yeast harvesting

so i've seen the website from WYeast about how to clean and harvest the yeast for future batches, but I still don't know if i'm doing this right. What I have done so far is boil water and cool to refrigerator temp and then add leftovers from the primary fermenter after i have racked to the secondary. The solution then sets in a mason jar and separates. It separates and looks like water on the top and then just cloudy mess underneath. I only poured off the top "water" looking portion to the next bottle to save as yeast, but I think I may have been missing out on all the yeast. Am I? I think I may just be letting the water sit on the top and then pouring water in to the next jar, am I?

Another technique I tried was to just scoop the junk from the bottom of the primary into a sanitary jar. I'll try to make a starter out of that and see what happens. Is it bad that I didn't "clean" the yeast before making a new starter and re-pitching?

Thanks again for the help.

Joe

I mix some water with the leftover from the primary and swirl it around real good. I then pour that mix into a 3 quart glass pitcher, cap it and put it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. The heavy stuff drops to the bottom fairly fast and I pour off the cloudy solution on the top. The yeast should look tan and most of the time there may be a layer of it on top of the trub you want to leave behind. You can do this 1-2 times to further clean up the yeast but I usually only do it twice total.