And so on to beer making. This time playing fast and loose with instructions from here.

The cheeses have been pressed (2 of them) and now have to be unwrapped, wiped with salt water, re-wrapped and turned every day.

Sort of following the instructions from here we have:

Setting

Scalding

Running the whey

Some of the curds are going to be eaten as Cottage Cheese

Pressing, in a proper cheese mould, the holes just don’t show very well in this photo. There are 48 hours of pressing ahead and then drying and maturing, which may or may not work. Even if it doesn’t it’s certainly been interesting and another thing to tick off the list.

The order arrived yesterday from Smallholder Supplies so we fitted picking up 12 pints of skimmed milk in between home ed group and music lesson. Rather than buying a proper starter I hung a slice of cheddar in the pan of milk for a couple of hours last night. I figure that a nice mature slice of cheese must have plenty of the right bacteria in it, and if it doesn’t well we end up with tasteless cheese, live and learn, it is an experiment after all.

Today we slowly warmed the milk to 30°C and Audrey added the vegetarian rennet. Now we wait …

In response to my last letter I got the following short note today.

Thank you for your letter of 5th November 2009 received 9th November 2009.

I will inform the Education Welfare Service of your decidion.

In the meantime, if you feel I can help in any way, my contact details are
above.

Am I meant to be intimidated? Or is he just off-loading me onto someone else because I’m obviously far too much like hard work? The possibility of simply adhering to the law clearly hasn’t occurred to him.

OFSTED are asking a small subset of home educated children the following questions, allegedly to help them look at “the services provided by Local Authorities to support children educated at home”.

Section 3 - now you are educated at home:

Are you taught by your parents or carers? Yes/No
By a teacher that comes to the house: Yes/No
Do you go to someone else’s home to be educated? Yes/No
Do you attend a school for part of the week? Yes/No
If yes, is this a private school? Yes/No
Do you have a teacher to have you with learning difficulties? Yes/No
Do you have set working times? Yes/No
On average, how many hours do you study 1………6
What would a typical day look like?
What are the favourite things you do?
Are there any things you don’t like doing?
Do you go on trips to places of interest? Yes/No
Where have you been?
Do you read every day? Yes/No
How long do you read for? 1/2 hour…………………4
Is there a set time each day when your studies end? Yes/No

Do you go to any of the following?
Leisure Centre
Youth Club
Martial Arts
Ballet
Library
Swimming pool
Football/Rugby/Cricket training
Dance
Tap dance
Other

What sort of things do you study
Maths
Reading
Science
Cooking
Art
English
Writing
Electronics
Crafts
Pottery

How do you know if your work is improving?

Section 4
When you are 16 years old will you
Take GCSE exams
Go to work
Attend the local college
Continue to study at home

Now, can anybody tell me how ANY of these questions will tell OFSTED about what the LA is doing?

Some of the questions are really a bit odd and make it look like the whole thing was thrown together without thought, like mixing places and activities together, but then peppered in among this apparent randomness there are a few that ring alarm bells. “On average, how many hours do you study?” (per day?) “Do you read every day?” “How long do you read for?” “What sort of things do you study?” A list which doesn’t include history, geography or modern languages but does include pottery, back to a veneer of well meaning ineptitude again?

It’s getting hard not to seem, or maybe even be extremely paranoid after all we’ve been put through, but these questions look very much like another bit of Badman after the fact ‘research’ which will turn up in a newspaper headline at just the ‘right’ moment, when the DCSF are trying to push through their plans.

I smell a rat. A fat rat in a bad suit.

Sticking with the historic farming theme but taking a break from the kitchen today we payed a quick visit to Butser Ancient Farm

In order we have, a shed (hiding a very un-iron age wheel barrow), a small, adorable and sadly very lonely little cockerel (his hens having fallen victim to a fox), a privy (and I have to say that the lack of daub on the walls made it look very draughty and unappealing), a Wild Bore/Tamworth cross called Spot and a mosaic in progress in the Roman villa.

And I still smell of smoke from the fire in the Great Roundhouse.

The classic American tollhouse cookie recipe.

See how efficient our home education is? A second box ticked already!

“Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.”

Winston Churchill

On March 31, 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had informed the House of Commons that Britain would support Poland against any action threatening its independence. This marked the end of submission to Germany. Churchill thought the decision should have been made sooner when it would have been easier to stop Germany.