Home Churned Butter

I was just wondering how many of you have sat on that little 3 legged stool and actually milked Ole Bossy? I can only remember 2 or 3 times that I milked that old cow, I was a little whippersnapper back then. I had watched grandma countless times so I knew the drill. First you be sure that Ole Bossy had a good portion of feed or hay to keep her busy, then after giving her a few pats and rubs on the side you were going to be milking on, to let her know you will be there and not to get excited. The last thing you want her to do is plop her foot into the bucket, or kick it over. Then with the drying towel over your shoulder and your milk bucket with warm, clean water in hand you sit on your little stool and wash her bag and utters. This serves 2 purposes, one it lets her know what you will be doing down there, and two, It’s for sanitary reasons. Then when Grandma was finished with themilking, she would strain the milk several times and put what she wanted to serve at the table in her refrigerator. I don’t ever remember her boiling it.
I know that if you’ve ever milked Ole Bossy, you know what this is and what you do with it!

The rest of the milk would be prepared and put aside to be churned. Then the milk would be poured into that old churn and churned into butter? I remember that when the butter was almost ready, I had to let Grandma finish it up because it was hard for me to churn, but she was use to it. When the butter was finished, and if my mother was around, she would use a teaspoon and make a baby’s footprint in the middle of the butter. She was an artist and sign painter. I remember once she was hired to paint some advertisements on a grocery/dry goods store windows in Columbia La.,(Leg Rodgers’s grocery store). Along with several products advertised was an advertisement for ladies underwear, Mr. Rodgers asked her to be discreet with the wording. So, the sign read, “Seat covers- .50 cents a pair!” The reason they were so expensive is because they were store bought, not flower sack bloomers…! If memory serves me right, the ‘Coldwell Watchman’, the, (Columbia news paper), printed pictures of it!
I’m kind of rambling here, but if I don’t put it down when it pops in mind, I might forget…. Anyway…!
Things were a little different at home; we didn’t have electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing of any kind! And when my mother milked the cow, she had to go through the same procedure with the exception of the refrigerator. The milk that was to be served at the table was put into a gallon pickle jar with waxed paper over the mouth and then the lid screwed on. A string was tied to the top of the jar and lowered into the spring. The water was iced cold year round. That’s how we cooled our watermelons and anything else that needed to be kept cold. The spring was a natural fed spring. We did have an, “Ice Box”, for short time cooling of the butter and milk. If you have ever churned you own butter, then you know what an ‘Ice Box” is! I remember the “Ice Man” that would go by about a quarter mile from the house and we, as young’ns, would have to meet him at the main road and carry the chunk of ice to the house to put in the ice box. Normally it would start out at about 10 to 15 pounds but by the time we got it home and after we had sat it down to let our hands and arms thaw, it would be considerably less! Oh well, this post was supposed to be about the, ‘Churn; but you know how it is, It’s like Lays Potatoes Chips, you can’t eat just one……..!!