Thursday 21 January 2016

Smelly? Crikey yes! Hacked? ********!!!! = Yes!

So...  the 'smelly' bit first.
 
When I open the door to the cheese fridge I am met with a variety of smells,
none of them are 'oh let's have a jolly good whiff' though,
but most are bearable.
However......creeping in amongst the smell of aging wheels of cheese has been a horrid waft,
as if something is rotting, not well, unhappy.
 

 
Second shelf up from the bottom of the fridge,
the wheel of cheese on the right,
that is the stinker.
I am not exaggerating, horrid, that is the smell.
 
Worried in case the deceasing cheese was going to spoil the other cheeses,
Lester removed said cheese..
'You can't win em all' he said,
as with a flourish he cut the wheel in half to have a look.
 
 
 
...a Caerphilly type of cheese,
only two weeks old.
A taste then.
?
Oh crikey but it was gorgeous,
mild, sweet, slightly crumbly, very more-ish.
 
But why only two pieces on the plate?
Have we eaten the rest?
Nooooooo.
They are tucked away in the cheese fridge, all wrapped up, stored for future use.
 
 
My new bit of kit for the kitchen....a vacuum sealer.
 

....and the rest of the Caerphilly, all bagged up.
The cheese will not keep aging now it is sealed in the bags,
but it at least it will stay as it is, I hope.
As for the other pieces, they went into the other fridge, got forgotten about, were found a week later, and wow but that cheese had romped ahead with its maturing.
Cheese making? Takes ages but worth the effort.
 
So..........'Hacked'?
I do other things which I do not speak about on this blog, preferring to keep Snippets as a smallholder type of blog,
but this other work had a website, Aspects of Self.
It was huge, several hundred pages in content,
all written, designed, and built, by myself.
Anyway, the website got hacked in to,
and our host server said that they had to kill it off because it was now unsafe,
and oh what a blow that was,
and then I thought that perhaps the Universe was having a hand in this,
that for ages I had been having thoughts that perhaps the website was outdated,
that through all the ups and downs of the last eight years,
of learning to live at a basic level in caravans and a ruined house,
of having to be patient as we got a home back together again,
of learning to be smallholder and feed ourselves,
of learning to be more grounded and appreciate the simple things in life,
that I have moved past the person who built that site,
that the Universe knew this and just helped move me on.
Everything is for a reason,
there is a purpose behind everything that happens to us,
so I say goodbye to Aspects of Self,
and wait to see in what direction my other work is now to go in.
 
 
 
 .... and our river, the Adour, now getting full, but not full enough to come on to our land yet.
....and the Pyrenees in the distance.
(click on the photo to get a fuller view of those mountains)
 
Need to go do things,
lovely day here,
so things will dry out enough for the pigs to be let out to carry on with their 'Let's get the weeds dug up in the veg plot' project.
The sheep....we are still waiting the arrival of the first lambs. Since the culling of the flock last November and December the remaining sheep have been a bit 'off' with us, so hopefully they will cheer up soon once the lambs arrive.
And Boolie? He is still in good spirits, and in fact seems to have more energy lately than what he has had for a long time. The tumour on his ear continues to grow.
The chickens....they are still roosting up on the fig tree. They have got soaked, covered with frost, blown all over the place when the winds were blowing fiercely, but they are all still here.
The cows....... both have had artificial insemination again. Both are content, happy to stay indoors to eat and sleep the winter away. Lester put them out in the field the other day so they could stretch their legs. They were not impressed, and complained loudly all the day long about how cold, wet, and muddy it was, and 'When the hell are you going to bring us back indoors'....
 
 
Meanwhile, the day ahead is beckoning me,
so bye for now,
Vx

12 comments:

Dawn said...

I find your cheese making amazing there is another blog I follow of an ex pat in Bulgaria and she s into cheese making as well :-)

Vera said...

DAWN, would be nice to have the link to this blog as I could do with reading about someone else making cheese, and perhaps pick up a few helpful hints! Is she on your side bar? Thanks

Ohiofarmgirl said...

i would be interested in that link as well, Dawn!
Vera, i'm so sorry about the hacking. and yes sometimes things take a turn. but you are a 'make the best of it' kind of person so i know that you will move right on to the next thing. and yay for all the cheese making! and don't you just LOVE the "food sucker" as we call it... we just got a vacuum sealer as well. it's my favorite new thing. i need to do a post on it but we have been overwhelmed with so much work lately we can barely keep up.
give Booley a smooch from me.
:-)

Dawn said...

http://debrazzaman.blogspot.co.uk/
New Start New Life in Bulgaria yes she is on my side bar

Cro Magnon said...

The cows would probably be happy outdoors today... Lovely here. I once bought a cheese at market (it might have been a Munster), and it really STANK. When we ate it, it was mild and delicious.

Sol said...

Sorry you lost your other blog Vera, that must have been a blow. Much loving reading here though!

Vera said...

OHIOFARMGIRL, does your food saver 'do' jars as well? Mine is in the low end range so only does bags. Looking forward to seeing what you vacuum seal! I will give Bools a 'smooch' from you OFG. Today his ear looks very purple. Good job with getting your hogs into the freezer. It is a huge lot of work, but worthwhile, especially when the meat starts coming on to the plate!

DAWN, thanks for the link....it is very interesting reading about how other people manage their smallholdings, which gives me the courage to keep on going when I am feeling tired and overworked....and in Bulgaria too. Crikey I thought that France was hard enough, what with the problem of language and cultural differences!

CRO MAGNON, the cows would have liked the sunshine but would have still been upset because there is no grazing on the fields! I would have liked to have been outside too, but had too much to do indoors. As for cheese, it would seem that the more odour a cheese has the better it is!

SOL, thanks Sol, it was a blow, but I have got over it. Glad you enjoy reading the blog though, which encourages me to keep writing!

Rhodesia said...

Oh wow I love smelly cheese, bet it tastes delicious. Sorry about your website, but yes I also believe these things happen for a reason. Did you not have it all backed up though so you can start a new one with a new look.
I must order some paraflex sheets, I am going to need them! Dehydrated my first batch of chillies last night, they look great and have all kept their colour. I am suitably impressed.
Take care Diane x

Vera said...

DIANE, the website is backed up but will need a compete rewrite because it is through the design coding that the hackers find a doorway in. But in my heart I know that I need to change direction, and there are other pointers in regards to the website that are supporting this, which have been happening over the last few months.
I ordered the paraflex sheets from Amazon, but the cheaper ones, which took a long time to arrive but they look alright. I haven't used them yet, but like knowing that I have them for when I need them. Wow! Your first dehydrating session! You will be hooked now! I am still using dehydrated vegetables from 2013, and they are still OK, some have softened but none have shown mould, so I am using them up in soups. You will have no waste at harvest time now....all your excess crop can be dehydrated!

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

Your cheese story scared me! ;-) sorry to hear you were hacked.

Vera said...

LISA, that cheese scared me too....thought I was introducing some horrid killer bug into the fridge! I am alright about being hacked now. Means I can move on. Think that the old site was holding me back!

Kerry said...

Looking at your cheeses, I wanted to put my hand into the screen and grab a piece, they looked so delicious. And why is it always the really smelly ones that taste the best? x