Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
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Award Winning Artisan Goat Cheeses
4 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
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(available seasonally)
2 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
2 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
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This site last updated:
October 11, 2008
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Arizona Grown!
Little goat Anise learns to drives the tractor
Tuesday, January 01, 2002
HAPPY NEW YEARS!
We celebrated by doing some more 1st of month chores including equalizing our battery bank. With the generator running we took advantage of the extra power and smoked pork ribs and some chicken. For our holiday meal we had shrimp cocktail, baked ham, sweet potato (one of them exploded spectacularly in the oven while baking them), scalloped potatoes, Brussel sprouts, rolls and cream puffs for dessert.
Exploding Yams!
3rd dose of Biomycin 200 to rabbit Chesney and lanced and drained her feet again.
Wednesday, January 02, 2002
Fog shrouds the Mesa
Did the first of month check of the LPG generator fluids and hours. Check all battery electrolyte levels and found 6 slightly low. This is the first time we have had to add water to any since we installed them. I recorded which batteries were low to see if the same ones need filling next time. Hydro Caps wearing out? Other problem?
Gave rabbit Chesney a dose of mesophilic culture to help her digestive system restart after the antibiotics.
Waxed 2 cheddars which have been drying in the fridge for several weeks.
Thursday, January 03, 2002
Gave rabbit Chesney second dose of mesophilic culture to help her digestive system restart after the antibiotics.
Went to town: feed store, grocery, lunch, PO. We learned that the air shuttle service from Show Low to Phoenix has been reinstated. Apparently they are not fully in operation “We just need a couple more papers from the FAA”, but they said that they were running a plane down whenever somebody wanted a flight. The cost is $99.
It's another tequila sunset
Friday, January 04, 2002
D’s sister Cynthia arrived for a visit from Florida. A friend of hers who lives in Show Low, and who was in Phoenix on business, picked her up from the airport and delivered her to our door. They arrived about 6PM.
Today goat Angel slightly hurt her leg going down the front house stairs.
Saturday, January 05, 2002
Angel’s leg seems fine today.
We cleaned out the goat barn with Cynthia’s help. She drove the tractor and brought the loads of soiled bedding over to the garden for composting.
Cynthia does some tractor work
We also weighed all the goats: Trudy = 160#, Angel = 125#, Nutmeg = 97#, Anise = 70#, Ordoño = 75#, Choco = 60#, Guajillo = 82#. We are weigh taping them a little differently which most likely accounts for the slight decrease, across the board, in weights. CMT tests on the milkers was all clear. K trimmed all the hoofs while C kept the ones not in the stall entertained.
Cynthia with the goats
Separated cream from milk, made coffee ice cream and mozzarella cheese.
Sunday, January 06, 2002
Played around with Cynthia today but also got the bucks pen better secured against goats getting there heads stuck in the fence. Ordono had gotten his horns stuck a couple of times and even though we had wired up the most offensive sections there was still the chance that he would have problems elsewhere. We had bought a roll of 4’ chicken mesh and cut enough of in half length-wise so we could now J-clip the mesh around the whole perimeter at head height.
K gave goat buck Guajillo a bath.
Made 2 big poppy seed rolls and a pizza with yesterday’s mozzarella.
Monday, January 07, 2002
Took a big hike up the mesa today with Cynthia, all the goats and dogs.
Cynthia on top of the mesa, BMR below in the distance
Also took a shorter one up behind the houses for some petrified wood and Anasazi pot shard hunting. In very strange occurrence, K found a very unique piece of petrified wood. It was a neat cross-section piece, about 1 ½” in diameter and ½” thick that had been snapped in half (so it was ½ moon shaped), showing a very interesting grain on the edge of the break. Much later, and several hundred feet away D thought he’d found it again, probably after it had fallen out or her pocket. It turned out that she hadn’t lost it and D had found the mating other half!
LPG delivery today.
We got news that Ford, the PB black German Shepherd we are probably getting from a Tucson friend Glenda’s son will be flying into Phoenix on 1/18/02! Glenda and another Tucson friend Martha will be picking him up and bringing him up here that night. We are very excited about meeting Ford and making him part of the family.
Tuesday, January 08, 2002
Took a trip into Show Low with Cynthia: We first took an interesting historic house tour in Snowflake then met with C’s friend and had Mexican lunch before going to her friend’s house on the way South. We also went to Wal-Mart, and the PO on the trip.
