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.