Dale, I took the day "off" yesterday. I still had plenty to do, but I did NOT stand for hours in the kitchen. I used to be able to do that with no problem, but I guess my back muscles aren't what they used to be. I was having really bad spasms after the tomato canning session the day before. I had some valerian before bed last night to hopefully relax the last of it away, and it's much better this morning, so I'll be back on the tomatoes today. My problem is I'm bringing in an average of two gallons of milk each morning, and we drink less than half of that during the day. I used to drink a gallon a day all by myself, but having that icky store-bought stuff the last ten months, I got out of the habit. So I have a surplus of milk, and I'm only taking HALF of Cricket's milk in the morning, her calf gets the other half and the rest of the day's production as well. Little Evelyn is a very fat and happy girl.
Anyway, what that means is I've got a lot of milk chores to do as well as everything else. I've finally got a mature clabber culture, so I'm doing a batch of clabber every morning to feed the garage cats (trying to save on the cat food bill...), and I can start making bigger batches now as well, for the chickens, plus I make a panir that I call chicken cheese to feed the chicks, but EVERYONE likes that, not just the chicks and chickens. The dogs and cats love it, so I have to spend time outside guarding the stuff from the bigger critters so the baby chicks get a belly full before the rest can clean it up. It's a madhouse around here.
But I do have a nice two pound mozzarella in the fridge, and a two pound cheddar air drying in the cheese cabinet right now, which will need to be waxed in the next day or two. I've also got half a gallon (and adding to it) of the most beautiful, thick cream imaginable that needs to be churned into butter. It's the consistency of thick sour cream... mmmmm... so yeah, I have all that to do in my spare time. The floors in this house are FILTHY. The last time I vacuumed was before the calves arrived. But no matter my intentions, the milk keeps coming. I could pour it out on the ground and save myself a lot of work, but I can't bring myself to actually do that. It's too precious to pour out. I could put a gallon in the dogs' water pot (they LOVE milk), but that's only one gallon. I have lots more than that! LOL!
Our weather is about to turn, too. Looks like Thursday night it's supposed to get down to 35, which will kill the tomato/pepper/squash/basil plants, so I need to get those taken care of ASAP. Friday night's low is supposed to be 32, and Saturday night is forecast to be 30, so I guess that's it. Summer is over and fall has officially started.