Sat. Market - Running

I must of set my alarm for 5pm instead of am, because the girls woke me up at 5:30am. We started a half hour behind this morning - when timing is everything. I have to leave at 7am and David leaves at 7:30am and the girls get picked up for Civil Air Patrol at 7:15am. Milking takes 1 1/2 hours and the other chores take about 35 min. each. David loaded the truck and car for market. I filled up the water containers with hot water, and my thermos with hot coffee. Danyel has to get all the uniforms ready today, for a uniform inspection. Anyway every one is moving in some direction.
I cleaned the parlor last night so all I needed to do this morning was hook up the suckers. I had to take a bag of grain to the milking parlor too, so Ali would have grain to start milking. David can fill the grain thing up when he goes out.
I packaged Chevre up last night too and labeled, Marinated Feta and Fresh Feta. My chevre didn't turn out as good as it has been. Its too soft for my liking but it tastes good. I packaged up just what I needed and let the rest hang over night. This morning I put it in the refrigerator and it looked alittle more firm. I also made another batch of chevre, 50 gallons. I'll hang it up this afternoon when I get home from market. I have only one more market to do and then I'll finish the month off with my cheese class. Speaking of that I have 16 people signed up. I am getting calls daily though to sign up.
Well got to go get dressed for market and hit the road. You have a great day and remember to smell the flowers one last time, for winter is here and the smell needs to last you till spring.

A working Day

We are up at 6am to start chores. Its cool outside. The does that are with the bucks are crying, wanting out. The bucks stink and the smell travels well this morning. As I am in here writing on the blog I can hear the coffee pot perking, the motor for the milking parlor humming and still a goat crying. These are all good comforting sounds to a farmer. My two papillions are still sleeping in on my warm bed with my husband. I am heading out to take my chevre down, mix up my yogurt and package, and start another batch of chevre before the guy comes to pick up my left over milk this morning. Oh yes I have to clean the pasteurizer and sanitize it too.
Yesterday Danyel and I picked apples from our little grove of trees. She climbed the tree's and handed down the apples. They are such nice apples, I wish I had the time and energy to make apple sauce or to make juice from them. I have just been putting them in a room out in the barn where its cool and safe from critters. I am hoping they last into the winter. I also got a sack full of plums the last on the tree's. This is such a nice farm, I just wish I had more time to do the things I use to do before we became dairy people. I think if my husband was the main dairy person I'd have more time to do those things. But as I am the main person for all of the operations it leaves me with little time to do the things that I enjoyed in my previous life (mom, housewife).
David is going to run to Longview today to the accountants and pick up my computer stick, so I can download last years taxes so that David can drop them off at the accountants on Sat. so we can get that refund thing. Another this I dont like doing is bookwork and that too falls on my shoulders.
We are homeschooling today even though public school is out. Maybe we'll run to the library while David is in Longview.
This picture is of my two reg. papillions enjoying some sunshine a couple of weeks ago. Dutches is the darker one and Reese is the other one. Dutches is the one who helps herd the goats.... and she is good. She looks like a Boarder Collie working sheep.
Enjoy the quiet time in your day.... it refreshes and builds strong minds.

Cheese Glitch

It was about 37 degrees this morning. Just enough cold to send a chill up your spine, but not cold enough to put on the parka. We ended up breeding two more does yesterday. I should have about 60 does left to breed. We should have about 105 does this year kidding. Lots of milk next milking season. David and Ali got up at 5:30 this morning to get their chores done before they had to leave at 6:30am for Broadway Farmers Market in Tacoma. This market is from 9-2 today. I will stay home and get some extra stuff done. Like Bookkeeping! We are not doing home school today - though Danyel has to get her report done for a presentation in Biology. Ali will just read her book.
I got the chevre made last night but not without a hitch. First, last week while I was making cheese David thought it would be a good idea to have the alarms go off to let me know when the pasteurizer hit its temp., so he messed with the gray box with all the electrical buttons, modes, the recording chart and such. I don't do anything with that box except turn on the pens and turn off the pens and replace the chart when its full. Well he couldn't get it to do the alarm thing - but put it back where he thought it was set when he was done. No big deal. The next batch of cheese I made that week didn't record right... I had to do it by hand and when he got home I told him of the problem. He must of forgot to fix it so when I went to make Chevre yesterday afternoon.... guess what? That gray box didn't want to record right. So David spent probably 4 or 5 hours trying to get it to do what its suppose to do. While he was working on it I made dinner, did chores and then I took the kids to church at 7pm. While the kids were at church I ran to Adna to vacuum pack the marinated feta. And you know what, I got that done and back at the church to pick the kids up on time. When I got home David had the gray box working right. So I started pasteurizing at 8:30pm and needless to say it was 12:30pm when I finished. So the cheese got made but I am tired. I'll hang it this afternoon and it will be ready by Friday morning to package for Sat. markets. I'll clean up the processing room today so I'll be ready to make another batch of cheese - maybe tormorrow afternoon. I sure could use another batch of Chevre in the freezer for the winter season. I will start some yogurt this morning and also some buttermilk. The buttermilk will be used tomorrow to make the Chevre.
At 10:30 I'll run Danyel to her Biology class today and then run to the Farm Store and get some more Udder wash, and then run and get some color ink - as the last package I got wasn't color and black it was only black. So I have run all my color out. I can do that before I pick up Danyel at 11:25 today.
Well I'll be on the computer most of the day doing bookkeeping - something I don't enjoy so I do it at the last minute. Like that is going to make it easier or less dreadful.
I hope you have a great day, look at all the colors in the trees and think of each leaf as friend in you life and then say a little prayer for each. See how colorful your life is!

