another

I milk two quarts of milk a day from my goat. I can get more if I start milking her twice. Oprah is way to big for nursing on her momma, but she is still stealing suckles. Oprah is a healthy girl.

We have switched completely from cow's milk to goat's milk. Today I took my surplus of goats milk and made a big batch of cheese. I didn't think to pick up the camera until I was watching the whey drain from the curds. All you missed was me warming up the milk in a pot and then adding lemon to curdle the milk. No recipe. I let it sit and cool a little before I poured it in the strainer, lined with linen, to catch the curdles and drain the liquid (whey.)

See why I thought it was pretty?
Then I added salt. About this much:

Then I picked some fresh herbs, parsley, basil, oregano, and a pinch of thyme. I chopped them up into a fragrant burst of fresh from the earth flavors. I added a sprinkle of garlic powder, black pepper and chunks of roasted red peppers. Yum. I wish I could have smell-a-blog, you would love this part of my blog. Later on in this blog, not so much.
Then I used some hay baling twine and hung it from my wood stove pipe. Tomorrow, cheese will be served. That pretty much ended my domestic chores for the day.


After the cheese making, I went out and cleaned the Rabbitry. It always needs cleaned up. Rabbits never stop pooping. Plus, I have three younger chickens up there. Which in turn attracted my other younger chickens. Funny how they naturally flock. Now I have six chickens in the rabbitry with some others who come and go.

As I was cleaning, Rusty came up and helped, and all of a sudden he said, "Did you see this big snake skin up here?" A shiver ran down my spine. "No I did not see that snake skin", I answered, sizing up how long it was. It was long. It went from my chest to my foot, and the skin had a loop in it. So I am guessing to my neck. I am 5'6".

Look at it's head, face, eyes, and mouth. So the snake is bigger, now right? Rusty says it's a black snake, maybe a rat snake or a black racer. He says it's not big enough to eat my rabbits and that it is there probably keeping the mice population in control. I have never seen a mouse in the barn. Maybe that is why. Thank you snake?

Hi I am a snake, what are you?

After all of that excitement, We decided to go pick up a little package that we paid for last weekend. You know the way...


Except we weren't going to town, we were heading down into the valley and over a hill. Past some farms...

Until we came to this farm.

I so need a lamb. Look at that face. I need to paint sheep.

Pig Pile!
Yes, today is the day we picked up our piglet. Everybody was excited when we got him home. Especially the piglet. SQUEAL! He had been free roaming with his siblings and big Mamma, cousins and Auntie Sows. So he really didn't have a whole lot of human interaction. Until today.

Tonka wants to see who is making all the noise, and that smell... somebody dropped a stinker.

Well, hi there Mr. Piggie.

Welcome to Bluestone River Farm. You don't know it yet, but I give the best piggy back scratches, and I will talk to you and feed you nice goats milk with your feed, when you are bigger you can go root and hunt for acorns. The baby goats will like having you around. When you get big, they will try to stand on you. Oh and watch out for that donkey... and your tail.


You are cute as a button. I think we might go back and get one of your sisters.

Yes, so this little guy is Sling Blade's second cousin, or something like that. He is nestled into the barn on his hay bed right now, with his new roommates, the chickens, ducks and goats. I was hoping to get a nice sleepy time shot of everybody, they looked so cute an snuggled in, but it is my sleepy time. However, tomorrow, I will be taking the series of how not to photograph your pig.

Nite all,
~crow

$5

Yes. $5.00 is what I paid for that chair. I haven't got that sort of a deal since I shopped at the Garage Sale Store in St. Petersburg, FL.

So, I guess that means Sophia won. She knows her Momma, I love old things, and I buy them at a bargain price, or I don't buy them.

Now, A Brit in Tennessee said she bought chairs that were very similar for 3 for $20.00, but she didn't guess my chair was around that price. So, she did not win, but it seems she and I are from the same gene-pool. :-) Check out her blog. Lovely.

I will be interviewing my daughter. A real interview. I am going to dress up, and take notes and pictures. What sort of questions shall I ask her? She is eleven. She is a lot like me and a lot very different from me. She is a bit of a philosopher. I will be preparing for this interview like any reporter would.

By the way, Sophia is thrilled to have won! So funny.

Here is a dusk photo of one of my giant sunflowers to gaze upon while you think about questions.

sundown flower

the other half

We got home from the Market parked the old Dodge, and I fed everybody (as in flocks and herds) and kicked back a bit. We decided we needed freezer bags for my homemade sauce and also to freeze corn. We also needed some more seed to add to our Fall garden. I am excited about another round of veggies. So off we went, again. Three towns over we stopped off for a beverage. Rusty gor sting by yellow jackets while in the field. His whole arm is swollen. While I waited for him, I took a picture of these guys admiring a car at the gas pumps. I like the color. This is a gambling place. I never knew what these places were until about my second year here. One day I asked Rusty, and he told me they are gambling dens. Oh sweet Rosies! I have never been in one, but I would like to see what is inside. I bet there is no photography. This is the local burger joint. I haven't gone there either! This is the closest grocery store. I have been there. It is just me. Up before dawn, flea-market-ed, animal-ed, and now on a quest for seeds. Why don't they make a mirror that doesn't make object larger? I am thinking though, maybe things really are larger than they appear and the mirror helps us see the truth. Back through the valley and over the train yards of Bluefield, WV The hospital. Oops wrong turn, we need to go to the feed store. Back on track. A lounge called Venus. No I haven't been there! I have been here. Three years ago I didn't even know what TSC was about. Today it was food for the fowl friends, and seed. Where is the seed? They eat better than me. Raccoons must be popular right now. No seed. Since Kmart is right next to TSC we checked their garden department for seed.
Summer was on sale. But, I am sure you get it... still no seed was to be found. I know everybody doesn't plant a Fall garden, but I know many people who do. So we took the highway to go to Lowe's for seed. Summer was on sale there too.
We looked everywhere, and asked this helpful Lowe's employee. "We don't have any seed!" She said.

On the way out, I saw this: First, I wonder what kind of corn deer prefer, and second, I dislike the idea of baiting deer to their death. I guess if venison was the only source of meet for my family, I might see it different. Maybe I was just feeling ornery. This was the third store, and there are not a lot of options around here for stores.

So we left. Note to self. Buy all seed in Spring and don't assume you can go back on the Summer to get more for a Fall garden.

I saw Applebees and suddenly wanted a drink. The day had started so early for the flea market and I needed a good boost. Food went through my mind too. But we decided it looked like it might rain, and we had feed bags in the back of the truck. So we headed over to see if we could find Brittany's new apartment before we left town. I had bought her a little grill and wanted to drop that off.
She allowed me to put this pictures of her in my blog. Usually her and her sister are always saying, "You are not putting this in your blog, are you?" So she has a nice little place. I got to see Blueberry her my dog.
She was happy to see us and hyper, or more hyper than she is normally. Calm down blue.

She showed me her chewy bone.
We couldn't stay long. The rain was coming. Bye Blueberry pup.
Bye grown-up daughter.
Back over the train tracks, and past the college.
Dick's Swiss Burger. Gambling upstairs. Really.
Next to Dick's was this:
WV wine. This is the happiest I had seen him all day.
I was pretty happy too. Heading out again, to beat the rain. I love the old houses you pass around here.
Over the river and over it again... to our loyal guardians... and to our home. Then I remembered, as I sat at the green door table sipping on my pina colada... we forgot the freezer bags. Oh well.

Life is about the journey.

Tomorrow, the announcement of who won the chair guessing game...

`crow