The Zoo, Havarti and the Hammock

Alison and the kids went to the zoo TWICE this week. The first time, on Tuesday, was for a goal day party, and they met Grandma Julie and Aunt Becky and Cousin Ellie there for a fun time. Thursday Uncle Chauncey finished school, so he went with Becky and Ellie again, and they invited Grandma Julie, who invited us. We had a great time both days. Tuesday they were setting up the dinosaurs (Zoorasic Park 2 this summer!), and Rea was excited to see them on Thursday, but they were all covered up until opening day. Now Rea wants to go this upcoming Friday for the dinosaurs.

On Wednesday we had a Board Game Design Group of Sandy meetup. There were five people there, and we played two games: Polynesia and Zodiac Dice. It went pretty well. The girls had a babysitter and had a lot of fun as well.

On Thursday we ate dinner in the front yard. As we ate the heady scent of the lilac flowers made us think about edible flowers. We looked up the edibility of lilacs, and found that lilac jelly is a real thing that some people make.

After dinner Mike and Rea went out on a Daddy Daughter Date. They went to Dairy Queen as well as to a playground. Rea liked the playground and Dairy Queen the best. At the same time Alison and the other kids went shopping. It was a fun night.

On Friday Alison took the kids to the wilderness park where they want to spend a lot of time this summer. It has a swimming pool (which opens Memorial Day), a creek, a wilderness area ("a little patch of woods" according to Rea), and a playground. It is just about perfect.

Alison made a new park art kit for the kids. It included markers, clipboards, and glue. The girls drew lots of pictures, gluing leaves and things to them, and Alison was happy that the markers were not all over the house. Sara did have a bit of a disaster with the glue, but hopefully scrubbing the picnic table with cold water from the bathroom with her bare hands taught her better.

The yellow stuff is the jelly, lilac broth is an indicator!

Friday we picked a popcorn bowl full of lilac flowers and boiled them and made lilac jelly and lilac syrup. The jelly took some lemon juice to make it more botulism hardy, but the syrup was pretty much lilac broth and sugar. Both are very tasty (according to Rea), and to celebrate we made pancakes for dinner on Saturday night. The syrup was very strongly flavored of lilac (fortunately putting it over pancakes makes it just about perfect).

This week Rea and Sara bought some flower bulbs from Reams, and since it was raining Saturday we planted flowers. Sara bought Blue Hosta, and Rea bought Lilly of the Valley. Both enjoy shade, so we planted them in the front yard. An exceptionally shady place.

Havarti curds before the warm water bath

As the girls were planing the flowers we tried our hand at making Havarti for the first time. The make was as follows: 4 Gallons of milk heated to 91 and innoculated with 1/2 tsp meso. Ripen 30 minutes, 3/8 tsp double strength rennet (diluted in water.) clean break in 45 minutes. Cut to 1/2 inch cubes and stirred for 10 minutes. removed 5 quarts of whey and replaced with 5 quarts of hot water (170 degrees f). temperature of curds was 105 degrees. 1/3 cup kosher salt added. Stirred intermittently for 30 minutes. Let curds settle and then drain off whey. Pressed at 20 lbs of pressure for 20 minutes and then flipped, redressed, and pressed at 30 for 8 hours. We plan on about 3 months ageing, so you will hear about this cheese again in July most likely.

We also waxed our most recent cheddar (it got a lot of blue mold growing on it, so we decided that that was for the best, as blue cheddar is not horrible, but it is also not cheddar).

Saturday Rea also really wanted someone to come over to play, so she invited a bunch of family members, but no-one could come over. We are happy to be able to go to Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Mike's house this Sunday.

On Saturday we set up the hammock in a semi-permanent position in our bedroom. We are trying it out for a while (while keeping the bed up in case we can't abide sleeping in it all night). We haven't yet figured out how we are going to attach an underquilt to the bottom of it, but I am sure that we can figure it out ourselves.

After one night of sleep in the hammock we are still excited to continue trying it out. We both woke up a lot, but sleeping in a different place will do that, so we figure that after a few nights that will go away. Though we woke up a lot, we both seems to feel pretty good today (as if the sleep was very refreshing or something).