Grange Night

Yesterday was a very nice day. The milking in the morning went well and the goats were all healthy. I have my two daughters trade off each week doing the milking of the does. This way the other one has to grain the other goats. So Sunday night is a big night when they switch jobs. They do a good job and I have to pay them cheese and yogurt for their work. I think its a fair trade and it sure makes my life easier. I took the cheese over to Rocky Run Dairy and gave it to my girlfriend, she was very appreciative. I visited with her as she was giving a work crew directions on things that needed fixed around her dairy. I didn't stay long. Got home and home schooled Ali until Danyel got home from her one class - we ate lunch and then hit the books again.
We had to do chores and milk early, because we needed to be at the Grange by 6pm. I am the lecture for Hope Grange in Lewis county, Washington. That means I do all the programs, either find interesting people to give presentations or I give them. I love doing this it gets all my artistic juices going. Last night a lady talked about her great grandfather who drew for the audobon society. He made several books and painted pictures too. It was a very interesting presentation. At grange we take a potluck dish and eat dinner as a group. There were about 30 people there last night. We meet once a month. Next month we are having an Indian Chief tell us some Indian stories. Anyway the food was great last night. We got home around 8:30pm. I read for a half hour to the kids before they went to bed.
I still haven't made my cheese yet.... Today! I have no choice its down to the wire now. Glad we are not doing Pikes yet, as I have to make cheese up until the does give me no more milk and I have to make it as often as I have enough to go into the pasteurizer. Right now its kind of lazy. It shouldn't be as I have to get stocked for the three months I have no milk. I just feel lazy and tired.... anyway I'll work on the cheese today.
We have to go over to Adna and vacuum seal some marinated Feta for market on Thur. so I will be in and out of the house all day. It really puts a strain on my home school day. This morning we are going over to the grange hall to do computer class. The girls like working on the computers and they are learning a lot. Then we will run Danyel to her Biology class and come home. I'll go pick her up at 11:30. Then come home and eat lunch and then work on school until 3pm today. David also has to get some grain today. It seems we are always running.
I like staying at home and having him do the running. David will do inventory today and load up the truck for market tomorrow morning.

This photo is the Broadway Farmers Market - our booth set up- this summer.

Well, hope your having a great day and enjoying your freedom to come and go to worship and to communicate with your neighbors - I am and do.

Just another Day at BRD

Yesterday was a blustery day and wet. The boar goats head out rain or shine but my dairy girls stay put in the dry barn.
Up date: on sick goat. Her milking was fine last night. No blood. Its was probably just getting butted in the bag. Gail was back on line and out with the herd.
I didn't make cheese yesterday, I guess I was still recovering from Sat. and Sunday. But I am ready to go this morning. I'll haul about 40 gallons over to the processing plant (across the driveway) and start my batch after chores are done this morning. I'll be making Chevre. I have enough for Thur Farmers Market but will need it for Sat. Markets.
My cheese class is filling up, I have about 7 slots left and the 25 slots will be full. I am going to go get some more colored ink so I can work on those booklets I make for my cheese class. My rennet and cheese cloth is ordered.
I saved some of my Pepper Rosa for a dear friend who convinced me to make it. So after I drop Danyel off at Biology class at Napavine Highschool, I'll run over to her house. I'll also ask her if she will have milk for sale at my cheese class. She has a "raw goat milk dairy. By the time I get back from Napavine and the cheese drop off it should be time to cool down the milk.
Those frozen yogurt cycles turned out great. I'll start another set this morning. Its cold out but the kids still love those things.
I scrubbed down the floors in the milking parlor last night, with bleach. It is a little cleaner looking and smells fresh. I think this week for occupational education - painting skills - the girls and I will put the finishing coat of white in the milk parlor where my bulk tank is. My painting has come to a stop as the weather is not helping me inch my way around the farm. I am sure I can find things to do though, so don't worry about me being bored.
This picture was taken this summer. This is my daughters truck parked in the field. And this is the only goat that thought she should climb the mountain. I bet she was dared to do that. Ali is trying to get her off.
Have a great day, climb every mountain - up there you'll see more clearly!

