New Neighbors.. of the Fowl Kind.

See it?? 

It is a grouse sitting in a spruce tree. 

The spruce tree is at the end of our driveway. 

It's not our tree actually it's Mr. M's but our driveway goes right by it.

I discovered our new neighbors one day while I was walking back down the driveway.. 

I'd gone out to take pictures of Papa bringing Maggie home.. I wanted one of him walking her down the road home.. I never got the picture I wanted as Maggie decided to NOT follow him and we chased her the whole way! Anyway.. I was walking back to the house with the camera and I was a TAD distracted as I was also taking the opportunity to train Tucker to stay on the house side of the raised beds and NOT follow me down the driveway, when something EXPLODED right beside me.. 

Yeah.

 I knew what it was the minute my heart went out of PANIC MODE. 

Grouse are known for this little trick. It must have been less then 3 feet from me and I panicked it and it panicked me and Tucker took the opportunity to come a bit closer.. 

I yelled at the dog and marveled a little at myself.. I had NOT dropped the camera you see! 

I gave myself a mental shake and turned around to see if I could find it and calmly took a picture. 

My heart didn't actually stop racing until I got inside. 

I walked up and down the driveway several more times that day and saw two grouse in all. 

Over the next two weeks we saw 4 in all, sitting in the trees, walking across the driveway like they owned the place. Chip barked at them. Tucker went to sniff them out and got yelled at. 

I think they may have been attracted to the area by our hay pile.

Then one day they were gone.. moved out. Found a better place to camp I guess.

Anyway now that they are gone we kinda miss them.. they were fun to watch. 

Even if they did like to get your heart rate a boost! 

Kids Projects~ Cheese Making.

Stir, stir stir the milk while it heats to 120F!!

 J is stirring, E is checking the temp.. they all had a turn doing both. 

L measuring the vinegar for this simple vinegar cheese! 

3/4 of a cup per gallon of milk.

Taking a look to see if it's the right temp yet! 

Yes they are in their PJ's!! It was a lazy fun day! 

Pouring in the vinegar!! While his sister stirs. 

Stir stir stir!!

Normally it changes color. The cheese stays white and the whey goes greeny. I'm not sure why it didn't.. maybe because she's not on green grass?? The cheese looks good though! 

We let it sit for 30 minutes, drained it off and let it drain for 4 or so hours before putting it on a plate in the fridge. I use this cheese for breadstix and lasagna's and IN stuff. You can also slice it and salt it and it's a pretty good melting cheese for sandwiches or what have you. You can drain it just a tiny bit, crumble it before adding salt and pepper and cream to make a cottage cheese but I prefer to use rennet for cottage cheese now that I know how :) 

First Steak... A Moment of Drooling...

Right before we went on 'the BIG TRIP' we butchered our 2.5 year old steer.. Steers-eye. His name was Bulls-eye (You know like the BBQ sauce)  but when it no longer described him we changed it :) He was the very last of "The Bindy Line' a line we are happy to be done with as they tended to be more high headed then we liked. ANYWAY!! When we got back from 'the BIG TRIP' we got some steaks out and Papa BBQ'd them!! WOWZA!!! Yes it was a picture taking moment.. we ate the last of our last beef in March.... traded some chicken for a little bit during the summer (a roast and some hamburger) but this was, quite likely, the 1st steaks we've had since last year at this time... and Man oh MAN did they taste good!!!! I think he BBQ'd 6 steaks.. and I don't think there was any left!!