About to be Auntie Al!

My sister, Irina, is in labor! She will probably have her baby tonight sometime. Here's a picture of her taken about a week ago. She is the most beautiful pregnant person I have ever seen. Her pregnancy has been sooooo easy, she has been lucky. She felt amazing through the entire thing, she has a ton of energy. I talked to my Gramma the other day, and she that Irina was dancing around the living room and even could do the splits, 9 months pregnant! What a crazy girl, that one! She is having the baby at home with a midwife, apparently "water birthing" it? I have no clue about anything to do with babies, birthing, or pregnancy, so GOOD LUCK IRINA AND BABY!!! Oh, and they never did find out the gender of the baby, but if it's a boy it will be Lincoln and if it's a girl it will be Charlotte.

The Art of Cheese Making

I attempted to make another batch of cheese yesterday. Wow, what a TON of work! It takes about 8-10 hours to complete just ONE small wheel of cheese! I don't quite have all the equipment yet, so I am improvising using Lorin's beer brewing stuff. I am worried now that my cheese is going to taste like Bud Light, we'll see, it'll take a few months of aging before I can try it...

I wanted to take pictures of the whole process, but was too busy stirring a vat of curds in a giant brew-pot to think about getting the camera out. So here's what I was hoping for:

That's supposed to be me, in my little white apron and cap, placing nice wheels of cheese on a shelf to age (only my arms aren't that hairy). After that, I was going to put a pot roast in the oven, then bring Lorin his newspaper and a cigar.

But here's what my kitchen looked like instead:


Note: This photo is a simulation of the mess I made in my own kitchen whilst attempting to make cheese

Anyways, it was so much more work than I had realized. When I got home from work today, I removed the cheese from the cheesecloth, and it more closely resembled a character from Pokemon than it did a wheel of cheese. It could have something to do with the recycled sour cream container I jammed the curds into in a fit of impatience. Or the 10 gallon glass beer fermenting apparatus that I placed atop to use as a makeshift cheese-press. Or using bungee cords to strap the whole conglomeration to my kitchen cabinets. I don't know if this will turn into a full time hobby or not, but regardless, I think I will make a trip to Gossner's tomorrow. I can just buy a basketful of cheese for about $20.00, I don't have to clean their kitchen, and their cheese has never tasted like a rolled around on the floor of a liquor store.

Now I must hastily conclude this post, I just realized that my duck escaped it's cage (a large rubbermaid container) and is running around in my basement. I feel a country song coming on called "Duck Poop in my Basement."

Farmer's Market 2009

Whew! It's been a while since I've written anything. Things have been crazy busy here on the farmstead. Here's a power point presentation of the past month:

1. Busy At Farmer's Market
a) Selling organic produce and free-range eggs
b) Sold at market, even in pouring rain
c) Exciting to sell vegetables no other farmer at market has!

2. Spinning Angora Wool into Yarn
a) Busy grooming and caring for 2 angora rabbits (Suki and Jade)
b) Harvest angora fiber for yarn
c) Spin fibers into yarn using small hand spindle
d) Looking at thrift stores, garage sales, DI, and KSL for nice used spinning wheel

3. Making Homemade Cheese
a) Began attempting to make homemade cheese
b) To cheap to buy supplies on internet, decided to make homemade cultures to make cheese
c) Made homemade cultures by fermenting buttermilk
d) A batch of Gouda sits on stove now, will keep posted on outcome

4. Hiked Several Times up Logan Canyon
a) Hiked in lots of snow (still tons of snow up there this time of year)
b) Got lost in woods and panicked, couldn't find husband, started to rain, scary
c) Thought about spending night in woods, then later writing memoir on near death experience
d) Found husband, hiked through more rain and snow, went home, drank

5. Working and weeding in massive garden
a) Started some landscaping projects
b) Endless weeding in garden
c) Working in garden in between rain storms
d) Harvesting organic produce for farmer's market

Yup, that's about it. Here's some pictures of recent farmer's market: