A Long Stretch without a Word

Heather our #2 daughter due the end of October.

And a goat accident that ended with having her bag sewn up. (Story below)

Trip to the Zoo for David's birthday. His brother and parents came with us. The puppies are ready for new homes and are eating us out of farm and milk. (16 pounds of puppy food and 2 gallon of milk a day)

Got to deliver a baby for a friend. Both neighbor and goat are doing well.

Heather, her sister, is pinning Danyel at her Civil Air Patrol ceremony. Aug. 29.
Danyel is now ahead of Ali in rank!

My new front door screen is done. My dad built it for me and stained it to match the deck. It is really great to be able to open the front door and turn the fan on and no flys come in - or puppies.

Since I'v not wrote in such a long while, I thought photo's would be the best way to sum up the last three weeks. We have been very busy and I have been very tired. All our farmers markets are going well. We finished Stilecoom which was only a 9 week market (thier first year), it went very well. I went to the last market with David so that the folks there could meet the cheese maker in person. It was a great market, both financially and community.

The girls got to go flying again in the power plane. We have just bought the first airline ticket for Ali to go to Texas in December. She'll be gone from the 16 to Jan 13. Talk about excited these two girls cant wait. Danyel will go the middle of Jan. to the middle of Feb. They both picked the best time when we are not milking or kidding to go.

We got news that we are going to be grandparents again. Heather is due the end of October and Tami our daughter in Texas is due in March. So I will be heading to Texas the first of March for a week. This is right when we start kidding at the farm. Danyel will then have to earn thier keep while I am gone.

One of the sort of suttle notes I have mentioned was the financial part of our dairy. What I didn't say was we were a thread away from loosing the dairy. But the bank has decided to give us another chance. I am so thankful to MY GOD for blessing us with this dairy and our way of life. We have worked so hard these last six years (in Dec.) to loose it all. We are now looking at servicing about 12 resturants, we are currently working 9 farmers markets. So we are here for another year at least.

My parents went on vacation for a week and I had to go back and start labeling cheese again. WoW! Its true you don't know what you have till its gone (even if its for only a week). We have talked to a young girl that loves animals and has helped us out before - to see if she would like to come to the dairy this spring and help with the kidding and maybe lable some cheese for me.

I was suppose to go to Africa in October, but that has been post poned until Jan. or Feb. as the cheese processing plant hasn't been finished yet and will take longer than they expected. So that is a good postponement though... . gives me more time to make cheese and get it stored away for winter.

We went to a friends 70th wedding anniversary. That was alot of fun. Got to see people I hadn't seen a long time.

The goat - So here is the story. We went out to milk in the morning and everything was great. But the evening milking was interesting. Danyel came to the processing plant to tell me a goat had a hole in her bag. I am thinking she got poked with a stick kind of hole. When I got there - there was milk and blood comng out of the same space. It looked like someone had cut her teat almost off and straight across. I was on the phone to the vet and had the doe loaded into the truck in about 15 min. Our vet sewed up inside her bag and the outside. The picture is at the vets right after he got done sewing her up. The goat is doing great, she has mastitis on the hurt side - but the vet said that would happen. We are still milking both sides. She had her stitches taken out on Friday and is out in the pasture with the other goats.

The puppies have gotten their shots, wormed and are growing leaps and bounds. We let them run around the farm twice a day and then get them back into thier pens with goat milk.

We will start breeding does in Sept. and that should start kidding in Feb. this year. And the cycle starts again. We will dry up the does the middle to end of November. That will give every one thier vacation.

We started homeschooling three weeks ago so that the girls won't have to do schoolwork in Texas. They will each take two classes at the High School this year. Danyel is taking woodshop and keyboarding, Ali is taking Biology and Drawing. It will work out great as its the last two classes of the day so they can ride the bus home. We will get Danyel's permit for driving so she can get her license when she is 18 in May.

Well I hope this makes everyone happy, cause I know you'v been wondering whats going on with Blue Rose Dairy.

Stressing Week

Our front door complete!~ The goats and puppies meeting!

