Making Goat Feta

My friend Brenda has 3 goats, two girls and a boy, and she gave me a gallon of goat milk to make cheese. I looked up some feta recipes on the internet and found a couple that I used.

The first step is the curding process. I used a liquid vegetable rennet, BUT my first mistake was overheating the milk! I was supposed to keep it at a constant 86F and I accidently heated to 110F. I also used a dehydrated then reconstituted buttermilk for the live enzyme cultures. Next time I'll use a different vegetarian live enzyme and won't heat it past 86F.

After the vegetable rennet curded the milk I hung the curds to extract the whey. In one recipe it stated to let the curds hang for 6-8hrs... in another it suggested they hang for 24hrs.

I let them hang for 7.5hrs. Next time I think I'll let them hang out awhile longer. After the whey has been extracted I covered the cheese with coarse salt and let it rest for 24hrs. Well the end result was a very salty very bland tasting feta. Next time I'll either marinate the cheese in herbed olive oil or I'll do the salt brine process which takes 4-6 months and will most likely result in a better tasting cheese.

I also made 4 loaves of whole wheat bread that day, and I'm happy to say they turned out deliciously! Yum! Nothing beats hot-out-of-the-oven fresh baked bread with a little cultured butter :-).

Frozen Jeans

The temperature here has actually been really warm this past week, but this picture was taken on December 3rd.
Tom wanted to do a laundry experiment... He washed some clothes and then weighed them before hanging them out to dry on a cloudy 30F day. Fun, eh? The clothes did freeze fairly quickly and when he took them in to weigh them at the end of the day they had lost a couple of pounds. They weren't completely dry so he did have to put them in the dryer for about 1/2 the time.

Thanksgiving at the Sullivan's

Thank you Terri & Dan!
We had a delicious Thanksgiving in Atlanta!
These were the two best group pictures. Too bad I couldn't figure that self-timer out on the camera.

Georgia Aquarium...World's Largest Aquarium

We had a lot of fun at the Georgia Aquarium despite the large crowd there.

I really wanted to see the whale sharks. They were incredible to watch, and the aquarium had four of them. We started off at the ray touch tank, but it was very crowded and the kids could barely squeeze in to touch a ray. They didn't seem too upset by it.

I was fascinated by the beluga whales. I'd never seen them move under water before. I was taken back by how graceful they are under water.


We spent a lot of time in the world's largest underwater viewing theatre. There were so many fish to look at. Sydney, Reeve, and Kyle got to sit right up next to the glass and they had a grouper that was fascinated with them. That grouper stared directly at them and was motionless for over 5 minutes. I'd like to go back just to hang out in that room some more. It was very peaceful and didn't feel crowded.

MartaRail in Atlanta

We (Joyce, Grant, Chloe, Sydney, Tommy, Reeve, Kyle, and me) started our Atlanta vacation off by riding on Atlanta's MartaRail. The kids were pretty excited to board the rail system and travel into downtown Atlanta.

Grant wanted to make sure Kyle new NOT to go near the edge. We were constantly reminding the kids to stay away from the edge.

Can you see the pure joy in Kyle's face?
Later when we asked Reeve and Kyle what they liked best Reeve replied, "Seeing the rats on the tracks, riding underground, and riding the escalators." We saw a few large mice scurrying around on the tracks, but I don't think they were rats.
Jessica did a great job guiding us through the Marta Rail system and downtown Atlanta.

We walked right past the CNN building and arrived at the Georgia Aquarium right on time.

Winter Garden Prep

Before we left for our Thanksgiving trip (many pictures to post...hopefully soon) we set up some winter preparation for our garden. We still have delicious Red Russian Kale and some young spinach in the garden. I put straw mulch around the plants, but we really wanted to give them some extra protection in the hopes that we can still eat fresh greens after the snow falls.

It was pretty easy to make once we figured out how we were going to make it. We have a ton of old wire fence that we cut and shapped over the plants. Ideally we need to get some special garden row cover cloth, but we're using some clear plastic that we were going to use for the green house. The plastic didn't work for the green house because the wind ripped it to shreds... which could happen to the row cover, but we can repair if fairly easily. I hope :-). The plants seem happy under there.

