I was today reading a few of my favorite blogs and I realized that my blog seems downright dull, compared to many blogs. I'm not a professional writer and our life isn't full of excitement, that is just the simple truth. What you may or may not realize is that we have to deal with excesses as well as shortages on our little homestead. For example; we let our layer hens have a natural winter( we don't run lights as the days shorten to continue their laying), so... we drop from 20-28 eggs a day down to 2-3 eggs a day in a rather quick fashion. In anticipation of this shortfall we begin reminding egg customers that sales will probably stop for a period of a few months( all know and accept this fact) as well as we begin hoarding eggs for our holiday baking. Today, Cortney and I were pondering what to do with all of our eggs, we have 18 dozen in the frig. downstairs, laying is beginning to pick up again with longer daylight and warmer weather.We first call customers to let them know we again have eggs, for a short time period, on a "First Come First Serve" basis. We also now pull out our recipes books and began looking for recipes that use lots of eggs. Eggs( fried, over easy, scrambles,hard boiled, etc...) for breakfast everyday gets old quick. We came up with several, and will work them into our menu planning for this week. I wish I could get Angel Food cake to turn out, but I've had to many failures to even think of trying again( pantry items are to expensive to feed to the chickens or pigs) I'll admit, there are days when we feel a bit overwhelmed with make the best of what the good Lord provides( not trying to sound ungrateful in the slightest). Now that we are a dry family( no fresh cow, no milk), we think back to times when we were milking our Jersey cow. We had to be creative in using milk, because we had 2 to 2/12 gallons everyday( that was only milking in the morning and the calf got the rest all day.) When our son, Jon, was home we could count on a gallon of milk being used everyday just between he and Mike for drinking. This left 1 to 1-1/2 gallons to find other uses for. Cortney and I made yogurt every week, often times 2 gallons of milk, because we gifted my folks with yogurt too, well... until they got overwhelmed anyway. We also made cottage or farmer's cheese weekly and often froze it for late use. Often when milk would begin to build up in the frig downstairs we'd gladly share with the pigs, chickens and turkeys and none turned their nose/ beaks up at the offer either. Some quick and easy ways to use excess milk are puddings, white sauce( such is used in sausage gravy), scalloped potatoes, fruit smoothies, milkshakes, etc..... Now we still had by-products of milk to deal with as well, whey from yogurt and cheese as well as buttermilk from making butter. Weekly we'd churn 5-6 gallons of cream into butter, netting us 3-1/2 to 4 lbs butter a week and 4- 5 gallons buttermilk. Often times we'd freeze buttermilk for later use. We'd also add vinegar and make a ricotta cheese and then feed the left over whey to the animals or pour into the compost pile. Whey from cheese and yogurt is used in baking, casseroles, sauces, even in pickling of produce. Whey is loaded with wonderful nutrients, to many to waste in our opinion. In our homesteading life it is a situation of feast of famine, as well as learning preserve the excesses and to eat seasonally as our ancestors once did. That is another topic I'll touch on at some point. May your day be full of blessing as well as productivity.