K found that rabbit Lucy had apparently been in quite a fight and that her face has been badly ripped open. We gave her a special place in which to hide and recuperate and will continue to monitor her progress.
Wednesday, January 09, 2002
K noticed that one of our California rabbits, the buck has a scratched up face. Maybe he was the one fighting Lucy? Or maybe they both got into a scrap with somebody else.
We took Cynthia to the livestock auction in Holbrook today.
At the Holbrook Auction
This was a totally new experience for all of us. The auction is held every Wednesday and kicks off around noon with previewing beforehand. It took a while to figure out how the auction worked as some of the animals were sold by the head and some by the hundredweight. General prices were in the $500-600 range per cow but one large one who had been damaged in transport by a horn to her eye (very gory) went for $12 for the whole thing! We kicked ourselves for not bringing up our livestock trailer with us. Next time (and there will certainly be a next time) we will be better prepared and our freezer will be stocked with beef for a year.
We then went to lunch at a Mexican place in Holbrook, did a little window shopping at some petrified wood and rock shops and then back down to Snowflake where we stopped in at the Antiques store/ ice cream parlor for a couple of milk shakes.
We had intended to fill the water tank today but before we got up there to do it we ran completely out of water. This is a very bad thing because even though we caught it before the pressure pump ran too long or overheated it means that there is an awful lot air in the 2” line down from the water tank to the house we need to get bled off. It also means that the new incoming water from the well into the tank will stir up all kinds of muck from the bottom of the tank, making the water look really gross and clog our whole-house filter fast. We filled the tank at the well and did the best we could to bleed off air from the line by opening the outside yard hydrant but no matter what we did the pressure pump still kept getting air-locked. It was very frustrating but we limped through the rest of the day with marginal water quantity (not to mention that it was thick and red from picking up all the clay in the tank).
Thursday, January 10, 2002
Cynthia departed today. She took the bus shuttle from the NAPA auto parts store in Snowflake to the bus depot in Phoenix, then got her self to the airport from there. She is headed to Las Vegas for a day before returning home to Sarasota FL.
K has been doing some investigating of Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs) for use in goat herd protection. Her research has led us to the thinking that one might work really well for us in our situation. We have become increasingly worried about the goats being out all day browsing with nobody watching them. To us it sounds like the Anatolian breed of dog would be best suited to our needs but all her information has lead to the conclusion that good ones are WAY expensive. She has found one breeder in central Texas who has a very good web page, with very detailed information on how he breeds, raises and trains his dogs. His philosophies are right in line with the way we like to work with our dogs too. Unfortunately he sells his Anatolian puppies (after a long waiting list) for $1000! Even if we could justify the expense it would still mean up to 2 years of training to get one up to full working capacity. If we need one at all, we need one NOW!
Kathryn had written a man named Erick (the breeder with the good web site) an email thanking him for such a good sight and asking if he knew of any comparably competent breeder closer to our area. Today he responded in a very nice and detailed email. He said that did not know of any breeders at all near us but it sounded like he might have a dog that would work for us. It was a 4-year old, proven livestock-safe, fully trained dog by the name of Blue. Blue was currently working full-time with Erick’s goat herd but he was down-sizing the herd and already had more dogs than he needed for the goats he had. Blue was Erick’s pick-of-the–litter from another breeder but he didn’t have one of the temperamental qualities that Erick looks for in that he is too people-friendly. Erick said he would possibly sell us the dog for $350 so now we need to learn some more and see how we might get Blue out here best if we think he’ll work out.
Anatolian Shepard "Blue"
We continue to have difficulties with getting the water pressure pump to work correctly and have to repeatedly go down, unscrew its pressure gauge to bleed off trapped air. It runs for an excessively long time to get water past the airlock which also wastes a good deal of power.
Friday, January 11, 2002
Dog Roc went to the vet in town this AM for his appointment to get his annual shots and have a weird place on his hip examined. The Doc called it a “benign, sebaceous cyst” and said no treatment was necessary unless it began to give Roc a lot of trouble down the road someday.
Brought 3 bales of hay, a barrel of beans and a barrel of wheat form the barn to the goat houses.
The water pressure pump is still acting funny so we tried doing a big bleed of the 2” water line from the well tank by opening the valve to the irrigation line in the garden. It flushed out a dead mouse, a bunch of really nasty and smelly water and a few air pockets before we quit. It didn’t seem to help the pump any. I took the whole house filter apart , cleaned everything and reassembled it several times while trying to run the pump. It still didn’t work and kept getting air-locked. We always had water. But it took so long to pump that it was completely wasteful of our precious power.
