Zucchini Soup

This is one of my favorite things to have for breakfast on the weekend.

Ingredients:
Two medium sized zucchini, sliced 1" thick
1/2 cup milk
butter
cheddar cheese, shredded
salt
pepper

Place in a pan with an inch of water at the bottom. Cook for 15-20 minutes on medium heat until you can push through the edge of one of the slices easily. Basically you want the zucchini to be soft enough that you can easily mash it with a fork.

When it's done, drain off the water. Add in 1/2 cup milk, butter, shredded cheddar cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.




Until next time.

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New Additions to My CafePress Shop

I decided it was time to take some time and add some more products to my CafePress shop, Herd Queen Productions.

I added new items yesterday and today - mostly paper products, rather than clothing for most of the items.


Take a look and let me know what you think about the new designs. I am really excited about my masculine card series "Hooked On You". I have more photos along that line.

Until next time.

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Today I Feel Like Cooking

I feel a little bit more energetic today, and decided to try using up as much of the day's milk as I could. We got almost one gallon for the house milk, so I took my cultures out of the freezer to see if there was anything simple. I decided to make a quart of buttermilk and three cups of sour cream. The sour cream culture calls for light cream or half and half, but I have tried using milk in the past and it turned out just a little runny - it's supposed to make a quart, so I'm going to try using only three cups and see if it thickens up better.

I've got a piece of London Broil thawing on the counter. I'm thinking something with curry powder, but not sure what yet. Do mangoes and curry powder go together?

The oddest thing has happened to me in the last couple of years. I remember when I was a child, the idea of pork chops and applesauce, or any kind of sweet sour meat was just disgusting and gross. But now, it tastes good to me.

I also decided to make Baked Maple Egg Custard. I was thinking about making a pudding to turn into ice cream, but I think I'm going to really start trying to avoid white flour and cornstarch. I am just too tired all the time for this to be normal, I seem to be affected by the foods I eat.


I'm thinking about trying these supplements:

Dr. Ron's Sea Vegetable Plus - Nutrients for a Healthy Thyroid
Doc's Best Multi - the next generation
And the adrenals formula on this page
Organ Delight
And the Thyroid supplement on this page

The only problem is they are crazy expensive!

Until next time.

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A Few Things That Happened Today

Something's up with Blogger and Firefox today. I stopped using Internet Explorer some time ago, and much prefer Firefox. But when I logged in and tried to make a post, this is what I was met with:Quite a mess. I tried shutting Firefox down and reopening, but got the same gibberish. I could have made a post and published it, but there was no way to upload photos. And that's why I'm here today. To share what we got today. Dh was reading one of the local newspapers which mentioned a vegetable and fruit coop was coming to a nearby city. I contacted the group through the website and discovered that they actually have two drop off locations in our area. So we signed up for one box. This is what we got: 5 pickling cucumbers
10 limes
1 honeydew melon
1 butterleaf lettuce
6 medium russet potatoes
9 red plums
8 nectarines
11 large carrots
7 red onions
4 bosc pears
5 mangoes
7 bananas
5 tomatoes

Our basket cost under $20. It is supposed to $50 worth of fruits and vegetables, and they say it will last a family of four for two weeks.

On the way to pick up our basket - which by the way we spent $6.89 for the round trip into town and back home for gas - a lady was putting out yard sale signs. Dh had to go to a job today and was leaving as soon as he dropped me off. I asked him if he thought that lady might have anything good for sale. I guess I ask the question that way because I don't really care one way or the other if we go and see? He said it wouldn't take that long to look, so we followed the signs. She had bullhead sticker plants all over her yard. I am SO glad we don't have them on our property. I have pulled up several of them and keep my eyes peeled for them and remove them if I see any of them. Dh's sister's property is practically a farm of the horrible things.

At the yard sale, I saw a pile of towels. Lots of nice, thick, mostly purple towels. I asked how much she wanted for the towels - she only wanted fifty cents each! They aren't brand new, and have some strings hanging on some of them, but they are better than most of the towels we are currently using! The three on the left are large beach towels, one is yellow striped and the other is a hot pink striped, then a purple one on top of that. In the next pile there is a thick, soft maroon towel at the bottom, and three matching lavendar towels on top. The next pile there are three purple towels with four hand towels, and the pile on the right there are four thick, soft deep purple towels. In the front row there are six washclothes. She was asking for ten cents each for the hand towels and washclothes!

