On Tuesday, February 8, 2000 at 1:30:00 PM UTC+5:30, Jack-of-all-trades wrote:
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.
http://www.homeessential.com/mlkstool.htm 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.
http://www.milkingstool.com/ This is a bit more realistic.
http://www.baraboo.com/Bus/twoguys/default.htm Scroll down to hobbles
and you will see there actually is such a thing. Not sure what the cow
kick stop is though. http://www.wigginsinc.com/milking%20supplies.html
Some varieties of cows (a lot).
http://www.siue.edu/~rbinnin/home/funny/cow.html Scroll down to cow
hobbles for a picture. http://www.ritcheytagg.co.uk/fprstock.html And
a little story on milking. http://www.bourbon.org/aol/misc/tractor.htm
For those unfamiliar with them, this is one type of butter churn.
http://www.engelmannantiques.com/p748.htm Sroll down to milking stool
to see a real one. A lot of other neat stuff here too.
http://www.engelmannantiques.com/sold.htm And now, scroll down to a
couple of antique ones for sale.
http://www.tias.com/stores/tt/prim-1.html
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.
http://www.geocities.com/svenskildbi.../vikstool.html


JOAT ___I specialze in non-specializing.___
We used to get much better history in the old days.

Clinton/Gore jokes http://www.hex.net/humor24.html
Read the FAQ http://www.robson.org/woodfaq/
Check the archives http://www.deja.com/home_ps.shtml

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
--
Hiren

On Tue, 8 Mar 2016 07:22:00 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

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

JOAT has not posted here in a long time, do a google search (or your
prefered search engine on) would probably be more fruitful.

On Tue, 08 Mar 2016 15:33:41 -0600, Markem
wrote:

On Tue, 8 Mar 2016 07:22:00 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

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

JOAT has not posted here in a long time, do a google search (or your
prefered search engine on) would probably be more fruitful.


http://cdn.instructables.com/FS8/TXN...6RMA.LARGE.jpg




--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

replying to hubops, tortugato wrote:
This chair--how off topic--has 2 visible legs, and looks to be some kind of
male nudist's stool.

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/woodwor...ng-795441-.htm

I am just two months away from 80. I grew up in Montana and my parents
had many friends on ranches
which we frequented. I saw many one leg stools. They were made from
what was at hand and a spike or two.No padding. Usually a rough cut 2X4
on top with either an other 2X4 for the leg or a cut off from a pine
pole. CP

On Tue, 8 Mar 2016 07:22:00 -0800 (PST), wrote:

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

I used one as a kid. Home made and had a belt harness to strap it on so you
could move around without having to carry the stool from cow to cow.

Here is a simple one without a harness. OK for looks, but not easy to use if
you are actually going to be milking cows.
https://www.lehmans.com/p-3359-one-l...ing-stool.aspx

Jerry O.