In today’s mail was a $32 credit from Gurney’s Nurseries. This was a nice surprise bonus because they had said that they were not going to honor their warrantees after their bankruptcy reorganization. I guess that scathing letter I send them might have actually done some good after all.
Saturday, January 12, 2002
BUNNIES! We have nests full of little baby bunnies! These are the first live rabbit births we have seen here since starting with rabbits nearly 9 month ago. We were alerted to something being different when we noticed that the entry hole to several of their nest boxes had been piled up with debris in front, effectively sealing them off. We thought that maybe there had been some dead ones born and that was their way of burying them or that something else might be wrong. We had also noticed that several of the female rabbits had taken to spending most of their time on top of the boxes, just hanging out. We removed the covering branches from 2 of the nest boxes in order to be able to lift them up. To our great surprise and delight, in each box, we saw a neat little fur-lined nest full of squiggling babies! They were very hard to count but we guessed that there were about 18 kits between the 2 nests. There was one other nest that we could tell that there were NOT bunnies in but there were 2 other boxes we were unable to check which might have litters in them as well. Not knowing much about bunny development we guessed, by the fact that their eyes were still all closed and from the earliest date that they could have mated (12/6/01, the first day of “colonization”) that they were about a week old. According to what we have read, they should begin emerging on their own from the nests in another week of so.
It was a beautiful day out today with afternoon temps nearly 75°F. so we took the opportunity to do some reading out in the sunshine.
I placed a couple of gardening supply orders today with Gurney’s and Shepherd’s.
Sunday, January 13, 2002
We were able to get in and check another rabbit nest today and it was empty but the last one we can’t get to looks probable for another litter! 3 litters in all with maybe 25 or so babies! No telling how many will survive to maturity but just having live births is such a big step for us we are probably unduly excited. We feel like our decision to convert to the colony-style set-up has been a rousing success.
Filled the water tank at the well again in hopes that keeping it as full as possible will help to force the remaining air pockets through the lines. The pressure pump in the house is still acting up but it seems like every time it does there is less and less air making the blockage. It’s just as irritating and wasteful of energy but we have hopes that maybe it will soon resolve itself.
The weather with temps again in the lower 70’s, made it nice for reading outside again today for a while.
Did computer back ups and also some gardening spreadsheet work.
Monday, January 14, 2002
Started off the day going to the orchard to do some measurements for doing the 2002 Orchard plan and drawing.
While I was out there K fielded a series of phone calls and faxes regarding the closing on our sale of an apartment building in Tucson. Things had come together all at the last minute and because of the buyer’s need to handle it under a section 1031 tax-deferred exchange everything ended up having to be done today and needed to be back in Tucson all signed and notarized by the day after tomorrow. This presented some problems in that even next-day deliveries and FedEx routes don’t get things between here and there in a single day. We ended up imposing on the realtor who sold us this property and got her to help coordinate a series of plain-paper faxes to her office in Show Low where we could pick them up. She further arranged for a nearby title company to be expecting us to help finalize the closing paperwork and do the necessary notarizing.
We took the opportunity of having to go into Show Low to put together a little “care package” of ranch-smoked meats (goat ribs and home-grown chicken) a goat roast and some other goodies for K to send to her folks in Arkansas. We had previously learned that Wal-Mart carried dry ice and K had called the PO to check o if there were any special regulations for shipping with dry ice (they said there were none), so we got all our packing stuff together and headed south.
Our first stop was at the Wal-Mart for the dry ice. We were able to package it all up on the tail gate of the truck while sitting in the parking lot. We then rushed over to the PO in order to get there in time to make their closing time. The line was interminably long but it moved quickly. At least until it came to our turn. The woman who we ended up with seemed totally flummoxed by our request to send the package. K told her of the conversation with the Snowflake PO folks who said there was no problem sending it but she fussed and fumes and finally disappeared in the back to find a supervisor. She reappeared 10 minutes later with a bunch of Xeroxed copied of postal regulations governing sending packages with dry ice. She had no clue what any of it meant and kept pointing to it saying “it’s all in there”. Well we read through it and thought that it was pretty clear that we really didn’t have to do anything special except mark it as dry ice. Things got really confusing when she went back to the supervisor, came back with more papers that seemed to now say that we needed some special DOT label for it. Naturally, the PO didn’t have any of the stickers that they were now requiring us to put on there. Time was running out for us to be able to get to the real estate office and the title company and to the FedEx drop box in time to get it all done so the papers could get to Tucson on time so we opted to send it by ground. It was a risk that it wouldn’t get there still cold enough to be good, but it is winter and everything was frozen solid and there was plenty of dry ice in an insulated container so we gave it a shot. As it turned out we way misjudged how long it was going to take and when it did finally show up in AR it was all spoiled rotten.
