Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
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6/07: We have revamped our Ranch Workshop Packages!
In addition to our one and three-day cheese making and goat management workshops learn about our free open- house days and lodging accommodations.
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Award Winning Artisan Goat Cheeses
4 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
3 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
(available seasonally)
2 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
2 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
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Click here to read the online version of Kathryn's booklet
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This site last updated:
October 11, 2008
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Arizona Grown!
10/1/01:
We cleaned out the doe’s goat barn and yard today, taking 4 tractor loads full to the garden for compost. Weighed the goats: Trudy was 160#, Angel was 135#, Nutmeg was 90# Ordoño, was 55#, Anise was 50#. Both the milkers tested fine for mastitis. We trimmed all 7 goat’s hoofs. Guajillo’s are coming along nicely, much improved from when we got him and they were all turned in and crooked. The lumps on Choco’s and Guajillo’s necks from the vaccine are down considerable, though Choco still has a small abscess there.
Did the 1st of month chores: LPG generator oil OK @ 238 hours, generator LPG @ 29%, house LPG @ 66%, changed house water filter, power house batteries checked OK.
Made butter, a 2-gallon batch of mozzarella, cultured more thermophilic starter and canned 1 qt of pickled red jalapenos. Man-o-man that last batch was HOT, but very good.
Goat Butter
10/2/01:
Worked up at the valve house for the well today, building an insulated box around the water inlet/outlet piping from the water storage tank and doing some concrete patch work on the apron around the well head and in the generator shed there.
Worked in the orchard irrigation mains and valve area, re-grading and winterizing the valves.
We tried breeding Trudy with the buck 3 times today but while they did the dance well, they didn’t seem to connect.
10/3/01:
Took the girls up near the Barn on our AM walk so we could check over the Orchard. It’s looking very fine except for the cane fruits that never did anything all year. We are very pleased with the trees, all of which except for 2 are in great shape.
While we were walking around the Orchard, Brue, a neighbor’s black lab mix dog, came over to visit with our dogs. He gets along great with Bosco with whom he runs for miles and chases rabbits tirelessly. He pretty much leaves the goats alone and they’re not afraid to whomp him a good one if he gets too close. He and Bosco took off into the trees and soon we heard Bosco’s characteristic yipping, telling us he had found something to chase. Minutes later, he, Brue and now Roc joined in yapping, barking and growling at something. I joked to Kathryn that Brue (who regularly showed up looking like a pin cushion) was teaching Bosco how to catch a porcupine.
As it turned out that’s exactly what they were doing. Bosco came over to us a little while later with 10 or 12 quills sticking out of his mouth and lower jaw. We operated on the spot with me holding him while Kathryn pulled the buggers out. He was a good patient but we still made a bloody mess out of his chin before we were done. A soon as we released him he was off again running with his buddy none the worse for wear, but I’m betting mighty sore. We wondered if he learned anything about leaving porcupines alone from this relatively minor incident or if it had just peaked his curiosity for the next encounter. We’ll see.
We tried putting Trudy in with the buck 3 times today for breeding but she was not quite ready it seemed.
Worked several hours in the garden, re-building the herb beds for next year. Found that I had caught a bird in the rat trap I’d set for the critter who has been stealing the jalapenos.
Drove to check mail in the box out at the main road.
Removed rabbit Lucy from the bucks cage and put Reba in.
Started a new bale of hay for the girls at the evening milking.
10/4/01:
Worked on the garden: plowed under the zucchini, summer squash and acorn squash beds and continued work on the new herb beds for next year.
Made Romano cheese and Ricotta today.
Again tried breeding Trudy but we don’t think anything happened. Guajillo looked like he got close a couple of times and once started to throw his head back (supposedly a sign of completion) but Trudy arched up, knocking him off at the last second. We later found out that arching by a doe is also a sign of completion so it’s possible but we don’t give it much of a chance.
Started dog Roc on some medicine for an ear infection he has picked up.
