As usual.. life here keeps rolling along.   The past few weeks have been very eventful.. and busy.  Andy lost his job which while scary is just a blessing in disguise.  Things here were getting unmanageable for me alone with the kids all day.  Milk orders were getting confused, I was exhausted.. and the house just beyond help.  Since Andy has been home we have put the garden in, did some gardening around the house, worked on fences, fixed up the store, CLEANED HOUSE, baked bread, made cheese, and the list goes on and on!   Things around here are looking quite spruced up!  Mom was here for a visit last week, she was TREMENDOUSLY helpful!  Thanks Mom!  

Hopefully we will get all the backlogged stuff completed soon and begin to enjoy each other a bit more.  It would be wonderful to have time as a family to do the normal stuff families do.   The budget is going to be a stretch at best.... Andy's income was a huge help around here... but that too I am sure will work itself out in the end.  We have meat in the freezer, I still have some veggies in the freezer from last year and the garden will be producing before too much longer.. in fact the lettuce looks pretty darned close!  Thank goodness I have bought in bulk for years;  things like oats, rice, corn, and wheat we have plenty on hand to last a while.  

Our first cheese is ageing.  I worked last week and got our cheese labels done.. they should arrive next week.  Its looking like I will be at Village Point Farmers Market in Omaha on Saturdays starting in July.  We will have pasteurized cheese to sell there.. we will be doing a fresh Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack,  Fresh Cheddar Bites and Pepper Cheddar Bites for sale.  Deciding to produce cheese that would require us to pasteurize our milk was a tough choice but it allows us to be at the market in July, bringing in much needed revenue, and I can talk to people about the value of pasture based farming.  Its a good opener.  By late summer we will have a supply of raw cheeses to offer and things will be different.  Our raw cheeses will be English Cheddar and Aged Monterey Jack. We may also venture into Colby...  I want to keep it simple and wanted to provide cheeses that families can use in their everyday meals.  

Did you see our new webpage header photo? This is Mouse.. one of  the original four cows purchased here in Nebraska.  The shot was taken by our friend Dianne Merrill. She is just starting out a photography business... and she sure does great work! 

The calves are doing a great job of keeping the lawn mowed! Its fun having them right here next to the house.. .they are so darn cute!  We had another little guy born yesterday... Daisy.. she has had three bull calves in a row... whats up with that?

Last week's cold snap really stalled the growth of our grass...  its getting tight out in the pasture.  Hopefully things will stay warm now and that grass can grow grow grow!  All this rain has to help.. right????

Our pigs are back out to pasture!  They are digging up our winter area... one bit at a time.  As you can see in this photo taken by Mom they enjoy their work!  

We have piglets due in July.... looking forward to that!  

While Mom was here we took the kids bowling.  Found a great website... www.kidsbowlfree.com.   You can totally sign your kids up for two free games every weekday all summer long!  Totally awesome!  You can even purchase an adult family pass for up to four adults to play along with the kids all summer for $24 total.  Awesome deal.   We enjoyed our game...  Micheal was so very cute...( his ball rolled so slow he would just crouch and wait)  and Alex has quite the style!   Its was great fun to get away for a few hours and just goof off. 

Well I reckon I should head off to bed.  It's been a long day.  I revamped the webpage, added galleries with slide shows.... still much to do... will keep working tomorrow.    I hit the sheets exhausted.. but as always --  thankful.