It's a slow day around here. It shouldn't be, I have a lot of stuff that is needing done. But I am tired! Tired and woke up with a headache, so that just set the mood for the whole day. We made cheese yesterday, and for some reason the day after we make, I get a headache. I think it's because of the stirring we do for so long, and it causes my neck to tense up. So, I rested a bit this morning, got a call from the Sears guy, he came in and worked on the washig machine for the second time this month. Thank goodness it's working. Not willing to pull out a washboard just yet. Had someone recommend a wringer washer, and I'm not going that far yet either. My grandma had one of those. Although I thought they were a lot of fun, especially when grandma would let me put the clothes through the wringer.
We did run to town for a bit, had to pick up some steel fence posts to patch a whole in the fence near our hayfield. Really don't enjoy 65 cows going into the hayfield and woods when it's time to come in for the evening milking. Tomorrow we'll work on that. It didn't help that the deer are so thick on our place, that they just run through our fence like it's nothing. Counted over 50 deer the other night, just in our hayfields. That's just about the number of cows we're milking. So, we have a herd of deer.
Well, the cheese has been shipped to Jungle Jim's this week, so if you stop in there, you just might be able to get some. Got a call from another store/deli in the Cincinnati area, and they are wanting to get some of our cheese in their business. I'm encouraged when they call us just out of the blue. He said that he's had several folks inquiring.
I'm amazed at our yield with our cheese! Rule of thumb is, and this is generally with Holstein milk, 1000 lbs. of milk will make 100 lbs. of cheese. Well, we only had 730 lbs. of milk yesterday, and came out with 110 lbs. of cheese. Good yield!! The milk is almost orange when it comes in, it's so rich right now. Very hard to stir at first, until those curds shrink a bit during cook. Yesterday's batch was "tucked" in for the night around 11:00 p.m. I still have to go up and clean up. Also have about 3-4 batches of cheese to wax. I don't mind doing that, except it seems to take forever to get the wax to melt and be hot enough to do the waxing.
Will need to cut up some cheese for Saturday market. Will have several things to print out so that I can hand out. I want to make sure I get word out that we are doing gift baskets, and let customers know about the gift basket giveaway. Need more business cards too. They seem to go fast.
I'm usually not a winter person, but this year, I am looking forward to some snow days, where we can just tuck in for the day and spend some family time together. I'm getting geared up for Christmas already. But it will be here before we know it. I'm getting recipes lined up for our cookie trays that we give out. May tuck some goodies in my gift baskets as well. First thing I'll probably make is Buckeyes. They freeze nicely, then all you have to do is dip them in chocolate. I got a double boiler last Christmas, and I'm anxious to use it.
Well, I am off to wash up some cheese moulds and wax cheese.
Since trick -or- treating is going on tonight through Saturday night, have a fun, safe trick-or-treating!!
A Slow Cooker Thanksgiving
5 weeks ago