10/5/01:
Lice powdered all the girl goats and Ordoño.
Did a major renovation on the veggie garden, using the tractor to loosen the soil down about 3’ over the whole area and spread several buckets full of good compost around for later mixing in.
Made chocolate ice cream, mac & (goat cheddar)cheese and whey bread.
Tried breeding Trudy 4 times with Guajillo but no luck.
Finally received our new satellite receiver from the Dish people and installed it. Boxed the other for return.
One year anniversary of our first trip up to the ranch from Tucson with “stuff”.
10/6/01:
Took a wonderful 6.5 mile hike with the 4 young goats (Nutmeg, Ordoño, Anise and Choco). We went South following washes and dirt roads then headed off trail, angled back toward the mesa which we followed back home.
Hikin' with the kids
Got a nice thunder storm in the evening and continue to get rain showers all evening long.
10/7/01:
Cool and overcast all day.
Goat Angel today learned how to open the back door to our house. She had been playing with the lever-type handle for several days but today she figured it out and she, along with several other goats sort-of fell into the sunroom in a pile. We hastily removed them from the house.
Made Grating cheese and did computer back-ups.
Periodic rain showers in the afternoon and evening.
One year anniversary of our 2nd trip to the ranch moving stuff.
10/8//01:
Wormed Trudy, Angel, Nutmeg, Ordoño and Anise with SafeGuard and started bringing wether Choco on our daily walks with all the other goats except Guajillo the buck. He is better about not being a total wienie about every little thing but is still quite scrawny compared to the rest of the gang and it is going to take a while for him to fit in. Today Angel and Nutmeg took turns bomping him around pretty good. He’s also not very sure on his feet especially for a goat and doesn’t really know how to play very well on rocks.
10/9/01:
The boy goats got a new bale of hay this AM.
We took a trip into Show Low today. We picked up a brand new carbonator for our soda gun set-up from the good folks at Pepsi in exchange for ours that had not been working properly. Did some shopping at Walmart, filled the truck with gas and had lunch at a Chinese buffet.
Got home and worked for several hours on installing the new carbonator. It should have been a breeze of a project with just a couple of CO2, water and electrical lines to connect but it turned into a nightmare. The new one has some kind of back-flow prevention device that was restricting the flow of water in to the point that I was afraid that we would burn out the pump motor on it before filling our first soda glass. I ended up dis-assembling the whole unit and putting it back together numerous times , testing each component for flow restrictions. I never found one but eventually it all started to flow just fine…all over the floor. One of the hose connectors had been damaged by all the on-and-offing I’d been doing with it and I had to replace it. Finally it was all back together and not leaking anywhere. Unfortunately after the flushing procedure the soda was still too flat. There must be something else wrong with the system which we’ll save to trouble shoot at some time in the future.
10/10/01:
New hay bale for the girls in the AM. Spent the day writing for a family culinary history book project I’m putting together.
10/11/01:
First frost of the season. The tomatoes, eggplants, basil and other tenders look a hit but some may live.
Fog on the mesa
Today is our 1 year anniversary of moving onto the ranch.
This is Nutmeg’s 7-month birthday. She weighs 90#. It is also Ordoño, Anise’s, and Choco’s 4-month birthdays at 60#, 55#, and 45# respectively. Guajillo weighed in at 70#.
We set the post for the new solar array we have on order. It is a 4”, schedule 40 black steel pipe, 10’ long which we set in a bunch of ranch-mix concrete in the ground about 3’ deep.
Did some tractor work at the wash smoothing the roadway from the last few rains. Also used it to repair the drainage to part of San Carlos Ln adjacent to the property. Repaired our barbed wire fence sections that had been taken down when somebody else had started work on the road.
Took rabbit Reba out of the buck’s cage.
10/12/01:
Windy today.
Did a 10-hour maintenance on the tractor @ 260 hours. Changed the oil in the big portable generator.
