife .
At least you can send it back to Amazon. I separate by setting my milk out on the counter. I insert a food grade length of tubing to the bottom of the jar, 1/2 inch by 4-5 feet. Clothes pin it to the top of the jar. The cream rises to the top. With a little suction on the tube with your mouth, the milk on the bottom of the jar gets syphoned out into another jar that sits lower , I put mine on a stool 3-4 feet below the counter. The milk comes out of through the tubing leaving you the heavy cream that rose to the top. You can also do this with a drink dispenser that has a valve on the bottom.
You know Meg, you are a girl after my own heart. I was like you. I had five children and I loved cooking and taking care of my family. And like you, I made everything from scratch. And just like you, I had good quality equipment, and just like you, it never looked pretty because I was so busy cooking and using it that I didn't have time to scrub my pots and pans to make them look good. Sometimes in the winter time I would spend a few days scrubbing pots, but that was rare. But what I gained is that all of my children can cook, and I mean they can cook any kind of cuisine from all around the world. They are all self sufficient. They have always been practical and know how to keep a house, wash their own close, clean the house, wash the dishes, and some simple repairs. I lost my oldest son at the age of sixteen who drowned. But living, I have two boys and two girls. My oldest living is 42 and my youngest is 37. At one time I had five kids under the age of ten, and until the last, I always had two in diapers. Diapers of which I washed. Didn't do the Pamper route when everyone else did. I loved my life. Turned 67 this year, and my mind is willing but my body is not able to physically do all of that anymore. But I have loving children to do for their mom. I am truly blessed.
It feels like they are fading away
Hey guys, Living Traditions uses a large clear beverage container that has a spigot to collect their milk in. They let it separate then just open the spigot and let it out til you get to the cream. I think its a 4 or 5 gallon dispenser. I found some on Amazon. It may be much faster and just as much cream as the ladle method.
Kombucha jar
Great ideas and a cheap fix. Love our creativity as humans
I have tried these because the spigot is in the side you end up with milk in the bottom you can't get out
I think the drink dispenser is a great idea! When you get to the bottom just tilt it a bit.
Yeah when you get to bottom you have to tip jar a bit to side to get all skim milk out. Then you are left with just cream
I love that you show your prayer before your meal. And your children have such lovely table manners.
I've always heard.......The family that prays together stays together !! Amen
It is hot, really hot everywhere. We are on microwave meals, air fryer and sandwiches. Old houses take too long to cool back down. As soon as you mentioned the first mess your son started grabbing a towel. They are so in tuned to what both of you do. It is pretty astounding to watch the gears of your family life mesh so well. Take care, stay cool. peace
We could even match your temps here in the UK today - 40 deg C (104 deg F), a scorcher, actually the hottest on record for here.
I just grill or microwave for the most part this time of year. Even the air fryer heats up the 5th wheel a good bit
@@sroberts605 same here, 104° in Northern California. Yuck! But the sandwich sounds good!
I've been using the crockpot or instant pot out in my garage laundry room. All the heat stays outside.
I use my propane camp stove out on the driveway to do big pot cooking and def processing my jars whether my water bath and my pressure canner....I prep everything inside and process outside....
@TheHollarHomestead A suggestion for EASIER and LESS EXPENSIVE cream separation: Use drink dispensers with a spout. Let them sit in the fridge, then open the spout and the milk portion comes out into a pot. Stop when you get to the cream portion (i.e. close the spout) then you have your cream separated easily and can make butter, etc.
I agree. It works a treat.
Yes, that's the method we used. Just glass lemonade style jars from Walmart. We did replece the plastic spigots with stainless steel spigots from Amazon. Cheap...easy...cream separates all by itself. Also some cows produce more cream....we owned one cow that was a 50/50 cow! Half her "milk" was cream.
came here to say this exactly
But want you just get skim milk? To fed to hogs & chickens?
