Well this morning I got up at about 6am and went and layed down on the couch and fell asleep till 7am. Wow that is sleeping in. Went out and cleaned the milk parlor and at 7:30 came in and woke Danyel up to come help with chores. Got done milking at about 9am and I told Danyel lets go out for breakfast. We went to Napavine and had breakfast at the Wild Turkey... it was sure good. Then we ran to the Farm Store in Chehalis and got some udder wash and some acid for the milk parlor. We also go some herbal fly spray for the llama and some yard spray to kill the fleas in the yard...Look our "Bugs Life". I can see all those bugs running for thier life as we spray this stuff all around our yard. I bought some stuff to spray on the driveway too to kill weeds. Just got inspired I guess today.
We stopped at a few gargae sales and the first one hit a jackpot... I got 4 new jumpers and a few shirts for David. Danyel found books and piano music. The next one was nice and we got a few things but nothing supper great. Then we came home and looked at our treasures. Danyel ran to Castle Rock to pick up Kiara, my granddaughter, for a few days.
I had the girls cut a new trail to the meat goats pens and then we took a panel out and made thier pen bigger.
The llama hasn't spit at me, though its taking alittle time to not be afraid when he lays his ears back. I guess he is just listening to thing- not mad. The nigerians are doing well and I am milking the doe by hand till we figure out what is the matter with the portable milker. She is standing pretty still for me and Danyel only has to help a little now. The two kids are so cute... we are selling them. So if you know of anyone interested they are $100 each. They are just 2 months old on Tue the 9th.
I am making Chevre today - 52 gallons.
Jodi and her mom will be her around 7pm or later tonight. She is the lady that I am working with going to Africa.
Tomorrow is going to be busy too.. lots of people coming and going.
I am making Chicken enchilada's for dinner tonight. I don't have to milk, just clean the parlor and grain and water every one. So its a pretty easy day.
David didn't do so well at the Market in Olympia today.
Well I will let you go and fill you in on tomorrow = tomorrow. Have a Great Day
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Cheese Class Today
Ok your not going to believe all I have done yesterday and this morning getting ready for this class. As I said yesterday the girl I hire to milk the goats and help with the cheese class was busy and couldn't come.... SO,
Yesterday:
I was up at 5:30 am and started milking at 7am.
I got a call at 8:30am from Colvin Ranch and he wanted to come get some whey... well I was going to make feta so that would be fine. I explained it takes about 5 hours for me to make it and get to the whey... he said fine I will be there around 3pm. Great.
Then another call wanted to come get some milk for soap making at 3:30 - 4pm, no problem.
Danyel and David were at farmers markets all day - until about 4pm.
Well I milked the goats and fed the baby goats. I then came in had a muffin and went out to clean the pasturizer and get cheese started. I had the pasturizer going by 10am and that was going to work out great. I washed dishes in the processing plant. Then I headed into the house to start cleaning it. Cleared off the kitchen table - thats our desk for market, as well as catch all. Then I vaccumed and moved my sewing stuff to the spare bedroom. I looked at the carpet and thought I wonder if I have enough time to shampoo.... sure so I went at that project. Then I swept the kitchen area and hallways and mopped that area. Back out to the processing plant to check on temp. I had about 30 min left before pastuizing starts so I got out the chevre and started packaging cheese, I did 70 pieces of chevre. Put it in the refrigerator and the pasturizing was done and now I was onto cooling it down thats about 45 min. So back into the house to eat some lunch - a nice big salad. Watched some Avitar (movie). Its time to go check the pasturizer again... only alittle more cool down so I got the work area cleaned up and got the culture ready to put into the milk. 1pm the culture was in and now wait an hour... thought I should go out and clean the parlor so milking would be ready since things were getting alittle tight. Back into the house to clean the bathroom. Time to add the rennet to the milk and wait one more hour. Went back into the house to work on the kitchen, dishes put away and washed - counters all clean and it looks nice. Now its 3pm and up drives Fred from Colvin Farms. My cheese is just about ready to be cut and so we get to visit till the whey is ready. He visited for awhile and I gave him the tour of the farm. Up drives the people to buy milk for soap, so I stopped visiting with Fred and went and pulled 3 gallons of milk. I visited with them for a few minutes. Now I am back down draining the whey for Fred. He took 5 - 5 gallon buckets of whey home. Danyel is pulling in from Market and a its time to go get the Nigerian Dwarf to milk and feed the two kids. Then helped round up the goats and started milking. The whole time I am milking I am running over the things I need to get done tonight for my class. While I was milking Danyel was weighing and labeling the chevre I had packaged this morning. After milking I cleaned the milk parlor and set it all up for tomorrow morning. When I get into the house at 8:30pm I go to the printer and print off the fronts of my cheese book I give out during the class. Then I put the 15 books together and drag out all my cheesebook, cataloges and articles wrote about cheese. Make sure the pencils are all sharpened. I made chevre and yogurt and got them going and cooked the filling for the chicken broccoli braid I was making for lunch. I set the tables and chairs up. Got all my lunch stuff out, cups, plates, plastic silverware, all the coffee and tea stuff. David went out and watered and hayed everyone, and got his stuff ready for market. Its 11pm bedtime.