Did some work in the vegetable garden and filled the H2O tank at the well.
Made mozzarella cheese and also some peanut butter-chocolate chip ice cream.
Wormed Trudy for possible lung worm infection (as evidenced by a persistent dry cough) with Panacur.
10/13/01:
Another frost last night and all the remaining tender plants in the garden are likely lost.
Took a nice 6-mile hike with the 4 youngest goaties and the dogs (of course). We headed South cross country, sometimes following the wash, keeping fairly tight to the base of the mesa. For a while we were on a really nice foot path that was just beautiful. Met Rod who lives with his brother Darryl a couple of miles from us. They sell pigs and sometimes cattle from their small operation and Rod invited us to come over and see his stuff. We said we would sometime soon. We continued on our walk South for quite a ways then decided to climb to the top of the mesa. It was a beautiful view from up there looking West. We then walked to the other side of the mesa and enjoyed the view to the East. There were a lot more houses on the East side and we like our little Hay Hollow Valley better. We walked the mesa top back to the North, coming down to the valley near our ranch gates.
Took Rod up on his offer to check out their animals. They have a nice, big mule named Speedy but the pigs weren’t even going to give birth for a couple of weeks and almost all their cattle were at another location being bred so there was nothing for us to look at. We talked for a while especially about raising pigs who, we had heard, were quite difficult to raise. “Oh no.” Rod and Darryl had both said. “We don’t give them any shots or nothin’ and they’re just fine.” They had one boar and 2 sow and we asked if they sold a lot of pigs. They said they had not. “As a matter of fact we have only been able to get one of them pregnant one time. Of the 8 babies, 7 froze to death and the other got in with the boar who killed it”. It was all we could do not to laugh in front of them. So that’s what they called easy to raise? Almost made us feel like successful rabbit breeders!
10/14/01:
Worked on a list of miscellaneous projects at and around the goat barns: kid access doors, misc. hardware adjustments and installations, some winterizing.
As usual we left the goaties out to browse most of the day (even though they seem to hang out in their yard as much of the time as not). Today Choco hung out with them all day as part of the group. He’s starting to fill out a little and while he is still the brunt of frequent whacks by the others, he is taking them in stride and dishing it out almost as good as he’s taking it.
Continuing to have trouble with the new TV satellite receiver. First, K spent a long time on the phone trying to get them to admit it was just a bad unit and have them send another. Eventually a tech needed to speak with me since I knew more about the way it was hooked up. She was very terse and not willing to explain anything in less than very technical terms. She insisted that she couldn’t do any diagnostics or try any ways to fix the problems until we took it to a “known location” to see if it worked there. We finally got her to say that what the techs meant by “know location” was one where you basically unplug a working receiver and plug in the problemed one and see if the problems persist. I told her that we had just done exactly that with the other receiver we were returning to them and she got all weirded out saying that their customers were always moving the locations of the receivers around and causing cable and other problems and blaming it on the unit. I tried to explain to her that that wasn’t the case here but she got really stubborn and said that if we refused to follow her advice to take it and try it elsewhere there was nothing else she could do. I explained that it was a major trip into Show Low, the nearest dealer we knew of. She said that she showed ones in Snowflake, and Taylor and Pine Top. I said that Snowflake was closer but still a 30 minute drive and very inconvenient and wasn’t there any other way. The woman got totally indignant and virtually yelled at me into the phone “DID YOU CALL ME A SNOWFLAKE?”. I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about but said “No. Snowflake is the town where I live. You just said there was a dealer here remember?” From there it was all down hill. I don’t know what her problem was but it was obvious that there was no getting help from her.
10/15/01:
Kathryn found that rabbit Reba was hurt. Her rear legs weren’t working properly and she had not eaten last night’s food. Rabbits sometimes break their own backs when badly frightened but we couldn’t think of anything that might have scared her. We did make a bit of noise yesterday while working on the kid’s barn nearby but we didn’t think it was enough to scare them. We will baby her a bit and see if there is any improvement. We put rabbit Chesney in with the buck.
