Blustry weather is here!

Good Morning. Its windy and pouring rain this morning. This weekend went well, no rain and little wind. The farmers markets were alright, mine was down in dollars but that is they way it goes with farmers markets. After David's market he ran to Cash and Carry to get some more containers for the garlic and dill chevre and the yogurt. And he got the taster spoons, $53 for a box. That is crazy. When we got home it was about 1 hour before we had to start chores. We were short one person as Ali was with her CAP platoon for the weekend. So we covered her chores and got finished about 6:30pm. I ran in and made dinner - baked salmon (Ali doesn't like fish), baked potato and veg. And then we all sat around and read books. Bed came early as we were all tired.
Sunday was a little slower. I got the kids up at 7am to do chores and after chores we headed to church. After church was lunch... chili and all the fixings. I went out and cleaned the parlor and then we all got dressed again and headed up to Lake Mayfield to go to the ceremony for the Civil Air Patrol. Ali got pinned and moved up a rank. Ya! I had to pin the pins on. Well, my fingers are numb and pinching those frogs (the little clips) that go on the back of those pins was almost impossible. I even dropped one on the ground. But I got it done. And was so proud of her passing her test. We ate cake and visited with other parents. We left at 5:45 for home. Everyone changed clothes and jumped into doing their chores. I cooked hamburgers and fries for dinner. At 8:30 we all sat down so I could do our reading time. Only have three more chapters and we are done with this book - the girls already have the next one picked out. Since we turned off the satellite we spend more time reading. And we started this half hour reading thing. We have read two books now since the NO TV thing. The girls didn't like not having their half hour reading while Ali was gone.
I am going to make some chevre this morning before milk gets picked up. I will make about 30 gallons. I will also make some buttermilk and start some yogurt. I have some running around to do while Danyel is at Biology. David has market in Longview tomorrow and will go to Winco to get my grocery's for the Cheese class this weekend. I can't believe its almost here. Anyway I am going to try another one the 22 of November, as some people cant make it to this one.
We decided that we won't bred anymore does to Ice this year, as his feet are hurting him and I am not sure he is doing his thing. The boar bucks all perform quicker. Anyway I think I have all most all my girls bred anyway.
I hope you all have a great day and remember who really is in control....Not us!

Don't Cry over Spilt Milk

Good Morning to All. It isn't raining and its pretty warm out too. Not what the weather man had predicted for today.
Well I made cheese yesterday. Everything was going fine until after the pasteurization process I was filling a gallon jar full of milk to put into the refrigerator for making buttermilk or yogurt. After it was full I was carrying to the table and the bottom of the jar fell off..... milk everywhere. What a mess. So before I could continue with the cheese I had to clean the floor up in the processing plant. That made things a little bit unsettled. Anyway the milked cooled to much while I was cleaning so I had to reheat the milk to temp. again. When reached it I put in the rennet and then turned off the paddles and took out the paddles and the thermometers. And waited an hour. But when I came back the temp had not been turned off so I had cooked curds. There is a rule about making cheese never throw it out, it could be something great. So I just finished the recipe as normal. We will see if this cheese turns out or not.
Today Ali leaves for two days - Civil Air Patrol weekend. So that means Danyel and I will have extra chores through the weekend. Ali will do her chores before we leave to take her to the camp around 4:30 tonight.
We will be doing our home school this morning. I will go make my yogurt with the fresh strawberries David got me at his market yesterday after school. And turn my fresh pressed goat cheese's.
I will have to mix up more garlic and dill chevre and plain chevre for the market tomorrow. This will be my last market at Des Moinse, because next week is my cheese class. I started printing out my booklets for the class. I looked for the covers yesterday and couldn't find them - so I will have to look at Staples for the covers -so I could put them together. I have 22 people signed up too.
Well I will let you go. Have a Great Day.

This picture is one of Ali's frog pictures. "Just think, only a little further"

Cheese Baskets Ready!