Today:
Got up at 5:00am and mixed up my yogurt and then put it into small containers for class, and hthen put them in the refrigerator. Danyel got up at 5:30am. Out to round the goats up we go. David left at 6am for market. I am on line at 6am to milk the goats. Danyel grains all of them and feeds the kids. After milking I am in the house putting the lunch braid together and covering it and putting it into the refrigerator (made double batch). Then I cut up some of our cheese for the class sampling. I ran the vaccum cleaner over the frontroom floor. Took a shower and washed my hair. Got the coffee and tea on. And my first person to arrive was at 9am. Class starts at 10am - 2pm. Anyway they all got here 10 people eager to learn how to make cheese. Class went great... it was another great class.
Now I am sitting down. I have a tour at 4pm today. So I think I will go laydown on the couch - set my phone alarm and take a nap.
Have a great day. I still have feta to cut and salt and clean the milk parlor and maybe make some chevre tonight. Which means cleaning buckets to put my chevre in over night.
Yesterday:
I was up at 5:30 am and started milking at 7am.
I got a call at 8:30am from Colvin Ranch and he wanted to come get some whey... well I was going to make feta so that would be fine. I explained it takes about 5 hours for me to make it and get to the whey... he said fine I will be there around 3pm. Great.
Then another call wanted to come get some milk for soap making at 3:30 - 4pm, no problem.
Danyel and David were at farmers markets all day - until about 4pm.
Well I milked the goats and fed the baby goats. I then came in had a muffin and went out to clean the pasturizer and get cheese started. I had the pasturizer going by 10am and that was going to work out great. I washed dishes in the processing plant. Then I headed into the house to start cleaning it. Cleared off the kitchen table - thats our desk for market, as well as catch all. Then I vaccumed and moved my sewing stuff to the spare bedroom. I looked at the carpet and thought I wonder if I have enough time to shampoo.... sure so I went at that project. Then I swept the kitchen area and hallways and mopped that area. Back out to the processing plant to check on temp. I had about 30 min left before pastuizing starts so I got out the chevre and started packaging cheese, I did 70 pieces of chevre. Put it in the refrigerator and the pasturizing was done and now I was onto cooling it down thats about 45 min. So back into the house to eat some lunch - a nice big salad. Watched some Avitar (movie). Its time to go check the pasturizer again... only alittle more cool down so I got the work area cleaned up and got the culture ready to put into the milk. 1pm the culture was in and now wait an hour... thought I should go out and clean the parlor so milking would be ready since things were getting alittle tight. Back into the house to clean the bathroom. Time to add the rennet to the milk and wait one more hour. Went back into the house to work on the kitchen, dishes put away and washed - counters all clean and it looks nice. Now its 3pm and up drives Fred from Colvin Farms. My cheese is just about ready to be cut and so we get to visit till the whey is ready. He visited for awhile and I gave him the tour of the farm. Up drives the people to buy milk for soap, so I stopped visiting with Fred and went and pulled 3 gallons of milk. I visited with them for a few minutes. Now I am back down draining the whey for Fred. He took 5 - 5 gallon buckets of whey home. Danyel is pulling in from Market and a its time to go get the Nigerian Dwarf to milk and feed the two kids. Then helped round up the goats and started milking. The whole time I am milking I am running over the things I need to get done tonight for my class. While I was milking Danyel was weighing and labeling the chevre I had packaged this morning. After milking I cleaned the milk parlor and set it all up for tomorrow morning. When I get into the house at 8:30pm I go to the printer and print off the fronts of my cheese book I give out during the class. Then I put the 15 books together and drag out all my cheesebook, cataloges and articles wrote about cheese. Make sure the pencils are all sharpened. I made chevre and yogurt and got them going and cooked the filling for the chicken broccoli braid I was making for lunch. I set the tables and chairs up. Got all my lunch stuff out, cups, plates, plastic silverware, all the coffee and tea stuff. David went out and watered and hayed everyone, and got his stuff ready for market. Its 11pm bedtime.
