Cheese Please!

My friend strained the milk one more time at home into these huge pots. She put some rennet in each pot and let it set while we ate a Kurdish lunch of rice, soup, chicken, tomatoes and cukes. After it set for about 30 minutes they went outside and poured it into a big bag and all the extra water strained out and the clumps remained in the bag. They rinsed it out and let it set until afternoon.

Big Ram

This ram was picture perfect. The shepherd was doing a final glance over the sheep before going home for lunch. Of course his shepherd's staff is in hand. His father, the old wise man or "white bearded" man as they call him was a shepherd also. He's been in this business for a long time.

Clean Milk

You can imagine how dirty the milk can be. Mud and well you know what else. They filter it through a rag once in the sheep pen and again at home. Shepherd families drink it warmed up with a little sugar. Mostly people make yogurt or cheese from it.

Milk Man

The shepherd's son was milking goats when we first arrived. I gave him a hard time, because that is ladies work here. He proclaimed that he was "smart" or a good at milking. They milk so long every day that they end up with callouses on the knuckles of their thumbs. Notice the reed type wood at the top of the pic. There is another pic on the blog where Megan is cleaning off the branches from these plants. They use them for the roofs.

Hireling's girl

The little hireling's girls was cute as a button.

One Gate

The sheperd's oldest son and yes that's Tim are blocking the one doorway while three different ladies are milking inside. In the springtime it takes close to three hours to milk all the goats.

Hired hands

Our friends have 400+ goats and 100+ sheep, so they hire a family from the South to come and help them out during the spring. Our K friends still are involved everyday in the milking and shepherding process, but the Arab family lives in the tents in the background. One day we were visiting them at the sheep pen just after the Arab family had arrived. Haybet, my K friend is in the bottom corner milking as the Arab girl shoos them out.

Silent sheep

The sheep were amazingly relaxed in the shepherd's hands. He had already sheered these guys and were just cleaning a few extra clumps off. His son is standing by with a can of antiseptic type spray if the sheep gets cut.

Sheering Time

Our shepherd friends were sheering their sheep. Here he has rolled one section up in a bundle and is tying it. Unlike other areas is K-land, the ladies here do not make rugs. They only clean the wool and use it to stuff pillows or make big stuffed blankets for winter.

Stringy stuff

They call this "reevas" and it grows in the mountains where snow falls here. Some friends served this to us a few nights ago along with fruit. You strip the outside off and eat it with salt also. Again, not that great to us, but they love it.

Almonds

In America kids eat sweethearts, but here kids go crazy for green almonds. Yes these are green almonds. They are fuzzy on the outside and the nut is deep inside with a little bit of sour stuff in between. I've tried them, even with salt like they eat them. I think you have to grow up eating them. Almond trees are gorgeous in the spring all bloomed out.

Tea party

The girls got some new summer dresses just before Easter. Megan sat up a private tea party in our little garden area for her sister, stuffed animal friends and me. The little cups that she uses for tea are usually used for really strong Arabic coffee here.

Pretty in Pink

Girls will wear their Kurdish dresses out especially for picnics.

American Football

At a recent picnic we took our football. "Football" to Kurds is soccer. That's all they know. They had fun tossing in back and forth.