It was the solution!

Hannah is such a sweet good girl.  She knows her stuff so she hops right onto the stand, sticks her head through the harness, and we get to business.  Milking is really quite easy.  Basically you don’t ever yank on the goat for anything but work the milk down through the teat with your fingers.  It’s an easy motion and pretty calming.

You keep milking till you she has little or no more milk to give.  I always leave a bit in just in case her babies get lucky and catch her unaware.  That and there will always be more milk.

In the morning her bag is swelled up like a watermelon & by the time I’m done it’s a raisin.  I know, weird.  I only am milking Hannah right now because the Mr has too big of hands for her small teats.  Our other doe DD will be ready in another month or so and he’ll milk her since she has teats more like a cow.

Hannah is giving me a little over a half gallon a day which is nice because every two days that means I can make cheese if I want to!

Of course I want to!

I was a little intimidated by the process and the information at first but you know what? Making cheese is super damn easy.  Basically you sterilize EVERYTHING.  Super important but also easy.  Then you heat the milk to 85* and add the culture.  Let it sit for 45 minutes and then add the rennet.  The rennet makes the cheese gel and the amount you add makes the kind of cheese.  So for this mix I followed the recipe for Chevre which is a French soft goat cheese.  It’s the best starter cheese.

After 12-18 hours of setting the cheese looks like this.  I started this cheese before I went to bed and in the morning it was ready for the next step.

Then you ladle the cheese into a sterile cheese cloth.  It looks like yogurt before the moisture has drained.

Now you gather up the ends of the cheese cloth and and hang it to drain.  This usually takes about 10 hours as well.

After that you are ready to add salt and herbs.

To the first we mixed in some fancy sea salt, some amazing herbs from Penskey’s, and that’s it.  It is AMAZING.  The first night we added it to plain pasta and just about died from a food-gasim.  If you had bought the same plate from a restaurant it would easily have cost you 30 bucks.  Seriously.  Amazing.

The second batch was easier than the first.  I gave the Mr full artistic control over it.  He added smoked paprika (because that man loves paprika like no one’s business), chili pepper, and smoked sea salt (we take our salt seriously around here).  People.  This cheese is to DIE for.  It’s so damn good I can’t even explain it.  So yeah.  We’re cheese makers now.  Crazy huh?

We are slowly moving our way forward through cheeses listed in my book and I’ll be sure to document them all here.  It’s such a fun amazing process and honestly, I couldn’t be happier!

“So tell me a little bit about yourself.”

Where do I start?  How little is too little?  How much is too much?  How do I cram my being into a ten sentence paragraph that would sate the questioner?  How do I tell you who I am with out you staring at me wide eyed across the conference room table at my candidness?

You see, (and if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know it to be true) I lay things out on the line.  I am who I am and I’m not shamed of that.  I’ve probably never been ashamed of who I am in my whole entire life.  I do crazy things, I say things that make my father in law shake his head in wonder, I embarrass myself often and loudly, I love deep, and I rarely hate a thing (except kale.  Kale needs to stay the hell out of my salad).  I am super sensitive and caring but I also have become a pretty excellent student of “letting it go.”  Frankly, I live hard and I live full.  I grab opportunities wherever I see them, I talk to strangers, and smile at people in the grocery store for no reason than I am compelled to do so.  I often let people go ahead of me in traffic and wave my thanks to drivers who let me in.  I have a steal trap memory and know that my first boyfriend’s (ever) birthday was July 6th and that my good friend’s ex girlfriend was the day after.  I can identify breeds of dogs just by looking at them and even probably tell you a little about their personality.  I dislike cooking but love baking even though I rarely eat what I bake.  I have played 4th chair violin in Carnegie Hall, and moved across the country numerous times.  I know hard work pays off but am afraid to toot my own horn even though I believe I’m pretty damn great.  I have a million thoughts running through my head at any one moment and knit so that I won’t implode on myself.  I know how to knit, crochet, spin, clean & card wool, I know how to warp a loom as well as operate a jack hammer.  My favorite tool will always be a hammer drill because I appreciate anything that can drill through concrete with ease.  I have more respect for a former foreman of mine for being able to run through a job site with 150 pounds in each hand that I ever did for people I knew that made close to $50,000 a month.  I’m wicked good at math, understand people’s motivations, know how to change my own tires and oil as well as how to make a proper biscuit joint.  I appreciate dove tail joins in drawers, super ugly fish, cast iron anything, and Red Rooster hot sauce in my chicken soup.  I spend most of my recent days with some form of poo and mud on me.  I kiss my goats as well as my dogs and my husband (though not at the same time and the Mr is the only one to get lip action )

I have chased my sheep over miles and marveled at the kindness of strangers.  It takes me months (sometimes longer) to believe that a person truly likes me and I rarely invite anyone to my home.

I am more than a five second blurb so I usually say something like…”I hobby farm with my husband and I love being outside.”  I always feel like that’s cheating though.