How time flys when your having fun. Its been two weeks since I last wrote you. Well I can assure you I wasn't sitting around tanning on the deck (not that I didn't think about it). We have been busy beavers here. Those 8 markets a week sure keep me hoping and I am not gaining on my cheese supply. It seems as fast I make it, its selling. I haven't been faithful with my three batches a week, which might explain some of my wow's. Its a good delema to have but means more work for me. Such is life. I am going to go backward this time.

Yesterday it was HOT! David put a sprinkler on top of our huge barn to keep the roof cooled down, we have a swamp cooler (David made it) in the barn too. We have a sprinkler keeping the ground wet in the bucks pen. And the girls have been going out three times a day to fill water buckets. So far the goats are fairing pretty good. Had one come down with diahreah but she seems to be doing good now. We gave a tour to our neighbors family yesterday. I am not sure but I think the puppies trump the goats. They sampled cheese and loved it. Gave our business cards out so they could find us at some of the markets.

Sat. the market was good, David went and introduced himself to some more resturants in the Pikes Place Vacinity. Hopefully we'll hear back from some. And I held my 2nd cheese class for the year - one more to go. Everyone seemed to have learned the lesson and was ready to go home and make thier first batch of cheese. I haven't heard back from any yet. I had 25 people come for the class. One couple who own a tavern/resturant came and spent the night in thier camper at the farm. They were awsome people. David and I enjoyed their company so much. We stayed up till 12:30pm visiting. The funny story about Nancy and Chris happened early in the morning, about 4:30am. Nancy heard the rooster crow and thought I was yelling "Nancy and Chris", She shot up out of bed checking the windows in the camper seeing if she could see anything. She woke Chris up and he told her it was a rooster and she tried to convince him it was me yelling for them. She thought I had cut off my arm or something and needed thier help. She finally layed back down. Chris said he didn't go back to sleep and when we went out to milk goats at 5am he came out to help and take pictures. So by the end of the day they were both pretty tired. What a great couple. Hope we get to visit with them more.

All day Friday I was getting things ready for the cheese class. Made my soup and in the afternoon I took all the stuff down to the grange hall and set it up. We or I should say the girls shampooed my rugs. We had a farm tour, a young couple from Idaho, Boise. They sampled our cheese and asked a bunch of questions. They want to do a small scale dairy someday. Danyel and Ali went over to the neighbors for a birthday/swim/sleep over. They came home in time to milk the goats and we traded children. Ali went to thier house for the night and Katie came here to help at the farm. Our guest arrived about 8:30pm from Tacoma. David got home about 9pm - took him 4 hours to drive home from Seattle. Our guests brought Pizza for dinner from thier resturant....Yum Yum!

Thur. Our Markets were really good. I brought home a couple new plants - one is a red seedless grape. I am so excited. David brought home veg.'s. Yum! We were tired so things went well and bed came soon.

Wed. David started the Tumwater market and Danyel and I finished it. David and Ali headed for Stilecoom for the 3-7pm market. This was the first time since it started that Ali got to hear the concert. Each time she has gone the threat of rain loomed and they moved it in doors.

Tue. I had a 4-H meeting so we could plan our fair decorations. It went well and I was back on track getting ready for the cheese class. Mom and Dad came over and helped lable and weigh cheese. Dad is building screen doors for the house and he sure enjoys it. It will look so nice when its done. He is about ready for the screens. We'll paint it before he does that though.

Monday - David and I went to Intel @ DuPont to demo our cheese to the employees there. It was a nice afternoon. And hopefully we'll be getting some cheese orders from them too. I got up at 5am and made cheese before we left. We also had a new refrigeration unit delivered. We bought it from Black Sheep Creamery. Its big and will sure help with storage of my cheese. It actually all came together too.

Sunday -We all went to church. David and I ran to Cash and Carry and got some supplies. We ran to the fabric store and I bought some muslin to try on my cheese. (It worked great too!) I made 2 gallons of yogurt and Mom and dad cmea at about 3:30 to help lable and weigh cheese for me.