We take all the goats except the buck on walks with us every morning. Kathryn leaves their yard open after milking and they are free to go out browsing for the whole day. This morning we heard them off browsing and whistled for them to come for the walk and they all came running. It was quite a sight. We lice powdered all the goats except the buck.
My digital camera has been getting more and more difficult to use because the view finder was sticking badly. Sent it back to Kodak for cleaning today.
The replacement blender we have been waiting on for a warrantee repair since the 8th of June arrived today.
Went to town: hardware store, P.O., Val-U-Solar (for some parts for running the new wiring between the new array and the old ones), Lunch, Bank, Satellite TV store (to test of our receiver at a “known location” which seemed to have the same problem there).
Nutmeg and Choco got into a sustained head-butting bout. She is apparently in heat and extra “pissy”. They went at it until there was blood on Choco’s head. K went out to check on him and found that it was Nutmeg’s blood. She had knocked off both her little horn scurs. Choco was fine.
10/16/01:
Rabbit Reba was still unable to use her rear legs so we decided to butcher her for the dogs.
Made Mozzarella.
Worked on the new solar array set-up. We replaced the existing #10 wire between the panels and the power house with #8 wire and installed the conduit between the last existing array and the pole for the new one, running #10 wire between them. We also installed the disconnect for the new array. Still waiting on the panels and pole mount for them to arrive.
10/17/01:
We trenched and ran #12UF wire between the doe goat’s house and BuckHall, about a 150’ run. Much of the trenching was done with the tractor (we locked the goats OUT of their yard with the tractor in the yard – otherwise they like to play with the hydraulics). However about 10 feet of trenching needed to be done under the trailer, so Kathryn had to use our small camp shovel and crawl into the 18” high crawl space to dig. We then did all the wiring for lighting in the 3 rooms of BuckHall and for the chicken coop. Also installed receptacles in the BuckHall feed room and Kid’s Room where we are planning on brooding our next batch of chicks next spring.
The girls started a new bale of hay this evening.
10/18/01:
Goof-off day. We read and hung out with the goats all day.
Bosco is having some kind of intestinal problems with retching and BAD gas.
Chuck @ Val-U Solar called and said that our panels had arrived and the rack would arrive Monday (in 5 days).
10/19/01:
On our AM walks the goats generally follow us up to our house and hang around there for a while before heading back to their own house or off to browse. Today, for the first time, they detoured off as we approached the fork in the road and went off to their own place “putting themselves away”. Kathryn jokes that these browsing-walks (where they really set the pace and spend the whole time eating and exploring different plants) about starves them and they have to hurry to get back for some hay.
We discovered that buck Guajillo has somehow hurt his front left leg. A silver dollar sized area behind his knee is missing skin. It was not completely fresh and kind of a mess, possibly with an infection so we cleaned it out well and applied BluKote dressing. I walked his yard looking for what he might have gotten snagged on but found nothing suspect.
Worked in the garden.
Made Mozzarella with the addition of a mesophilic culture and some lipase to see how it effects the flavor. It came out quite a bit sharper and will make a good eating cheese for our weekend hikes.
10/20/01:
Took an excellent and interesting hike up and around a small mesa just to the south and west of the ranch. Took the 4 young goats and most of the dogs (Max decided to stay home – we think his hips are giving out on him) on this wonderfully rocky walk with lots of “boulder scrambling” opportunities. Saw lots of rabbits, a very large buck deer and were surprised by a huge bobcat who came up out of the rocks ahead of us. Bosco saw the bobcat at about the same time we did and immediately gave chase. We called him off after a couple hundred feet and he broke off pursuit and came back perfectly. We could see how a cat that size would have no trouble taking a small goat very quickly.
Choco has improved remarkably in his interactions with us and the goat herd. His climbing skills are almost up to those of the other youngsters and he obviously is enjoying the hikes more and more and is going out of his way to try more challenging and adventurous paths and trails.
