Can you tell I just love summer? I love taking pictures of the flowers, Emily, Annie (our dog), the cows and clouds. Pretty much anything that will hold still long enough.

I also love the storms that roll through when the days get really hot and humid. We had some good ones go through last night. Lots of lightning. I watched it from our bedroom window for awhile. Until it started raining in the window. We went to our insurance agency yesterday to pay our bill, and while Al went inside, Emily and I sat in the truck and waited, and there perched a Mockingbird on the fence close to us. I just love hearing them! Wish we had one around here, but I rarely see them. I did hear a Whipoorwill (sp??) the other night as I was taking the cows to their paddock. First time in a few years I have heard one of those.

Cheesemaking is still on hold. Bummer!!! But, I talked to them on Monday, and they said the coating would be shipped out this Friday (tomorrow), so we're looking at getting it around Tuesday or so. We're aiming to make a batch next Friday. Probably a batch of Hill Folk, we are needed to get more of it on the shelves. Speaking of which, that reminds me that I need to do some waxing tomorrow. I did 2 batches so far this week. And it is looking so nice compared to last year. I did, however, drop a whole wheel into the waxer, accidently. When the packing/waxing room gets humid, those wheels get slippery. So hard to hold. I ended up splashing a good bit of red wax all down the front of me, thankfully we wear aprons, but it still burnt my arm a bit. I found that the wax is heated to over 200 degrees, I didn't know that until about a week ago, and I got curious and put a thermometer in it. Hmm...no wonder it stings a bit when is splashes up. So, it took some doing to fish that wheel of cheese out of the vat, and by the time I did, it ended up cooking it so much that it was squishy. Not good.... Gotta work up those hand and finger muscles to be able to hang on to that cheese! Milk prices are not moving much. We're actually getting paid less this year for our milk with more cows milking (almost 60 right now), than last year when were milking about 40-45 cows. We've heard that if we hang in there until next year, prices are supposed to improve. I hope, just don't know how many of us dairy folks will still be in business! Hard to pay for the cows groceries when we don't get paid ourselves!

I managed to get to some yard sales last week! yay!!! Didn't find too much that was overly exciting. Some clothes for Emily, thank goodness too! She's growing! We went to Ollie's today (it's a discount store, kinda like Odd Lots). They have literally thousands of books, including my favorites, the cookbooks! Of course I picked up 3. I found an Old Fashioned Cookie cookbook by Debbie Mumm (priced at $3!) and a couple of diabetic cookbooks, which I am really going to have to buckle down on that diet. Found some schooling books for Emily. I just love that store! If I had a lot of money to just spend, that would probably be where I would go! haha!

I have a few goals for this week, thought if I jot them down on here, I may actually see them through....so here they are, in no particular order...

1) Get in gear with watching what I eat and walk!!!! (Also need to get more consistent in getting my A.M. glucose readings!)

2) Organize Emily's toy population, brought on by really cheap, nice toys at yard sales and Goodwill, I hold those places personally responsible for making their prices hard to pass up and making my living room look like a Toys R Us exploded! Ok, just kidding, I have the freedom to say NO to more toys.... and should have the good sense to do so...

3) Wax the last batches of cheese, at least the last ones until we get making again. Also have to change the brine tanks before next make.... :P

4) Get stuff sorted. Four boxes: Goodwill, Keep, Yard Sale, TRASH!!

Ok, that's about all I can handle right now. I have to watch if I overwhelm myself, then I just don't accomplish anything.

Now, off to start one of those....