Late autumn is the time of year when milk production drops. Milk production is seasonal, for the most part, and by now, the does are hopefully bred and apparently less interested in making milk. Although some does will "milk through" for more than a year. I've never had such a doe, so I plan my cheesemaking during our peak of production. I experimented a lot in the past, and have pretty much settled on what could be classified as Mediterranean cheeses for home production. For cheesemaking and cheese storage, this type of cheese works the best in my climate. mozzarella - fresh or frozen (shre ..read more

  Rainfall  10th: 0.01" 11th: 0.2" 12th: 0.02" 17th: 0.09" 21st: 0.7" 26th: 0.01 Total: 1.03 inches so far Temperature range of nighttime lows: 23 to 58°F (-5 to 14°C) range of daytime highs: 46 to 81°F (8 to 27°C) Weather Notes: 1st frost: Nov. 1 November has been garden clean-up month. Almost every day I work a bit on pulling frost-killed summer plants and covering each bed with a thick mulch of fallen leaves. This keeps winter weeds down for easier spring planting.  Other winter projects will include bed border replacement where needed and aisle clean ..read more

Originally, I'd hoped to have a picture post, but I've run out of time, busy with family things. But I do want to take advantage of this traditional time of year to count my blessings. I know how easy it is to complain. Some default setting of human thought and emotion? I find that focusing on gratitude and contentment is so much happier!  I'm thankful for: My husband, who is truly a partner on all levels: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. My family. I'm proud of my adult children, their spouses, and their children. Our little piece of land. Our goats and the milk they provide ..read more

I don't often do product reviews, but when I was contacted by Luxear, I was really interested in doing this one.  Luxear is the same company that makes those fantastic Arc-Chill cooling blankets that I love. So I already have confidence in their products and this one, Fresh Keeper Refrigerator Storage Containers, sounded like a must have. With a garden like mine, something to help keep things fresh would be a real bonus! The box contained a set of five storage containers with lids. These included a good range of sizes:  196 oz, 129 oz, 78 oz, 46 oz, and 24 ..read more

I feel a need to preface this post by defining my terms. That is, after all, what Mortimer J. Adler says a good author does (How To Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading). To that end, I have several terms that I'd like to clarify as to how I personally use them, to establish context for my post title. House: a structure built for people to live in, i.e., a human dwelling. Home: one's personal house; where one lives, keeps their possessions, and maintains their lifestyle. Household: the collection of items belonging to a house and the persons dwelling there. Housework: the ..read more

November already!    The exterior of the greenhouse is pretty much done and painting has commenced. Next it's time to start looking at the interior. And that means deciding what we need and how to set it up. So far, I have a wish list: And a rough sketch: These have been hanging on the kitchen bulletin board since we first started planning, so they are a little out of date. For example, we've already decided the door to the house will go on the right side instead of in the middle. And Dan only has two 55-gallon drums, so I don't think I'll get my three rain barrels. At least not i ..read more

 Rainfall  12th: 0.55" 14th: 0.33" 16th: 0.01" 20th: 0.31" Total so far: 1.2 inches Temperature range of nighttime lows: 38 to 59°F (3.5 to 15°C) range of daytime highs: 59 to 84°F (15 to 29°C) Weather Notes About mid-month the mornings were getting cool enough to switch to my winter work schedule. That means I do my garden and outdoor work in the afternoons. Mornings are indoors. That's when I used to do most of my writing, but now I mostly weave and sew (which I talk about on my other blog). According to the weather forecast, a cold front will push through any time now. Ou ..read more

Continued from Progress on the Greenhouse. We had a week of beautiful weather, so Dan was able to make quite a bit of progress on the greenhouse. First up was a cover for the solar vent fan. He was thinking he'd have to make something, but then he remembered this . . . That vent cover has been sitting in his workshop for the past eight years! It was the one he removed from the back gable end of the house when he installed our solar attic fan. He washed it off, painted it, and added new hardware cloth as a screen over the back. To install, all he had to do was slip it under the trims and sc ..read more

Even though we haven't had a lot of rain in recent weeks, we've had enough to test Dan's roof solution to the little leaks we had. It definitely fixed the problem. The next step was the gable ends (are they half gable ends?).  This side of the greenhouse gets the afternoon sun, so this side is where we wanted a solar vent fan to exhaust the heat.  Also, we plan to put a couple of rainwater barrels inside, so a pipe will be needed to collect rain water from the front gutter on the house and run it into the barrels on the inside. The fan is a solar attic fan, similar to the one ..read more

We still don't have a lot of color yet, but the dogwood are beginning to turn. Not much new to tell. Mostly, we're working on seasonal chores, such as spot planting the pastures with a cool weather seed mix. Dan got the winter wheat planted and a little of that is starting to come up. Few of our fall plantings are doing much sprouting, however, because of our long dry spell.  Dan has also begun thinning the flocks and has been working on the greenhouse, but I'll have a separate post about that soon. Outdoors, I've been cleaning up the summer garden beds for their winter rest ..read more