I have been cheesemaking up a storm. I made a 2 pound block of smoked cheddar followed by a 2 pound block of traditional goat cheddar. Both have been waxed, and now reside in the fridge until I figure out a better place to age them.

In the press now is a nice Parmesan. I am a little worried about it because I followed the directions, but the curds did not look like rice like the instructions said they would. It is my first batch, and the first batch is always an experiment. I also have four more gallons of milk in the fridge that are ready for a nice batch of cheddar tomorrow (and a batch of feta as well). I digress though. More on cheese later.

With all of this cheesemaking, I have whey coming out my ears. I feel like it is a crime to throw it all out, but I cannot find enough things to do with it. I have been giving it to the chickens because they need the extra protein, and it is not bad for them to get the good minerals in the whey as well. I’m not up to drinking it myself yet, though I may get to trying it sometime soon.

I am also giving some of the whey to the dog. The cat I am currently cat-sitting is also getting whey to drink.

It is good for making ricotta, but I find that after a full day of cheesemaking for a hard cheese that I just can’t get to using the whey to make another cheese. Besides, the yield on the whey ricotta is just not as high as I would like to see (I have only been getting a couple of tablespoons of cheese per gallon of whey).

One excellent use for it is to put it in bread. Substitute it for water. It helps the dough take on a tangy flavor, which is desirable for the kinds of bread that I make. It just seems to make it more flavorful on a lot of fronts.

I use whey anywhere in the kitchen where water could be used. I use it to steam veggies, I use it as the base of a chicken stock, literally, anywhere water can be used.

It is also useful for fermenting when making sourkraut or pickles.

I have almost 8 gallons of the stuff sitting around, and I am only using a gallon or so a day, but with the cheesemaking, I am adding at least two gallons per day to my stash. A girl can only make so much bread and chicken stock.

Come and get it. The whey is for sale for $1 per quart.

I have been cheesemaking up a storm.  I made a 2 pound block of smoked cheddar followed by a 2 pound block of traditional goat cheddar.  Both have been waxed, and now reside in the fridge until I figure out a better place to age them.

In the press now is a nice Parmesan.  I am a little worried about it because I followed the directions, but the curds did not look like rice like the instructions said they would.  It is my first batch, and the first batch is always an experiment.  I also have four more gallons of milk in the fridge that are ready for a nice batch of cheddar tomorrow (and a batch of feta as well).  I digress though.  More on cheese later.

With all of this cheesemaking, I have whey coming out my ears.  I feel like it is a crime to throw it all out, but I cannot find enough things to do with it.  I have been giving it to the chickens because they need the extra protein, and it is not bad for them to get the good minerals in the whey as well.  I’m not up to drinking it myself yet, though I may get to trying it sometime soon.

I am also giving some of the whey to the dog.  The cat I am currently cat-sitting is also getting whey to drink.

It is good for making ricotta, but I find that after a full day of cheesemaking for a hard cheese that I just can’t get to using the whey to make another cheese.  Besides, the yield on the whey ricotta is just not as high as I would like to see (I have only been getting a couple of tablespoons of cheese per gallon of whey).

One excellent use for it is to put it in bread.  Substitute it for water.  It helps the dough take on a tangy flavor, which is desirable for the kinds of bread that I make.  It just seems to make it more flavorful on a lot of fronts.

I use whey anywhere in the kitchen where water could be used.  I use it to steam veggies, I use it as the base of a chicken stock, literally, anywhere water can be used.

It is also useful for fermenting when making sourkraut or pickles.

I have almost 8 gallons of the stuff sitting around, and I am only using a gallon or so a day, but with the cheesemaking, I am adding at least two gallons per day to my stash.  A girl can only make so much bread and chicken stock.

Come and get it.  The whey is for sale for $1 per quart.

When we went to the swimming pool yesterday, I discovered that I had left my swim suit at home. I turned back home to get it, and when I got home, my bike fell over.

I didn’t think anything of it as I hopped on the bike back to the pool. I had a very difficult time getting there, and I almost fainted. I had no idea that it was taking me 10 times more effort to ride the bike than normal because I attributed it to the heat.

I had Jared ride the bike home, and he confirmed that something was wrong.

I hopped back on the bike on the way to the pool today, and it turns out that the wheel was totally bent up.

After riding the bike to the pool, I discovered it was closed, and I hopped on to go home.

It had been a hot day, and I was determined to swim, but it was not in the cards. The problem was that my bike really was not doing well, and the back tire was off by at least 6 inches. It almost killed me!

I am so sad my bike is broken. It is going to cost a good penny or two to fix it, and it is possible that I will need to buy a new bike altogether. This makes me very sad, because God knows how long I will be without a bike. I LOVE my bike.

I’ll keep you updated.

This is an Oregon Natural Foods blog cross-post. See the fun you would be missing out on if you didn’t get over there and sign up?

When we were still in the raining season, I would open the window (yes the window) to where the chickens are, and it definitely smelled like a chicken coop. Because we don’t exactly have acreage here, it has been necessary to try to keep the neighbors happy. To keep our neighborly air, I decided it was time to get out and clean the coop and the run that the laying hens hang out in.

This is a bigger project than it sounds like. Not only am I dealing with massive amounts of chicken poop from several batches of chickens, but there is no way to get a wheel barrow into the run to clean it out. I actually had to deconstruct the back side of the chicken coop to get a wheel barrow out far enough to get the soiled shavings out.

After I pulled out three wheelbarrows full of shavings, I spread the rest of the shavings out. I have decided to deep litter the run, so I will just throw a new bale of shavings out into the run every month or so. It is fairly inexpensive, and it keeps the really dirty stuff down deep so that it can decompose. It also has the nice side effect of not upsetting the neighbors because of the smell. As an additional bonus, I threw down a bunch of baking soda in the run so that it could work to neutralize any smell I may have dug up.