I also saw this Singer Tiny Serger and asked how much she wanted for it... four dollars! The only problem is we didn't have any cash left as we'd used the last $8 in dollars and change buying the towels and washclothes. So I asked dh if he wouldn't mind running back by her place on his way out. He was happy to do that, so she held it for me. Now I have read some good reviews about this little machine, and some terrible reviews. It didn't come with the manual, which could be a problem. I hope I can get it to work! If you know how I can get a manual for it, or if you happen to own one, and have a manual for it, I'd sure be grateful for a scanned copy! Here is a beautiful photo of the sunrise I was able to capture the other morning.
My doctor's appointment was on June 20th, and yesterday I received a call from the office that schedules referrals. This was to schedule a mammogram. I wish I could be like many people seem to be, happy that their doctor wants them to radiate their breasts just in case. I hate having all these stupid tests and frankly it just stresses me out to know that my doctor wants me to have them done. She acted like I'm the stupid one, and indeed many people would probably think that way about me, because I haven't been getting tests done all these past few years.

How do you find a doctor that is there for you when YOU want them for something, and leaves you alone the rest of the time? And doesn't put your files into the archive area?

I asked if my blood test results had been returned and I was routed to an answering machine to leave my name and number. The only reason I even went to the doctor was to get the referral to my asthma/allergy specialist. I wonder what he would charge if I just went straight to him without a referral and paid out of my own pocket? If I didn't have asthma I wouldn't be seeing him either. Really, I'm just fine without all these doctors.

I know I have the right to ask for my test results so I can examine them myself, but it is difficult to work up the energy to do something as stressful as that. You're probably asking, what's so stressful? Well, I have to go in and ask. Working up the nerve to do that in itself is stressful.

I've been putting together a brochure for our church in the past few weeks, and I made a really glaring mistake on the front. I was mortified and called our pastor immediately and he had JUST come from the printers, having printed up 200 brochures. I told him I'd pay for the mistake and I've printed them myself, and have also merged addresses for mailing, and have been folding them.

Kev and I are going to church camp this summer. I hope that will be relaxing, and not one more stressful thing. Today as we were going to pick up our vegetable and fruit basket, I found myself wishing I could get my garden going again. I have had so much trouble with the critters out here it is a lot of work to keep them from eating everything up. The entire garden is fenced with chicken wire, the top and the sides, and the last time I gardened the gophers dug their way under and were pulling vegetables into the ground by their roots.

We're getting quite a bit of milk now. Almost one gallon is coming into the house every day, I freeze half a gallon every day from the previous day. We are getting another gallon or so which we divide up between the dogs and the chickens. We had flies for a time and so we were milking at 3am every single morning, even on the days we didn't have to go to work. I think that is what just about did me in. I would sometimes come in and go back to bed by 5am, but it is very hard for me to get up that early every single day without a break.

Dh started another sideline to his business and we're trying to get that off the ground. I've ordered business cards, and created websites for the two businesses. Dh's been doing some cold calls for the second business, hoping to drum up some business. He's got one contact that seems like it will turn into a good opportunity.

Okay, Kev fixed Firefox for me. He hit F5 and did a refresh and now it's working okay. Thanks, Kev!

Also, he edited a short movie I took while outside in the afternoon. Enjoy.

Until next time.

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Happy 4th of July, America!

Happy Fourth of July! Our wonderful country is celebrating 232 years of freedom from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

I was invited by one of my good friends to come to her 4th of July pool party. I made three kinds of goat cheese (vinegar cheese made into basil/green onion, jalapeno/garlic and plain), a fruit bowl with honeydew melon, cantaloupe and green grapes, and dh made a dozen cupcakes which we decorated with cranraisins and dried blueberries.

I talked with ds1 about going to a pool party and going to see fireworks and he said he would go with me as dh and ds2 didn't want to.

But then I started feeling like crap - my nose was running and I kept sneezing and sneezing. Also I'd slept wrong and my neck had a crick in it. The CEO of our company rarely gets sick but this past week he kept sneezing as he was walking down the hallways. As the days went by he developed a cough so I thought great, I must be getting what he had. I was pretty sure my friend's elderly grandma would be in attendance, and maybe her young nieces and nephews, not to mention her young son, so I didn't want to get everyone else sick if I was contagious.

