We've Been Busy!

I have been missing for awhile! Once spring comes, and the ground dries up, we don't stop until we go to bed at night, and sometimes that is around 10-11 p.m.

We made our first batch of cheese for the  year on Monday. The milk was so yellow that the cheese looks orange! It's so yummy looking! Cheese make went well enough. Only a few things that slowed us up and we got a late start. We had a cow calve that morning, and now that the cows are coming up on milk and we're milking more cows, milking time takes a lot longer! The cheese stayed in the press overnight to allow the PH to drop to the correct number. Tuesday morning I went up and placed the cheese into the brine tanks. They stayed in there for 50 hours.

We had several orders come in this past week. Mr. Riesbeck picked up cheese for his wife's store, Buttonwood Market and I shipped out an order to a small wine shop called Meza, in Westerville, OH. Jungle Jim's placed an order, and Lola's, they will be packaged up this weekend and shipped out on Monday.

Wednesday we also had our local newspaper stop in again to take some pictures for the article coming out on the 29th. She came last week and did the interview, but it was raining and cold, and that didn't allow for pictures.

Yesterday we went back to our fields and set up the electric fence for a new paddock for our milking cows. After that was set up, we had to walk to our pond and turn the valve on for the water to fill the water tanks with water so the girls will have plenty of water. After the water is turned on and hitched up to the lines, we walk the water line to check for leaks. When and if we find leaks, we fix them. Emily thought the leaks were a lot of fun, since they sprayed water everywhere. We make our jobs "family time". Walking our fields and fences gives us time together, we chat as we walk, Emily is able to look for "treasure", and we monitor how our pastures are growing and what needs to be done to continue our grazing system. And the walking is awesome exercise!

Today's schedule looks like we'll be working in the milk house. The motor for our receiving jar is not working right, and Al is having to manually work it and that makes milking very slow going! We have some parts to repair it already here, but may need to head to the hardware this afternoon to find the odd and end stuff.

I'm also going to be packaging some cheese this afternoon for the farm market tomorrow. Since the sun has been out, business has been wonderful at the market. I'm really happy that there are many new folks coming into the market!

That's pretty much my ramblings for this week.  I will make sure I have a much better post next time with some pictures! I've got plenty of pictures on my camera that just need to be loaded into the computer. But, for now, I need to go see about lunch that is in the oven, Chicken Penne Alfredo...mmmm..... After that, typing up some minutes from last Saturday's market meeting along with a reminder for folks about our Farm Market Customer Appreciation Breakfast on the 24th! I'll post more info about that, also!

Have a great weekend!