The day after!

We got up at 6am on Sunday and did our chores, things went well. David loaded up the van for our treck back to the Pomeroy Living Farm to sell one more day,9am. When we got there at 11am it pored down rain harder than yesterday. We put the tent up and set up our wares and waited. The festival didnt open until 1pm. So we sat under cover and ate some garlic and dill chevre and some bread. Oh yes, the girls and I dressed up in our civil war costumes and then took a gift of cheese and bread over to the civil war team that was set up at the festival. Needless to say they bought some cheese by the end of the day too. You would be surprised to see all the people that came and got pumpkins. I think there were more people on Sunday than on Sat., but we sold more on Sat. than Sunday. Crazy! But we all had a good time, it is always good to see old friends.
We got home at 8pm and then did our chores. We got done at 9pm and boy were we tired. We unloaded and counted cheese and put things away and then everyone went to bed. The goats were very glad to see us. As were our inside dogs who were locked up all day inside.
I got up at 6am and went and cleaned the parlor, and then woke the girls up at 6:30am.This morning David is heading over to get some hay, and then unroll it into the barn. We had one goat with bloody milk last night. It will be interesting to see what she does this morning. We don't put that milk into our bulk tank and that is why we strip one squirt into a cup before we hook up any goat on to the milking system. Last night we put this goat - Gail - into a pen for observation. She is acting healthy and ate fine and there are no visible sores on her udder. I suspect another goat hit her hard in the bag while they were playing or fighting over hay. But we'll wait and see.
This afternoon I'll start 50 gallons of milk pasteurizing to make a batch of chevre and yogurt. Oh all the yogurt that didn't sell this week I'll put sticks in the containers and freeze them. The kids love fozen yogurt. Well try and have a good day and see the blessing in rain. Like green Northwest.

15th Pumpkin Festival, Pomeroy Living Farm

I got up at 4:30am yesterday to clean the parlor. I got the girls up at 5:00am to start milking and do their chores (milking, feed the chickens, dogs, cats, and grain the goats that are not milking). David got up at 6am to start haying. The girls have Civil Air Patrol at 7:15 this morning. I am excited because Danyel was taking one of her tests to move up in rank. And when I got home I found out she passed. I am so excited for her. Ali will take her test next weekend. But I left at 6:15 for Battleground Wa. to the Pomeroy Living Farm Pumpkin Festival. It is about an hour and a half drive. It was so windy out and then the rain came down. I have known how crazy these people are about getting their pumpkins at this farm.... rain or shine this is their annual event to go for a hay ride and visit the animals, check out the 20 vender's at this event and maybe have some lunch. And sure enough they came out, not in groves but in good numbers. This event is so well run and so fun. There were free games for the children to get out of the weather and a sandbox under cover with trucks and scoops and things. But the new thing this year was the Civil War Re-enactment team was there. There were maybe 20 people, civilians & soldiers. They did a rifle firing for us. They had their tents set up and their campfire going. It was a true step back in time.
The weather yesterday was on and off rain and then clearing, even one time the sun shone through and it was warm. Our sales were slow but that would of been expected at any market yesterday. I got home about 7:30pm, the market closed at 5pm. David was in Longview, WA and they closed down before two because they could see this one big black cloud coming and they had already had several dumpings on before. So we did about one normal farmers market sales yesterday between the both of us.
Today the whole family is going to the market in Battleground. We will load the van and leave about 9am. Today the market opens at noon but we have to be there by 11am. It runs till 5pm. The weather is suppose to be better today. My girls love the hayride and I have to admit we even get out pumpkins there (Danyel and Ali like to carve elaborately on their pumpkins). But because the Civil War guys are there we are going to dress period too. Anyway us girls. David said he'd take pictures and watch. But any chance us girls can wear our pretty dresses and hoops (only two of us have hoops) then we are on it. We will take a bowl with some garlic and dill chevre in it as a gift for the troops and deliver it in period style.
Today should prove to be a fun day at market.
We will milk at 8pm tonight, but we also started at 7pm so the goats wouldn't be to stressed out. Well got to get busy loading up and getting ready for our dress up day.