I laid down to take a nap around noon and just felt crappy. I was tired but my nose was clogged so it was hard to get to sleep. I took extra Vitamin C, echinachea/goldenseal, and some aspirin for my neck.

I hate making these decisions. Am I getting sick or not? Should I go? If I go and I'm getting sick, I'll get sick for sure. If it's just allergies I'll be okay. But what if it's a cold? I'm going to wear myself and I'll be sick for days. I believe if you feel like you have a cold coming on, and you take it easy, get rest and take Vitamin C and echinachea your body can actually fight off the infection. But if you just keep pushing yourself, then you will get sicker for sure.

My friend has been inviting me over for holiday parties for the last eight months and I've never been able to go to even one. I managed to attend her wedding! LOL. I was REALLY looking forward to swimming, too. And seeing fireworks for once in I don't know how many years. The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I don't think I've gotten to go and see them for at least five years.

Finally around 4pm I decided to text my friend and let her know I wasn't coming, and apologized. It's not like she'll be upset really, I just had tried to go this time, tried really hard. She said I didn't have to bring anything, but I can't go to a party without bringing some goodies. And I know she and her family and friends would appreciate the goat cheese. It really turned out delicious. The milk has been tasting really good lately. Well, I just realized that is because Miss L is back on the milking line. She's always had the best tasting milk.

I finally hauled myself out of bed around 5pm and I'm not sneezing any longer. I really wanted to try getting some photos of fireworks this year with my new camera, so I asked dh if he would take me out. It will be the first time we've seen fireworks as a remarried couple.

The photo above is one I took a few weeks ago while attending a conference in town - I didn't have a tripod with me, that is why it is blurry. I guess they were doing test fireworks. I love fireworks.

Until next time.

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An Attempt at Getting Better

My asthma/allergy specialist likes me to come in 2-3 times a year. My asthma is mild so I'm not sure why I have to come in so often... I'm sure it just because it makes him money. In order for me to see him, I have to get a referral from my PCP (primary care physician). For the past year or so they've been giving the referral without making me come in to the office, but this time they said I'd have to come in since it's been such a long time.

My doctor left some time ago to practice in a different city so I have not been thrilled over the prospect of seeing a different doctor. In spite of the fact that he suggested depression medication when my thyroid test came back normal I liked him because he left me alone. My visits with him were basically, "How's it going? Fine? Okay, here's your referral, see you next year." And that was that.

I made an appointment and went in last Friday.

I do NOT like my new doctor and I am going to see if I can work up enough energy to find a new one.

I refuse to rehash every little annoying thing that came from her mouth. I will mention the two good things. 1) She agreed to do a full thyroid panel test, 2) she didn't say a word about my weight.

The standard thyroid test very often comes back normal and so it is sometimes a fight to get one's doctor to listen to them and do the full test. So that at least is a positive outcome for this visit.

I went in strictly to get my referral. I have been trying to work up the energy to get my thyroid checked at a different doctor's office, I guess also trying to come up with the money since my insurance probably wouldn't have covered it. But now the test will be done and my insurance will pay for it. Just a couple of weeks ago I was asking myself how long was I going to continue to live like this? With barely enough energy to get through each day. I do have energy sometimes - for 2 or sometimes 3 days in a row but it comes rarely. I used to experience it monthly, but now it is more like 3 months to 4 months before I get another energy burst.

I have mixed feelings, because I don't like taking medication. And I believe there are ways to naturally improve thyroid function but I am at such a low energy level that I can't do much. So I am hoping that my doctor will agree that I could use help with my thyroid. If she doesn't, at least I have the test results and can go to another doctor who might interpret the results differently.

I have also suspected that my adrenals are exhausted. Adrenal fatigue can make thyroid function worse.

I have slowly been reading this long article The Adrenal Glands. It is quite fascinating to me. One of the many paragraphs that drew my attention was "Adrenal Fatigue and Craving for Salt". I am known for my love of salt. Is it because my adrenals have always been fatigued?

I remember my life being one stressful situation after the other from the time I was five years old and my father abandoned us. My mother's life was very stressful starting at the age of four. Could my mother's adrenals have been exhausted during pregnancy?