@@marylouise890 The portion left in the dispenser is the cream. The milk that you take out is usable to make cheese and is still drinkable. After you make cheese, the whey that's left is still a useful product for many things, including feeding to pigs and chickens. Some people make kefir or kombucha from it, I think.
Your boys are the sweetest. They way they listen and smile especially at little sister! Beautiful family.
I love how your cookware, stove, house is used and lived in. Some channels look like a magazine, and makes you wonder if they really do live there! I appreciate all you share with us, I love following you and your family as you grow your homestead! Thank you!
So true. Their house always looks nice, but they show the kitchen in real life while Meg does all that yummy cooking.
I get 6 Gallons a day and still use a 50 cc syringe to suck off my cream. I put up 50lbs of butter every summer for winter🤷. Takes 7 min to suck off the cream for 3lbs of butter & 1 min to rinse the syringe in hot water.
Thank you again for inviting us all into your homestead life and your beautiful family. I started on a homestead journey decades ago, got distracted by a career in medicine, and now in advanced age I'm retired, back into gardening and chicken-wrangling and composting and all. But what I *really* want to say to y'all is: You are so right to make homesteading the center of your life and livelihood. I don't actually regret my all-consuming career, but I do regret being away from homesteading for so long. Bless your hearts for doing what you're doing.
I love how real you all are. I am encouraged all the time by your videos to keep trying new things and to experiment. Ignore the haters, you inspire SO many!! God bless!
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@@dianapetrakis1311 ?????
I'm impressed with how much you cook in the oven in the heat of summer. I always cook outside on the smoker/grill during the heat of the day. I refuse to heat up the house any more than I have to. We have mini splits too and they are a life saver!!
After a long day on my mini homestead I enjoy a glass of wine and watch how your day went. You make hard work look like fun! Your kids are learning great life skills as you teach your audience too. God bless you!
I grew up where we just skimmed it off the top by hand. After refrigerating it was pretty easy to see the layers between the heavy cream, the light cream and the skim milk. Heavy cream was always removed. Sometimes the lighter cream was removed but some, or all, of the light cream was left with the milk and before pouring a glass we would shake it up so the light cream would temporarily mix back in with the milk. I alway loved that. Of course if we needed to make butter or ice cream more of that light cream would be removed.
My preference would be to do it manually to save time and more importantly for me reduce the things I would have to clean up - I hate doing dishes. Good luck.
Ben, I don’t think you and Meg should ever have to explain how you two spend your money. I think you two are the most frugal couple on you tube. Plus you’ve always stayed true to who you are from day one.
When Buggy leaned over and kissed the beard as she said I thought that was the cutest thing ever, along with her going to get ready for her bath.
You two are very blessed.
God Bless young man.
I love your big board of veggie gardening tasks up on the wall (under the aircon) - good to keep focused on everything that needs to be done!! (
Great job on repairing the mini-split. My husband has been a hvac tech for 44 years. He is the go-to guy for mini splits, communicating systems and anything that requires "thinking". The young guys don't want to be bothered by anything that requires thought. Hubby is talking about retirement this year. Company owner has begged him to reconsider.
I love love love to watch Meg cook, she inspires me!
Hi, Ben and Meg! My sister and I were watching this video, and we both agree that you are creative in your recipes and menu planning. You inspire us.
I always enjoy a visit with the Hollar's 🥰 You are a busy family. Take care and stay cool.
Certain background noises like a loud fan running, are definitely an irritant, like a mosquito in the ear.
I love watching you and your beautiful family. It makes me wish that I could go back to when my four kids were young, and do things differently. God Bless!
I think we all feel that way. I certainly do! You just do the best you can and pray that they have healthy, happy and productive lives.
The biggest advantage to a separator is if you can deal with the milk as it comes in from the cow. If you have time to let it sit around, skimming works as well and is a lot faster.
That is a very good point. She won’t need to heat up the milk if it’s already warm=less dishes, less steps, less time=happier momma.
