The cheese making begins again...

With Rustina giving us 5 gallons of milk a day (yes, 5 gallons) we are in a constant quandary about what to do with all of the milk. Sir Loin, of course, currently drinks about 2 gallons of that milk and we consume about 2 quarts in a given day. Cheese making is on of our answers - it puts the milk in a form which we can consume months from now. Reed began cheese making during Rustina's last lactation and with the large influx of milk he is back at it again.

So far, this lactation, he has made a cracked pepper hard cheese and today has embarked on a journey toward soft mold-ripened cheeses, such as brie and Camembert. The cracked pepper cheese will age until this summer, awaiting Aunt Mina - a lover of a local cracked pepper cheese. We hope that ours will come close.

To help us on this journey we have finally purchased the special thermostat which will keep our designated cheese refrigerator at the proper 54 degree F temperature. The refrigerators built-in thermostat will never let it stay that warm - this new thermostat over-rides the built in thermostat.

Tomorrow we start on our butter and ice cream making...Yum!

Sir Loin

Our newest calf, Sir Loin, was born on March 5th. The birth was on a Saturday morning and Rustina was able to do it all herself. She is such a good mother and licked her baby very well. The baby was vigorous from the start and was up on his feet right away.

Sir Loin is half Angus and looks like an Angus. It is amazing the difference between him and Blossom (who was 15/16 Jersey). Blossom was much more delicate and angular. Sir Loin is very boxy and eats a whole lot more!

He is being fed Rustina milk via bottle and drinks almost 2 gallons a day! We worried that this was too much (a lot more than Blossom ate), but he seems to be thriving and has had no problems.