Chemistry Fun for Adults

We finally got a test kit for mastitis.  You squirt some milk from each quarter into the little pot, add some fluid, and swirl it around.  If any mucousy stuff forms, you've got a problem.  Only one quarter showed a problem (the upper right) and it matches the "weak positive" description.  So we've got a mild problem in one quarter. 

Of all the vet stuff we've had to do, this is the funnest.  It's chemistry set for grown ups!

Those days of wondering if she really has mastitis and which quarter it is in, is over.  With such a weak infection, it was never obvious.  It's nice to know exactly where the problem is.  Each test takes 12ml of fluid and we have a gallon of the stuff.  We can test willy-nilly whenever we want to! 

Because the problem is mild, we'll add an extra milking for the next few days and see how it goes.  It's nice being able to test regularly to see how things are doing. 

My kids have grown used to, "everybody drink some milk, I want that jug finished."  Last night with spicy pepperoni, they drank lots, even without being told.  So that's the secret.  Just give them spicy food.  We're thinking of chili with homegrown cornbread for dinner tonight.

It's time to sterilize some milk for culture again.  Sterlizing milk is easy, just fill jars with skimmed milk and boil in a water-bath canner for 30 minutes.  After they cool down I'll use them to re-culture the cheese starter cultures.

We have more skimmed milk than we can keep up with.  This sterlized milk used up two gallons, but we have three more sitting in the frig.  I could make cottage cheese, but we have plenty.  I could make yogurt, but we have plenty of that too.

Our youngest will be three in a few months and we are hoping to be at the end of his diapering time.  Yesterday he sat on his little potty in between diapers and had his first pee.  It was probably a mistake, but it's still pretty exciting. 

We used a cloth diaper service with our oldest (now 19 years old), then disposables with the girls, and went back to cloth with the youngest.  In hindsight, I wish we had done cloth all along.  Cloth diapers are so easy now adays!  There are no pins to get you and the diaper covers are easy to put on.  Washing diapers is no more effort than dragging diapers home from the store and then out to the trash.  And, to our surprise, they don't smell as bad.  With disposables we were constantly doing battle with smell, even with fancy things like DiaperGenie.  With cloth diapers, we shake the really smelly stuff into the toilet before tossing the diaper into the pail, so we have less smell with just a plain covered trash can.