It’s not easy and it’s scary but now it’s time to focus on what’s really important and people who really matter.  I might be a little silent for a while, I might not.  I might go take a bunch of goat pictures to entertain myself and not to focus on stupid shit.  I will not dwell.  There are a million opportunities out there although they might not feel like them at the time.  Opportunities aren’t easy, they aren’t painless.

You never know unless you try.  You never remember what’s important until it’s all on the line.

Yeah.  The world just changed for us.

So yeah. I’ve been away but now I’m back!

Minnesota was awesome.  It was really more epic than I had anticipated.  My cousin drove up from Nebraska to stay a few days with me, I got to see my best friend for the first time in 4 years (way too long!), I met up with people I hadn’t seen in 10 years, and I spent a good amount of time with my grandparents.  My grandfather was diagnosed with alzehiemers last year and now that I actually have free time I am determined to see him more often while he still knows who I am.  Anyone who has experienced this terrible disease knows how hard it can be.  But to put it in the words of my amazing grandfather, “At least it doesn’t hurt.”

I had an excellent time having coffee with them, spending time with my most favorite cousin ever, and seeing my dad.  It can be hard having family live so far away but now that the Mr and I are finally free of California it seems as though we can actually make the trip more often.  I know this has a lot to do with being able to get time off and having more money.

I was lucky to be able to run around and play cameras with my dad.  Since he’s local he knows all the most fun places to shoot and I’m still editing photos.

Left to my own devices I will always to back to the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden to visit the giant spoon and cherry.  It’s a huge symbol of Minneapolis for me because we used to pass it all the time when I was with my dad.

While in Minnesota I got to see quite a few people I hadn’t seen in 10 years.  It was a little nerve wracking at first but it turned out pretty fantastic with the exception of one visit.  I went to my friend’s comedy show and was relieved that he was actually quite funny (I was worried because the first three before him were not funny at all), met at the Muddy Pig with my friend Erin to have drinks and laugh so hard we almost passed out.  Also we spotted a Collin Ferral look alike that I couldn’t stop staring at because it was SO ERRIE!

It was a fantastic time and I think I’m going back in the spring (I’ll never do another MN winter on purpose ever again).  I wore myself so ragged though that I needed a full week to recoup!  I was running around from 8am till 1am every day and frankly, I’m not cool enough to pull that off anymore!

It’s been a crazy year but I finally feel like we have all our feet on the ground and we are off and running. 

We now have a small farm with sheep, goats, chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, and two dogs.  It’s amazing how our life has changed.

The things that haven’t changed is just how much I love you and frankly, I know for certain that I love you more now than I did when we got married.  You are truly my best friend and really all that I need.

I don’t know if you realized just how crazy I was when you first met me but now I think that you secretly like the chaos.  Your my best friend, I love you more than I could words could ever express and you are truly the best thing that’s ever happened to me.  I’m lucky to know you and to call you mine.  Happy 8 years baby, here’s to the next 60!

So first she asked if I’d want to go to this graveyard she’d found where she had some family buried.  (It’s not as creepy as it sounds).  And being that I’m all for exploring I said yes.  We drove off into the country and pulled into a nondescript gravel driveway and pulled up to the woods.  We got out, pushed our way through thick trees with out a path to be seen and were then standing in a badly overgrown graveyard.  Light speckled through the canopy and everything was awash in deep greens.  It was beautiful, peaceful, and a little sad that this had been so forgotten.

It doesn’t take long for Oregon to take it’s land back.  It rains so much here that everything grows at an increased rate.

We then traveled up the mountain and went to the Timberline Lodge.  See, every time Monica said this and told me she wanted to take me there I only heard Timberline and associated it with the Outback-esk steak house.  I was wrong, as is often the case.  The Timberline Lodge was a ski lodge built by the New Deal.  It’s beautiful and amazing in all sorts of ways.  Also if you are skier it’s right at Mt Hood.

Everything in the lodge is hand caved and hand wrought.  It’s simply amazing.

Also, they have chipmunks inside!  I think that’s so awesome!

The outside of the building was used in The Shining (Monica told me this) as they were driving up.  I believe it.  It’s a huge impressive building and if there weren’t a million people wandering around I might have snapped a picture.  It seems though that no one can get out of the way for 30 seconds though.

To me the building seemed as though it were brooding, as though it was hunkered down on the mountain and watching you with narrow eyes as you went about your business.  I would easily believe there were ghosts in these hallways.

So as Monica and I were taking pictures these guys wandered down the stairs and I was all “OMFG” because they were so AWESOME looking.  I snapped a few pictures when they weren’t looking but apparently since Monica and I both had big cameras around our necks they assumed we were capable of taking their picture with tiny little snap cameras.  They lined up and Monica and I both fired off a few for their collection.  Apparently they had just hiked the 40 mile Timeberline train.  Amazing.  Then I snapped some pictures myself because they were awesome.  They looked tired and weathered and as though they smelled.