We then went to the real estate company and picked up the paper, hustled over to the title company where they were expecting us and helped us through the closing documents. They even gave us copies of everything for our records and the most amazing thing…nobody would charge us for anything, not for all the faxes or the notary work or the copies!
We took all our officially signed papers to the shopping center “where the Safeway used to be” and found the FedEx drop box, got it all ready to send off and deposited it as directed then headed home, stopping for gas for the truck on the way.
Tuesday, January 15, 2002
Major wind last night, so much that the batteries were 100% fully charged when we got up this morning well before the sun hit the panels. It kept up so K called a “winded in” day denoting an enforced goof-off day.
We did some work on personal finances and budgeting for the coming year.
Wednesday, January 16, 2002
We have been conversing via email with Erick, the Anatolian dog breeder in TX about getting Blue from him. He decided to have him neutered before we get him and today we got word that his surgery is over, it was a success and he is doing fine. Erick chose to have the vet do a laser surgery which, though costs a bit more, is safer and less traumatic on the dog. We are still looking at the various options for getting Blue here including having him air-shipped into Phoenix, having me drive out to get him or maybe some combination. We have set the time frame of 1/23/02 to 1/25/02 for picking him up.
We found out that the closing on the apartment building in Tucson didn’t happen as it was supposed to. Apparently there was some kind of a hold up on one of the related simultaneous closings the buyers were conducting. The buyers are unsure if they will be able to get an extension for the 1031 exchange to get the bug worked out of the other deal or not. If they can get the extension, it will close tomorrow. If they can’t, they will have to redefine the property used in the exchange and it will delay things at least a month.
Thursday, January 17, 2002
The Sears repair man showed up and mostly fixed the door handle by replacing it. He said that another part needed to be ordered and he would just have it UPS’d to us directly.
Today is the first day that the water pressure pump at the house has worked normally since we accidentally ran the supply tank out of water. We have been battling a never-ending series of air-locks in the pump for 9 days.
We had been planning on having a prime rib celebration dinner tonight in honor of the closing on the sale of the Tucson Apartment building but it has now been postponed for at least another month. In thinking about it, we realize that the ongoing payments under the current situation is actually better financially for us then getting the lump sum from the closing and having to invest it at the current low interest rates. We decide that a celebration is still truly in order and enjoy our meal greatly.
Friday, January 18, 2002
Finished the garden plan for the coming season.
2002 garden plan and some over-wintering plants in the house
In anticipation of the arrival of Ford the PB black German Shepherd dog we are getting and with our friends Martha and Glenda from Tucson bringing him up from the airport in Phoenix we work most of the day on getting the house ready for company. Ford is scheduled to arrive at the Phoenix airport at about 9:30 PM from Pennsylvania. M&G will be picking him up directly and then heading up here straight away. They say to expect them at 2 AM Saturday but we figure it will be closer to 3AM.
We get a call from them from the airport that Ford has arrived in good condition and spirits and they are on their way. We go to bed and set the alarm for 2AM.
Saturday, January 19, 2002
Martha and Glenda arrive with our new dog Ford at a little after 3 AM this morning. Ford is a beautiful dog, bigger than we had been expecting which is just great. Everybody is pretty jazzed so we stay up for a while, talk, have some hot cocoas before retiring for the rest of the night.
Glenda and Martha (right) with "Ford"
After getting up a the more decent hour of 7AM we do our morning chores and spend the rest of the day working/playing with Ford, managing introductions to all the dogs (they are actually all quite cool and well behaved right from the start). We later gave him his first very controlled introductions to our goats.
"Ford" learning about the Ranch and goats
He will soon be expected to be able to run freely with them without being a threat or even minor annoyance to them. We got a ways to go for that.
We checked on the baby bunnies and find that the ones in the one nest we can get to have grown tremendously to 3 or 4” in length but none have their eyes open yet.
Baby Bunnies!
We think we may have guessed their age to be a little old the first time we saw them. One of the California does was quite aggressive to me while I was opening the nest. She charged my hand and bit it (gloved fortunately) and scratched madly at my arms and feet. We were pleased to note her protectiveness.
