Making Butter and Taking It Easy

Rain on Saturday meant a flooded barnyard. Saturday night the downpour turned to snow, ice, and miserable animals. It was challenging keeping the indoor stalls dry as the cows and sheep moved in and out, tracking in water and mud. Every season brings its own challenges, and nature truly dictates our workload.

We typically spend at least a part of every Sunday making cheese and butter, setting aside the milk we will drink during the week and freezing what we won't use right away to hold us over when we dry the cows up prior to the delivery of spring and summer calves. Matt makes lovely butter. We had enough buttermilk left over that I'm trying out a new recipe for soured buttermilk cheese this week.

I aggravated a pulled muscle in my back working in the barn so I wasn't able to load my kiln this weekend. Instead, I spent a quiet Sunday puttering around with laundry and working on beading a pair of mocassins while sitting against a heating pad. I've learned that I can't stress over having my plans circumvented because of the needs of our animals or the demands created by the unpredictability of the weather; this life certainly trains you to flexibility...