This a picture of one of our 5 apple trees that were tortured by deer while we were in Georgia. The picture was take pre-deer mauling. Our next project will be to put up some electric fencing. They must have just jumped over the existing fence. They only do this when we're away. How do they know? Ugh!

Goodbye Dear Friend

It's hard to believe a whole week has past since our cat Jasmine passed away. She was a dear sweet cat that we had for 15 years. She was very smart and gentle and loved attention. She was very good around the kids when they were babies and she let Reeve carry her everywhere. She will be dearly missed. For the last year she suffered from diabetes and we were giving her insulin twice a day. She passed away peacefully and the kids and I were comforting her as she passed.

Happy about the Snow

Unfortunately the snow is already melting, and it will be all gone soon. I figured I'd better post the last of the snow pictures. Reeve and Kyle had so much fun out there! They were just so tickled that it snowed... Kyle thought it was Christmas.

Reeve skis and Family Pic

When we went to Baraboo to get Kyle's cast off we ventured over to their St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store and found some great cross-country skiis for the kids. We still have some binding adjustments to make for Kyle's set, but Reeve couldn't wait to try his out. In the store he was pretty adamant that he'd rather downhill than cross-country, and he'd rather snowboard above all. Well there wasn't quite enough snow for snowboarding. He decided cross-country wasn't so bad afterall.


After everyone had some nice rosy cheeks from playing out in the snow we decided it would be a really good time to take the Family Portrait. It took many pictures for us to get the right one. It was a fun thing to do.

These two pic were among the many discarded takes before we got the right one. Everyone that knows me knows that I can't keep a secret to save my life. Let's just say you'll see the keeper portrait in about 5 weeks :-). Oh and if you let me know early what size you'd prefer... that'd be great!

Biking in the Snow

It seems like last year every time the forecastors predicted snow it never happened, so this year when they said "storm total accumulation of 4-7 inches" we were skeptical. It was 60F and beautiful the day before and Tom never imagined the snow would accumulate and stick... he thought it would just melt away. Thinking it wouldn't be too bad he decided to ride his bike to work.
He left work about an hour early to ride home and it took him about an hour. Normally it takes him about 35 minutes. On a good day he can average about 16mph. In the snow the fastest he could pedal was 8 mph. As he was leaving work he noticed he was traveling faster than the cars on the Interstate Hwy. He rode the bike trail from Camp Douglas to Hustler. He said it was breathtakingly beautiful, but it took him 30 minutes just to get to Hustler. His feet were dragging through the snow. He said he was definitely not cold and got quite a workout. Once he made it to the plowed roads he said it felt like he was going downhill because the pedaling became incredibly easier.
Would he do it again????
DEFINITELY! :-)

Winter is here!

Yesterday it was 60F and beautiful...today it's 30F and snowing! Kyle got his cast off just in time to enjoy the first real snow. They were so excited to get there snow gear on and have fun in the snow.

The first thing they wanted to do was gather snow balls.

Kyle didn't even suspect what was about to come at him!

Not to worry... he soon caught on and the snowball fight continued.

I'm going to try to get outside with the camera before Tom comes home. He didn't believe the snow would really stick today and he rode his bike to work without the snow tires.

Kyle's cast comes off!

Kyle was soooo happy that he was going to get his cast off! He couldn't wait for them to saw it off this time. Last time they sawed the cast off he was very upset by it. He was really ready and didn't even flinch when the Physcian's Assistant sawed the cast. The P.A. was very impressed with Kyle's calm attitude.

Kyle was watching every thing very intently. The P.A. was excellent. He was very gentle, took his time, and the cast came off very easily. When he pulled the cast off one of the pins was stuck to the cast and that came out with the cast. That kind of freaked me out, but the P.A. said everything was fine.

