Prairie School Day 2

Today we read chapter 2 of The Little House In the Big Woods !

We opened with devotion and prayer !!! 

We learned today that work load of the Ingalls time is much different than today's ... 

They wasn't able to jump in the car to go to the grocery store to get everyday staples ... Bread and butter making were apart of weekly work !!! 

We talked about how the Bible teaches us to be safe in all we do according to Proverbs 18:10

The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

We discussed metaphors and similes how they were different from each other.

Pa used a metaphor to describe Laura's height  ... He compared her to a cup of half drunk cider ... He also refers to Laura as half pint !!! meaning she is short ...

 We also discussed density and we worked on a cool science experiment !!! 

We made Butter !!!This isnt our first time making butter !!! However we have never made it to teach a lesson ! she enjoyed it more doing it for this reason ...

step one 

we used Land of Lakes Heavy Whipping cream at room temperature (since we don't have a dairy cow lol)

poured into a scalded clean churn ... we used a dasher churn today

 

step two 

The fun begins ! you pull the dasher up and down until you see the cream separate the fat into butter

first change 

This was the first change we seen.

the cream thickening and separating the fat into tiny particles on the side of the churn .

second change

after about 35 minutes of churning we started to see the butter in the bottom of the churn . We decided to churn for 15 more minutes for the maximum amount of butter !

third change

after 15 more minutes of churning we stopped ! Her is our final product !!! we used a pint of heavy Whipping cream today ! for more butter use more cream . However I had just made butter the weekend before and still had quite a bit left so we made a small batch today ...

Step 3

We made sure our work area was ready !!! Then we poured the buttermilk that was around the butter in a jar so we could use it later in the week for baking ....then we scooped the butter out of the churn with a wooden spoon and placed onto a piece of cheese cloth . we used a wooden bowl just like ma would have used to catch the cold water to rinse the butter in the cheese cloth with ! we poured the water from a pitcher over the butter until it rinsed clear ... it took about 4-5 min . It is important not to leave milk in the butter it will cause it to spoil ! when it rinsed clean it was time to move to the next step !

This is what the finished result looked like !

 Step4

Using a wooden spoon place your butter in a bowl that has a lid or a butter mold of your choice ! We choose to use a silicone heart shape mold .... we have antique and hand made wooden molds ... Sometimes the butter doesn't slide out easily ...

So we thought we would give the silicone mold a shot !

 

Here is our finished product   !

We had an awesome Second day !!! We learned many other things like how light refracts ... that causes the colors in a fire to change  , the history of Yankee Doodle , also math ... We are blessed beyond measure ... can't wait till tomorrow