Aspiring to Simplicity

Upper Body Workout? For sure. Today I "churned" butter. I acquired some delicious organic cream last week and I've been churning it ever since. I've been using a large (costco size) plastic mayonnaise jar and 2 small steelies (like in the magnetix set). I put them in the freezer for a few minutes, then fill it 1/3 or so with cream. Then I shake it. And shake it. And shake it more. And roll it down the stairs. And shake it. Eventually I noticed it made butter! Well, not exactly that simple. I noticed it was ... different! Grainy instead of smooth, and tinged with yellow. After that I put it in a bowl and start pressing out the buttermilk; eventually rinsing it with cool water, adding salt, and putting it in a plastic-wrap-lined mini-bread-loaf-pan. This goes into the freezer. Today I thought I'd try to do a larger quantity with less bicep-pain. Which was an interesting endeavor, at first. I set up my mayonnaise jar as usual, but this time I wrapped a cushy baby quilt around the jar and tied it with some jute. THEN I put it in the dryer on air-fluff. Hehe! Aside from the loud thumping, it might've worked. Just not very quickly. So I abandoned that and shoved the blanket-clad jar between the footrails on the spring-hung rocking horse. I tied a rope to it's 'reins' and that had potential too. I took a break to pour some cream in the KitchenAid. Eventually I abandoned the rocking horse, dryer, and all jar-shaking. The Kitchenaid did a fair job of churning it, but working and rinsing that butter is a lot of work in itself. I've done about a gallon and a half of cream, and have ended up with 5 or 6 of these little loaf-sized butters. SOooo yummy.

Also today, we got our chicks! Nothing like brooding chicks in October, I tell ya. Thankfully they didn't come yesterday in our snowstorm and 60mph winds. I thought maybe my chicken coop wouldn't survive after all, but it held! The post office called at about 10 min. to 7 this morning and I ran over and could hear the peeping in the entire PO lobby! 15 Barred Rocks, 15 Rhode Island Reds, and 1 "Rare Chick". I think that will be it's name. One of those free samples, you know. We have no idea if it's male or female, or what breed it might be. It's certainly cute, though. They seem like they're doing well. Eating and drinking, though it's hard to tell if all 31 are managing it. Just doing my egg-shopping extra early!