Today:
Got up at 5:00am and mixed up my yogurt and then put it into small containers for class, and hthen put them in the refrigerator. Danyel got up at 5:30am. Out to round the goats up we go. David left at 6am for market. I am on line at 6am to milk the goats. Danyel grains all of them and feeds the kids. After milking I am in the house putting the lunch braid together and covering it and putting it into the refrigerator (made double batch). Then I cut up some of our cheese for the class sampling. I ran the vaccum cleaner over the frontroom floor. Took a shower and washed my hair. Got the coffee and tea on. And my first person to arrive was at 9am. Class starts at 10am - 2pm. Anyway they all got here 10 people eager to learn how to make cheese. Class went great... it was another great class.
Now I am sitting down. I have a tour at 4pm today. So I think I will go laydown on the couch - set my phone alarm and take a nap.
Have a great day. I still have feta to cut and salt and clean the milk parlor and maybe make some chevre tonight. Which means cleaning buckets to put my chevre in over night.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Getting ready for the Cheese class tomorrow
I am sure glad the temp. outside isnt really hot. Actually its perfect. I got up at 5am this morning to label and weigh cheese for Danyel's market. I packaged cheese and labeled last night but got to tired so I just got up early this morning. I milked the goats this morning too. I bottle fed the two Nigerian dwarf kids and then onto making Feta today. I am pasturizing it right now. I am going to use the new rennet I got so cross your fingers it works and I didn't get ripped off on e-bay. Anyway I used a little in my chevre the other day and it turned out. I have a guy coming today to get some of my whey from this batch of cheese, to feed his pigs. I vaccumed and sampooed my front room carpet while waiting on the cheese. I have a cheese class of 15 tomorrow morning. That parts alright, the delima is that I also have to milk the goats in the morning and get my class ready.... lets see what time to get up.... why go to bed? The girl that usually comes to help is babysitting tomorrow so I am on my own. I will prepare most of the stuff today and this evening make my chevre for demo, and my yogurt. I want to start milking at 6am and should be done by 8am. David and Danyel will have to do all the rest of the chores before they go to market tomorrow morning. I am sure it will all work out its just stressing about the schedual. Well I will let you go so I can go sweep and mop my floors while the cheese is still in the pasturize mode. have a great day....
Thursday, August 4, 2011
New Animals
We got 6 does, and 2 kids and a llama.... Nigerian Dwarfs. They are cute and a little over weight. They were free from a lady in Shelton who needed a home for them due to some health problems. The only reservation I had was the Llama, his name is Knight. He isn't to bad... I am still scared he will spit. But I bet over time I will be alright with him. He kind of looks majestic sitting out in the field of little goats.
I am milking one of the does. And we are bottle feeding the two kids which are just 2 months old as of I think the 7th of Aug. I bought the portable milk machine from them and she gave me thier milk stantion. The milking machine worked fine un until yesterday evening.. so I had to milk those little teats by hand with a jumping doe. Danyel helped hold her so I could milk her to feed the kids. She will get better as time goes on.
David picked up 3 more resturants this last month, so I had to make a chart to be able to keep track of who gets what on what day... I think I have 12 resturants going now.
We have had tours alot lately too. A bunch from the article in the Tacoma paper.
Sat. is my next cheese class and I am full and over alittle... Should be a good class.
I am starting to be in the processsing plant alot, I cant find animal rennet anywhere. I bought some off e-bay. Only to get it and its clear. Never have seen that before. I made a batch of chevre on my stove top to see if I got took. The chevre turned out so I tried it on a 52 gallon batch of chevre and so far it looks like its doing the job.
I have to take Danyel into a Dr. appt. today at 4pm so I think I will go and clean the parlor now before we leave so when we get home I can jump into packaging cheese for tomorrow. That way I will be labeling while Big Brother is on tonight.
Have a Great day. I will try and get pictures up of the new girls and kids soon.
I am milking one of the does. And we are bottle feeding the two kids which are just 2 months old as of I think the 7th of Aug. I bought the portable milk machine from them and she gave me thier milk stantion. The milking machine worked fine un until yesterday evening.. so I had to milk those little teats by hand with a jumping doe. Danyel helped hold her so I could milk her to feed the kids. She will get better as time goes on.
David picked up 3 more resturants this last month, so I had to make a chart to be able to keep track of who gets what on what day... I think I have 12 resturants going now.
We have had tours alot lately too. A bunch from the article in the Tacoma paper.
Sat. is my next cheese class and I am full and over alittle... Should be a good class.
I am starting to be in the processsing plant alot, I cant find animal rennet anywhere. I bought some off e-bay. Only to get it and its clear. Never have seen that before. I made a batch of chevre on my stove top to see if I got took. The chevre turned out so I tried it on a 52 gallon batch of chevre and so far it looks like its doing the job.
I have to take Danyel into a Dr. appt. today at 4pm so I think I will go and clean the parlor now before we leave so when we get home I can jump into packaging cheese for tomorrow. That way I will be labeling while Big Brother is on tonight.
Have a Great day. I will try and get pictures up of the new girls and kids soon.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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