I then moved to the inside of the chicken coop and I was pulling up 2 inch thick dried chunks of chicken poop. I think it will work well to up the nitrogen content in my compost pile, that is for sure. Jared thinks I should find a burlap bag supplier and bag it up as compost. I could sell a 50 pound bag of it for $10. The truth is that I have WAY too much chicken compost now, and I sure hope that I have an easy time breaking it all down into garden material because that is what I need now, not chicken poop.

I accomplished my mission. The neighbors should be happy and the chickens should be happy. I look forward to the next cleaning in 3 months (please note the sarcasm).

When we were still in the raining season, I would open the window (yes the window) to where the chickens are, and it definitely smelled like a chicken coop.  Because we don’t exactly have acreage here, it has been necessary to try to keep the neighbors happy.  To keep our neighborly air, I decided it was time to get out and clean the coop and the run that the laying hens hang out in.

This is a bigger project than it sounds like.  Not only am I dealing with massive amounts of chicken poop from several batches of chickens, but there is no way to get a wheel barrow into the run to clean it out.  I actually had to deconstruct the back side of the chicken coop to get a wheel barrow out far enough to get the soiled shavings out.

After I pulled out three wheelbarrows full of shavings, I spread the rest of the shavings out.  I have decided to deep litter the run, so I will just throw a new bale of shavings out into the run every month or so.  It is fairly inexpensive, and it keeps the really dirty stuff down deep so that it can decompose.  It also has the nice side effect of not upsetting the neighbors because of the smell.  As an additional bonus, I threw down a bunch of baking soda in the run so that it could work to neutralize any smell I may have dug up.

I then moved to the inside of the chicken coop and I was pulling up 2 inch thick dried chunks of chicken poop.  I think it will work well to up the nitrogen content in my compost pile, that is for sure.  Jared thinks I should find a burlap bag supplier and bag it up as compost.  I could sell a 50 pound bag of it for $10.  The truth is that I have WAY too much chicken compost now, and I sure hope that I have an easy time breaking it all down into garden material because that is what I need now, not chicken poop.

I accomplished my mission.  The neighbors should be happy and the chickens should be happy.  I look forward to the next cleaning in 3 months (please note the sarcasm).

Daphne made a poop on the potty today, and she went in to tell her daddy about it.

When he asked her where the poop when, she looked down and grabbed her crotch.

Yes, she really does know where poop comes from!

Today being Sunday, I decided to make something special for breakfast. In fact, every Sunday for the past couple of weeks has had me making some new special breakfast meal. Call it past cultural tradition from when my grandma used to make waffles sometimes or just call it me enjoying the weekend. The point is that I made a special breakfast.

We had pancakes and fiesta eggs. I really like pancakes, but I rarely make them, so I broke out the cookbook my sister bought me a year or so ago to try the recipe in there. I was definitely pleasantly surprised.

As we sat there eating, Jared and I were thinking about the cost of the food.

If we had gone out to eat at Denny’s, the meal would have cost us about $20. At home, the meal (for all three of us) cost us about $3.

My Master Card jingle for this is:

2 Grand slam breakfast and a kids menu breakfast at Denny’s – $20
1 Home made Sunday breakfast – $3
Eating breakfast with the entire family -Priceless
Not having to haul the kiddo around in the car to get to breakfast – also PRICELESS!

Consider making a meal at home for your family. It turns out, knowing how to cook is incredibly economical.

Today being Sunday, I decided to make something special for breakfast. In fact, every Sunday for the past couple of weeks has had me making some new special breakfast meal. Call it past cultural tradition from when my grandma used to make waffles sometimes or just call it me enjoying the weekend. The point is that I made a special breakfast.

We had pancakes and fiesta eggs. I really like pancakes, but I rarely make them, so I broke out the cookbook my sister bought me a year or so ago to try the recipe in there. I was definitely pleasantly surprised.

As we sat there eating, Jared and I were thinking about the cost of the food.

If we had gone out to eat at Denny’s, the meal would have cost us about $20. At home, the meal (for all three of us) cost us about $3.

My Master Card jingle for this is:

2 Grand slam breakfast and a kids menu breakfast at Denny’s – $20
1 Home made Sunday breakfast – $3
Eating breakfast with the entire family -Priceless
Not having to haul the kiddo around in the car to get to breakfast – also PRICELESS!

Consider making a meal at home for your family. It turns out, knowing how to cook is incredibly economical.

Scott (the owner of the farm where I keep my goat) and I decided that we were going to take his two bucks to a goat show. Though I have been in the ring with cattle a time or two, I have not really shown goats at all. Scott had no experience himself in the area, so it was quite the adventure.

The good news is that after a little bit of work and some help with showmanship, his bucks ended up as the Champion and Reserve Champion Junior Nubian Bucks. That’s not too bad for my first time out eh?

Up next, I am going to take my goat to the county fair next month. Boy, I am excited about that, let me tell you.

Jared, Daphne and I went swimming at the Carlton Public Pool yesterday.

I posted earlier that the pool was not heated, and that turned out to be a blessing yesterday. As the temperature topped 100 degrees, we all rode our bikes over to the pool. Daphne and Jared got to swimming, and I eventually joined them. Daphne loved to jump into the pool and have me swim across the pool with her. She also enjoyed sitting by the side of the pool with her feet hanging in while she watched Mama jump off the diving board. We had a fun day.

So far, we have used $15 worth of our $77 family pass, and I have only had it for a little more than a week. It is going to pay off for sure. Today will be another hot day too!