Sat. My daughter came to pick up Kiara, my granddaughter. I was so tired from doing market and the heat. I don't think I was in a very good mood when I got home. I found my house a total mess. After I had paid the girls to clean it on Thur. It all ended alright with saying I am sorry, but what a stress out! Oh yes, a main water line broke in the basement and flooded the carpet again. This happened when we were at market and the girls were home. They couldn't tell where the water was coming from. When David got home at 4pm he called a plumber and they fixed it for a couple hundred dollars. We had the fans and such down there trying to dry out the carpet. The girls helped David move all the funiture and and stuff into the library. Now my basement is a total mess.

Friday. I was getting cheese ready for Sat. markets. Had alot of packaging and lableing and weighing to do. Mom and Dad were here to help.

So I think that gets us up to this week now.

Have a great week. Stay Cool! but enjoy the Sunshine.

The new Chevre Flavor

This is the before of the front door and the other photo is what it looks like now!

Hello: As usual its been crazy around here. We sold about 400 pieces of cheese last week not counting the yogurts or restaurant orders. We are packaging and weighing alot of cheese.
Our new cheese is, "Summer Breeze" Its a chevre with fresh zest of a lemon and then the juice from the lemon and some fireweed honey. Its been the big seller this last week.

This is a picture of two of our puppies eating breakfast. The other picture is the garden in front of my milk parlor this year.

Last week we had a grange meeting at the Porters Patch, we watched a 4-H club do some horse demonstrations and at great food. Wed. we did our two markets, Tumwater and Stielacoom - the weather was pretty iffy all day. But the markets did pretty good. Thur I did the Olympia market and I did pretty good. David did the Broadway market in Tacoma. When he got home he had to turn around and head for Olympia for a schoolboard meeting. David had such a headache it was a good thing he was a passenger not the driver. He has been having this headache for a few days and that makes it hard for him to sleep. I made cheese on Wed. Friday and on Sunday. David didn't do the Pikes Place Market this week cause his head was hurting to bad. So he stayed home and supervised the finishing of the painting of our house and deck. Sherwin came on Friday and helped package and make some Grande' Rosa and Pepper. Mom and Dad were here labeling the cheese and weighing for me. We were done with all the extras by about 6pm and then we did chores and ate dinner. We then packed up our car and truck for market.

Sat. I was in Puyallup and David was in Longview. When we got home about 4pm the girls had already started miking the goats. We were done unloading and getting things ready to go to Rainier Daze in Rainier, Oregon for the Fireworks at 9pm. We met our daughter and her husband and their three kids and my son and his girlfriend and her two kids and saw a bunch of our old friends. It was a great fireworks and the company was great. We got home about 12pm with our granddaughter. We had to be in Tacoma for Art on the Ave. event at 9am.

Sunday I got up at 5am to get the parlor cleaned and start loading and cutting samples for the event we were going to today. It ran from 11-5pm. We did alright but the music was really loud and that made David's headache even worse. So he went to the truck and slept and I worked the event. We packed up at 5pm and headed for home. David and I stopped on the way home to eat some Mexican food and relax. When we got home David went to lay down and I unloaded the truck and counted inventory. The girls had to give a tour on Sunday while I was gone and from their report it went well. So all in all the week was a success.

Monday we just kind of hung out. I went and got our weeks worth of grain. David ran and got dog food. David had a DR. apt in Longview for his headache's and Ali had Waldo castrated today so she can take him to the fair this year and her cart. The girls milked early so they could go to the movies at 8pm - Ice Age. Picked them up at 10pm. They went to bed and so did I.

Today I have to hang chevre and package and weigh an label cheese. My parent who usually help me are visiting some friends and won't be here to help till Friday this week.

I hope I haven't tired many of you with my week. I actually feel pretty good. David is on his way to 6th Ave market in Tacoma and I am working in the cheese room.

Have a great Week and relax when you can and work hard when you need too.

A Weather Change

Good Morning;

Well its been about one week since I wrote to you all. So lets do the usual catch up.

