Lots Going On

We have had a lot of stuff going on this last week. I'm sorry I missed my Monday post about blessings, but we had guests here. I feel like I am so far behind that I a lap down. :)

I know that much of the country has been under a wave of heat. I hope you are all surviving the heat and your animals as well. This is hard on animals. I know my sheep have been spending a LOT of time in the shade. I can't imagine being out in this heat with a wool coat on.

If I keep my house closed up, it stays pretty cool... at least to the outside temperatures. We do have a window A/C unit that keeps 2 rooms cool.

I have been making butter again. I love having milk again. I have made butter, yogurt, sour cream, cheese and of course we have had milk to drink. I would like to make some cottage cheese today or some feta. I will also be making yogurt.

I always have a hard time working out all the buttermilk in the butter. There has to be a trick to it. :) I work it and work it and rinse it and rinse it. I have been putting the butter in a mold I have and freezing it.

I am also thrilled to be back in the cheese business. Here are a couple of rounds on the counter waiting to dry and get a rind. With all the humidity we are having, I may have to do the drying process in the rooms with A/C.

Here is my first round of cheese that has one of my new cheese labels. My sweet friend, Patti, designed it for me. I will think of her each time I put one on. I am using up the rest of my cheese wax and then I am switching to bees wax.

The Echinacea are in full bloom. I need to be drying some leaves. I may have enough this year to dig up some roots to dry as well.

I have Bluebirds in the bluebird box again. I put up strips of foil to try and keep the sparrows away. I need to get out there and check it again.

Remember that something was getting our chicks in the brooder? The day we put the last batch of chicks out into the field, this is what my husband saw. The chicks were too big for it to get, so it must have gotten in (although I have no idea how it fit through chicken wire) and pigged out on feed. Then when it went to try and get back out, its greed caused it to get stuck. It was already dead when it was found. GROSS!!! We are going to replace the chicken wire with hardware cloth and see if that helps.

Our car started making funny noises on Wednesday evening. We had a local company that shares our name come and get it yesterday. The Wonderful Neighbors let us borrow one of their vehicles so Michael could get to work. THANK YOU, Wonderful Neighbors!!! :) The car got fixed and we were able to pick it up last evening. We are so grateful for taking Dave Ramsey's FPU. We had the funds there to fix the car!!

We have not been in the garden to do much weeding for about 10 days. We have had some nice rains and lots of sunshine. I went out last night to see if we had stuff ready and it is a JUNGLE!!! Sigh.... it does not take long to get out of control.