Pregnancy is quite a stressor for many women. A common occurrence, however, is the woman who, upon reaching her third trimester of pregnancy, says that she all of a sudden “feels better than I have felt in years.” This is often the case when the first two trimesters were particularly difficult. The fetus’s adrenal glands mature to the point of being able to produce hormones at about the beginning of the third trimester. If the mother is in the exhaustion stage of the GAS, it is not uncommon for the baby’s adrenals to try to make enough adrenal hormones for both the baby and the mother. The mother feels great. The baby’s adrenals are really supporting the mother’s adrenals. But the baby’s adrenal glands are being stressed before it is even born! The results are doubly negative. The baby is born in a state of adrenal depletion and often exhibits symptoms of hypoadrenia. These symptoms may be varied, but two of the more common symptoms are allergies and recurrent infections. During chronic stress states, the thymus and other lymphatic structures atrophy, lowering the capabilities of the body’s immune mechanisms.

Likewise, with the support of the baby’s adrenals pulled out from under her, the mother is dropped back into a state of adrenal exhaustion. This accounts for the common occurrence of “post partum blues” or even psychosis. Quite frequently, both mother and child must be treated for hypoadrenia.

Look at what they say about the connection between asthma and hypoadrenia:

Any person who has abnormal lung function, especially asthma or bronchitis, should be checked for hypoadrenia. This is particularly true if the person’s symptoms are relieved by using an epinephrine inhaler. The muscles related to the lungs (deltoid, serratus anterior, etc.) are usually strong in these persons. Many lung problems are related more to the adrenals than to the lungs.

And this bit about hypoglycemia:

Hypoglycemia, without proper snack and meal placement, also encourages overeating when food is available. The overeating causes rapid weight gain because the increased insulin is circulating in your blood, ready to usher that excess energy (glucose) from the extra food into your fat cells where it can be stored as fat. Even though you may not like its effects, this is an elegant compensatory mechanism that has helped us survive.

This is me right here. I know I have to keep myself fed properly but it is hard sometimes and I get tired of having to keep food at hand. The worst time for me is the trip home after work. I am so hungry and by the time I get home I'm ravenous. I don't feel like I'm being "encouraged" to overeat by my body, it feels more like possession. I feel possessed and it is difficult to control my hunger.

There are many more things in this article that caught my attention and resonated with my experience.

I have renewed my attempts to take better care of myself, here is what I've been doing:

• Taking my vitamins. A multi-vitamin, B50 Complex, Cod Liver Oil, Dessicated Liver tablets, Vitamin C.
• I've started taking my kefir again. I'm not pushing myself too hard, I'm only taking 1/4 cup each day.
  
• I've avoided coffee this entire week even though I've been sleepy during the day. I don't drink coffee regularly, but I do when I'm feeling sleepy as a "pick me up" but this article states that caffeine is very hard on our adrenals (which duh, I already know that). I can only tolerate about four ounces at a time because any more than that makes me very shaky.
  
• I've been going to bed early and trying to get more sleep. Usually I can only stay in bed 7 hours but I seem to be doing better. The last two days I've actually been able to sleep 8 hours. This means I need to get into bed at 6:30pm so I can get up at 3am.
  
• Three mornings ago, I began drinking 3 cups of room temperature water upon waking each morning with 1/2 teaspoon of Redmond's Real Salt mixed in. This is so interesting because normally if I'd drink that much water I'd be in the bathroom getting rid of it. But with the salt in there, it isn't affecting me that way - and it is very tasty, love the salt! I read about a Japanese "cure" on this site, search for the phrase "It is popular in Japan" which says to drink 4 cups of water upon wakening and it's supposed to heal several diseases, including diabetes and high blood pressure within 30 days. Well, I'm not sure if it can do that but I decided to try drinking water in the morning just to see how I'd feel. They don't say to drink salt, but the adrenal article says not to drink large amounts of water without salting it. The site with the Japanese "cure" looks a bit hokey, I must admit.
  
• I'm trying to avoid sugar and excessive carbohydrates.
  
• I'm trying to eat smaller portions. I bought some salad plates tonight to use as dinner plates. We'll see if that works to trick myself into eating less. :-)
  

I know the salt thing probably sounds real crazy, after all, salt is really horrible for us, right? Read about salt on the Redmond's site and you'll see that real salt is actually good for you.