Showing the good and bad, the cute and ugly of real home and homesteading, and with the kids helping as much as they do, it is a good thing to see "real family" and what it is all about ... the kids have thier jobs and it appears they do them really well but always there to lend a hand if and when needed ... love your videos and channel ... please, keep up the good work and show-time ...
Given all the manufacturing issues now, consider ordering another motor now for one of the other two mini splits you have in the home that might have problems in the future.
Good idea!
Thank You for showing REAL LIFE on the homestead. Not always peaches & cream. Pardon the pun.
And now I want peaches and cream 🤣
Thank you for all your homey videos. Such a beautiful family. I miss my own days and years gardening, canning and cooking. You bring me back to great times, without ME GETTING HOT AND BOTHERED. YOU ARE THE GREATEST!
So glad you were able to fix your AC with how hot it’s been that noise would have made me crazy too. Love watching all your projects even when they don’t work the way you hoped. Biscuits look great Meg!
When we used a separator, we always used warm milk straight from the cow. We milked, took the milk to the house, pour it into the separator. It was a fast, easy operation. You might try this and see if it works for you. Good luck!
We did exactly the same. Had the separator in the kitchen pantry. Sometimes we were allowed to hold our cups under the cream spigot, mix in a bit of sugar and had a glorious warm dessert.
Glad you’re being honest regarding things that aren’t working like they should, so glad the ac is quite now and cooling!
So glad we're not the only family who keeps multiple dish towels hanging on the oven handle! Yes! We are NOT nutty. LOL Love you guys bunches!!
I saw that with pleasure too, lol
It dries the dish towls fast and you always know where to find them.
Thank you for being real and showing the successes and failures along the way. You are our (one-way) homesteading community. We appreciate you and enjoy your posts. THANKS!
The plus with the cream thing was... it was a wonderful learning experience... for everyone. That first cream looked insanely thick... so yea, for most people the ladle method just makes more sense. Nice to know there are options though.
I am going back and blog from 5 years ago because I really enjoy the channel. You guys have evolved so much and for the better. Keep up the good work and videos coming
Hello beautiful family. Guess that was a lesson learned! I so enjoy watching your family and life on your homestead.
How cute was Buggy giving her Daddy a kiss….cuteness overload😘😘!! Trial and error is the name of the homestead game! I have things I’ve bought thinking it would really speed up a certain process…just to discover it didn’t work as well as I anticipated!! The lesson is we were doing it the best way for our situation! I love how y’all are so real and honest and you give us a video that helps everyone🥰🥰🥰🥰!!
Really liked your decision on the separator... good logic. Great job fixing the air con - love your family and your daughter is just so cute. I pray God's blessings on you all... pity New Zealand is so far away and my wife and I are in our 70's else we would love to visit with you.
Thanks for showing the real process and pointing out the reasons for pro and con. I love your videos!! I wrote to the Freeze Dryer Company and told them to send you one so you could show it off!! :)
Cog Hill Farm has one of those but they are waiting to get into their Barndominium before they fetch it out and start using it again.
Well done fixing the split system ac! Usually people just go ahead and replace things when they're broken. I'm impressed.
Shame about the separator. Got to admit.... it's a lovely looking machine! 😆
True - how much would a classic piece of sculpture cost anyway?! Bargain!!
@@sroberts605 😆
Thank you. I have been wondering if it would be worth it for just one cow. I had my doubts that with time and clean up it was just too much.
If you are up to trying something different, I saw people put fresh milk into 1 gallon jars with a nozzle on it. Place in fridge. After cream comes to the top open nozzle and pour milk out until you get to cream now all you have left is cream.
Had not seen your channel is a while, so refreshing to see your beautiful family in your simple daily living. I love the way you guys get along so well, your like best friends but married. God bless y’all Hollars.
That was great that you fixed the air conditioner yourself. Ask your community if they would trade for the cream separator... if you can not return it.