We gained a new Restaurant - Il Fiasco in Tacoma is now using our cheese. We are scheduled to do a Sustainable Farming talk at Intel at DuPont, Wash. next week. Our markets are busy. The newest Market we picked up is Stilecoom and its a really fun market to do. We sold 350 pieces of cheese last week. WOW! My parents come over on Tue and Friday to help label cheese and weigh it for me. Other wise I'd be up all night. My yogurt is selling like hotcakes too. I made 7 gallons of it this last week and only had two people didn't pick up their orders.

Danyel was in the Egg Day Parade on the Hope Grange Float. The girls had fun attending the parade in Winlock and checking out all the fun things going on.

Our puppies are growing like weeds. They are so rolly polly. They are eating about 1/2 gallon of goat milk and baby cereal mixed with it twice a day. What they don't eat Cloe does. Our milking is going well. The goats are getting wormed today. I use a pour on wormer and I watch for shaggy goats and then worm - it comes out to maybe two or three times a year. Ali has been working with her cart...... as you see in the picture. She has hooked her goat up a few times this week.

The 4th of July is a very stressful event around the dairy. David and I walk to all our neighbors and explain why shooting off fireworks is harmful to our dairy and the big rockets that boom. Our goats as usual ran from one side of the barn to the other trying to escape the booms and the flashes of light. One family around us did the fireworks thing and they had ammunition from the reservation. David stayed up until 3am to try and keep a handle on the upset goats. Needless to say they were very tired the next morning and production was down. Most of our neighbors understand and comply. But you always have to have a few that are compost.

I made three batches of cheese this week - in two days. I don't know where times goes but I have looked for it under the bed and in the dryer and cant seem to locate the hours I'v lost this week. I have to say the weather was so great this week. But the rains or at least showers are coming back for a quick reminder - and that's alright too. I work inside when the weather is bad. I am starting my veg. and meat diet again after taking a week off. I just need to cleanse my body of toxins - so maybe I can gain a little energy and feel ready to run away with the wind. Ha! Ha!. My granddaughter is coming to spend a week here at the farm next week. She is a sweety. My daughters really enjoy her too.

This week is always playing catch up. We may be going down to Tacoma for the ART ON THE AVE on Sunday.... but we are trying to move scheduals around. Ali may be getting baptized on Sunday and we won't miss that. Also the girls have thier goat class this Sunday on Breeding.

You have a great week and I'll be chatting with you all next week.

A New Cart for Ali

A trip to the zoo for Father's Day

A bunch of Fluff!

This is the Good Life!

Ali and Waldo and her New Pink Cart!

Good Morning:

Well Blue Rose Dairy has been busy this week. We are doing 8 markets a week. We picked up our 10th market on Wed. at Steilacoom. We sold 350 pieces of cheese this week which is up from last week by 20 pieces. We are supplying cheese to 94th Stewart Restaurant in Seattle, Country Folks Deli & Bistro in Longview. And will have about two more restaurants ordering this next week.

I made Chevre this week as well as Black Jewels, N.W. Comfort, Grande' Rosa and Pepper Rosa. As well as 9 gallons of yogurt. We are naming our yogurt "Goat- Gurt". My parents came over on Tue. and Friday and helped label and weigh cheese. This is a family affair for sure.

Our house looks so nice. My brother will come after the 4th of July and finish the trim and deck. One of our refrigerators went out this last week. I am down to three refrigerators and its hard to keep everything cool. We are going to go next week and buy another refrigerator. (One of those is in my house). Today we got me a industrial style Kitchen Aid mixer. David will take my other one and have it refurbished so I can move it into the house. The bigger one will work great in the processing plant.

We had a new great niece born this last week too. Cassandra had her baby. Congrad's to You.

It seems we keep running around here. I don't think I get much time to rest. We are still homeschooling too.

Danyel took her dog, Maggie and had her spayed on Monday. So she has been on bed rest for this week - the dog.