All I could think of when I saw them was my friend Phil who would have probably fit right in with these guys.  I wonder if that facial hair is a requirement? 

So in all, it was amazing.  I wonder if there is an off season for Mt Hood?  I doubt it but I still want to go back.

1982: HEY, I’m BORN & stuff.
1983: I’m pretty sure my parents made me wear tights on my head, nice.
1984: My mom has me on a horse before I can even ride a bike.
1985: This year had lots of clothing that matched my dolls.
1986: I remember my dad moving into an apartment.
1987: My mom got me a bulldog!
1988: I road cross country from Minnesota to Washington with my Buppa to visit family.
1989: Ug, I became a day camper, I dislike camp.
1990: I have a new stepdad!
1991: We went to Disney World and I chased down every adult in a huge disney character suite.
1992: I officially become completely awkward. *sigh*
1993: Aparently it’s awesome to rhyme my name with anything and everything even if it doesn’t actually rhyme.
1994: Teased teased teased then I beat up one of the coolest kids in school, mom was proud.
1995: What a bastard of a year, I’m currently the most teased kid in this school.
1996: Hello Shawna! You are now my best friend!
1997: Shawna and I spent the whole year dressing alike, it was dorky but in retrospect I think we were cute.
1998: I ran my ass off and lost a whole bunch of weight but was totally miserable about it.
1999: I had my first boyfriend and he was a looser.
2000: I graduated and played in Carnegie Hall in New York with my orchestra.
2001: I went to college and it kinda sucked.
2002: I won 5 grand off the powerball and was 1 number away from winning 42 MILLION dollars.
2003: I married my husband after dating for 4 months, best decision of my LIFE.
2004: Matt and I traveled up to the Russian River and had the most amazing camping trip ever.
2005: Our family business moved offices and we moved to Camarillo.
2006: WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK…nervous breakdown (or close to it).
2007: We moved to Ohio for business and I met my cousin Rebecca as an adult.
2008: We moved back to Ohio and I did have a complete breakdown, thank god for zoloft, but met AMAZING new friends who owned alpacas.
2009: Mr and I were both unemployeed and it sucked ass.
2010: We moved to Washington, met Monica in the flesh!
2011: Finished writing Mildred, started writing another story, have knitting patterns published in actual magazines!

2. I have decided to take a step back from designing knits.  I’m focusing on Mildred – though it seems I might have gotten her into a spot I’m not quite sure how to get her out of – and knitting for myself which I haven’t done in forever.  I had some disappointing news regarding a design I did for a magazine.  Basically I made the mistake of insuring something that was to be sent out of the country thinking I was doing something smart.  Well customs decided that the insured value of the package determined it’s physical worth even though it was marked commercial sample and the magazine refused the package because customs wanted like $150 for it.  So I’m waiting for it to come back.  It was supposed to be in the Winter 2011 issue but now if it comes back in any sort of decent time frame it might be squeezed into Spring 2012.

It’s kind of a blow to my ego.  Anyone who knows me knows I like to do things perfectly (if not better than everyone else) the very first time.  I’ve been working on chillin’ on that but it’s hard.  So I’m trying to decide on a sweater to knit and doing it just for fun.

3. Thank you all for your insightful comments on my last post.  You all raised some good points.

In the meantime here are some random animal pictures…

Oops is doing so much better!  He’s running around with the other goats but still reserved and quiet.  He just wants to cuddle which is adorable.

I have a turf war on my hands.  Something I never would have expected honestly.  I am pretty sure that the geese started it.  They have gotten used to pushing the chickens around so they might have tried to push the turkeys around.  Thing is…there are 8 turkeys and 3 geese.  The big tom has decided he’s not going to just take geese gruff so they chased the geese and the geese ran.  Today I actually had to jump over the fence from the back yard to the back pasture to make the turkeys stop chasing the geese.  The turkeys fly, the geese don’t so I don’t see this as being very fair. 

Poor turkeys have no idea that they are dinner (except for our breeding trio) and the geese are not.  The geese will probably have the last laugh but for now it’s war. 

Apparently this happens when a tom is really upset.

I think the geese are regretful for starting shit. 

I love the depth of field in this shot so much! Yay for new lenses!

The goats are so naughty!  Thankfully they are like Tank and can be deterred with threat of water.  I just point the hose at them and they scatter like it’s acid.  It makes me giggle like a fool.

The chickens are nearing egg laying age and getting prettier every day.

Earl is king of the roost.  He is definitely the head rooster but I don’t think Maurice minds.  Earl crows full length now while Maurice only does one little note.

The turkeys.  Those damn trouble makers.  They think they should be allowed to go where ever they wish, even in my garden.  Normally I wouldn’t care but this drives Tank nuts and then he bursts through my fence in the garden and walks all over my beans. *sad face*  Also, you’d think they would learn because Tank has almost grabbed them out of the air twice.