Publish Post

Well I got away with it most of yesterday. Birthday's are not my thing so when mine comes around I try and lay low. I just don't like the fan fare. If you want to do something nice for someone do it on an unsuspecting day not on an obligation day. It means more for me on the other days. Anyway I do get calls from my parents, and children (most of them) and the youngest girls even got me a card. Which was really cute... There was a cow on the front behind a fence "Your Day. Your way. Your say." You open it up and it says "Its your birthday - milk it for all it's worth!" That was really funny.
This is one of my cheese baskets - $42
I made up David's cheese for market, garlic and dill and plain chevre. He loaded up the truck last night. Yesterday the girls had to go get some more shots for their school records. And we went by the 4-H office and picked up our club information. I am going to try and sell Christmas Baskets of cheese this year. So I ran by the dollar store and got a basket. When we got home David and I arranged the cheese and took pictures so I can put it on a poster to be able to sell them. We will make them up and deliver them to one spot in Longveiw the week before Christmas. I'll try and sell them at the Bazzar I am going to the first part of November. I think we will try it at Pikes Place too.
Speaking of Pikes Place that will start the first of November. I have to gear up for this market. We go through so many samples and not as much sales. At the farmers markets we use little samples and sell lots of cheese. Anyway David will have to stop by Cash and Carry after market on Sat. and get some more yogurt containers, chevre containers, tester spoons, toothpicks and sacks for the first of November. We will also be doing a market in Tacoma on Sat. too.
I caulked yesterday and I have to say it looks so good in the milk parlor. It closes all kinds of gaps and looks finished. But I am going to see if I can get a different caulk, because the one I got stays soft permanently and I think I'd rather have one that dries hard. Anyway I will pick up some more today and talk to the guys at ACE hardware.
I am going to start a batch of Grande' Rosa and Pepper Rosa today and also some yogurt and buttermilk. David cleaned all the dishes in the cheese processing plant yesterday for me and so I am ready this afternoon to make cheese. I will run Danyel to biology, deposit some money in the bank, pick up a few groceries and then pick up Danyel and head for home. She is going to work on her Biology project and I am going to work on cheese. And maybe caulk a little.
David and Ali are at their last Broadway Tacoma Farmers Market. I sure hope he sells a good amount of cheese today. They will be home about 4pm today. Then we have to milk, eat dinner and be at a football game at 6pm (or David has to).
I have said before we do foster children - but I won't talk about them on my blog except to say, this one is in football and this is his last game and its at home. So depending on where I am in the cheese process determines if I go. (Personally I don't enjoy freezing, getting wet in the rain to watch football and I have already gone to one of his home games this year - There was a total of 6 games and two were at home. And this time is David's turn. Did I mention the team is 5-0). Anyway this evening will be another run time.
Ali has to finish packing this evening for a Civil Air Patrol weekend at Lake Mayfield. She will earn a rank up doing this. We will run her up tomorrow evening.
Well life is good, well maybe great - we have a roof over our heads, meat in the freezer, and a job we enjoy, and a great family to work and play with. I don't care whats going on in the rest of the world as long as my world is working well. I guess I am an ostrich with my head in the sand.... but it works for me. Have a Great Day regardless of the hurricane outside your door.

