Jobe, the key to patience on the long-aged cheeses is to alternate making shorter-aged cheeses with the long-aged makes. This way you can keep the "pipeline" full of cheese to enjoy, and can forget about that cheese aging away in the back of the "cave."
Here's an example schedule based on my experience / habits - when I can, I often make one 4-gallon cheese per weekend. (Lately, too often, it has been zero cheeses - too busy! - but once in a while I manage to get two cheeses made in a weekend.)
- Weekend 1: Caerphilly - it will be ready to start eating by weekend 4 (three weeks later) - or even a bit earlier.
- Weekend 2: Lancashire or a set of Camemberts on weekend 2; either of these take about 6 weeks to age. (I generally make Cams in a 2-gallon batch.)
- Weekend 3: Asiago, Emmental, maybe a Stilton or Gorgonzola - something that can be ready as soon as 3 months (though the first two in particular can be aged out much, much longer).
- Weekend 4: Begin enjoying the Caerphilly, and make a long aging cheese - cheddar, which needs a minimum 6 month aging time in my experience, or parma/romano, which need AT LEAST 12 months, or whatever else.
- Weekend 5: Still enjoying the Caerphilly, and only a couple of weeks away from opening the Lancashire or Camemberts - but it is time to get another cheese into the pipeline, so re-start the cycle at #2, making another Lancashire or set of Cams.
Once you get a cycle like this started, making a short-aging (6-week) cheese every 3 weeks or so, you can keep yourself satisfied with plenty of cheese indefinitely; some makes are aging away at the back of the cave, and some are coming in periodically along the way, and by Christmas you have quite an impressive collection of varieties to offer to your family.
Obviously I don't (and can't, and wouldn't want) to stay on a strict rotation - I try something new along the way, or maybe I get off-track for a while, going several weekends without making any cheese. I can always start back at #1 with a Caerphilly to re-start the pipeline, but at this point, I usually still have enough stock from the 3 and 6 and 12 month aging cheeses that I can start back at #2 instead.