I should make note the girls are paying for these things themselves. I still can't believe Ali saved $500 for that cart.

Fathers Day was spent at the Zoo in Portland. Heather and Jamie and our grandson CJ met us there. I had made a picnic lunch to eat at the Zoo. We had chicken, salads, rolls, cookies. It was a great day to visit the zoo.

Well enough. I have to get dinner done so we can go see Star War's at 9:45pm tonight.

Have a great evening and think of me at 5am cleaning the parlor and getting ready for a busy day tomorrow.

New Look to Blue Rose Dairy

My brothers business
Before

After

Well I guess the biggest news is our house. My parents paid my brother to paint my house. Well this week was the week. They worked on it for 5 days and then the rain came so they will be back to finish the last of the trim and stain the deck.

It looks great! Thanks mom and dad and Steven.

The farmers markets are going well. We are all feeling tired but still going strong. We pick up our tenth market on Wed. of this week. People are looking for us and the Chefs at the markets are using our cheese to demonstrate with. That's great. The more people know how to use our cheese the better for us. We have picked up a couple more small restaurants. Keeping up with making cheese three days a week is quite the challenge. I need to stay home those days and that almost seems impossible. There is always something pulling me away from the farm. Anyway it is getting done. I am not getting a head though as we seem to be selling it about as fast as I make it. One of our refrigerators went out so I am down to three refrigerators and that doesn't hold all my cheese. So I am having to package more cheese than usual. A friend has an extra refrigerator and they are going to sell it to us... soon I'll have my fourth back.

The car's water hose to the heater broke the other day and it goes to the doctor on Monday to get fixed. Danyel is having her dog, Maggi fixed on Monday too.

Ali went and ordered her goat cart this last week and it will be here this next weekend, florescent pink with a pink seat too. She can't wait. She saved up $450 and bought it.

Today is Father's day, Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads. So for David's gift we go to the Zoo. This year its to the Portland Zoo. A long time ago we asked David's parents to buy our family a zoo pass and they have done it ever since. We use to go all the time --- but farm life and cheese making and Farmers Markets keep us from enjoying it very often. But David's favorite place is the zoo. So we will be leaving as soon as the milking and chores are done.

Danyel just came in and said Waldo (Ali's cart goat with big horns) just had one of my younger boar bucks stuck in his horn and now the buck can't walk. So David is moving him to a pen. And Waldo is going to have a pasture all to himself. Possibly one more goat to add to the butcher pot too. (Not waldo - I already threatened Ali with that and he was saved last year).

There is never a dull moment on the farm that's for sure.

The puppies eyes are starting to open. We have to chain Cloe in the pen - she wants to hide the puppies. We don't let anyone in the pen so she will feel more protected. Once the eyes are all open she won't want to move them anymore. Those babies are chunky and cute. I don't have a new picture of them yet. As soon as their eyes are open I'll post another one. Heather has picked her puppy out and we have picked ours out. So now the litter is open to get your puppy. We are doing a stimulus package special $1500 a puppy.

Both parents are working and are AKC

They can leave in one and a half months from now. So Aug 1 they are available to take home.

The girls babysat some friends animals this last week. So every evening after chores we drove over to their house and fed their animals and watered their plants. We had their milk doe at our house too. They got home yesterday and had to come right over - bearing gifts of Thanks. I even got something. That was so sweet of them.

Oh yes I started a cleansing diet this last week. Candida. Anyway I am feeling better and its been a challenge. I can eat veg. and meat. I am doing well on it. I haven't killed anyone yet so that is good. My mom is on the Atkins diet for a few months too. So its good to have someone to talk to about the NOT EATING.

The girls and Amanda (sort of an adopted daughter) gave a goat clinic this last weekend and they had about 10 people come to it. It was great. The girls each gave demonstrations about different things and then they followed up with a tour of the dairy and some cheese tasting. The comments the kids got after the class encouraged them to do some more classes. So if your wanting to learn more about goat care from some down to earth kids that have been there done that and are still doing it - this is a few classes that you'll want to check out. They are doing four classes each with a different topic and they are not connected so you can take the ones that interest you. They are charging $20 for each class.

