Watermelon Boy!

Our first of many watermelons! Who would have thought they can overwhelm a family… luckliy we found some victums….I mean people to take some of them! YUM. We also found out they are great dried. Can you see the tomato sauce freshly done on the counter!

Bob the Tomato

We could not resist putting a face on this tomato that came out of the garden. Now Bob has retired to our salsa, so we will be enjoying him and his freinds all winter.

In between Wipers on full blast!

Ok I justed checked the calender.. YES is September 21 still SUMMER… yes SUMMER.

Yesterday the temp dipped down to 34 degree…that is Fahrenheit..! This picture was taken just a few miles from my house. We had to go up to Denver..and when we hit the  hwy, 2 big snow plows wentflying by… ok… then went the to the gas station and witness horror of horrors a pile of snow.  Well started up the road and less then 4 miles from my precious garden was a blizzard… and it was sticking! Even saw a car upside down in the ditch..

remind me again on the date… oh yeah the last day of SUMMMER,,, not the last day of FALL!

My poor garden… I can hear the death screams of my peppers from here! This weekend is suppose to be back to 80’s? Go figure

Ok, I have been a little overwhelmed with Goats Milk. Mostly because of a tragedy stillborn loss concerning the birth of one baby goat… which left me as the goats “kid” suddenly plunged into milking twice a day rain of shine! The first milk I gave to the Chickens… HAPPY DAY.. they love it. and the fact that no one…even though through taste tests..claim is tastes as good or better than the walmart milk.. no one will drink it.

I bought a little milking machine that greatly helps… it is air tight so nice and clean.

Then I made some goats milk soap… the cold method with scary lye. It is curing. But smells great. Lavendar Honey Oatmeal Goats Milk Soap. At Whole Foods it goes for 15.00 a lb!

Now to the cheese. My first cheese was feta… I made a mistake but it seemed forgiving and we have a 1/2 gallon jar with feta curing. Now came the cream de la cream.. Mozzarella Cheese. Well I made a really nice bowling ball. Happy Chickens again.. ( good thing I have them)

Sad week for me and felt frustrated but not defeated! I will make this work!

Next week I tried again with a new recipe… It takes me about 4-5 days to get enough milk to make cheese almost all the recipes call for 2-3 gallons~ At a little more than half gallon a day….it takes a couple of days to build up.

Well I MADE mozzarella!!!

It is a a difficult cheese to make  This guys Video inspired me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vymXC0Cnxw He made it look so easy.  I was able to make 3 bricks… of which one is left!  I had to make a few recipes that called for it! But am going to make as much as I can and freeze it!

I also made yogurt… I have made alot of yogurt with the reg. milk and I have to say this goats milk yogurt turned out fantastic!  So on to more soap ( does anyone got a clue yet as to what you may be getting for Christmas? ) cheese and more!

Canning

Well I have been canning straight for almost a month now.. .hence the neglected blog.  My tomatoes took their sweet time turning red.. but when they did watch out!! Holy smokes must have gotten about 60 lbs of them… all nice roma paste type tomatoes.

Made:
Catsup
Roasted Tomato Sauce
Diced Tomatoes
2 Kinds of Red Salsa

Also canned:
Green Beans
Green Salsa Verde
Peaches
Pineapple ( was on sale for 1.00 each!)
Plum Jam
Pickles

Still have to do apples… but they are just looking at me…and I am looking back.. My cupboard is PACKED to the gils. My refrigerator is full of pickles, goats milk and homemade root beer. Can you say I need another refrigerator!!

We also froze all that nice corn!

I behind on posting…but will get some updates.  Just a Hint Been buzy!

Canning

and

Goats Milk Soap

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and way to many