Sunday, January 20, 2002
Martha and Glenda departed today. Ford got to run free, off-leash for the first time (though not with access to any goats yet). He is incredibly smart and eager to please so training him to our way of operating should go smoothly and quickly.
Monday, January 21, 2002
This morning we found that little goat Anise was unable to stand up on her own. When she tries to get up or walk she staggers and falls to the ground. We try to compile a list of symptoms and signs and sent this email out to the goat world chat groups to try to get ideas about what we were dealing with:
This AM we went to the goat barn to find a 70 lb., 7-month old doe unable to stand. Eventually she did get up on very wobbly legs and staggered a few dozen feet, then collapsed. She was quivering all over but especially in her rear half.
We brought her into a warmed space and over 30 minutes she showed good interest in food. Her temp is 101.2° F, and she is in no obvious pain. We did a brief skeletal check and could find no indication of trauma. We were unable to get a pulse (our fault, not hers). Her sight seems fine.
She became agitated and we took her outside where she stood for a huge pee which looked and smelled normal in every way. She then pooped, also completely normally. A few seconds later she lightly spasmed and fell down on the frozen ground. I assisted her up and she moved freely for a couple of minutes before craning her head all around and falling again. She tried to crawl under a shed building but when my wife brought out the hay for the others she got up and trotted, almost normally, over to the feed rack and stood, shaking only slightly and ate well.
Suddenly her legs gave out again and she fell on her back, kicking and shivering. I assisted her up again and she bawled (not in pain but in indignation I think) then pushed another goat out of the way to get back to the food. She fell again and we brought her into the house where she is now.
She has refused the electrolyte so far but seems strong, and alert. We have a vet appointment for late this afternoon but he is not a goat specialist vet and we wanted the groups input.
In summary:
Doe, 7 month old, 70 lbs., with leg weakness, uncoordinated movement, shivering, no pain, temp of 101.2, Respiration of 35-50 erratic, vision OK, pulse unknown, slight clear nasal discharge when she sneezed just once and there are some slight nasal sounds when she breathes, Rumen action undetermined (shivering too hard to tell) but we think there is none, circulation seems fine, no signs of anemia, .
All the goats are on free browse during the day and are put up with a little alfalfa hay at night. All goats are on a daily vitamin supplement regime of Red Cell (she is getting 2 tsp. Per day mixed in ½ cp of COB). We started a new bale hay yesterday. The other 6 goats are fine. We are in the mountains of Eastern-Central AZ and the nighttime temps have been in the 20’s. We do not have sheep, nor have there been any new livestock introductions or farm visitors for sometime.
Any ideas of what we are dealing with, and suggested courses of action would be appreciated.
Thanks,
David
Black Mesa Ranch, AZ
We got several good responses with most people leaning towards a goat polio caused by a thiamin deficiency. We got a vet appointment for this afternoon (which we thought was amazing on a Monday holiday to even have a vet opened) and tried to keep her comfortable until we left.
Kathryn nurses sick Anise
The vet was running behind (we had a 2:15 appointment and got in after 3:45) but did see him eventually. By the time we got in, Anise was doing a little better. She was able to stand weakly and actually walk around a little. She walked herself into the examine room. The Doc seemed dismissive of the polio idea and said that, of all the things he could come up with, it was most likely tetanus but didn’t really think it was because all Anise’s CDT vaccinations were up to date. In other words he had no idea. He said it could have been an encephalitis (swelling of the brain) related to an unknown trauma. He basically decided to treat the symptoms, giving her a shot of dexamethasone mixed with a penicillin. We will need to administer 3 more penicillin shots over the next 3 days since the dex will shut her immunity system down for awhile.
On a happier note, dogs Ford and Bosco have become inseparable friends, running all over like the wind and pal-ing around everywhere together.
Tuesday, January 22, 2002
Early this AM (4:15 AM to be precise) D left for the hill country of Texas to pick up our new LGD Blue. Driving straight through with only stops for gas and a pit stop in Las Cruces NM to go to a bank, I made the ~920 mile trip safely arriving at about 8:30 PM local time, about 16 hours after leaving. One note of interest was that there is now a huge wind farm in the west Texas desert between Ft. Stockton and Ozona with hundreds, if not thousands of gigantis wind generators arranged along the mesa tops for miles and miles .
