“Remember! Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights - then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward, that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend.” – Endicott Peabody
Saturday, September 13, 2003
My first attempt at cheddar cheese
Several years ago I started making my own cheese. I started with some “fromage blanc” and some soft goat cheese. Then, I lost interest or got busy with other things…don’t know. But, I did not make cheese for a long time.
This summer I decided to get started again. Only, now I want to make “hard” cheeses. Lynne got me a cheese press for my birthday, and today I made my first attempt at making a cheddar cheese.
It is a “quick” recipe that should be ready in about 4 months. But, getting this first batch going was not easy…
Posted under: Cheesemaking • by Rick on 09/13/2003 at 10:42 PM
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Anyone know anything about mushrooms?
We get lots of different kinds of mushrooms growing in the forested area of our land at Sand Creek Park. Here is a link to a photo gallery of some of them:
We’d love to figure out if any of these are edible. Anyone know of someone who is a mycologist?
Posted under: Mushroom Articles • by Rick on 09/13/2003 at 01:38 PM
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Friday, September 12, 2003
Bernese Mountain Dogs
I thought I’d post a couple of photos of Bernese Mountain Dogs. As many of you know, we (occasionally) breed, raise, train and show these wonderful dogs. They are a Swiss breed that is relatively new to the US, and becoming very popular. Stop by the cabin sometime when we are there and you can meet our eight!
Here is a photo of Millenia (ours) and Nick (our friend’s). They are brother and sister. We also own Daisy and Bode (not shown), who happen to be children of Millenia and Sailor (photos elsewhere on this site). It can get really confusing!
Read on!
Posted under: Dog Stuff • by Rick on 09/12/2003 at 09:50 PM
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Sunday, September 07, 2003
A Really Big Moose!
This weekend we hosted some good friends and fellow Bernese dog-lovers at our cabin. On Saturday evening we went for a drive to see if we could see some elk. Well, no elk, but we saw the biggest moose any of us has ever seen. Here is his photo:
We might be able to show you an even better photo when we get film developed. Lynne had a powerful telephoto lens on her film camera. (This image is from our digital camera and is digitally zoomed.)
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 09/07/2003 at 06:35 PM
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Wednesday, September 03, 2003
I Held a Hummingbird in my Hand
We’ve been up at the cabin for a few days. Yesterday, Lynne called me out to the front of the cabin and showed me a hummingbird on the ground. It was flapping away, but could not fly. It looked like its right wing was hurt.
Not wanting the dogs to find it, I trapped it in my hand and carried it into the woods where I let it go.
It weighed nothing! Okay, it had to weigh something, but I could not detect weight in my hand. It was soft, and when it wriggled I could feel it. But, when it was still, I could not feel it in my hand.
We get lots of hummingbirds in the summer. They are always fighting each other off, but don’t seem to do any harm. So, maybe it hit the window?
They migrate all the way to South America in our winter, and back north again for summer. It just amazes me that something that small, that weighs nothing, travels thousands of miles every year (on purpose).
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 09/03/2003 at 07:11 PM
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