On a recent trip to the farmer’s market in Flemington, I was pleased to see that there was, for once, no ridiculous long line in front of the Bobolink Dairy stand. I didn’t hesitate to run right over, sample the hellishly good cheeses and scamper off with half a pound of Frolic (pictured). This is why there is cheese. I repeat: this is why there is cheese. This is not a sandwich cheese, in my book, or a melting cheese. This is grass-fed, raw milk local cheese, and it’s slightly pungent, rich, nutty, and unctuous…it’s everything store-bought cheese is not. It’s the cheese that makes me glad I have money to buy cheese. If I could only eat one cheese for the rest of my life, this one would be it.
Frolic
Lyme disease AGAIN!
Girl just can’t get ahead.
I started running a fever again yesterday & made a doctor’s appointment, just in case. Yup. It’s Lyme again, or it didn’t get knocked back the first time. Sheesh. 3 more weeks of antibiotics. Happy Birthday (almost) to me!
We’ve got about 20 deer that lead a luxurious existence on our back 3/4 acre, and along with them come the ticks. I’d almost rather have a bear around.
On the plus side: I can now run around, and the ticks can’t hurt me…until the antibiotics are over, and then it’s time to fear them again. Also, I had chocolate-covered raisins for dinner.
skulking around in the heat
freow. it’s HOT!
I made the best of it: sent Amber the (finally completed) Josephine-knot paracord bracelet (Amber, I hope it fits!), schlepped my one item to the dry cleaners’ (I am 98% opposed to dry cleaning, and this is the only jacket that gets to go), bought bug spray (ah, New Jersey!), finally remembered to go to the bank, and went to Purl Jam, for pleasant conversation, great yarn, and refreshing A/C. If she had a coffee bar in there, I’d probably never get any work done AND I’d have no money left. I urge you to visit…it’s worth it. Buy some yarn!
It’s so miserable out that all the garden work’s been curtailed for evenings only (if at all), and I’ve mostly just been overseeing progress: the pumpkins and golden purslane are the stars of the summer, although I know that the kale can’t help it: it’s just too damn hot for kale to be happy. Last summer, the kale rocked, but we had really no tomatoes to speak of, and I can always plant kale as a fall crop: you certainly can’t do that with tomatoes!
I made cottage cheese!
I feel like a wizard!
Seriously. There’s something magical about watching something coalesce right in front of your eyes.
Although I do think that assembling flat-pack furniture from IKEA at the same time as making cheese has hurt my modern homesteader cred somewhat.
Part 1: Colorado…
…how I love you. (Warning: lots o’ pictures.)
It was an awesome trip, and that damn state is seducing me all over again. The whole family went down to Mt.Princeton, where my brother’s friend lent us a cabin, and we stayed deep in the woods, on the side of the mountain, and watched crazy thunderstorms, black squirrels, and riotous gray birds. If you have to go on a long car trip with someone, choose my brother, because he plans out interesting stops along the way that are actually interesting…the multi-hour trip in the car gets a lot less painful. The whole trip there and back was full of interesting stops.
We set out on Monday afternoon, driving from Boulder to Mt. Princeton via Kenosha Pass and Fairplay. Kenosha Pass was AMAZING, because I saw my first wild moose ever.
(I know, it’s a pretty distant shot, but 1. you don’t get too close to moose, and 2. my nephew is 3 and does not care about ANYTHING but trains. This includes moose, and he wanted to go somewhere else.)
Fairplay is surreal, because it’s the home of South Park (yes, that South Park).
Exhibit A:
And B:
I love me a good Mr.Hankey photo op, as you can see.
After all that excitement, we headed on to Mt.Princeton, by way of Buena Vista. We actually stayed on the lower slopes of Mt.Princeton, but we were only about 10 minutes from the town of Buena Vista itself. B.V. is a remarkable place: it’s teeming with whitewater rafters, it’s completely surrounded by 14,000+ foot mountains, the climate is awesome, and there’s a coffee roaster/cafe in town. If I could telecommute from anywhere, I think this would be the place. The only drawback is how far it is from Boulder/Denver.
Here’s the cabin,seen from the walking path down below:
We spent a few days there, taking a daytrip to Salida (another pretty little town, with gorgeous views), where we had coffee at a wonderful outdoor cafe & watched cyclists climb the strange, “S”-marked tall hill that rises above the town.
As I said, my brother’s a pretty great tour guide: he has a way of planning stuff to do on the way to the destination and stuff to do on the way back out. On the way out, we trekked a short distance to Agnes Vaille Falls, which everyone enjoyed immensely (except the twins were disappointed at the lack of trains), and then stopped for lunch (I bought some coffee from the coffee roasters in B.V.), and went up to Cottonwood Pass (where I scared the shit out of myself, clambering around on skinny trails at 12,000+ feet).
But damn, it was worth it. The Continental Divide is the most awe-inspiring sight I’ve had yet.
Countdown to Colorado
Whee!
Is it wrong to be planning a cheese & ice cream tour of Boulder, before even landing in Colorado? In other way-too-early-news, I’ve had the surreal experience of test packing the same suitcase with the same stuff twice, and had it end up fine the first time & bursting at the seams the second time. I am talented, that’s for sure. And I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch of important stuff that’s not even packed yet.
I’m also a bundle of nerves for my Botany final & trying to study & keep all the words from leaking out of my head. I have an A average & am hoping not to kamikaze it to oblivion on the last day of class. 
I’m taking my real actual camera to Colorado this year: after trying to document the trip with the iPhone last year, I came to realize that I’m a macro-dork, and can’t be happy unless I’m photographing some gnat’s backside, and had better take the big camera on trips. So, Flickr friends, prepare for the deluge.
Clever Lee
Maybe not new to you, but it was new to me: an interesting idea from the fertile mind of Lee Meredith (known as leethal), of knitting as game (like a drinking game). I’ll spare you my own slant on the description, and here’s the link:
http://www.leethal.net/patterns/gameknitting.html
Get the ebook!
I have nothing to say
…I’ve been in the house for 8 days, sick as a sick monkey.
The vegetable garden is booming, but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE has gone on.
I am very busy & very bored at the same time, which is an accomplishment of sorts, but not a very interesting one.
I would be laughing very hard at myself, but my back hurts from being in bed for a week, and I have an earache from wearing headphones for a week, and this state of affairs is even funnier than being bored & busy simultaneously.
Mostly, this post is to remind me that I have a blog & need to update it.
Lyme Disease!
Yup.
It’s funny, too, because I was so out of it from running a fever for four days, I saw the big old bullseye rash & thought I had the plague or something. But I’m lucky that it showed up, because I would have continued thinking I had the flu, when actually there was help to be had. So, I have me some antibiotics & now it’s time to go back to bed. Yay.
On the mend!
Damn! Some fever this has been…it’s finally starting to go away. I started doing some new paracord bracelet prototypes & knitting some stuff to sell for the winter season, as all the time stuck in bed has been gnawing my mind to mush.
My Dad’s Pet Fig Trees
real food challenge
my awesome cousin