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.