10/21/01:
Worked in the garden, rototilling and prepping the rest for winter.
Did a computer backup.
Made bread.
In the evening we needed to run the LP generator to give the batteries enough of a boost to get through the night but the starter battery was almost completely dead. Had to jump start it with the truck. The generator ran just a couple of days ago and the battery should have charged then. This is our second battery in 6 months for the generator and we suspect that this one has gone bad too.
10/22/01:
Today we processed about 1/3 of the sunflowers seeds off the heads. We took down a string from where it was hanging in the unfinished room downstairs and tried various methods of getting the seeds free. The best method turned out to be taking a square milk crate and cramming it upside down over a 5-gallon bucket. K then took each head and kind-of ground it into the milk crate bottom. Most of the seeds got pushed through into the bucket below. It was messy and hard on the hands. Next time she’ll wear gloves. The seeds didn’t come out as clean as those from the store (lots of chaff and plant parts) but the goats won’t mind a bit we bet. We took some of the spent heads out for them and they munched on them like they were big crackers.
D began cross-training with K today in preparation of her leaving on a trip to KS in a week and a half, learning about all her chores (dogs, rabbits, chickens, and goats, etc.).
The LP generator almost didn’t start today with the battery acting nearly dead. It’s been running enough that it should be staying charged. It’s only a few months old but we’ll have to keep a close eye on it.
We switched Guajillo’s leg treatment from BluCote spray to a Panalog cream.
Made mozellella today.
10/23/01:
Guajillo’s leg seems much less tender today. He’s being a good patient and is letting us clean the wound and tend it twice a day. He isn’t cooperating in keeping it clean but maybe all that urine is helping in its own way.
D soloed on K’s chores today. Milking is tough! My hands are going to fall off.
K&D& Bosco went into town to pick up the long-awaited solar system components which we had been told had finally arrived. The panels were fine but upon initial inspection it looked as though they had sent the wrong rack for the panels. A closer look confirmed that the mounting was incorrect. It was supplied for a 6” pole and we had been instructed to erect a 4” pole, which we had. A series of phone calls to the supplier (Kyocera) and the manufacturer (in Albuquerque) revealed that not only was the mount incorrect but the whole rack was the wrong one for our panels. Needless to say we were incredulous. It has now been MONTHS of trying to get these components. It took over 3 weeks this last time to get these wrong parts delivered. The local owner of the solar store with whom we are working was as ticked-off as we (well, almost) and really did a fine job of pursuing the companies to get a straight answer while we waited. The upshot is that they will be sending the correct set out to him in today’s delivery and it should be here in a few days, by Friday “for sure”. No one can tell us why we had to wait so long for the wrong ones if they are able to ship so quickly. We took the panels and a few misc. parts and asked that the store not deposit our check until all the correct parts have arrived. They agreed.
While in town we also went to the feed store and to the Napa auto parts store for a replacement battery for the bad one from our LP generator. Unfortunately they were out of that size and unless we wanted to pay another $30 for an upgrade to a better battery we’d have to wait until tomorrow for their delivery. We won’t be coming into town tomorrow, of course, but we had them order it anyway and will pick it up later in the week when we (hopefully) come back for the solar components.
10/24/01:
The feed store called and told us that they were going to place their order for rabbits. We had told them we were thinking about getting some fresh stock since ours have refused to produce. They offer “white meat rabbits”. No specified breed or anything which might be just the ticket since our fancy, pedigreed, Satin does are such a bust. We went ahead and ordered one buck and one doe. Later in discussing it we decide that if they get extras we will pick-up an additional doe as well.
We went out to the area West of the buck yard where there were some felled trees and trimmed up the trunks for use by the boys in their pen as a climbing toy. Using the tractor we hefted them over the fence then arranged them in a nice pile for the guys to use. I’m sure they’ll re-arrange them to their own liking in time.
