Friday, June 17, 2011

Lots of fun for us today.  We got a lot of general busy work done.  First things first, I walked right in from milking the cow and got on processing milk.  We made some creme fraiche and some butter with the cream.  I then put the milk in a pot to make a wheel of Manchego.  While the Mancghego was ripening, I also got some feta going.  Making cheese is so fulfilling because the milk in the fridge turns into something so beautiful and delicious.

I finished processing the strawberries, one more load into the dehydrator, and some more in the freezer.  We are up to 40 pints in the freezer so far, and there is more to pick still.  My goal is to get 100 pints in there.  I calculated the yield of the berries out.  I can pick about 3o pounds of strawberries in about an hour or an hour and a half.  If I pick into 2 gallon buckets, that is ideal.  They are big enough to fit quite a few berries, but not so big that the berries on the bottom get squished.  Each 2 gallon bucket holds about 10 pounds of strawberries, so that’s about 5 pounds of strawberries per gallon of container. Just good to know for the future.  Also, one 4-tray dehydrator full translates to a quart jar of dried strawberries.

After everything was processed and cleaned up, the kids and I went out and drove up Baker Creek to a park to hang out and play.  It was a blast.  The sun was just warm enough for a bit of light swimming.

When I got home, my cows were running around the driveway.  They had been out in the field on long lines eating grass.  Jared had poped out of the house for a quick errand, and in the interim, someone came up onto the property and cut the tether lines on the cows.  We did some detective work, and it is clear they were cut.  The cuts are very straight across the lines, not torn.  The tethers were also not at the end as if they had been pulled taut and broken, they were loosely laying on the ground.  Also, my milk fridge on the front porch was unplugged by the hoodlum.  This is the kind of thing that was happening with the pigs, but REALLY?  Those lines are expensive to replace, and I just don’t get the motivation.  I’m considering filing another police report for documentation in case we find the jerks messing with my farm.

We had a friend out to visit with her son.  They enjoyed checking out all the animals, and we even peeked in the bee hive.  It is looking VERY nice in there!  I might be ready to do a bit of a harvest on one hive soon!

Put one more wheel barrow load on the potatoes.  If I finish writing this right now, I just might be able to get up early in the morning to finish it off.

I was out in the barn late tonight to find that one of the eggs a hen was sitting on had fallen from the nest.  It got pretty cold down on the ground, but I did pick it up and put it under her.  Hopefully it will be OK.  If only those damned chicks would hatch out so I could see.

I’d like to get the house  and the farm cleaned up tomorrow.