West Texas wind farm
I called Eric upon arriving and got direction to his place and arranged to meet with him between 8-9AM tomorrow. Try as I did I couldn’t find the place. I knew I was close but the directions and my map didn’t jive with the roads I found marked so I gave up around 10PM and just pulled the truck off the road and slept in the cab for the night. It was a moist and balmy 67°F all night.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (always wanted to say that!) K was nursing Anise back to health. She was actually standing on her own this morning and eating and drinking well. Her walking gait was more of a lurch but she was getting around. K gave her a shot of penicillin. And kept an eye on her the whole day.
Wednesday, January 23, 2002
D awoke at about 6:30 local time in central TX to a very humid and gray morning. After a brief road-side constitutional I tried again to find Erick’s place but gave up after about 30 minute. I was definitely close but my map was useless. I was fortunate enough to see a man working in his driveway and asked him for help finding the address. He was at a total loss saying that he’d been there for 6 years and had never heard of that street. It was close to 7:30 local so I decided to give Erick a call and the man lent me his phone. I think I woke Erick but he was good enough to speak with the man in the driveway and between them they figured out how I needed to go to get there. I thanked the man and was off. I found the road within a minute or two (it had been mislabeled on my map) and within 5 minutes I was parked near Erick’s gate. It was about 7:45 AM. Erick didn’t arrive until after 9 AM but the wait gave me a good chance to observe his dogs in action, how they interacted, how they reacted to a potential threat (me?) and how they treated the goats they were with. I was observing a group of 6 dogs and about the same number of older, horned goats.
Some of Eric's Anatolians
When Erick arrived he introduced me to the dogs in a way to show I wasn’t a threat and we went to let Blue out of the horse trailer where he had been cloistered to recuperate from his surgery. Blue was immediately friendly to me, very out-going as opposed to the other dogs who were more aloof. This was the characteristic that Erick didn’t care for and one of the reasons he was willing to part with the dog. Erick showed me around his place which is a lovely 50-acre piece with a stream and studded with pecan trees and we talked about Blue and LGDs in general. I asked him a series of questions that K had come up with to smooth Blue’s transition into our family.
Eric's ranch
We did the financial part of our transaction and found that Erick did not have the proper papers to do the pedigree registration transfer but he said he knew the secretary of the Club and would get it expedited if possible. I had the opportunity to observe the other side to Blue’s personality when a neighbor’s dog got too close for him. He immediately went from happy-go-lucky Mr. Friendly dog to protector mode. It was very quick and decisive. I think he is going to be a great guardian for our goats.
Erick offered to take me to lunch at a little family restaurant not too far away and we went off for some authentic central Texas cooking but not before Blue figured out how to get into my bags retrieve the dog food I’d hidden in there and help himself to 2/3rds of the 3-day supply. Guess I’ll be making plenty of pit stops for the dog en route. After lunch I called K at about 11:45 MST and let her know I was on my way back.
We drove, putting as many miles as we could behind us while taking lots of rest stops. I was pretty tired and Blue was unschooled in car riding and bladder control but we got through with no accidents of any kind. I had dinner at a rib place in Ft Stockton TX and then pushed on to Las Cruces NM before pulling off the highway for a few hours sleep at about 10PM MST.
Meanwhile back at the ranch , again, K observed that little injured goat, Anise, was eating but not her grain or BOSS like normal in the morning. By evening milking time she was back to eating grain just fine but Ordoño threw a “temper tantrum” over all the special attention Anise was getting. It all started because, rather than having the goats take all their normal, individual turns in the milk room, K had allowed Anise in first and let her stay in for the whole time while everybody else took their turns. He perceived this as quite preferential (which, of course, it was). When Anise was finally let out of the milk room Ordoño tried to show his superiority with a little humpy-bump on her. K then got everybody into the stall room, where she gives them their alfalfa pellets, Ordoño then ran up their shelter-ramp so he was eye-to-eye with Kathryn, paraded back and forth across the top of the little 2x4 half wall and fussed at her, apparently saying “Hey, look at me, I’m special too”. K got him some special treats and gave him some special loving and really showed him who was boss!
K saw a bunch of baby bunnies running around in the chicken house today, first time we’ve seen any out of the nest. They were all white and she said that 8 of the 11 she saw were from the 3rd nest, the one we had never opened up to look at.
She saw a coyote hanging around very close to the girls goat house in the afternoon. D had better get his butt here with that LGD!
The ranch got about 2” of snow today.
