The thread on the Duke got me thinking about learning here and that got
> me thinking about milking stools. And I got to wondering how many
> people here even know what a milking stool is, let alone seen one. And
> I don't mean those new ones that will never see the inside of a barn or
> come within a mile of a cow except maybe when it goes from the store to
> someone's house. When I was a kid I used to visit my great uncle and
> great grandfather on their farm. They used a milking machine but
> "stripped" the cows after using it. "Stripping" a cow is when you milk
> it by hand to get the last of the milk, that the machine didn't get.
> You sat on a three legged stool (most milk stools were three legged, I
> never saw a four legged milking stool), held a stainless steel bucket
> between your legs and stripped out or milked the last of the milk, often
> several quarts. You didn't want to try to get all the milk with the
> machine, it would probably not be good for the cow at all. You ALWAYS
> tucked your head down and into the cow's side if you were smart. The
> cow's tail was normally moving, and it often was coated with a wad of
> manure. Unpleasant to get whapped in the face with the end of the cow's
> tail, but in winter when it froze up it could be actually dangerous.
> Sometimes the cow would be restless and kick the bucket over, and
> somtimes the milker too, so you had to be ready to move fast (and if you
> think it a joke about milking a cow with cold hand, just try it once).
> You would have to (try) stand and move back at the same time because you
> not only didn't want to land on the floor, but you might go back and
> startle the cow behind you and get stepped on. This meant you had to
> avoid the milking stool at the same time. All of the stools I saw were
> homemade and wood except one, it was a small metal stool, and I believe
> that it was three legged, so was probably a factory made milking stool.
> One was made of a section of tree, cut off just below the crotch where
> three limbs sprouted, making the legs. There were one or two more
> homemade three legged stools too. And then there was a one-legged
> milking stool. Now I know there is so much BS on the group that you
> think I am trying to spread some too, but I am not. Oh, all of the
> stools had cloth patdding on the top also, again homemade. The
> one-legged stool was a short section of 2X4 with a round top nailed on,
> and the padding. You slid it under you as you squatted down and then
> balanced on it. Much easier to do than it sounds. Actually I believe
> this was a purpose made stool. Any cow will move and knock over the
> pail or occassionally kick, because of a fly or whatever. But some cows
> are kickers. For these they put on cow hobbles, so they could not kick.
> But while they couldn't kick they would often shift and knock you over.
> So for the cows that were known to cause trouble they used the one
> legged milking stool. Because with this one they had to be more alert,
> to keep from falling over, and if they had to jump back, the stool
> immediately fell over, and was much easier to kick out of the way, to
> keep from tripping on it. Now that is the only one legged milking stool
> I have ever seen or even heard of. I don't really consider myself that
> old, but I knew people that were born in the 1800s (grandparents, great
> grandparents) and now here I am in the year 2000, and that spans over a
> century. Besides learning to milk a cow, I have helped shoe horses,
> driven a team while haying (they forked the hay onto the wagon using hay
> forks - the hay had previously raked into rows, with a hay rake). I
> have also helped hay where they had a machine beween the tractor and the
> wagon (don't recall the name) that picked up the hay (again, the had had
> been raked into rows) and dumped it on the wagon, and the hay then had
> to be distirbuted using hay forks. I helped harvest corn with an old
> horse corn binder towed by a doodle bug (anyone rember what those
> were?), it shocked the corn. Later we chucked the corn by hand. Have
> also shelled corn with a hand cranked sheller. I remember helping
> cutting fire wood with a large circular saw, powered by a belt driven by
> a wheel on the side of a tractor. I remember chopping silage in a
> machine powerd the same way. I remember when we would get up at 4:00 in
> the morning to go the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan
> to go deer hunting, and the trip took 8 hours, if we were lucky. Now
> the same trip takes 2 hours or so. One winter we took along a trailer
> load of pallets my grandfather had cut like a puzzle. We put up a cabin
> from them in one day and slept in it that night. The next day covered
> the outside with tarpaper. It remained in use for 20+ years just like
> that. A few years after that was built my grandfather got a bunch of
> logs to build a log cabin. They had air dried in what was supposedly
> the largest barn in the world (believe me, that thing was huge), and all
> were like cork screws. He just sawed them into about 2-3 foot lengths,
> put them between rough sawn 2X12 joists and put up a cabin. As far as I
> know it is still in use. Anyway, here is some stuff on milking stools,
> etc., for those of you who are not familiar with them and a "milking
> stool" you can make.
> This is a picture of what is supposedly a milking stool.
>
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This is more like a real
> milking stool, not sure what the handle is for though because I never
> saw a milking stool with one, a lot fancier than a real one too.
>
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This is a bit more realistic.
>
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Scroll down to hobbles
> and you will see there actually is such a thing. Not sure what the cow
> kick stop is though.
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> Some varieties of cows (a lot).
>
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Scroll down to cow
> hobbles for a picture.
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And
> a little story on milking.
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> For those unfamiliar with them, this is one type of butter churn.
>
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Sroll down to milking stool
> to see a real one. A lot of other neat stuff here too.
>
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And now, scroll down to a
> couple of antique ones for sale.
>
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> And at long last, the Lund Viking stool and how to make one. This is
> how many milking stools were made. Probably in the old days they were
> taken back in the house and used their too.
>
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>
>
> JOAT ___I specialze in non-specializing.___
> We used to get much better history in the old days.
>
> Clinton/Gore jokes
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> Read the FAQ
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> Check the archives
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I know It's 16 years old post and most of the links you have provided are expired ! my quick question is - I wanna make one legged milking stool! help me :)