Making Mozarella Goat Cheese

Chantel shared these cheese making photos with me. They are real neat.

Milking Belle


Fresh milk


Straining fresh milk


Heating fresh, strained milk


Draining mozzarella

The next step is to string and stretch the cheese like taffy then allow it to chill.

Photos courtesy of Chantel

Up North Adventures: That Crazy Goat!

The beautiful stream I told you about yesterday is directly behind this barn. The naughty goat I am speaking of is the large black and white one standing near the white barrel on the right side of the barn. The skittish little black and white goat is standing in the doorway of the barn.

"B" went to do the morning chores by himself. "Z" and I decided we would come along after we had done the dishes. We had not finished yet when "B" came back to tell us that the two goats had escaped and were trying to butt him.

We all headed down to the barn to attempt to round those little stinkers up. The big one was standing up on the stalls eating the other goats hay…you know the grass is greener on the other side was in action at that moment.

"B" brought down a bale of hay and that goat immediately started eating it. We fed and watered the other goats in their stalls then tried to get her to follow us down to her barn but she just ran around. The other little goat that escaped is very skittish and ran away anytime we came near it.

We went to the other barn to retrieve a leash, went back to the barn where she was (but wasn’t supposed to be), I hooked it around her collar and she happily walked back to her barn with us. Silly goat.

Later in the day when we went out for the evening chores we found her back in the big barn (where she does not belong). Again we fed and watered the animals and she stood up eating the other goats hay, but this time she walked by my side back to her own barn and the skittish one followed a safe distance behind.

It was snowing a bit and we wanted to be sure to totally fill all their water buckets. While we were filling buckets with water to carry down to the big barn, who comes strolling up the driveway? Yep. You guessed it! It was that silly goat! She came right up to us and got all the dogs riled up and barking.

She happily followed us back down to finish watering the animals and we put her back in her barn then went home to fix dinner.

I wonder if we will find her back in the big barn in the morning...or if she stayed in her barn like a good little goat.

I know you are anxious to know what we had for supper. We had turkey burger nachos for dinner and chocolate chip cookie bars for desert. Yum! “Z” raved that these were the best nachos he has ever had. If “Z” likes it then it must be pretty good. You can learn how we made these at The Recipe Box.

Our Up North Adventure

A curious, friendly goat.

We will be spending the next two weeks house sitting and caring for my friends many animals. She has Chihuahuas, Great Danes, Olde English Bull Dogges, several different kinds of goats (some of which are pregnant) and chickens. We brought our dogs with us too, since they are too short to let themselves out while we are gone. Just kidding.



The goats get food and water in the morning and evening, the dogs get their food and water in the afternoon. We are sure to say hi to every animal when we are caring for the others and make sure no one needs anything.



The first day was great but I got a bad flu the second day and could not even get out of bed. Fortunately we had come a few days early so we would be comfortable when the family left and “B” had been paying close attention while we were doing the chores. When he realized how sick I was he took initiative and notified me each time he headed out to care for the animals. He even spent extra time just observing a pregnant goat and called the owner to get instructions when he felt she was behaving oddly. It turns out that the goat was nesting, which is normal for a pregnant animal.





A "goats nest" created by the "nesting goat".

The following day “B” got sick and that evening “Z” became ill too. I was able to get out of bed so “Z” helped me with the chores early in the day and we rested up in between chore times. We were all too sick to eat so cooking was not an issue.



Today I feel much better, and by the afternoon “B” was able to get out and help me with the evening chores. "Z" began to feel a little better around bedtime.



We also went to the store to get milk, cereal and juice. Our tummies are too weak to eat the food we brought with us.



Check back soon to read about more of our up north adventures.