Loving this weather!

Having daytime temperatures in the mid-70’s is really nice!  It’s warm enough to be outside in short sleeves, but not so warm that you sweat with the least movement.  It’s so nice, you want to be outside.  We are in for a drastic change starting Friday when it’s not supposed to get out of the 50’s.  That means we need to get the hoops on the rest of the beds tonight so I can cover them up.  I inspected the green bean plants yesterday and while they have flowered, I don’t know if they are going to produce beans or not.  I think I just got them in too late.  I have to do better next year.

If all goes well, my friend Melissa and I are going to go to a new place to ride tomorrow: property owned by the Blue Ridge Horseman’s Association.  It’s a little bit further away than South Mountain, but the trails are supposed to be really nice.  I’ve been told they are harder than South Mountain, but not as hard as Leatherwood.  Best of America by Horseback is going to have an event at the Blue Ridge property this weekend; they were at Leatherwood a few weeks ago.  I have marked in my calendar when Best of America by Horseback is going to show these shows so we can watch them.  I’m particularly interested in Leatherwood as that’s where I was supposed to do my first endurance ride.  Maybe I’ll be able to do it this year, but I need to get my fear under control first.  I’m excited about going tomorrow; hopefully nothing will come up to prevent us from going.  I’m going to try to use Sudi’s hoof boots, but I’m afraid I was misinformed about what size he is and that he’s really a size one, not a two which is going to be a bummer.

Last night while milking, I fed Gwen a half and half mix of a 10 percent sweet grain and alfalfa pellets and she seemed pretty happy with that mixture.  The grain that she’s hooked on is a 16 percent sweet calf feed made by the same company as the 10 percent.  Hopefully she’ll eat as good this morning.  It’s no fun milking a cow that keeps moving around looking for different food nor do I like it when she doesn’t finish her grain.  Of course, nothing goes to waste here.  What grain she doesn’t eat, the poultry is happy to clean up.  I finished up two batches of soft cheese made with cow milk and it was fantastic.  Because it’s so yellow, the cheese looks like butter and the consistency was really nice.  I have a single batch to hang this morning and I’ll use that to make some flavored cheese for breakfast spreads.  I’m going to make one using local honey and pecans and the other will be lemon and blueberry.  Both of these spreads ought to be good on bagels.

It’s still dark out, but I need to get going and get my chores done so I don’t have to rush to get ready to go to work.  On a side note, I haven’t used shampoo to wash my hair in maybe six months.  Instead I use baking soda and water and rinse with apple cider vinegar and water.  It works well.  As cool as it is in the mornings now, my hair doesn’t air dry as quickly as it does in the summer so I don’t wash it all that often.  You’d think with not washing my hair every other day or so it would be greasy, but it isn’t.  Like so many things, I wonder if the chemicals in shampoo create more oil in your hair making it necessary to wash more often (which means buying more shampoo).  Same deal with laundry detergent: I’m using my homemade detergent and it works just fine.  On Monday I did three loads of laundry and hung them out on the line to dry.  It’s all more work, but it’s much less money and I think my scalp is healthier and our clothes last longer.

Until later …