I'm not sure when my test results will be back. I haven't heard anything yet. I guess it would be a good idea to check my home phone voice messages. Although I do think I gave them my cell phone number. Now that I think about it, I'm kind of dreading hearing that woman's voice again.

Until next time.

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Surprise!! It's a Boy!

On Friday I spent the day with one of my good friends. I got over to her house around 10am and we both had errands to run so we hung out for the day going from one place to the next. We finally got to the restaurant to eat lunch around 2pm. We went to see Indiana Jones after that. Within minutes of getting out of the movie my dh called me and said he wanted to let me know that our doe Miss L had been showing signs of labor during the day and she had pushed for the first time. I asked if by any chance he had put her in the nursery pen. We still had the last two does that kidded in there, with their four kids. He hadn't, but after I mentioned it he and Kev moved those does and their kids into the big pen, and moved Miss L into the nursery pen.

With goats, labor progresses fairly steadily. Once the dam begins to push, she should kid within half an hour. If not there are one or two things to consider. First of all, she is possibly having a calcium deficiency and that is causing her pushes to be less than effective. Secondly, the kid could be positioned wrong, or is tangled with its littermate(s).

By the time I got home she'd been pushing leisurely for about 90 minutes. I gave her another half hour and then gave her a dose of the calcium we keep on hand. I gave her a bit longer and decided I'd better have a check inside to see what was going on. I gave her a birthing trim (shaved the long hairs on her tail which were already covered with dried birth goop), washed her bottom very well and then washed my own hand carefully. I checked and the baby was positioned correctly, but she didn't seem to be pushing very hard -- unless I was massaging her perineum. Finally she got the head out and then stopped there. I got hold of the baby's head and carefully pulled. The baby was born and was very limp. I cleaned his face and he was making gurgling sounds so I decided to swing him to clear his lungs. I got hold of his hind legs using a t-shirt because he was still wet and slimy from being born and went around and around in circles about five times. Then I laid him down and wiped him again, and called Miss L over to start licking and bonding with him.

She had been nanny talking and licking us before her kid was born and she managed to rebond with us, and thought we were her kids the first couple days. She kept calling to dh and I, only happy when we were out near her pen.

After she kidded she was doing well, eating hay, drinking her "power punch" for goats (quick energy), and ate some grain. Her kid was very weak after he was born and attempted to stand up but he just couldn't do it. I went to bed around 11pm after I felt like Miss L was doing okay. I got up at 4am and went out to check on them, and he was still laying down, but seemed to be doing okay. I slept in and I finally got out to milk around 6:30am. When I got out there, the kid was up and walking around, and Miss L seemed to be doing okay, too.

Kev's rendition of Miss L's kidding

But that's not the end of my story.

I suspected that Miss Z, the doe who kidded last October 19th, the day before the wedding, was also pregnant. Usually I breed our does every other year but it has been crazy busy around here with both my dh and I working. For several years, I worked and he stayed home to run our little mini-farm, but he had to start working a couple of years ago so he hasn't had much time to do repairs. Our bucks broke out of the pen, jumping not only their fence, but the doe fence. Miss Z's milk supply had been decreasing but she gave me a pound on Friday morning so I thought she still had two to four weeks to go until she was due. I wrote down the day that the bucks broke into the pen but I hadn't checked my barn records yet.

I was busy with Miss L on Saturday morning, and when Miss Z wasn't hanging around waiting her turn to be milked I decided to just not milk her. After all she's only giving one pound of milk so she can go for a day in between milkings.

On Sunday morning she came in to be milked at her normal turn and as she jumped on the stand I noticed she had some goop on her back end, plus her bottom looked kind of red and a little swollen. I thought she must be starting in labor. I milked her, and noticed that one side of her udder was emptier than the other side. I mentioned to my dh that her kids were STILL NURSING and we needed to get them separated from her because I she was pregnant. He says, "Z's pregnant?! How did I miss that? I didn't know that!"

The bucklings that were in the nursery pen with their dams were chasing all the females in the doe pen. Our goats are Nubians and do not appear to cycle during the summer, so I wasn't letting myself get too freaked out. Some people claim that they have silent heats and there is still a chance they can conceive, but I've never tested the theory either way. That's all I need is a yard full of does pregnant by 4 month old bucklings... they are fertile as early as 3 months of age!

