Milking Cows & Making Cheese - Mon, 21 Jan

Cowgirls and Milk to Cheese

it was clear for a few minutes in the morning, and then rained off and on all day .... but that didn't stop us from being productive in between rain showers.

i planted some tomato seeds, then staked up some existing plants that have some green tomatos on them and cut off all the dead leaves.   they look real nice now  :)     i was pretty wet by the time i finally gave into the rain.

then Kate and i had our first milking experience.     i think old arthritic hands don't milk very well, and i need to cut my finger nails way down.   but i got the hang of it, ...kind of; ....but it is tiring on your hands!

Carlos and Pepe got a kick out of us trying to milk the cows .... so glad we could provide some entertainment :)

 i thought these were a cleaver use of old tires ...cut in half and used to feed the cattle ...

Kate and i cleaned the ranch again; and then played 'wrangler'.    we needed to move some of the cattle up the hill to greener pastures for the summer.    that was a treat, we herded them together and then started moving them ... interesting ....standing in front of big bull thinking that i was going to stop him from going where he wanted to go .... but it worked ... now i'm a real cowgirl; my little brother would be proud of me.

i have to laugh remembering back when i was little on my grandparents farm,  my brother and uncle told me that the Bulls would attack me if i wore red, ... and mom always dressed me in a red coat ... i made sure i wasn't wearing red today ... just in case   :)
we were way too busy about our serious job; but this is one of the fields we were in:

then we came back here and learned how to make cheese ... queso .... from the milk that we got today ...  Carlos put some 'stuff' and salt in the milk and let it set for a couple of hours.   then he stired it and it was watery and in chunks

this is Carlos with the bucket of milk

then we put it through a sieve

and then into these little wooden boxes with holes in the bottom

it will sit overnight with a towel over it


then the day was over, ....i decided to go back to Porto and see if i could get caught up on my blog ... i experienced the most frustrating 3hrs .... the connection was horrible and i managed to upload only 12 photos .....grrrrrrrrrr ... and still didn't finish.

... but i had a wonderful bowl of Ceviche ....  and those round yellow things at the top are Patagones ... they are plantains with a batter on them and fried .... very tasteless.   they need to serve them with some sweet pepper sauce   :)