A Birthday and some Work

We have been working almost non-stop for the past month or so, so thankfully, for Emily's 4th birthday, we decided to take a couple of days rest.
The following pictures were taken by a family friend almost 2 years ago when he stopped in to visit, and it just so happened to be on a cheese make day. This was when Al and I were being taught by my mother-in-law. So, I thought I'd share a couple of them. We're really excited about having some pictures, and I'm working on a scrapbook featuring our farm and cheese. This is very helpful at the farm markets.

Dixie & Renae putting curds in what is called the "moulds".

This will form the curds into the wheel later on during the press time.

Renae & Al stirring, lots of stirring.

On May 23, Miss Emily turned 4 years old, and announced that morning to her dad that she was now "mature". Hmmm..yeah, sure! She had a very nice birthday, we lit a bonfire that evening and had some family over for some hotdogs and marshmallows. Yum! Then we moved on to cake and ice cream. She picked out Black Raspberry, which I have to say I had never tasted and it's delicous! She picked it out because the ice cream was purple.

Emily in her birthday dress
right before going to church.

Emily and her birthday cake.

Celebrating being 4!

The birthday was a wonderful chance for us to "slow down" a bit. Took the evening to sit back and have a nice visit with Al's brother, his wife, her brother and niece.

We've been doing our best to make as much cheese as we can right now. We have so much milk, and a lot of rain. We have 14 of the cheese moulds, and really could stand to have about 4 more, but after pricing them, I'm afraid we'll just have to wait until we have a bit more $$. We're averaging about 150 lbs. of cheese each make. That's a wonderful yield!

I'm still doing 2 farm markets, which is like running a marathon around here! Although I think I will be doing the Cambridge market every other week, due to the upcoming haymaking schedule.

I actually have a slow day today! Yay! We did have an interview for a local newspaper earlier, and we'll be doing milk testing on the cows tonight. That's a slow day. I took time and made a nice lunch, which I will post the recipe in the "Recipe of the Week" section. And we rested for about 1/2 hour. Emily and I took a short walk to pick some of the purple flowers along our road, but didn't take too long because it is so HOT! And it sounds as if another thunderstorm is coming through.

I think I will now go and put the batteries in Emily's Lucky Duck game she got for her birthday and play for awhile with her.

Being so busy makes me really appreciate the days I can take it slow.

My idea of taking it slow tonight will be:

enjoying the thunderstorms, I LOVE THEM!!

Playing a game with Emily

picking out what I can fix for our dinner tomorrow.

Helping Al in the barn tonight, yes that is relaxing today for me! We turn on the radio and Emily rides her tricycle and Al and I chat while we work.