We cleaned the rabbit cages and did a burn pile.
We brought Trudy into Guajillo’s pen for an attempt at breeding and neither of them seemed very interested. As a matter of fact, Trudy seemed quite anxious to get out of the pen once she realized Guajillo was in there. Trudy should be in heat according to the calendar but she’s not showing any signs and has been know to have silent heats. Angel came into heat today but we won’t be breeding her for another couple of cycles, around the 1st of December.
K went up to the well and painted the insulated cover box we recently installed on the pipe leading out of the water tank. It’s now painted to match the rest of our structures (at least the ones we’ve gotten around to painting) in a deep shade of green we call “Black Mesa Green”.
10/25/01:
Using the tractor I brought over 6 bales of alfalfa for the goats.
We have been discussing buying a meat goat for our freezer. Since we’ve been such a failure at tagging our own goats for slaughter we figure it might be easier if we just buy a wether, ready to process from somebody else. We got the name, from the folks at the solar energy store in town, of a woman in the area who they thought had some meat goats to sell now and gave her a call. We left a message on her machine and shortly thereafter one of her daughters call back. The mom was out of town but the 2 daughters would be around in the afternoon and said we could come over to see what they had.
We headed over later and eventually found their place. They had a lot of goats as well as chickens, rabbits and other critters running around. The daughters were very nice, friendly and helpful; and we spoke for a long time. They sell their goats for $1 a pound on the hoof. They brought out a small Nubian wether and worked on getting him into the weighing harness but he was really much smaller than we had hoped for. They got out another but it too was too small (and they were also way too cute, darn it). We talked a bunch more and they mentioned that they were getting ready to castrate the 2 pigmy bucks they had in one of the pens so we took a look at them. Now those were a couple of goats definitely not too cute to butcher. They said that it takes about a month after castrating before a buck is ready for eating (the “bucky-ness” takes about that long to dissipate). We decided to get the younger of them and arranged to come back in about a month. They had been talking about their efforts in tanning some of the hides and we had mentioned that we hadn’t actually killed a goat, and really didn’t want to mess it up. We came to the agreement that we would come over there and they would show us the best way to butcher in exchange for the pelt. This will work out really well for us for another reason in that we didn’t want to bring an unknown animal home to our place and risk spreading one disease or another.
We also got to talking about the trials and tribulations we’ve had with our non-productive rabbits. They showed us theirs, all Californians, and we asked if they would consider lending one of their bucks to us for a little while to see if we could get any of our does to breed with him. They agreed without hesitation so we boxed a nice big buck up and got him set to go home with us. They invited us in to see their pack set-up for their goat and we talked for a while about making cheese. It was a very nice and productive visit.
My digital camera came back via UPS from being sent to the factory for a cleaning. They had not been able to justify cleaning it so had sent another refurbished one. It looks almost like new and seems to work just fine. One interesting thing is that it has had it’s picture counter reset and I will be starting out taking pictures from #000001 again instead of #3200 where I had been.
Trudy should be showing signs of heat around now but has not. We are thinking more strongly that she might really have “caught” with the buck on one of our attempts during her last heat and may now be pregnant. We’ll keep a close eye on her for any signs.
10/26/01:
The solar parts have arrived! Really! We took the call late morning that all of the correct components had arrived and were ready for us to pick up so we headed into town pretty much right away.
In addition to picking up the panel rack and mount and some other incidental parts at the solar place we also grabbed lunch and went to the feed store to pick up the rabbits we had ordered. They turned out to be Californians and were a bit older than we had thought they would be. That was a good thing. We had been expecting them to just be a couple of months old but they were all a little more than 4 months. That means that they are that much closer to the 6-8 month breeding age than we had been thinking. We were able to get 2 does in addition to the buck.
We also went to the auto parts store and picked up the new battery we’d ordered for the LP generator which had been failing and give them the old core.