Since Miss Z was obviously in labor, we put her in the nursery pen along with Miss L (who gave birth on Friday, who also happens to be Miss Z's dam).

Kev and I went to church and dh kept an eye on everyone outside. He noticed the little bucklings were ganging up on our herd queen and she was whirling and twirling and headbutting them so he took her out of the big pen and put her into the nursery pen to protect her from the bucklings. Miss L was headbutting her daughter, Miss Z and really didn't want her in the nursery pen. Miss Z really wanted back into the big pen and stood near the fence line looking anxious. Dh decided to go ahead and put her back into the big pen since her mother was headbutting her and she seemed so eager to get back to the big pen. She also didn't seem too close to kidding, so he figured we could move her later on.

After Kev and I got home from church, the three of us went out and caught the four bucklings, got them banded and moved them to the buck pen to prevent them from harrassing the does. We were all over the yard, in the barn and all over the place catching those little bucklings.

Moving the bucklings into the buck's pen meant they were also getting weaned. I usually like to band the boys, then let them stay with their dam for a couple more days, then wean them. But they were really being brats so we just decided to get it over and done with.

That means I had to milk SIX does this morning. I've been milking three, now suddenly six. So I got up right at 3:00am and we went out to milk.

The two does that were in the nursery pen are still learning to come when called for milking, so we had to go into the pen and get them.

Finally it was Miss Z's turn. Dh was using his flashlight and looking around the pen and finally he spotted her on the other side all alone. He thought maybe she was going to have her babies - then - he realized she had a baby with her!!! I went over with the flashlight to have a look and the baby was all dried off and didn't act like a newborn at all. That is when I realized all of a sudden that she must have had him sometime on Saturday, and she was hiding him in the back of the barn. Now it made sense! The goop on her backside, the one side of her udder being empty. LOL! I grabbed her baby and brought him and his dam out and they are now in the nursery pen. I need easy access to them so I can do the buckling's disbudding when it's time. I keep chuckling to myself at the thought of how Miss Z got one over on me. And, I'm very grateful, because Miss L's kidding was pretty stressful and it would have been too much to have to be worried about Miss Z, too.

When I told Kev about Miss Z's surprise baby, he said when we were chasing the bucklings around, he saw Miss Z on the backside of the barn and she must have already had her baby by that time.

A public thanks to Kev for doing hoof trims on half of the goats today. Now we just have to get to the other half... thanks, Kev.


Until next time.

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My New Camera - Nikon S550

My Mother's Day birthday present this year was my very own digital camera. I've been using the digital cameras that belong to my employer for the last eight years.

Kev helped me choose one - he has a Nikon S10 and loves it. We looked on Costco together and right away he thought I should get the Nikon S550. It was $229 with a 2GB card free. There was another camera that I thought would work just as well for $150 but in the end the purple S550 won me over.

Especially when it went on sale for $199 with the free 2GB card! I ordered it on the 23rd and it arrived on the 28th.

I went outside today and took a few pictures, just experimenting with it.

On Pioneer Woman's Photography blog one of her guest bloggers told us about Bokeh. I had never heard of it, but decided to see if I could capture some similar photos. These first two came out pretty good. You can click on them to see a larger image.

Bokeh with the camera shooting in sepia.

This was an attempt at Bokeh, but there isn't much in the background to blur.

I was really amazed at how clear these came out, as I was using macro mode and the wind kept blowing the pieces of grass back and forth.

I am excited to learn more about this camera.

Until next time.

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My 45th Birthday

Today I turned 45.

I told my menfolk I would like them to do better for my birthday than they did for Mother's Day. Well, I actually threatened to forget what Father's Day was, and also their September and October birthdays if they didn't do something for me for my birthday.

Living with men. Never a dull moment.

They went shopping yesterday and today Kev wrapped presents while dh took a bale of hay to one of our neighbors and got a load of water.

Soon after dh arrived back home, Kev was done, and they asked me to come open my presents. First my cards... one from Kev...



And one from my dear hubby...


Some dark chocolate.

New clippers for my LJ.
More dark chocolate.
I think this is Shrek's wife, Fiona. I'm not sure what the clip on her head is all about.