#1 Breeding July 12th from -2-5pm

#2 Goat Nutrition Aug. 9th- 2-4pm

#3 Goat Hoof Trimming Aug. 23 -2-4pm

#4 General Goat Class Sept. 13 - 2-5pm

My next cheese class is fast approaching too. So if you haven't sent in your money do so cause there are more than 25 that want to attend. It will be first come first serve. Thanks to for all the participation in those classes.

Well I'll stop with the news and say have a Great Day and smell the roses.

Puppies and Cheese!

This is Cloe and her puppies on 6/12/09

Good Morning:

I thought I'd up date you since the puppies change so fast.

On Wed. we got our cheese ready to go to Olympia and Broadway in Tacoma. We packed the cars that night ready to leave Thur. am.

The markets on Thur went well. People were buying for graduation parties - so that went very well. David brought home from his market strawberries and I brought home smoked salmon. We had strawberry shortcake and garlic and dill chevre and salmon on bread --YUM! On my way home from Olympia I had to run out to Adna and pick up two rounds of our aged cheese so David could take them Friday to a new Restaurant - 94th st. Restaurant in Seattle. Danyel and Ali cleaned the house while they were home. We unloaded cheese and started chores. Then I could sit down and relax.

Friday I was swamped with cheese.... had to package, label and cut, about 250 pieces. My parents came over and helped me cause I wasn't going to get done. Danyel's last day for Biology. One less place to drive to everyday. We will continue homeschooling through the summer - just three days a week and only work on three subjects.

The girls are babysitting a friends farm so each evening after our chores we drive 6 miles and go do their chores. Luckily they don't have near as many animals as we do.

David got home about 9pm after really bad traffic. He worked at Pikes Place Market all day. He also got new orders from the Pikes Place Creamery, which is carrying our yogurt and our chevre.

We unloaded David's coolers and then loaded up both or our coolers for Sat. market.

Sat. I was up at about 5am cleaned the parlor and packaged yogurt and put the feta in the refrigerator - and was on the road by 6:15am for Adna to load up and pick up Meg at Blacksheep creamery. We were on the road by 6:40 for Puyallup. David got up and hayed the goats and filled the grain cans in the parlor and then he was off for Longview at 7:30am. Danyel and Ali were also getting picked up for Civil Air Patrol at about 7:30am. They will get home about Noon. David got home about 3:30 and got unloaded and paperwork done. I got home about 4:15 after dropping Meg off at Adna. David helped me get unloaded and cheese counted. And he turned around and headed back to Longview to go pick up a pressure washer at Rogers our friends house. He was home by 9:30pm. Amanda got here about 9pm - she is spending the night and tomorrow the girls and her are putting on a goat clinic here at the farm. I ran the girls over to the Jones to take care of their animals at 8:30pm and was home by 9:30pm. I think I went to bed about 10:00pm. I have to say since the TV switch thing - our TV isn't on so much. We get 7 channels - most which are OPB. Its awesome.

Sunday is crazy; 5am up to do chores and milk. 7am the girls get dressed for Civil Air Patrol - I'll take them to the airport. At 8:30 one of them will be fl ying a glider, and the other will follow in about 1 1/2 hours. David and I should be picking them up about 1pm no later. David and I will go to church at 10:30 where we will meet up with Shawn and Susanna and they will come home with us. I'll heat up some chili and we'll have lunch. Heather and Jamie and CJ will also be here about 1pm to eat lunch with us. Then Amanda and Danyel and Ali will put on their goat clinic at 2-4 today. At 5pm our Worship/Potluck starts and so do chores. We will probably worship until about 9pm. I want to make a batch of my non-pasteurized cheese today too It will take about 2 hours to get it into the molds. My new hose works so good and sure makes my life easier. Then its to bed for this one tired lady.

Well I hope I didn't give any of you heart problems or Anxiety after reading my week.

Have a Great Day - Plan our your days so they don't look like mine.