Upon arriving home, we got all the new buns settled in (the 2 does together and the buck separate) and rearranged a couple of the other does, putting Lucy in with Paul to see if we could get them to mate now that the temperatures were cooling off some, and putting Chesney in with the borrowed California buck in his cage twice for matings.
We then started in on assembling the solar components. We started by getting out all the parts for the rack and mount and putting them all together. It had come with a ton of nuts, bolts, washers and other little pieces of hardware but even though there were no instructions included it was easy to see the proper configuration (since we could just look up at the 2 sets already in service right above us) and the assembly went smoothly and quickly. We set the mount onto the post we had set weeks ago (fit like a charm) then heaved, hoisted and wrangled the rack assembly into position on the mount. Everything went beautifully and soon we were ready to begin mounting the panels.
The panels came with their own mounting hardware and in no time we had the first one loosely positioned on the rack. Standing in the bed of the truck K held it while I fastened it from behind into the frame with nuts and bolts. Once about in the right place we set the next one adjacent to it and loosely fastened it and then proceeded up the rack, installing all 8. We then made sure everything was properly aligned and tightened it all down.
The panels all came in nice big flat cardboard boxes which we soon learned are irresistible to goats. While we were working hard we were constantly distracted by them going to town on the boxes. They started off by just stomping around on them and making the nice pile K had made slide all over the place but then they decided to try and eat them. They would drag them all over and rip off sizable chunks and throw them to the breeze. Soon the dogs were helping and it was a real free-for-all with goats and dogs and boxes flying everywhere. It’s going to take us weeks to pick up all the mess they made but darned if they weren’t so cute doing it all.
Upgrading the system
Next came wiring the panels together. K worked on building the lengths of Liquid-Tite and attaching the correct fittings on each end and also cutting the lengths of wire to pull though them, building little sheathed cables for me to run between all the panels and from the panels to the disconnect box we had previously mounted on the pole. As soon as she got a good start I began installing the cables and making all the connections in the weather-proof interface boxes that came mounted on the back of each panel. Each set of 4 panels were wired in series to provide the 48-volt output we needed to match our system then the two sets of 4 were wired in parallel to the disconnect. We were again fortunate that we could just refer to the wiring which had been done on the other two arrays as a check of our own work. The wiring took quite a bit longer than we had thought it would but it went smoothly as could be. After a final check of all connections we buttoned up the WP boxes and finalized all the connections to the other arrays. We had re-wired the disconnect of one of the other arrays which we felt had been done incorrectly so that now each disconnect only disconnects the power for it’s own array, not all the ones before it too.
Naturally, by the time we were finishing up it was getting dark. No chance to see how the panels will effect our power generating today. We recorded the generator and LPG statistics for future use in judging how the new array changes their usage.
10/27/01:
This is our first day with our new solar array in service. It should increase our potential solar generating power by half again but unfortunately the morning was overcast and it was cloudy all day. As the sun tried to fight its way through at around 7:30 AM we checked the read-outs in the power house and found that we were not producing anything significantly more than we would have expected without the new array. Worried that there was something wrong with our installation, we tested the readout by pulling the disconnect for the new array. To our surprise it cut the input by almost ½. This really didn’t make sense. A bit later we tried it again and the same thing happened. This time we also tried removing all the other disconnects one at a time. By doing this we discovered that the center array had not been contributing at all to the power input. As it turned out we had not completely snapped the disconnect back in correctly after doing all our work yesterday. Once that minor mystery was solved and rectified the power generation was increased as we had hoped and the new array showed itself to be contributing just as it should have. It will be more fun to watch on sunnier days but even on cloudy days it will be helping our overall power situation.
We discovered that Blackie, a chicken had prolapsed her vent. Apparently this is not all that uncommon and there is no real fix for it. There are a few treatments of which we tried several, including putting on a cream to help reduce swelling and physically pushing the prolepses back inside the bird but our efforts failed and she died. We buried her in the cemetery near the barn.
I filled the water tank today.
