Sweet dreams are made of cheese.

 

Cheddar cheese….the staple of all cheese life.  Sure, mozzarella is nice, but nothing beats the tangy bite, smooth paste and lusciousness of a well aged cheddar.

This baby was 8 months old when we cracked the shell.  What a pure delight Open-mouthed smile

There are 14 friends in the Grotto, refining their character.

Willamette Cascade Model Railroad Club Show & Sale

WCMRR-Show

We visited the WCMRR Club Show & Sale on April 19, 2015. The event was mostly a sale, but there were some nice model train displays. In order of scale, smallest to largest:

N scale – very nice, small layout.

N-scale-sm

HO scale – the WCMRR Club modular layout.

HO-scale-1-sm HO-scale-2-sm

O27 (Lionel) scale – classic three rail Lionel layout.

O27-scale-1-sm O27-scale-2-sm

7 1/2” gauge – engine in the process of being rebuilt. This is ride-on size.

7.5-inch-sm

I also got a classic book, Narrow Gauge in the Rockies, with some great history of the old west. (I have a first edition.) http://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Gauge-Rockies-Lucius-Beebe/dp/0911581286

Link to the club web site: http://wcmrc.tripod.com/

THEM!

them-poster-2

Last fall we found that carpenter ants had invaded a Bachmann box in our storage building. We put out baits that should have killed them, but this spring the ants were still vigorously there. So we moved the box to our patio, to eliminate the “hill” and rescue the model trains. Here is the box, with ants on the outside, and after slicing the shipping box open:

Them-1 Them-2Them-3

After stripping away the boxes, the ants’ “hill” was revealed. Inside the foam enclosing the Bachmann train set.

Them-7Them-8

We used a vacuum to reduce the number of ants.

Them-10

The foam was so thin after ant-excavation that the vacuum tore it apart.

Them-11Them-12

Then, the remaining box went into a trash bag, and several days later to the dump.

Capra Carbone

 

Capra Carbone (9)Capra Carbone (6)Capra Carbone (8)Capra Carbone (11)

This little  soft goat cheese is a lactic type goat’s milk cheese with a covering of salt and fine powdered charcoal and salt.

The history of ash in cheese making goes back hundreds of years to its use as a method to protect the surface of young cheese. As years passed, they later discovered that it also greatly improved the surface molds and how they grew on fresh cheeses for ripening. In earlier times, this was ash from the burning of grape vine clippings in the Loire Valley of France which was even then noted for their wealth of fresh goat cheese. 

We refer to the cheese as Ashen Goat, or Capra Carbone.  I’m still looking for a good name.