A bit of snow at BMR
Thursday, January 24, 2002
D awoke at around 4 AM, did another quick roadside wake-up regime and hit the road for home again. I stopped in Silver City NM at 6 AM MST to call and let K know where I was and hit a coffee shop for some high test and a plate of biscuits and sausage gravy then, it was back on the road. K had warned me about the snow she had gotten at the ranch and I had been listening to some regional weather on the way up from Las Cruces. The general consensus was that the storm which had spread a little of the white stuff around was gone and things would be nice and clear, if cold for the next few days. I encountered snow on the road almost immediately after leaving Silver City and, as it turned out, ran into road conditions from wet, to icy to packed snow to virtually unplowed from there all the way home. The driving was much slower than I had hoped, especially for this late in the trip, but there were no mishaps. I stopped for a break in Springerville AZ, gassed up, fed Blue the rest of his food and tried to call K but the line was busy 3 different times. We stopped again in St Johns to call but it was still busy. Tried to find a phone in Concho but couldn’t. It was just past Concho, supposedly just 30 miles or so from home, where I made a wrong turn which took me about an extra 15 miles out of my way before I realized it , then had to back track to get on the road I needed. Argh! I did finally arrive home safe and sound at about 12:30 PM. K pointed out the spectacular ice sculptures on the truck’s sides and wheel wells.
Finally - Home with "Blue"
After arriving we introduced Blue to his new goat family. He seemed to be quickly accepted. Poor guy was a little shocky from all the driving (me too I guess) and was in no condition to much more than sleep so we just shut him in the pen with the goats and went into the house. Our plan is to keep him segregated with them for a couple of weeks so he bonds well. We will, beginning tomorrow, introduce the dogs to him one at a time through the fence so he can get used to them.
Our plans were not to work out. Within a few minutes of leaving him in the pen we saw him out patrolling around the south side of the goats house, well outside the fence. We have no idea how he got out of the 5’ high enclosure. He seemed content to not run off and soon settled down into a watchful pose near the house. We decide that he’s not trying to escape but that the pen is just too small for him to feel he is able to provide the necessary safety perimeter and we tend to agree so we brought the goats out and took a nice easy walk with Blue and all the goats (except the buck) around the whole goats pen area, then left them all out to browse for a while. Blue stays close to the goats, but closer to where ever we are.
K saw lots of little bunnies running around in the chicken house. D has yet to see any outside the nest boxes. They seem to be out very early in the AM and get “put away” during the day.
We put Blue away with the girls in hopes that he would settle down with them for the night.
Friday, January 25, 2002
Last night we heard Blue out barking, starting around midnight. And found that he was again out patrolling. D took him back to the pen again. In the morning we found him eagerly awaiting our appearance on the back porch so we gave up for now, figuring he is well bonded at least with David and probably knows how to do his job best.
We did all of the dog introductions, up close and personal with Blue this morning and it all went better than we could have even hoped for. It was so encouraging that we decided to go on a short walk around the goats area and even were able to take Ford off-leash for a while with no mishaps. Ford still requires constant supervision around the goats though.
In the afternoon we spotted an unknown domestic dog approaching the ranch from the mesa to the east. Blue saw it right away and tore off, chasing it. There was no fight so I guess the other dog backed down and left. We didn’t see it again.
The snow is almost completely melted from the little storm a couple of days ago.
We experienced trouble with the LPG generator this afternoon. We fired it up just to charge up its little starter battery but it shut down almost instantly with an “Over-speed” indicator light. Repeated attempts gave the same results. The manual says that if that indicator is given then the only thing to do is call for service (no user serviceable suggestions)I tried to call a service tech but it was Friday at a little before 5 PM, but everybody was closed. I called our local solar installation guy, who we know installs this brand, but he only works with a different line and is not familiar enough with it to help much. He doesn’t do any repairs to the units at all.
Saturday, January 26, 2002
Blue began barking at about 2:30 AM this morning at something that really was bugging him. We could hear some coyotes very far away and our big old owl was hooting up a storm but we don’t know what he was fussing about. We let the other dogs go out to help and for quite a while they ran around up and down the mesa barking but eventually gave up and came back in. Blue kept up his barking until nearly 5 AM before quitting.
After morning chores we took everybody for a little walk up the mesa and over to the well. Ford was allowed to go off-leash and did very well in interacting with the goats with just a few verbal cautions and corrections. Anise really did well keeping up with everybody. K says she’s at 90% today and still improving.
Filled the water tank today.
K made a German Chocolate Cake for D’s B-day cake today! My actual birthday isn’t until Feb 8, but we like to start celebrating early.