Ow, ow, my head suddenly started hurting. Oh, now I understand. It's a voodoo doll.


More chocolate.

This is a lovely beach towel. This will come in handy at church camp this summer!

And two gardening hats!

And last but not least, my toy truck for playing in the sand. Oh happy day.


We had cheese enchiladas for dinner.

Thanks guys. I love you all and had a great birthday. You done good.

Until next time.

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Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

Do you remember Boy George?

Whatever happened to poor Boy George? Was he dressed as a clown on purpose here? Or is his idea of wearing makeup just really bizarre?

Until next time.

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Saving Dinner

I fell off the FlyLady wagon, oh I don't know, about a year ago? I am trying to get back on again.

I keep seeing the testimonials from the FlyLady list for Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner. I decided to check out the site a couple of weeks ago and have been debating joining. I finally decided to try it out, and luckily for me when I joined the menu mailers for three months were on sale for $6.95.

You can try a free sample menu without signing up. It was a little confusing when I joined. First off, I used PayPal and the money had to move from my checking account, so there was a delay on my subscription. Secondly, you only get access to a sample menu mailer until the first Tuesday after you subscribe. They don't make that clear, at least I didn't grasp it, and was unsure as to why I wasn't able to get to "my menus".

Saturday night we had our first meal from the sample menu mailer. I am very picky about how things taste, and this meal was truly delicious. It was chicken breasts with lemon slices, olive oil and zucchini squash, topped with the feta cheese I started earlier in the day, which Kev finished making so I could leave to go to Home Depot with dh.

I decided to start with the "Body Clutter" menu mailer. The neat thing about this service is Leanne not only gives you six days worth of dinner meals, with the recipe, but she also makes a shopping list which shows what you'll need to make all the meals. You just go through the shopping list and check your fridge and pantry and cupboards and cross off anything you already have "in stock", leaving you with a list of what you need to buy.

Oh, and I guess a new feature is she used to subscribe you to just one menu mailer, if you signed up for Body Clutter, that's all you could access. But now she allows you to subscribe to one, and have access to all. The others are Regular, Heart Healthy and Low Carb. The Body Clutter menu seems to be quite Low Carb. I hate to admit it, but I am so sensitive to carbs that I feel much better when I avoid them.

For our family, the shopping list caused a little bit of a problem because well, it is becoming obvious to me that we eat too much food. The menu creates meals to serve four people, and there is no way we could get by with preparing that small amount of food. I have food issues, it is becoming more and more obious that my dh has food issues, and on and on. Anyway, if Kev or I dared cook only four servings there would be mass hysteria and rebellion.

So we'll have to take it slow. What I decided we'd do is make double the menu. This also offers the option for me to have lunch for leftovers the next day. We were supposed to make a vegetable to go along with the meal, and a salad. But we only got the dinner part cooked.

I am also trying to incorporate some FlyLady routines. I've never really got them started, and it is so difficult for me to get to work on time for all I have to do in the morning. I am trying to get a weekend routine put together, which would include getting my clothes ready for work for the entire week. Last Thursday morning, it was 4:50am and I was trying to find a shirt to wear that wasn't wrinkled or stained. I ended up wearing one of ds1's shirts that was very huge on me, had cat hair on it, and I'm sure I just looked like a mess. I've also been having a problem deciding what to wear for church on Sunday.

So if I get my clothes ready on the weekend, including what I'll wear to church, I can eliminate that stress.

I have also started having scrambled eggs for breakfast for me and dh, and I really like that little bit of time we have together in the morning. It only takes about 15 minutes, but it has been making me late for work. We switched milking to mornings, because it's too hot in the afternoon now, and the flies bother us. That takes up at least 30 minutes. And I need to figure out something for my lunch for the day, plus 2 to 3 snacks so I'm not tempted to stop for something from a convenience store, or fast food. I also have to get my vitamins together. So I'm hoping to move these things to the evening prior, as well as looking at the Saving Dinner menu to see what's for dinner the next evening and taking the meat from the freezer so it can start to thaw.

Until next time.

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May Your Mother's Day Be Bright

Mine sure will.

We haven't jumped on board the mercury containing, expensive lightbulbs and when we saw these on sale for $0.23 a package, we decided to stock up. 70 boxes of 4 comes to 280 bulbs, at a cost of $16.10.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there.

