My favorite day of the week

Monday is my Saturday. Most weeks I work from Wednesday to Sunday and then on Monday when everyone else is getting back into gear, I relax. This is the day to set base camp in order or work on a project or read a book. I also get to be with my family who I miss when I am gone. I love to help with their school. I must admit, my occasional Saturday is much better because then everyone else is in slow/work-around-the-house mode too and Papa is home which likely means we will all be doing a project together.

The other day I asked Laura if I could retire from farming earlier than the start of my trips. It was a hard decision because I had wanted a cow for so long and I am the one who talked Papa into it. I love going to the barn and enjoyed it more than a year but for about a month now when milking time came I hated to leave. I think it is because I only have so much time at home and that took 3 hours out of my day. Anyway, milk cow Mocha now belongs to Laura. I think she will be great at farming.

The second piece of breaking news is that last night I put on Katie's flip-flops and they fit! My sisters are growing.

My new FAVORITE place

This morning I took the College Comp. CLEP test at GC. I am glad it is over but I won't get the results for a while because it is graded by actual people. Anyway, I finished about 11:00. I had Ann and La along since Ann had a test at 1:00 and La could study in the school library. We went to BK for lunch and then had an hour to waste. So we went to this little cafe in Deep creek. Each of us had been there once or twice before but just for a few min. so Papa could get coffee or something. This time Annie treated us to hot chocolate and we all went to the back where there was a nice little lounge with a fireplace.

 I got pumpkin hot chocolate which is better than pumpkin coffee and also better than the other girls' 'smores hot chocolate even though it sounded better.

 Bad camera but isn't this a cute clock?

 Ann is trying not to worry about her test which, of course, she passed.

I am already planning my all day study visit. I will go on a Friday or Monday...or maybe tomorrow...after my busy work week. I will wash my hair the night before and braid it wet and sleep in it because I like those waves and I am afraid of a curling iron.

I'll wear it like this and dress up nice. I'll go in the morning and bring school books and some money for lunch-yes they serve sandwiches-and plan on spending the day. I will sit in the back by the fire and use their nice wi-fi if I need it. I may even buy a nice mug and sip a hot drink all day. It will be Christmas only better! 

A House Flowing with Milk

One day we could not fit the morning's milking in the fridge so La got all the milk out and I started by skimming it all.

 Then I made farmer's cheese with 2 gal of it which took care of 4 jars.

With some of the cream I tried to make mascarpone but I didn't get it hot enough before I put the acid in so it did not separate too well.

Here is the farmer's cheese also called paneer in India, and queso blanco in Mexico.

 Farmer's Cheese

2 gal whole milk

4 cups water

4 t citric acid

Bring the milk to a boil or at least really hot. Mix water and citric acid.

Stir it into the milk. Drain and run under cold water. Press for several hours.

Notice the nice press that Laura made me.

Sometimes we call farmer's cheese fry cheese because it does not melt, it browns. This is probably the cheese that Heidi toasted. It is best hot off the griddle dipped in pizza sauce.

Next we took a quart of milk to Granddad...

...and made a bunch of chocolate milk.

Then Granddad requested some homemade cottage cheese for the Easter get together at his house the next day. We use the same recipe for this as for fry cheese but we do not press it. Instead we crumble with a fork and add cream. The only problem was that the citric acid was gone.

There was a lot of experimenting which used up some milk but eventually we got cottage cheese using tartaric acid.

So this is what our refrigerator looked like just before milking time that evening.

This is how full our sink was, even while constantly washing.

Like Rebekah

You can tell that we are not experienced farmers because we did not plan for winter very well and so got stuck halling buckets of water for the cows.

 If you don't know the story of Rebekah watering the camels you can look it up in Genesis 24. She drew water for all 10 of Abraham's servant's camels. Do you know how much water a camel can drink?

 Camels can drink about 30 gal of water at a time. That's 300 gal. That is 60-five gallon buckets. 

our milk cow, Mocha, due to freshen next month

30 trips form the well to the trough and back. 80 lbs of water each time. 

shoveling out as much ice as we can

 Add to that the words "hastened" and "ran" and you have quite a girl. No wonder 

Abraham's servant thought she would make a good wife.

Between Laura and I we only carry 6 buckets a day at the most.

Old Red is one of Granddad's Herefords that he is probably going to take to the sale. She's the only cow down there right now besides Mocha and the calf.

Our barn Kitty that Zach named Summer

 getting grain

The Coldest Day of the Year

Yesterday. At least 10 degrees below zero. It was calling for 20 below and at one place not too far away, we know it was -15. Both woodstoves were roaring.

 This thermometer is set inside against the glass.

The girls' room is the coldest in the house so we were allowed to camp out in the living room.

 

 We tried a new hot chocolate recipe from Bulk Herb Store's weekly news letter that got a thumbs up.

 

 

Happy winter!

My favorite eggnog recipe

is the one that my sister, Laura, made. She is what I call a cave-girl cook. She doesn't usually use the recipe and so invents new ones. Many times they're worth keeping but she never writes them down-always has them in her head- so I have to ask her what they are every time. Now if the eggnog recipe is on the blog, you all can make it and so can I-even if she's not around.

Eggnog

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups whole jersey milk

nutmeg or allspice

Blend the eggs and sugar really well in a blender. Nothing is worse than a mouthful of slimy egg white. Then add milk and spice. If you don't have rich jersey milk then use some cream and milk.