Enough Jars

Every time we make butter it's a little bit different.  I thought we would figure it out and it would be the same each time.  But that's not how it's happening.  Today the butter broke into little beads but then didn't come together into the big chunks that make it easy to knead.

I usually scoop the butter chunks into ice water and then knead it into a butter block, but these little beads would be tough to chase out of the ice water.  So I grabbed them by handfuls and gave them a good squeeze before dropping them into the water.  The buttermilk streamed out.  Afterward, it came together well and made a beautiful chunk of butter.

Most of the hay we moved has been eaten up so it's time to move hay again. 

As were planning how to move it, these words came out of our sixteen-year-old's mouth, "I just love moving hay."  After the shock wore off, she explained, "well, I love driving the tractor."  I think her sisters enjoy riding in the trailer too.

We got a batch of gallon jars last summer when we got Christina.  Back then she was producing less milk and jars weren't leaving our house with people buying milk.  We've been suffering with not enough jars for over a month.  Every day I  counted clean jars and quickly used up milk to free them up.  When we broke a jar last week I didn't know if we could make it.

Yesterday our jar order came in.  Praise God!  It is so good to know we have plenty of jars and I don't need to count anymore.  I can make cheese when it's handy instead of as soon as the jars are needed.  Today we rejoice!