His poor little arm was peeling and looked shriveled. They took him to the x-ray room before they removed the last pin. Kyle was very protective of his arm and was kind of alarmed by the way it looked. He was afraid to move it into position for the x-rays, so that took some convincing, and then he finally cooperated. He was really brave throughout the whole deal.

The doc showed us on his x-ray Kyle's new bone growth, and that was a REALLY GOOD thing to see! His said his arm was looking great. He took the last pin out and then we were all set to go. We go back in one month for a follow up.

Playdate at Laurie's

I have a friend who runs a small Day Care out of her house and she invited us over to play with the two girls she's watching. Reeve and Kyle know Emma and Heather from Library Story Time, so they were pretty excited about going over to Laurie's to play with them. It was a beautiful day outside and the kids had fun playing with playdoh, swinging on the swingset, playing tag, and hide-and-seek.



We finished the cat puzzle.

New Camera

We finally decided on a new digital camera... so many to choose from. We bought a Fujifilm FinePix F30 digital camera. I think it will suit our needs just right. We had a busy weekend working outside and didn't get a chance to take the family portrait, but we're going to try for this week.


This was the first picture I took... The kids were very rambunctious one night, so we broke out a 550 piece muppets puzzle for them to do. That worked for about 15 minutes :-). I think it took all of us (mainly R & K) about 2 days to complete. Now we've got a 1000 piece cat puzzle on the table. I've done most of the work there... it's a funky puzzle where some of the edge pieces are so tiny you don't even realize there an edge and other piece you think are edges are not. For that reason it's really hard for the kids to enjoy.


It was a beautiful weekend, so I decided to take some outdoor pictures. This is a view of the new fence Tom put up to protect the apple trees from the pesky deer and of the garden looking east. In the lower left corner I have a lot of volunteer cilantro, so that's why it looks unweeded and not as nice as the other parts of the garden.


Another view of the completed fence. The doorway out on this side is through the greenhouse frame.


Last view of the fence... this time looking west. Some day we hope to take those old farm buildings down, but we want to try to save the barn wood. Believe it or not, rustic barn wood is a hot commodity around here. Lots of folks use it for interior wall paneling, decor, etc... Anyway Tom brought the fence to the house, so now the yard is completely enclosed and we even have a gate. Yay :-).


Tom tried to teach the kids how to jump rope this weekend. We need to get them some size appropriate jump ropes. Reeve just didn't get it. The poor kid must learn how to jump rope. Tom also did some more work on the minivan and we think it is now road worthy again to take to Atlanta for Thanksgiving.

Carvin' Scary Pumpkins

(disclaimer: the above photo was staged and after-the-fact)

A couple of days ago, after watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Reeve decided that at 8pm at night he was going to carve pumpkins with Kyle. I had told him "not tonight" many times, but he was motivated to get it done. He had seen the kid's pumpkin carving knives in the utensil drawer, so he quick found them and brought them to the table. He then proceeded to place newspaper all over the table and found two bowls in the kitchen for the pulp.
Meanwhile I'm trying to relax on the couch and I was pretty focused on a cross-stitch that I'm trying to complete before Christmas. The whole time I told Reeve, "please not tonight." I've read that boys have a hard time hearing the female voice (it's a genetic oddity) and Reeve certainly was tuning me out. Admittedly I wasn't being very stern, and I kind of half wanted to see how far he'd take this.
Reeve was unfazed by my pleas and he explained to Kyle how to draw the circle on top of the pumpkin to cut out the lid. Both boys drew the scariest pumpkin faces they could. I saw what they drew and I said they were definitely scary pumpkins, but they were going to have a tough time carving out what they drew. Once more I pleaded lets do this another time when I had more enthusiasm to help them.
Reeve was undeterred! He instructed Kyle to cut the lid out first then they could scoop the pulp out and carve their scary faces. Reeve carved his lid out and then helped Kyle. They both enjoyed their independence as they defiantly scooped and carved their scary pumpkins.
All-in-all I was very impressed with their results, and I'm glad they did it 100% themselves. We took the picture a couple of days later. They were so impressed when they saw how truly scary their pumpkins were in the dark.