Hello my favorites!!! Things are improving each time you all make a video which is awesome. I like the cream separator which will get thick or thin cream. When it’s working Meg can be doing something else besides watching it once she get use to it. Ben get a second milk cow then you will have much more cream to make ice cream, cheese, yogurt, etc. Ben you are a Jack of All Trades, putting the new motor in without any problems. Good job 👍🏽. I only wish I was close to you all so I could buy some homemade butter. My mom and I use to make butter and buttermilk and people would order a pound of butter and a gallon of buttermilk once a week and we only had one milk cow. I love your videos, it bring back my teenage memories I will never forget. Thanks for sharing your homestead journey with us. Bye for now and God bless you all.
Beautiful to see a family having a great time together. The homestead life is the Life God wanted for us. God and Family , To many men go to the world or women thinking their missing out in life. Beautiful to see the way life should be. God Bless you for sharing your family, nice to see your boys growing and your little baby girl is so sweet. Great Job.
Well, that's an excellent idea, to take a picture of something before disassembling it, so you can put it back in the correct way. Blessings and greetings from central Florida.
Hey ya'll! Looks like another awesome day on the homestead😊 I look forward to your videos you have the most amazing life going on, thanks for sharing it🥰
One thing about the separator is that you can choose to get really thick cream or thin cream. You can putter around once you get used to it and maybe not have to heat the cream so much now you have the knack of it. Or you can just ladle cream off!!
Laddle the cream off then go to antique shop look for a glass jar with wood paddles and wood handle to churn it doesn't take just a bit. Take butter off and wash it till all the buttermilk. Or whey is off. Takes no electricity,!
@@maryarcher8484 just a lot of effort.
Have a told you this is my Favorite channel?!! The Love and Respect you show each other, what a wonderful world we would have if everyone acted like the Hollar's. Love your channel.
Spout on the bottom end of a horizontal jug. Cream rises to the top, jar under spout, open spout until hit the cream layer then switch jars for cream
I would try to send it back. Living Traditions Homestead as others have mentioned uses a jar with a spigot to separate cream, the cream rises to the top and then remove the skimmed milk via the spigot and the cream is left behind.
Some other homesteads use a cream separator and I always think it's so many more dishes and time. We milked 4 cows by hand. (Each child + me had a cow to milk) off grid so skimming was the way to go for us. Miss that butter, whole milk yogurt & cheese. Thank you for your HONESTY!
So enjoy your family. Thank you or sharing. Meg I could listen and watch you cook all day. You are by far one of the best cooks I watch on You tube. I cook alot like you, use what you have to make a meal. Thank you from Mid Missouri.
Love your whole family and how you work together!! About the cream separator, check "your orders" at Amazon, you should be able to return it. God bless!
It’s wonderful watching you teach the boys about milking and creaming I love 💕 your videos thanks for sharing
Wow, you bought a cream separator. That's a lot of milk. I sure hope it works well for you. Thanks for showing the process. I'm glad it didn't make the mess it did with the water. That does look like very thick cream. Yum! Too bad it wasn't worth it. I hope you can return it and get your money back. I like the cheese you made. I hope the fan goes in easy. Yay, quiet again! Roast, biscuits, and green beans for dinner! Looks wonderful Meg. Thanks for this Hollars. I'm finally caught up after visiting family for 3 weeks and getting Covid.
When I was young in northern Maine most people had a cream separator in the kitchen. I remember helping my grandma with hers and that was almost 60 years ago
We had a larger separator, held 2 gallons, and the motor may have been larger. We had goats so waiting for it to separate was not an option. We would heat the milking from the night before while we were milking then run it after the milking. To save a step the milk was filtered into the separator as we did each goat. There was a hollow set screw that the cream came out of which could be adjusted to the thickness of cream we wanted. At the peak of our operation we were milking 20 goats. My favorite was to simmer the whey sown until the water was all gone and the sugar would carnalize then mix that back int the curds.