Working Schedual

It is cold out this morning about 33 degrees. Not quite freezing but almost. Well, lets see what went on yesterday. Oh yes, I took my chevre down and put it in the refrigerator, I got 100lbs of chevre out of 50 gallons or 430 pounds of milk. That is really good. Our weights go up during the time the goats slow down their production. But of all the chevre this last month of making it, has to be the premium product. I will package all but about 30 pounds and put it in the freezer for next month or so. The Tue. market went pretty good, anyway David sold more product than the rest of the whole 6 vendors. So he'll keep going to that market till the end of the month. He is also looking to go up to Pikes Place during the week, his last Thur market is the 16th - so maybe he'll run up there for Thur. He has a book show coming next week he has been invited to and they are serving our cheese as the snack and then people can buy some if they want at the end of the book review and signing.
I am working on my Cheese Class coming next weekend. Have to go shopping for food and contact the other two dairies that I like to get some cheese from for sampling.
Last night David and I went to an energy saving class. It was pretty interesting, but as usual it was also a sales pitch. It was a good product though. We will think about it. But we got a good dinner and met some neighbors of ours in the area. The girls finished chores and watched a movie and ate dinner while we were gone. I am so glad they are responsible teenagers.
I bought some caulking to plug some holes or I should say cracks in the milk parlor - I can't wait for the last painting to go on.... but this has to be done first. Its suppose to be a nice day today and so I look forward to doing some caulking.
Update on Neighbor and pond: Talked to the planning committee and they are going to come look and see if there is any concerns with erosion or danger to my goats having stagnant water going through my field. And all the water he put in has seeped out, anyway the water line is no longer visible.
This morning we have computer lab at the grange for an hour then will run Danyel to biology class and come home and have Ali work on her Physical science. Then we will go pick up Danyel and go to the health department and get them two more vaccine shots and then they should be all caught up for the public schools. Neither of them are very excited about all this shot stuff. Then we'll come home and work on school until about 2pm today. After that I will go clean the creamery and get things set up to make cheese tomorrow. I also have to package some chevre for David's market tomorrow. Then we'll do chores at 4pm today and eat dinner at 6pm and then we'll head for church at 7pm.
It doesn't seem to busy today.
This picture is one of our goat herd - we were cleaning the whole barn and kicked them all outside, and of course they don't want to go into the field in case we open the door and let them in so they all hang close to the barn door.
Stay warm and think of Hot Coco!

Thinking ahead to Thanksgiving

It is a cool morning, its not freezing but it has a clean crisp feeling. The girls are up and doing chores, I've done part of mine. I went and cleaned the milking parlor and set it up so when the girls go in to milk they just have to turn on the machine and go for it. They are into listening to the audio books while they milk. We have been going to the library once a week to check out books, mostly for our Washington State History information but the girls go through the audio books and find ones to listen to while in the milk parlor. It seems to keep their minds on what they are doing and milking gets done more efficiently. I bet the goats wonder who is talking so much.
I re-hung my chevre last night and this morning its finally ready to come down. I'll put it in the refrigerator until this afternoon when I will bag all the chevre I have and put it in the freezer. This way I have it when my does quit giving milk next month.
David is going to the new market in Longview today its from 9-2, down by the fairgrounds where he usually is on Sat. We are also going to do the other Tacoma one on Proctor on Sat. - for November.
Its time for me to start thinking Thanksgiving. I love that holiday better than any of the others. I love cooking and this is my holiday. I do all the cooking, well me and my children. We invite people from where ever to come and eat - our family is pretty good size but no all of them get to come. So I need to fill in the empty spots. Our tradition is every child gets to pick out what kind of pie they like and Nana (me) makes them a mini pie all their own. The adults also put in thier order but I make a big pie that everyone gets a piece of. I usually have at least 15 different pies for dessert. Its awesome. Anyway I am getting ahead of myself and the season.
Today I am going to call the planning commission about the neighbor's pond. An up date no water is flowing through my field yet. David walked down there and he pond isn't full yet either.
There were three does that are in heat this morning, so they will go have a visit with one of my guys. When I look at the number of does that are going to kid in Feb. its scary. Its good too, cause I'll have them all done early but ALL is a lot of kids to bottle feed.
Have a great day and enjoy the season at hand.

