Got milk?

In every ger we visit, we are welcomed with milk products.

Once seated inside, we begin with bowls of milk tea.  Cow milk tea, yak milk tea, horse milk tea, reindeer milk tea.  Whatever the family herds, they seem to find a way to milk.

Today we visited a camel-herding family, . . .

and you guessed it!  

We were welcomed with camel milk tea











and some very sour (unsweetened) camel milk yogurt,













along with sugared pieces of crispy flat bread.



And I got to milk a camel!

After I spent some time photographing our hostess milking the camel, she noticed my interest and invited me to try.  To milk the camel, especially if you're as short as our hostess, you stand one-legged with the bucket balanced on your elevated knee.

Now that I am a more experienced exotic-animal dairymaid, it was easier to get a stream going into the bucket right away.

Next, it was my turn for a camel ride through the sandy dunes.  Camel Time!  Notice that these are Bactrian camels with two humps (versus the one-humped Dromedary).  The ride is a little easier because the rider is nestled between the two humps, but it’s a tad unsteady hanging onto the front hump as the camel lurches forward to get her legs under her to stand.  

We rode out into some beautiful dunes with Chris joking about my camel’s “droopy humps.”  They were much more flexible than I expected.  Keenan pointed out that it is a little like having a joy stick-operated camel. 

At one point a young boy came up behind us and shouted something, and my camel began to run.  Our camel herder host quickly put a stop to that, but it was a breathless moment or two as I held onto that hump for dear life.  

Not only are the camels used for milk and transportation, but as temperatures rise, the camel's shaggy wool sheds in clumps.  In the summertime, it is pulled out in handfuls and used for a variety of purposes.

Our hostess demonstrated how to make rope, pulling the wool to “card” it as you might sheep’s wool and then twisting two pieces at the same time as twisting them together.  































She made it look effortless, but my attempts were decidedly clumsy.  





We also watched her use the fibers to make a thick, sturdy felt.  She began by laying out the fur in strips—first horizontal and then a layer with strips in a vertical direction.  

 She then placed a thin piece of fabric over the wool and wet it and added soap, scrubbing and scrubbing  

 and then rolling it and wringing it out. 

It produced a very nice layer of felt—much bigger pieces of which are stitched together to make the walls and roof of a ger.

How did you celebrate the Fourth of July?

Students, I am eagerly awaiting your guesses about this mystery country Fluffy and I are visiting.  Read the posts, put the clues together, and make a claim (based on evidence).