Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

The air was chilly, but I decided to start a fencing project anyway.  I went out to the south east corner of the property to look at the old line fencing.  It had been there been there forever.  For the most part, the posts are still there, but the old barbed-wire is partially gone or broken.  Because I need to tear-down the fence north of the creek to make way for the new pasture projects, I thought I would reuse that for this SE line fencing.  Reduce, reuse and recycle right? I easily and quickly was able to tear out the top-wire of the one fence, which seems to be high-tensile barbed.  Once rolled, I put it on the ATV and I hauled the wire back to the place… then out to the SE field.  To be honest, that was all I was in the mood to do.  Out in the wind, the temp was a little more chilly than I cared to be in.  Maybe tomorrow, I’ll find myself out there again.

After returning back to the farm site, I decided to work on one of the farm’s tractors.  I knew it needed work because last winter when I was plowing, I had antifreeze/coolant spraying on the windshield of the cab… the thought had been bothering me all winter.  I first thing i did was to fill the radiator with fluid to see if I could locate the leak.  Sure enough coolant came dripping out.  I added some ‘Stop-Leak’ type stuff but I think the hole was too large for the cheap fix to work.  It looks like I’ll have to remove the radiator and have it professionally repaired. I’m guessing that’ll be $100-200+ I’ll never see again.  The thing is, I really need the tractor to be in good operating condition for field work, once the ground dries out.  It’s got to be ready.  Because of the late harvest and the limited time we had for fall tillage, much of the work was left for this spring. Without the ‘big’ tractor, I’m screwed.  I have 40 acres of corn ground that needs to be worked.  I guess the radiator repair bill, whatever it may be, will be cheaper than renting a tractor.

Last night, Carol started to make what she called ‘Farm House Cheddar‘ cheese. Made from some of the farm’s excess goat milk, Carol took a ‘use it or loose it‘ approach to recent cheese making. If we don’t make something out of the milk we will be throwing it out (or feeding it to the pig, poultry or cats). With aspirations of becoming real cheese makers, we thought it best to experiment with some simple cheddar cheese recipes with the milk we’ve been blessed with… Especially since we have some folks interested in our cheese… should we make a few batches.  Madison’s raw-milk science fair project helped get the work out.

Some fresh 'Farmhouse Cheddar' cheese

We left the cheese in the cheese mould, under 48lbs of weight (6 one gallon jugs filled with tap water).  It needs to be there for approx. 12 hrs.  After that, it will need to be exposed to the open air so that it develops a rine.  Then we will seal it (either in cheese wax or a vacuum sealed ‘seal-a-meal’ package).  It will then be aged.

I got lucky.  When I went to remove the radiator of the tractor (the next morning), there was still coolant in the system.  OK.  I then started the tractor to see if it would leak with system pressurized.  To my delight, it didn’t leak.  The next test was to hook-up the disk and see if the radiator will spring a leak with the engine at operating temp.  After 10-15 minutes of discing, everything was still dry – no leaks, no spills, no nothin.  I’m going to leave it for now… hopefully, it will remain ‘repaired’ for spring tillage.

Related posts:

1. Making things from our raw milk