Neighbor situation

Good Morning:
Its misting here, and its not to cool. Yesterday I went down and started whacking at some blackberries. Now your wondering why I didn't put my goats down there to do the job. Well when we put them down there - at the end of our driveway they are so nervous they don't eat the bushes. They worry. You see our neighbor has an obnoxious dog and he loves to run at them and scare them. The only place they are not afraid is inside their pen and with our big dogs watching them. Anyway I did cut some of them down and it is starting to look nice. Why would I want to cut them down, well our neighbor has built what I think to be a pretty large and deep pond next to my fence.... and then yesterday I noticed a black tarp going over the edge of his pond and heading toward my driveway. We have a culvert under our driveway leading into our field, which is where I think he is planning to run off his extra water. So anyway I have some concerns over his project and I think I'll have to talk to a land planner person on Tue to find out if he can do this. Oh yes, this is all man made - there is no natural spring there and he is filling it up with his hose. I am going to walk down the driveway as soon as the sun is up and see if I have a creek running through my field this morning. No water yet - maybe his well went dry - one can only hope. Neighbors.
I am on a dead end road and my policy is to not up set my neighbors by encroaching on their property or doing things that would make them mad. I don't want other peoples dogs on my property, that is why my dogs are confined on my property. I don't let my children go onto other peoples property without permission, nor do I let them do loud and noisey things which would disturb my neighbors. But, I kind of expect the same from my neighbors. I don't think I am asking to much. Anyway off of my soapbox.
My chevre is still hanging in the processing plant. This cool weather does something to the hanging time of my cheese. It still tastes great, but it just takes longer to get all the whey out of the cheese. I put the heater in the plant and hope it will finish dripping today.
David is going to do a Tue. market in Longview this week and see how that goes.
I am going to do a bazaar type thing in November and see how it works with selling cheese baskets for Christmas. I am going to take pictures of the baskets and display the photo's and take orders to be delivered the week before Christmas. I wonder how that will fly. So I am working on that today.
David will do Pikes Place the first Sat. of November and then pick up another day too.
I am going to try and work on painting the inside of my milking room this week - I keep a heater in there so it stays warm and will dry. I have to put the good paint over the primer paint and then that room is done. I also want to spray paint my bulk tank again - its kind of chipping off here and there. This is also a home school class - Occupational Education - sweet!
I want to vacuum my front room and the basement since my vacuum cleaner is fixed... I haven't had time to do that yet. A friend of mine brought me some tomatoes and peppers yesterday, how sweet. They should make some good salsa.
Our 4-H club is starting to plan their sleep over for this year. Its always fun to see what theme we are going to use. I think this year they have decided to us the theme Risk (the board game).
They want to stage war's with swords and they will have to get the velco ribbon off the persons back to conquer their country. Last year we did Clue (the board game). We turned our house into the mansion and each team got info about the mystery murder. Everyone had a great time and it was really a lot of fun. We have been doing this overnight for 4 years and each year it has gotten better. We do it in March so the other 4-H club from Clatskanie, Oregon can feed the babies and do the whole dairy thing. We always serve cheese and crackers. Last year we slept at the Hope Grange and that worked great. In the years past they slept in the basement. But since the flood we didn't have carpet down there yet and so we needed another place to sleep 15 kids. I am going to arrange the same thing this year.
Well that is enough chit chat I need to get busy with my home school schedual and getting things ready.
The picture is of Cloe my Anatolian Shepard Female - she dug a hole under her dog house.
Have a great day.

Good Morning. Danyel and Ali said the sunrise this morning was red - so of course they took a picture. Yesterday the markets were alright, or I should say mine was fine but David's was low. After I got home from market I hung the chevre. It was still draining this morning and hopefully it will be able to be got down this evening. I let the girls sleep in this morning until 7am - me too! It felt good. We leave for church at 10:15 and are home about 12:30. I am fixing chili and the works for lunch today. Today will be a catch up day for me... I"ll check some homeschool assignments and then maybe make some apple dumplings for dinner dessert. Yesterday David took part of my vaccum cleaner to the fixit shop and they fixed the part. So I'll vaccum today and test out the machine. I also want to give the dogs a bath (little dogs).
This is a photo looking across our field, one of the girls took it.
I hope you all have a great Sunday and relax - or as much as you can.