Cheese please!

I've spent the last year learning to bake. I'm inclined to spend the next year learning to make cheese. I started off with the easiest recipe possible - take one batch of home-made (cheat's Easiyo) yoghurt, a damp muslin cloth, a sieve and a bowl then let the yoghurt sit for 8 hours. At the end of that time, the whey will have dripped down through the damp muslin into the bowl beneath and a soft cheese will be left behind in the sieve.

I made the first batch of yoghurt cheese into balls and rolled them in dukkah and seeds. The second batch formed an almost perfect circle in the sieve so I just flopped it onto a plate and scattered the same mix over the top. I want to try a coating of chopped fresh herbs next time.

The resulting cheese was smooth and tangy and reminded me of the bucketful of goat's cheese that our hosts at the estancia in Argentina made each day. Our stay on the estancia near Cordoba was one of the experiences which led to us moving to New Zealand and finding a lifestyle block so I feel like we've come full circle now. Or at least we will have done when we finally acquire a herd of goats!

And it's all downhill from here...

And once we'd worked out how to go uphill, we had to master downhill.



Again, low range, first gear, no brake, no clutch, tight left hand turn at the bottom. Down a narrow ravine in the middle of a sand dune in the forest. It was much more frightening than it looks here!

The trick is to put both feet flat on the floor and press hard to ensure that you're not tempted to hit the brake.

Uphill struggle

The next skill to learn was how to get uphill safely.

We were told that if you lose power part way up a slope, you should calmly roll back down the hill in reverse gear (no brake, no clutch) before taking a good run up with the gas flat on the floor.



It seemed to work - but listen out for the remarkable words at the end of this clip.

Home on the Low Range

We decided to work on another rural skill this weekend - four wheel driving. Just in case we ever need to tow the chicken coop to a different spot.

Our instructor gave us a radio and we set off in convoy into the forest.



The first skill that we learnt was "walking" the truck. We put it into low range 4WD mode, first gear, and with no brake and no clutch meandered our way around a muddy field.

Then it was time to negotiate some trees - trunks, branches, roots and stumps - as we moved at slow speed and precarious angles along a forest track.



I even managed to get two wheels off the ground at one time.