Cream cheese, butter, and homemade cleaners

Well, I must tell you that I am turning more and more old-fashioned, or what some people may call green, by the minute. Right now, I am making cream cheese. Yes, cream cheese. I have actually been making cream cheese and whey for the last week; you basically just sit raw milk out until it sours and turns to curds and whey (You know, like from the nursery rhyme...little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey!) Last week, I made my own butter and I must tell you that it turned out wonderfully. You may be wondering, why in the world would she be doing that? Well, I have began reading this book.
I have been learning all about homogenization and pasteurization and all sorts of other unfortunate processes that our food goes through. So, about a month ago, I purchased our first raw milk (straight from the cow, non-homogenized and non-pasteurized) from a local dairy, complete with cream on top and everything. My husband said that the transition from Braum's 1% to raw whole milk was too great. So, we found another semi-local dairy that sells raw skim, 2%, or whole milk. You can buy the cream separately. We also bought sharp cheddar cheese made from raw milk. It tastes great. I have also been learning a whole lot of other things from this book, but I'll save those for later!

I have also been reading this book.. From this book, I have been learning how to make safer cleaning products. It is very interesting and actually very cost effective. I just had to buy some spray bottles, borax, washing soda (different than baking soda), some more vinegar, and a good environment-friendly liquid soap. So far, I have made an all-purpose cleaner, a glass cleaner, and a baking soda scrub. I have also washed one load of laundry with the recipe for laundry soap. I am actually excited about this all! Everything has worked very well!
I must tell you that Mike is getting a kick out of all of this. I heard him saying, "The next thing I know she is going to be making our underwear out of tree bark." Ha, ha, ha!! You never know!!!