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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Farm Animals was SE PA going to identifiablenon-cashsmartcard...
  • Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:20:21 EST



> >Y'all can call them nannies. I'm a purist: I say ewes for sheep and
> does for goats.

Purist. I'll have to think about that.

As you know a pint of milk weighs about a pound. A trifle less, but we lose
more than that cleaning the buckets and strainers.

On a farmstead one does not weigh milk, one puts it in jugs and bottles and
such. Those jugs and bottles are liquid measures and so when a person is in
the nitty-gritty, manure up to the elbows, get the damn milk in the cooler so
I
can go feed evertybody eles, type of operation, it is only natural that
they
are in the habit of talking about how many pints of milk they are dealing
with not how many pounds.

Big diaries got in the habit of talking about milk in terms of pounds because
those big tanks and trucks could be tared and then weighed full of milk to
determine how much they were dealing with.

When I hear a homesteader talking about how many "pounds" of milk this or
that animal gives, it always strikes me as pretentious. A sort of "Ah,
didn't
you *know* that the proper term is *pounds* of milk!?"

I've got to confess that referring to nannies as does strikes me with the
same sort of one-ups-man-ship.

Also on the remote hardscrabble farmstead there is a practical consideration.
If someone comes into the house and says, "There's a doe in the pasture!"
it means it's time to take down the rifle and shoot it. If you don't want
someone to go into instant Esau mode, best to call the caprines "nannies".


James



  • Re: [Homestead] Farm Animals was SE PA going to identifiablenon-cashsmartcard..., Clansgian, 11/17/2008

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