Funny but illnesses have their own unique smell. You heard me, illnesses smell. Ask a doctor and they will tell you when someone with strep throat says, "Aah", it has it's own sweet smell. Well, our sweet little Bug a boo has been a stink bug, literally. Even though she has had a bath each day, she still has a sickly sweet smell. Not like in strep throat but a different stink. It makes sense though for different bacterias would have their own smell. Doctors in the olden days, when there weren't all these fancy tests and drugs, used smell as one of the clues to the source of an illness.
Though it wasn't quite the olden days, way back when my step-brother was in his teen-age years, he had Rocky Mountain Fever, an illness derived from ticks. I was told he emitted a very strong odor unique to that illness. It was one of the clues the doctor used to deduce the illness. It's something that doctors are not taught how to do today. Most rely solely on tests. Unfortunately, I don't test well and I've had a few doctors ask me to I please take my very complicated body to someone else.
Though our youngest grand daughter doesn't stink as strongly as she did yesterday, a faint odor still lingers telling me she's still fighting the flu bug. She's been really good today despite having been so ill the last few days. I've been able to do some major cleaning of my kitchen cupboards and early this morning, I cleaned my refrigerator's freezer. Whoo, hoo, I love days like this.
With my new diet starting tomorrow and meals to fix for the rest of the family - that is different than mine, I've got to get organized or we'll all starve - not just me. I think with a little more cleaning, I'll be ready to start this challenging experience of loosing weight and resetting my hypothalamus. That is what the doc and I hope will happen anyway but he said with me, he is expecting a very sharp learning curve. I never quite react the same as other people. Call me unusual or odd if you want because it is definitely the truth.
While I was cleaning cupboards I separated milk. The milk in the refrigerator and some whole milk that I had frozen in the freezer. The frozen and then thawed milk separated nicely too. That's one question I had and was pleased with the answer - Does frozen milk still separate okay. I've also found that frozen heavy goat cream when thawed whips up nicely. I was wondering because every time you do something like freezing, heating, or canning, you change the composition just a little or a lot. With the milk I separated I'm canning it.
It's in preparation for when Chicory is dry. I'm only milking once a day now and with the temperatures suppose to drop to a high of 7 above 0 F., she will slow down in production even further. With her due to kid the beginning of April, I want her to have at least a couple months where I'm not milking her. With my old Saanens that I use to have, I dried them up for three months due to the fact they had so many kids and milked so heavily. This weekend the milkings may drop further to every third normal milking time. Then it will be every other day and then only when her udder appears extra full. I've never had mastitis on a goat with decreasing their production at such a gradual pace and I in turn get to have the milk for a bit longer. I especially like not having to milk during the really cold months of winter since we don't have a nice warm barn to get out of the weather in.
This year,I won't be freezing and canning lots of milk for the dry period. We've a beef to butcher and the freezer space will be needed for the meat. As for canning, I've too many other projects in the works and not as much milk from one- two year old nubian versus the abundant amount of milk from my two older Saanens that I use to have.
While the milk cans, on the counter sits some buttermilk culturing, --I hope--. This time I'm using some of my frozen buttermilk that I did in the ice cube trays for a culture. If all goes well, I'll use the culture I froze to continue making buttermilk even with store bought whole milk. Not nearly as nice but one must do what one must do and I'm not willing to give up my buttermilk unless I have to. I've found it enhances recipe big time.
So while the weather this weekend is frightful, I'm going to can some dried beans and bake. When is gets terribly cold outside, it is always a good time to fire up the stove and make a little heat. I'll be heating myself up before that hauling in wood and coal down the stairs to fill the bins for the free standing stove that provides most of our heat for our house. Besides some chili would really good about then. So ta ta for now as I'm off to make some noodles for the beef and noodle soup we're having for supper. My last supper on regular meals. I'm having a big bowl full.
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