Crazy, Busy, Wonderful

I am here. I am still here. I have been unbelievably busy.

The farm responsibilities have been one reason life has gotten hectic these last few weeks. Milking cows and moving pastured chicken can eat up some time.
We actually built a new chicken tractor to move the chickens in and I have been quite pleased with it too!

 This tractor will hold 100 birds and I can move it with my lawn mower. It has a rope that I loop on to my ball hitch and I slowly pull it forward. It is tall enough inside that Willow can move with it, making sure no birds get squashed in the process. It has, so far, been a great tractor with lots of ventilation.

These birds had been in a barn stall for WAY too long! I was glad to get them on grass and get my stall mucked out. After I cleaned it out, I spread a fresh bale of straw down.

I also moved my sheep up to this paddock near the house. They will be ready for shearing in a few weeks, but I did notice their eyelids look a bit pale. This, of course, means they likely need to be wormed. I will get some natural worming remedy on order so that I can take care of it sooner, rather than later.

The new calf Annie is 2 weeks old now and doing great, AND she now has a friend.

Yesterday we were preparing for Fletcher's birthday celebration when I noticed Belle was in active labor! 12 minutes later she had a new heifer calf! This one is also part angus, but she has some white on her belly. Such a cute calf!
I let the middle girls name this one, so they named her Twilight.

This brings me to milking 4 cows in the morning and 2 in the evening. I have one more cow due this fall, but she will not calve until early November. (I think)

I was glad to notice Belle in labor so that I could call the kids outside to watch. It was quite a busy day!

Of course the increased amounts of milk we are getting is requiring that we step up the cheese making. I bought Indiana her own set of turkey roasters so that I could teach her how to make cheese. She started by making her first wheel of Havarti. I made a batch of Camembert and together we used up 12 gallons of milk! It will be nice to have some cheese making help.

In addition to the increased farm chores, we have been busy with school. Journee has officially started nursing school and Quinn has started duel enrollment.
I admit that I was scared Quinn would really struggle with her classes because at home she was not a super dedicated student. However, she has done quite well and really enjoys her classes. I write this as an encouragement to any home school moms who worry about their kids doing well in college. Quinn has seemed to embrace her education and has taken great responsibility with her assignments.  Perhaps she was bored at home and needed a challenge?

Finally, I am in a local theater play that opens in October. I haven't done any theater in a very, very long time but decided to start back, or at least try. I was given a great role and am very excited to be doing something outside the farm and house. Of course this means I am very busy several nights a week at rehearsals, but it has been well worth it!

This is why I have not been updating as I should. So much has happened that I wanted to share, but I am exhausted by the end of the day. Hopefully, now that some cow calving is done, I will see a slight slow down to my daily routine. ( I just made myself laugh out loud!)

Here's to a great week for everyone!

Happy Monday Ya'll!



The Cheddar King

When opportunity knocks on my door, I invite it in and offer it some Southern hospitality.

Such an opportunity knocked last month when Nature's Harmony Farm decided to offer a 2 day cheese making class. This is a class I have been wanting to take for a very long, long time.

Nature's Harmony just doesn't make mediocre cheese  and they have a cheddar, Georgia Gold, that has won awards and praises world wide. Yes, please let me learn a smidgen from the Cheddar King.

My mom and her dogs kept me company by driving me to Elberton, GA for this class. It is not a long drive from here but I was very happy to have the company.

Nature's Harmony Farm and its owner, Tim Young, are tucked away along several back roads. In fact I wasn't entirely sure we had found the correct farm because the farm sign didn't say "Nature's Harmony." Nonetheless, I found the cheese shop, farm and class, and despite the sign we were all welcome.

One of the things I really love about this cheese operation, versus the many others that exist, is that the owner milks his own cows and makes the cheese using more hands on methods. There were no huge tanks of milk being shipped in, but rather a smaller herd of Jerseys were milked twice a day and each cow has a name.

The cheese making room was not fancy and there were no automatic stirring arms for the milk and cheese. Young stirs the milk and curds by hand and this lends a more artisan approach to his cheeses.

The class size consisted of small number of homesteaders and cheese makers/hippies like myself. This not only allowed Young more one on one time with each of us (we all had special cheese questions and issues) but everyone was able to visit and get to know one another. There were folks who came from as far away as California!

The first day of class we crafted Camembert and Blue Cheese. I especially needed help with the blue cheese and Young was very happy to help me address my cheese making challenges. I feel very confident that I can make a good blue cheese now.

The second day we made cloth bound cheddar, a specialty of Nature's Harmony. Using methods that we could use in a home setting we crafted a very fine wheel of cheese.
Today I am actually making a wheel of my own and I plan to age it on wood for 10 months, just like cheddar royalty.

Young also showed us his cave and walked us through the steps of rind washing, brining and aging.
He was a very gracious instructor to allow us so much information, and he truly does enjoy teaching and interacting with folks.

Did I mention he let us help milk his cows? Yes! It was great for someone like myself, who would like to one day milk more cows, to see how it is done on a more commercial scale. Plus, who doesn't like being around these beautiful beasts? His cows were very well cared for and were very healthy. His management practices are clearly top notch, and they are a grass based dairy too.

If you ever get a chance to visit Nature's Harmony Farm, I suggest you do! His cheeses are fantastic and his methods of hand crafting artisan cheeses exceptional.

Of course he also sells his goods online as well in several stores throughout the Atlanta area.

You can also follow them on Facebook. This is the best way to keep up with classes. In fact, they are offering up a holiday class where the students craft and take home 3 Camembert cheeses. I promise that will be a great class!

Finally, I will part with a few more pictures of my class and all of the wonderful classmates!

 Happy cheese making ya'll!!!