Yeah, I would return it and put a detailed review on Amazon and trust me you will get a refund. With the mini split in the kitchen/living area I recommend washing those filters out daily. Easy enough to do right in the sink. This will help the life of your motor. Those filters are catching all the kitchen grease that is airborne etc. I have a mini split in the same type of area in my place and I used to burn out motors constantly and found out it was due to the lack of airflow from the kitchen gunk buildup on the filters. Now I wash them daily and no longer replace the motors.
Great video, sorry about the cream skimmer but you don’t know until you try! Fantastic that the family eats together rather than kids on their electronics in different rooms! Thanks again for sharing! Blessings to your family!
We require bodies in their chairs and “no toys at the table”. Long standing tradition.
Boy! I remember when we had a cream separator. It has many small parts, is a chore to clean. We had seven cows and felt we NEEDED it. Lol. We probably got tired of washing it and it lowered our butterfat so much that we got a much lower price for our milk. Coupled with the fact it was so easy to skim off our needs , we stopped using it. Mom washed it for the last time and then it became a unique decoration in our milk house. Lol. But hey, since you don’t ship your milk, it’s very likely you will use it more than we did.
Nice work on the A/C unit! That separator looked frustrating, I hope you can return it, as you said you want to, Thank you for the video! What a lovely family!
Meg, your biscuits at 15:00 look PERFECT.
Thank you so much for sharing about the cream separator. Our cow is due the end of August and I will be milking for the first time. I am so excited! We are on a budget and so I am trying to just get the necessities. Your videos are so helpful and fun to watch.
Here's hoping that you may be able to return the cream separator if that is what you decide you want to do. That is too much money and takes too much of your time for it not to perform as you want. Glad you got the mini-split repaired. I would hate for you to have to go the rest of the summer/fall in this heat without some relief.
So Interesting, well you would never know unless you tried... living in central Florida I never put on my oven in the summer, I have a oven outside on my patio for that works great. Thanks for sharing...
On the ranch (back in the '40's and '50's, we had a humongous separator that took the fresh milk from the cows and did it's magic in, like, no time. Now, keep in mind I was a wee lad of 7 or so, so my perspective and understanding of that machine may be just a wee bit wonky, but not by much. The Gridlessness channel ( I may have their name wrong. . .) got a used separator exactly like the one we had and it worked like a charm for them. Them old fashioned mo-sheens did the job! Wish you could land one of them and you'd have some huge smiles doing the cream separating for sure.
You should check out Living Traditions Homestead and see how they built their own cream separator that is super easy. It might work out for you guys.
Cream separators are REALLY hard to learn to use if you have never used one before b/c of all the stinking parts. Once you get the hang of how to put the thing together, you will just know and you are off to the races. You guys did GREAT! YES, you do get more cream using a separator than you do with just skimming. Our separator was really quick, didn't take nearly that long. We loved it. Took me three times to master ours. We sold our milk cow a few years ago and our separator. Hope we are not sorry we did! All our kids are grown and gone. :)
so - stock up on a coupla more motors for the mini-splits and ditch the time consuming cream separator. stay cool! hugs from here.
LOVE seeing your wonderful family! You guys are always so real! Buggy is growing So Fast and it was sweet seeing her Daddy the "Beard Kiss." I think you are right the cream "monster" is NOT worth the trouble Thanks for Sharing Your WONDERFUL FAMILY with us!!!
Great job fixing the mini-split. What was for dinner? That meat recipe looked delicious. Sweet baby is adorable, sweetest smiles, and smart. Thanks for the honest review on the milk separator too.
I grew up using a cream separator. It was fairly fast. We would bring in the milk from the barn pour it into a strainer in the separator bowl and separate the milk and cream. Then ship the cans of cream to the creamery. Too bad that one isn't working like it's supposed to
Great information on this video, and it is a shame that you do not like the milk separator. I remember my grandmother having a hand milk separator and stories from my dad of how he would use that and how long it always took to use. Anyway, may God bless your days the way He always blesses ours!