Until next time.

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Muenster Cheese Day 2

I took the Muenster from its cheesecloth wrapping this morning and here it is.

Kev suggested that using 40 pounds worth of weights was not correct for such a small block of cheese.

Anyway, here it is as I'm unwrapping the cheesecloth.

On the plate, ready for salting.

We only have coarse ground sea salt so I crushed a tablespoon or so with a rolling pin and here's what it looks like. I think I might have put too much salt on it.

I'm off to milk.

Related Posts:
Muenster Cheese (Day 1)

10AM: I'm adding this picture a few hours after my post this morning - we've sampled some of the cheese. It is so delicious, I don't know if it is going to get a chance to age unless I hide it!!

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Muenster Cheese

I'm trying my hand at making a hard cheese. Muenster. One of my friends who raises goats has tried making it twice. It is incredibly simple to make! There are only three ingredients. Milk, rennet and salt. I usually get flustered about making cheese because they want you to use certain cultures, which I do have some on hand, but I am not sure how to use them correctly. It's like when the recipe calls for 1/2 tablet of rennet, but we have liquid rennet. Then I have to go see how much liquid rennet to use in place of the tablet.

I brought the milk in and strained it and found I had 3 quarts. When I brought the milk in it was almost at the required temperature of 88°F. I added a quart from yesterday and heated the milk back up.

After it reaches 88°F you let it set for 5 minutes. Then you take your 1/4 teaspoon of liquid rennet, mixed with 1/4 cup of water, and pour it into the milk. Use a whisk to make sure you get the rennet mixed in well. I also used bottled water, to make sure I wasn't adding any funky bacteria from our well water. Not that our water is bad, but sometimes it's best to use "clean" water so as to not add to the mix.

Cover and let set for one hour.

After one hour, test for a clean break in your curds. Cut with a sharp knife into 1 inch cubes. Heat the curds while mixing carefully.

Remove the curds and let the whey drain for 20 minutes. Then put the curds into a cheese press.

Cheese press?

Oops. I don't have a cheese press. So I set about looking on the Internet for how to make one of my own.

I found one by Mr. Fankhauser (quite a famous cheese maker on the Internet) and one by Ms. Molly from Fias Co Farms.

Between the two of those sites, I got the gist of what needed to be done to press the whey out of my cheese, so I went for a walk out on our property to see what I could come up with.

First I found two of these - 3" Black PVC Couplers, commonly used for septic lines. I was actually looking for 6" diameter, which is what Mr. Fankhauser recommends, but we didn't have any, at least not that I could locate.

Next, I found these 10# weights.

And finally, I found this old racquetball racquet.


After I drained my curds for 20 minutes, I molded them into a shape which would fit into the PVC coupler. First I put in a layer of cheesecloth.


Next I used a can of green chiles as the follower. I peeled the label off after I took this photograph.

Next, I placed a can of tuna on top. Now these couplers have an inner lip inside and the tuna can is too wide to go past that point, so you can only use the tuna can for pushing on the top half.

After an hour or so had passed, I discovered that my can of green chiles was too narrow and was allowing the cheese to squish up around the sides. So I found a lid that fit perfectly, and would still move down past the inner lip of the coupler.

The inner lip is shown here, and pointed out with arrows.

This lid is a much better follower than the can of green chiles.

Lionel gives his seal of approval. I realized my set up was too precarious just sitting on the counter, so I put it in a milk crate on the floor.


My forty pound "weight" at top, which is sitting on the can inside the PVC couplers, and the couplers are sitting on the racquetball racquet. The whole thing sits on a cake pan. For the sake of taking this photo, I placed the weights flush onto the PVC couplers. But after I put my setup back into the milk crate I put a tuna can inside so the weights are actually pressing on the can.

As the cheese presses down, I've had to use different size cans to make sure the weights are not sitting flush on top of the PVC couplers.

After the cheese has been pressed for 12 hours, I have to turn it upside down and press it in the other direction for another 12 hours. Then I am supposed to give it a fine coating of cheese salt, and cover with a plate so it doesn't dry out, and let it just set for at least one week before trying it.

I'll try to post more photos when I flip the curd for the second pressing.

Until next time.

Related Posts:
Muenster Cheese Day Two

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