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Show Brigh~en up your Pioneer Dairying -away of life house for Cedar's Birthday with plants cut Rowers & Baskets from Carter's Happy Birthday "All my life, I have been confro'nted with cows," Eliza McConnell often said. She was right. Born on a dairy farm , she also ran a dairy for forty-two years. She was the first woman to go onto the mountain to dairy at the head of Shurtz' Canyon in 1869. Soon other women with their families were established annually on mountain ranches with their children to do the dairying while the men and older boys carried on the farming and businesses · in the valley. . • The move each year to the mountains took place late in Mayas soon as the roads were passable, and the season often lasted until late October. The cattle and riding horses were driven up first and guarded until the wagons conveying the family, household goods, and supplies could arrive. The trek would begin at daybreak ; for, although no ranch was ever farther than 30 miles from town, it was a grueling day's journey to reach it over the steep and rocky roads and dangerous dugways . The rest of the ranch setup consisted of a calf pasture fenced with quaking aspen poles, a p'ole corral for the cows, and two adjacent pens for the calves, one in which they were kept while they waited their turns to suckle their mothers, the other in which they were put when they were finished. Suckling the calves was the job of the children. The average dairy milked from 15 to 25 cows. Each dairymaid milked the same cows each time; some cows refused to have any but the one milker: A few of the faster ones could handle about 25 cows in an hour and a quarter. The,average cow produced about one and one-half gallons of milk at each milking, while the few that gave three gallons per milking were considered prodigous producers. Most dairies made their cheese and butter on alternate days . This is how a typical cheese-making day went: Since it took two milkings to accumulate enough milk for a cheese, the night milking would be strained into the • Cedai'City Carteris Cedar Floral & Nurs~ry 125 N. Main . Cedar City 586-9612 Cedar Mercantile and Livestock Co. and Bank of Southern Utah .. An R. D. Adams Photo from the Wm. R. and Come ,in and Kate I. Palmer Collection. The mountain household consisted of the mother and children; and, if the' family itself did not ihclude any teenage children, a hired youth to herd the cows, and one or two girls in their late teens to help with the milking and dairy work. After getting the family established fQr the summer'!> work, the father would depart for town, making only occasional trips up during the summer with needed supplies. ' The house were made of logs and usually consisted of three rooms in a row, a family room with a loft for sleeping and a big.stone fireplace for heating and cooking, a milkhouse or dairy room with a breezeway between the two where, in later years, a stove was set up for cooking. At first, all the rooms had dirt roofs and floors ; but, in later years, only the milk house had a dirt floor which was frequently sprinkled to keep it damp and hard packed and to keep the room cool for proper curing of the cheese. The cheeses were kept on swinging shelves suspended from the rafters by wires to protect them from the ubiquitous squirrels. The earliest houses were located as near as possible to a spring or creek, but always on a bare flat away from trees from which Indians might ambush them. Tha~ necessary limitation sometimes removed the houses an inconvenient distance from the water supply. see olir 1881 models! Ford's 1981 Escort -Features- cheese tub, placed' on a bench, and aliowed to set overnight. The cream that rose would be skimmed off the next morning for butter making the following day, and that skimmmed milk would then be heated gently in a brass kettle over an open fire in the yard. The family would be up soon after daybreak to go to the corral ; and, as soon as the milking was finished, the new milk would be strained into the milk tub and the heated milk added to it. When the blended rriilk felt just right to the cheesemaker, either by putting the end of her' finger or her elbow into it, or pouring some on her fo!;,earm ,(the least reliable method) , she mixed first the cheese color and then the rennet into the milk, covered the tub with a clean cloth and left it to rest for half an hour or so while she prepared the family breakfast. After breakfast, as soon as the tub of milk was set, the work process really began. By 1l :30 a.m ., the cheese would be in the press and the cheesemaker could stop to prepare and eat dinner. About I p.m., she returned to the cheese to crumble it finely , salt it, and put it back into the press. By approximately 2 p.m ., she would have all her utensils washed and put away. The next day, she would churn her accumulted crea~. * Front WheelOrl"e * Independent 4- Wheel Suspell$/on * Corrosion Protection * AerodyfJllmlc design * Rack end Pinion Steering * Steel Belted Radllll T1,.. * 4-SpHd ourdrlve T,.Mmlu/on * Multlpl. s.tt.y FRill,.. PARKWAY FORD 101Q-N. Main-Ceda~City ,r I Iron Springs Shearing Gorral - , Courtesy SUSC Special 00Ile1:tio·n5., Library. ~rom ,the ~David ~> ~d~"" Sargent-Collection c. ~a~. '-oJ _, " . .... 1 ... ' , I • • ," ~ We~lern IO H!story '3 • -J'J ~ |