You guy’s little girl just cracks me up. Love watching your vids. Love your homestead.
We just installed 2 Pioneer mini-splits that we are very impressed with, including quiet fans.
Hallelujah for peaceful mornings and cool houses! 🙏💖🙏
If it's hot there...the mercury went over 40C for the first time in the UK. That's 104F. We arent built for those temperatures. Just like Texas ain't built for snow.
And to top things off we now have wildfires too....not just in typically rural areas, but in open spaces of East London.....
I'm in Texas. You guys are on all our minds. I know most of you do not have ac. The heat is deadly. There are several videos on RUclips of how to make your own temporary things to cool you down. Some involve ice chests, ice and fans. Please check them out. The heat will creep up on you. Take care, we are praying for y'all. peace
Stay safe over there!
@@cheriekreusel3756 our homes tend to be built to keep heat in - not let it out.....at least where i am we "only" hit 34C (which still beats our record here in Northern Ireland -which was only set last year!) I'm semi-used to it - well more than most - i've lived in South Africa and India before moving back to the UK and Ireland.
@@cheriekreusel3756 Our UK houses aren't built for the heat, it was over 100F today and it's about 80F outside now (11pm at night) but my house is still at 95F. I've got the windows open but there's a wildfire about 10 miles from our house they've said will burn until at least tomorrow so we're getting smoke from that. It's either try to get the house a bit cooler with the windows open and deal with the smoke (it's far enough that it's not unsafe, just not very nice) or shut the windows and deal with trying to sleep in 95f house.
I don't know how you all manage it over there all summer, I really feel for you hearing about the droughts and other issues. Thankfully it's cooling off a bit here tomorrow but hot again at the weekend. We've got no rain on the 14 day forecast and haven't had any for weeks now. It's quite worrying!
@@nenemaria-cornfieldsgarden the fires are everywhere and sure make a bad situation worse. I hope it gets cooler soon. Take care
Thanks for sharing tidbits of your busy lives! We know that those weren’t the only things you accomplished! Many blessings to your family 🤗❤️🇨🇦
Did you inquire from Rebekah and Jess which cream separator they got and why? I know ya'll will enjoy the quiet, there is nothing worst than a noise constantly going at a level louder than is comfortable. Nerves and irritabilities should settle down immensely now!
Wow , I hope you can return the cream separater! Adorable buggy as always!
I remember washing the cream separator we used on our dairy farm, lots of parts for sure.
We have the same separator and it took us several runs to get it dialed in. Just like you, at first I thought.. oh boy I just wasted $300 😳 Just last week I did an experiment where I hand skimmed the milk prior to running it through the separator to see if it was worth the effort of washing all the peices. I was amazed at the amount of cream I got from the hand skimmed milk. I kept it seperate when making butter. The hand skimmed milk had a little higher yield per quart, but not significantly. The other thing I found to be time saving was to use one of my 5 gallon pots for heating the milk and the other set down in the sink to collect the skim milk. That was super helpful in not having to switch out bowls.
And I thought my cast iron enamel pot had wear and tear! Yours looks 100X more worn than mine and it's still going strong. I will keep on trucking with it! Also, if that cream separator isn't working the way it should, return it! It's really a shame how many crappy products are being sold to people these days, so it's probably just a poorly designed product.
An odd Cananda, once sad if the ladies don't find you attractive, should find you handy! Nice job on the repair. thank you, ALL Stay safe
Handy is always better than looks. Looks are usually perishable anyway. Besides the more things fixed or built, the better the person who did those things looks!
Refrigerator beverage storage container with large fill cap and dispensing spigot. Let the cream rise, drain the "skim" out of the spigot. Taa Daa! You can get a three gallon container for under $20. Worth a try.
What would happen if you did a second run with the skimmed milk? As a chemist I'm familiar with the concept that most of your product is lost in purification. That's why you sometimes double or triple distill the original material if you want ALL of the product.