We put both Chesney and Sage rabbits in with the borrowed California buck for breeding but the outcome was indeterminate.
We have decided that if we can find a good enough price for alfalfa hay from a dealer in the Phoenix area that it might be worth me driving down there with the truck and trailer to pick K up from the airport upon her return from her trip to KS 11/7/01 and also get a couple of tons of hay and do some other shopping. I called a dealer in Buckeye whose name we got from the lady we bought our goats from but the man I needed to speak with wasn’t there.
10/28/01:
I discovered a pretty cool web site last night. It is a US Geologic Survey site which allows you to plot either a map or see an aerial photo of just about anywhere in the USA. After much work I was able to download a set of aerial photos of our whole ranch and some of the surrounding area. The satellite photos ,which were taken in 1997 I think are pretty detailed. You can even make out the abandoned cars around on the property (most of which we’ve gotten buried now), the orchard and barn area and clearly make out all of the buildings and other structures.
We found that dog Roc has some kind of injury or something on one of his hips. It’s similar to an abscess, very swollen but also like a skin rash or other irritation. We shaved the area and will put him on a twice daily dose of a topical cream to see how it reacts.
We put the rabbits Sage and Chesney both in with borrowed buck twice today for breeding.
We went on a nice long walk with the goats up the mesa in search of interesting Indian pottery shards for K to bring with her on her trip to KS to give to her relatives.
Today we passed the 250-gallon mark for milk production for the goat herd.
10/29/01:
Since all of the rabbit does seem to be getting along well with the new borrowed California buck we decided that we would try leaving them in with him for extended stays. This morning we put Chesney in with him.
Did a bunch of cooking today including making mozzarella cheese, butter (got 3.5# from 1 gallon of cream), white chocolate ice cream, and whey bread.
After doing some research on goat saddles and packs for Ordoño we settled on a “kit” from N.W. Pack Goats and ordered it online. It will come with the saddle unfinished, needing sanding and paint/stain/oil etc but the pannier set looks perfect for our (eventual) usage and the price was right. Ordoño still has several months before it will even fit him, let alone for him to be able to carry any weight but, we thought we might try it on one of the other goats just to see how it worked and to get everybody used to it. We also ordered a book on goat packing.
I opened another Gouda I’d made a couple of months ago and it was NASTY. It stunk pretty bad and was rubbery as all get out. In other words it was about the same as the last two I made. At least I’m consistent. If I can figure out what I’m doing wrong and fix it the good ones should be consistent too. I cut it up to use for dog “treats”, they loved it.
10/30/01:
The last few days have been at least partly cloudy and it looks like the generator will definitely be running today so we decided to equalize the batteries when it does. In conjunction with that I smoked a bunch of chicken legs and thighs and they came out FINE.
Spent a good deal of time today working on this year’s BestToffee holiday flyer for mailing. We’ll be changing the name of the business to “Black Mesa Candy”.
We took rabbit Chesney out of the buck’s pen in the morning and put Sage in this evening.
Little wether goat Choco now regularly hangs out and browses with the does and Ordoño during the day. He heads over first thing in the morning when K lets him out after milking, takes the walk with all of us, stays with the doe herd all day then goes back in with buck Guajillo at evening milking time. He has become much more sure of himself and has greatly improved his physical bearing, stamina and agility with the added challenges he has been facing. Guajillo takes it all pretty well but does vocalize his complaints if the doe’s herd strays off too far from where he can keep an eye on them.
10/31/01:
Worked on the toffee flyer more today and did a bit on the web page.
Made some more calls to places in Phoenix about hay and found a place that sounded like it had what we wanted at a decent price. I’ll now plan on heading down to pick up K there Wednesday when her plane from KS arrives then picking up a couple of tons of hay before heading back home.
Took rabbit Sage out of the bucks pen this evening.
No Trick-or-Treaters tonight- surprise, surprise! Guess we'll have to eat all that candy we bought ourselves.