Curdled cheese from grumpy milk

Hot chooks and their companion  trying to catch a breeze. Kupa always looks like he is wearing boxers!

Here is an old shot of me -just out of interest. I came across this picture again yesterday. It was taken around the time I ended up sat in a basket of wet washing. I was pregnant with the youngest of the mud splattered sons when Dad took this photo.   It puts it into perspective doesn’t it.  You know I don’t usually show pictures of myself but it did make me gasp.  We forget how young we were! How much we were dealing with so young. And how truly bad our hair was!

Yesterday my fresh cheese separated when I added the rennet.  I don’t know why it does that sometimes. Once again the pigs eat well! John said I should have just made sour cream with  Daisy’s bad tempered milk. She was quite the  sour puss yesterday morning. She stomped into the milking parlour, not even wiping her muddy feet (horrors), she stood to milk with a very surly manner, whipping her tail about and then she whirled around and stomped back out. Yesterday evening was much better. 

The wildflowers are  bleaching.  Summer camouflage seems has become the norm. The only real colour anymore is the endless summer sky.

It  has been decided  that the big pigs will go on to their noble purpose at the end of the month.  They are now very big. We dragged the stock trailer into the pigs paddock so that they could get used to it. I will start feeding them in there soon, so that they will walk in and out without being stressed.  And get used to their transport.   I do not want to have to battle to get them in on the last day.  I am working towards a smooth transition. 

They spent all yesterday afternoon sleeping in the cool shade underneath it!

I sat down with the Tall Teenager and told him that the pigs day would be at the end of the month and asked him if he was going to Ok with the pigs going. He is a vegetarian you see. He bridled and said  that of course he was Ok. He knew it was coming.  He is not a baby. He paused. Then searching for his words, he said that if everyone raised their meat the way we do, he would not have become a vegetarian.  But I am not changing back, he glared. So I said good, well done and left it at that.  I think we are all on the same page.

The rest of Daisy’s grumpy milk was sweetened, soothed and gently stirred into the most wonderful ice cream. Virginia from Bel Ochio’s Blog showed me how to make her Sublime Vanilla Ice Cream. She has set it all out in beautifully photographed steps.  This ice cream was made in her restaurant for years so it is simple and proven. From now on this will be the number one ice cream for us. And if you want to make icecream without eggs look in the comments section  as that recipe is in there too!

A vine within a vine.

A naughty pea hen. Snapped while trying to creep out of the tomato plants that fill the gaps in the flower beds. These are tiny cherry tomatoes, planted by the grill. 

But they have not been producing any red tomatoes like the others, now we know why, they are a perfect peacock snack size!

Good morning.  The day is already heating up and it is only 5.14 am.  Another scorcher is on the way.  Shortly I will scurry all over the house and close  the windows to keep the cool in before I go out to begin my days work. Actually there was very little cool last night to even keep in.

In the deep night TonTon went outside to investigate a noise.  When he wants to come back inside he sits at the bedroom french doors and thumps his tail on the wooden step.  Later I heard this tail knock, got up, but oh dear I could smell him through the screen door, he had been tangling with a skunk. So he spent the rest of the night lying confused but obedient on the step outside. The skunk smell is not the worst smell I have ever encountered.  But it is thick. Insidious.  It seems to take over every other scent of the night. If it were a  visible smell it would be very dark and opaque. Very individual.  Your nose cannot help but wrinkle away from it. Bathtime for dogs after the milking.

Daisy was quiet all night so I think that episode is over.

Have a lovely day.

celi

On this day a year ago. Here is the first recipe – Breakfast Potato Cakes. I had forgotton about these. I think I might make them for my own breakfast this morning!