We actually tried running it through a second time and found that we didn't gain anything. It did expell liquid out of the cream spout, but it was the same consistency as the skimmed milk. We had hand skimmed the milk prior to running it through the separator, because I wanted to see if the time and effort of using the machine was worth it. So, my data may be skewed. I might try it one more time with a second run, without hand skimming first.
Hey yourself I be off those 1 - 2 gallon drunk dispenser jars from Walmart with a spikit (similar to the one at the bottom of your Berkey water filter).
Poor the milk in let it seperated and drain the milk from the bottom, leaving you with the cream.
This one reminds me of how you built that place from the floors up.
Hey, The Princess Buggy's bath time is VERY important! Don't forget the rose oil.
Kiss the beard!? I almost spat out the scalloped potatoes!
I had wondered if a separator was really necessary. I think not for me. Thanks for another informative video. ❤️
ALWAYS take a picture before you take something apart...;) Thank you for sharing.
I grew up on a dairy farm. We had metal gallon containers that we used to collect our milk for drinking from the bulk tank in the barn.
It sat in the fridge, we poured the cream off the top when separated. I guess it's a learned thing for how long and how much to pour off. Mom had it down! I'm sure you guys can easily do that, no fancy gadgets. Or mess!
Love your life! 👍❤👍
I have a goat. I have seen multiple people say that you must use a cream separator to get cream from goats milk. I have been looking at them, but like you said, they are VERY pricy! I haven't started milking my goat a lot yet, as she is nursing twins. I hope to start milking her in a month's time. I did see where one person says you can get cream from goat's milk if you let it sit long enough, but you do get more if you use a separator. When you are on a fixed income, $300 is a major purchase. So I think I will try leaving the milk in the frig for a few days and see what I can get.
You can get that exact same model for a much better price off Vevor and its perfect for goats milk since its naturally homogenized and doesn't separate like cows milk in the fridge. (It will separate some but most of the cream stays mixed within the milk) so a separater is necessary.
@@SpryngFling Thank you, I looked. Unfortunately, it's out of stock.
get a spigot jar -- large enough to hold a full milking. Filter the milk into this jar.and close the jar and put it in the refrigerator. The cream will automatically raise to the top of the jar. Through the day, as the milk cools AND you use the milk the cream continues to separates to the top. When it's time to milk again remove the jar and collect the cream that's in the jar can be removed into a new jar (just or cream collection). Now you can strain the new milking into the spigot jar so you can repeat the previous days holding jar. It's best the jar is is clear so you can easily see the cream line. It'd be best to clean the holding jar between the milking. Good Luck
So glad your air is back. Hope you can return or sell the cream machine.👍🏻😊
Your blessed with beautiful and good kids - enjoy them while they are young because before. you know it they will be big - some of my best thoughts are when my kids were small - God bless
I like the Prosciutto Panties. The way that Meg of the Great Attitude said the AC being fixed made her excited, tickled my heart.
Get a SPIGOT JAR.....& they're available in sizes 2 gal & up. They're found on/at most of stores and online stores.
Cream~ long? Sound loud now peaceful~what a relief and dinner 😋 yum love you guy's
you should try and find an old hand cranked cream separator., like from the 1940's I bought one years ago for $75 and if works great and doesn't take long to separate milk at all, You can also electrify them quite easily.
oh dear ! a heads up about prying lids off canning jars , oh please use a bottle opener to pry open , can openers usualy have one . from experience i cut a finger open using the knife .
At least you can send it back to Amazon. I separate by setting my milk out on the counter. I insert a food grade length of tubing to the bottom of the jar, 1/2 inch by 4-5 feet. Clothes pin it to the top of the jar. The cream rises to the top. With a little suction on the tube with your mouth, the milk on the bottom of the jar gets syphoned out into another jar that sits lower , I put mine on a stool 3-4 feet below the counter. The milk comes out of through the tubing leaving you the heavy cream that rose to the top. You can also do this with a drink dispenser that has a valve on the bottom.