MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY 2012

Ha!  It was a wonderful day, in spite of not having my baby girl, Madison here.  She's living in L.A. now and had no money to come back home for Christmas.  Waaahhhhh!  But lucky for me, Sam came over for Bob's birthday on Christmas eve and stayed the night, so she was here in the morning, just like the old days!  That made me very happy! : )

This was the start of Christmas morning:  an asiago bagel with artichoke and spinach cream cheese ( a new find) onions and cucumbers. Nummy!  and a real treat for me since I don't eat much bread anymore.

NO!  I do not have too many cats!!!

So all the animals got their special treat:  the pig - a whole apple

the cats - cans of cat food

The horses:  extra hay

 Edy got one of those smart toys that you put treats into and they have to move the little nobs around to find the treats.  She figured it out right away, of course!
Percy and Louie got a bone that they immediately unwrapped.  Edy got one too.

This was my pile, which included this really cool coffee mug:

it's even purple too!  (I now it looks black here but trust me it's purple)

and my new awesomest Carhardt Jacket!  Now I'll really look cool riding the tractor!

Here's Sam's pile!

and here's Bob's!  See that Life Is Good shirt?  It has Bob on it, with a dog and a cup of coffee and a barcolounger.  Which is Bob.

Then Edy had a moment of selfishness and rage:

 Louie got too close to her bone.  Although Louie denied the whole thing!  Look at that innocent face!

I'm warning you!

I'll eat you alive!

So Louie went and hid by grandpa.

 Cashew's first Christmas!  Not quite sure what's going on.

 We offered Edy some food and water because guarding your bone from the evil Louie can be tiresome.

The carnage!

And then it was over.

PROCRASTINATION OR LAZINESS OR TAKING A BREAK?

I have been feeling incredibly lazy lately; i don't feel like working, doing anything or going anywhere.  And no i am not depressed.  I stare at the things that have to be done outside, inside and everywhere in between and i turn away and go, "Blah!"  Then i find something else to do, like blog.  So I will blame the relentless,  never ending heat wave that was here this week that put a damper on my fun, fast-paced lifestyle just so no one else can be blamed for such non-sense, as blaming someone for your own laziness makes about as much sense as blaming the weather man for the steaming heat index of 115 degrees. Which i will anyway, cuz it makes me feel better.

So due to the lack of air quality, the steaming windows, and my measuring the heat index as "minutes before dripping sweat, "  i totally avoided the garden because i had no choice:  the Heat index the past three days was "8 minutes before dripping sweat" and it takes longer than that just to seek out a zucchini.  And speaking of zucchini, did i not say that i would be finding some out there the size of a Volkswagen by the time i could return to the garden?  Well it was true!  After the heat wave broke last night, I awoke to a very nice 75 degrees and cool breeze this morning, so i ventured out to the garden.  Seeking out the ever elusive jumbo sized zucch!  Well I found it!  It was not quite the size of a Volkswagen but it was bigger then Edy's head.

IT WAS A TOTAL OF 46!

Yes, it was time to clean the goat stall.  I take full advantage of the winter and allow the goat stall to fill for three months, this allows the heat from the pile of hay, bedding and goat dung to become a furnace for the goats.  The only disadvantage to such things is at some point you have to clean it out.  Well, actually relocate is the way to describe it.  I relocate the piles of hay, bedding and goat dung - let's call it crap from this point forward - to the outside of the barn where the horses can turn this beautiful stuff into the best darn black dirt that you've ever seen!  You see because horses are naturally heavy creatures they sink into the dirt and crap and compost it all into some wonderful dirt.  Each spring at this time, i empty the goat stall, put it in the dry lot, allow the spring thaw to make it muddy, the horses trample the dirt and crap and when it dries out - we get out the skid loader and relocate this bounty to the other pile - the dirt pile.  Where it lies until i haul it over to the garden for filling up the raised beds.  See? it all makes perfect sense and all the animals work together to make life simpler.

So before we left for vacation I put on my muck boots, traipsed out to the goat barn and began the cleaning.
The Goats always get a little curious as to why i show up in the middle of the day in the winter:

I started out thinking that after 12 wheel barrow loads full, that it would be about 30 maybe to totally clean it out.





















But barrel load...

after barrow load...

and my back now really tired, i quit at 24 and waited til the next day to begin again.




















It didn't even look like i made a dent in it.

So maybe my calculations were off.  We will wait until the next day to find out the total. Right now the dry lot is getting full.

Edy came out to help and so did Woody

Isn't she just so cute!

And so did Aphrodite (Aphie).

Always wanting to step on the shovel.  Gosh i remember when we first got her you couldn't even get close to her she was so afraid of people, but not anymore! She loves everyone.  See what a good farm life can do to a person... i mean an animal.

Noon was there too, of course!

Then i started seeing the light of day!

No not the light from the door, but the end of the crap!















and i was at a total of about 35 wheel barrows full at this point. But i made many more trips to the dry lot with more crap.
When I finally got done with the wheel barrow hauling, i sprinkled the floor with barn lime,

Added some bedding,

Aphie again being a good helper!

 Admired the beautiful job i did:

And then went out to tell the goats their stall was ready.

They love the sun!

All, in total:  46, count 'em, 46 wheel barrows full of crap!  Who needs a gym when you have this work to do?

Now get to work ponies and turn this into compost!

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF.....ME!

Lotsa milk means lots of cheese and other dairy products.  So here we go - this is my morning:

decided to make more butter

also decided to make mozzarella!








So i heated the milk up, added the starter and rennet, let it set and then cut the curds into 1" cubes.

decided it was taking too long to set the butter, so i thought i would try a different method: the blender!

But i didn't like the way it was coming along, didn't look right.

so i put it back into the jar and started shakin' again.

back to the mozzarella:

heated the curds back up slowly to 108 degrees by putting it in a pan of hot water.

while that is heating, back to the butter:
That looks better!

 

Rinse the butter,












then add sea salt and blend:

Then i got hungry:

Avocado - my fav lately!










then its back to the butter:

YAY!








then its back to the motz!

Heat the curds in the microwave, stretch them with a spoon;











form into a ball:

place in a bowl of cold water,

Notice that you have this really cute dog and you must take an image of her again:

Then take advantage of the whey and make ricotta cheese.  Heating up the whey until its 185 degrees then pour a quart of milk in.  When it heats up this high, the pan makes these large , bubbles that explode and sound like a "kerplunk!"  Scares Louie:

Poor Louie.






When the whey and milk start to farm little specks: its ready!

Pour into cheesecloth lines strainer, tie it up and hang for a couple hours to drain.  Instant ricotta!

now with all this mozzarella and ricotta - what should i make??????