Thursday, May 19th

Thursday Update!

This week I will be at the farm until Saturday and then up to Portland on Saturday afternoon. I will be back to the farm on Wednesday the 25th. Holy smokes! It's lovely outside! And there is so much to do!! So much gardening, trail clearing, land maintenance, standing in the middle of the big pasture and talking about fencing for hours, and so much milk! So I have been making cheese like crazy. I have decided there is no reason to not experiment with some more complicated cheeses that may not turn out. I have been very brave. And there will be lots of new things to try in the weeks and months to come. I love delayed gratification.

This Week We Will Have:

• Milk: but not quite as much because I have been using it all up
• Chevre: a new recipe, with hopefully prettier presentation
• Feta: in a very salty brine, it's pretty good, but not great, and better after a few minutes of soaking in fresh water
• And to the new aging "fridge": 2-lb cheddar cheeses (2), 5-lb Caerphilly cheese, Mould ripened soft goat cheeses (6 small, and 1 bigger one)

Other Farm News:

Garden:

Lots and lots of new baby sprouts. I love this time of year because you can check on the garden five times a day and see new things popping up every time! Finally all the onions are in. This has been a lot of work for me because I loathe planting onion starts so it has taken a lot of planning to get other people to do it for me. I am a very excellent planner. It has also been fun to see how some of the warmer weather plants are doing so much better in the greenhouse.

Barn:

We are having increased mice issues in the barn, so we got a cat off of Craig's List. The cat almost immediately disappeared and we haven't seen him since. He sat by us for a second and then made a huge flying leap and disappeared into the scary part of the barn. But we have seen evidence of him every day. Like that scene in that movie Funny Farm when they get that dog that runs away and you just see him streak by every now and again. Poor kitty. But I have faith that we will come around. We just want to build him a kitty palace and feed him treats every day.

Also there is a new basketball hoop in the barn AND Grace can now ride her bike without training wheels!

House:

Big progress on Grace's new room. This is the first big remodel and we are feeling really excited about it now. Almost all the dry-wall is up and we will be ready to spackle and paint next week. Pictures soon, I bet.