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.