Well Crap

Actually, double crap. Today started out that way. I woke up late to get the cheese started for the class I was teaching today. I switched what I intended to teach and made due. Then, my son came in from milking for me and said the cow has a cut on a teat bad enough it will give us problems milking. Then, just as my students were arriving, hubster and son came to tell me Noma goat was in labor. 2 1/2 hours later, a prolapsed Noma is dead and we have twins delivered via c-section. The creamy colored kid was pulled out first, she's doing great. The second is a bit weak but is holding on. From the looks of it all, the kids are premature. This is not what I had planned for kidding season this year. Not a good start overall for the year even.

The cheese class went great tho!

Nasty surprise

Not on my top 10 favorite list, waking up to cold, muddy and spitting snow. Last night I milked the cow in a t-shirt and this morning the floor is cold enough to warrant fuzzy socks. I can't help but wonder what's on old Mother Natures mind when she throws crazy weather like this at us.

Yesterday was the second cheese class. I had 3 students for this one and I'm really enjoying the reactions when the milk turns into real cheese. One student had been trying to make cheese with a pretty good book of recipes and had not found success with it. It brought back memories of me trying to make cheese by following those recipes I have and all those nasty wheels of cheese even the dog wouldn't eat. As we went thru the process of cooking the curds down, i could see the "light" come on and I knew that student would never see failure again. I'm finding it to be a very rewarding experience and I'm really looking forward to the next 2 classes I have scheduled. Not sure how I'm going to get thru it all physically tho, it really wipes me out. The interesting thing about it all is the conversation during the class. There's more people than I thought out there worried about commercial foods, our economy, what's happening in our country and what our future holds. I think that some folks in our country are circling back toward the old ways, a Renaissance of sorts. Not necessarily a bad thing in my mind.

Well, I better get to the farm chores, I might have baby goats out there and I need to make a lasagna with all this store bought milk ricotta cheese I have sitting in the fridge.....