The woman in Flagstaff from whom we have gotten most of our goats wrote us an email that she has a friend who is looking for a new home for a 6-year old fully trained female Anatolian at no charge, and were we interested. We said yes and are now waiting to settle some details and to see when we should plan on going up to see her.
Sunday, January 27, 2002
Took a nice long walk with the WHOLE crew. Ford is improving with his interactions with the goats. Blue is perfect.
Claudia told us that her friend has now changed her mind about getting rid of the female Anatolian LGD.
Worked on the BMR Log book for much of the day as it was too windy to do anything outside.
Monday, January 28, 2002
Amazingly windy overnight. Our battery bank was fully charged when we woke up, well before the sun even hit the solar panels.
Left message at AZ GenTech about our LPG Generac back-up generator’s problem.
A box from D’s sister arrived with a birthday present for him – a weather-proof vest which worked great.
Also took deliver of some cheese-making supplies.
Did work on the BMR log book and an update for the web page. Windy all day long.
Tuesday, January 29, 2002
To town today. Did business at the feed store, PO, and bank and had lunch out. Blue chased the truck at least as far as our gates but was sleeping on the back stoop when we came home.
Made Mozzarella.
Got a call back from AZ GenTech regarding our LPG back-up generator. After describing the problem with it (immediate self-shut down and over-speed error light) he faxed me a “warrantee repair work order report” which I filled out and faxed back to him. He later called back and did some rudimentary diagnostics over the phone. The company, my nearest authorized service center, is in Phoenix, a 4 hour drive, so he wanted to do what he could without actually driving all this way. His preliminary conclusion was that the governor was not functioning properly but he had us perform a test with the unit to verify the hertz output was high (as opposed to it being a sensor problem). The test quickly supported his conclusion. He said that he would get whatever parts ordered that were required and bring them up and make the repair as soon as they came in. Unfortunately he thought that we would likely be without a back-up until the end of the week. This was a bit disconcerting as we were expecting a winter storm front in which meant clouds (so no solar for power) and cold temps (not good for storing power in the batteries). He said he would do what he could to hurry things along.
Got some snow flurries starting about mid-day. They increased to light snow in the evening. At least there was a little wind keeping the power situation from going critical.
Wednesday, January 30, 2002
We awoke to 8” of snow on the ground with it still coming down nicely. Ended up getting about 10” by the time it all finished.
A good winter storm
Took a call from AZ GenTech about our LPG back-up generator repair. They said that there was now a 2 week back order on the parts they needed to bring up. They, obviously couldn’t do anything without the parts so we’d just have to wait. There was no way that we were likely to be able to go that long, especially with the weather we were looking at having, without needing to supplement the batteries some so I did some work at the power house, disconnecting the LPG generator and doing some re-wiring so that we could bring our well-pumping generator down to use as a back-up when necessary.
The weather was pretty nasty all day with much blowing snow and icing conditions.
K and the dogs play on the cattle tank ice
We took Ford’s doggie travel crate and put it under the back porch for Blue to use for shelter. We also put up a sheet of 3/8” OSB to act as something of a wind shield and piled some straw for him to burrow in. We felt sorry for the guy, seeing him caked with ice but he seemed just fine with it, in fact he slept some right out in the open with the snow piling up on him.
Took another call from the AZ GenTech people. They now say that Generac is refusing to honor the warrantee work because the unit was hooked up in conjunction with solar power. The tech was apologetic but there was nothing he could do. I explained that we had purchased it for the express purpose of using it to back up our solar power system and that there was no question that everybody concerned knew about it at the time. He said, again, that there was nothing he could do and I would have to take it up with the people from whom I bought the unit.
I put a call into Norwall Power Systems, the Lake Havasu City, AZ company from whom I had bought the generator and explained the situation to Sam. She was our original salesperson and thought it incredible that they were even thinking about not honoring the warrantee. She sited examples of similar situations where they had done warrantee servicing. She said that it must just be some kind of mix-up and she’d get it straightened out right away.
Thursday, January 31, 2002
Bitter cold last night with the low at just 2°F but full sun and beautiful during the day with a high around 70°F!
Went to fill the water tank but the Coleman Vertex generator wouldn’t start. Fortunately it was just the battery being too cold to turn it over well. Jump started it and it ran fine but I couldn’t get the pump to pump any water. We thought it might be that the 2” line up from the well might be frozen so I waited 1 ½ hours and tried again. Everything worked fine then. 45 minutes after starting to fill the tank the generator started sounding funny so K went to check on it. the generator engine was running but the pump was not. She tested the electrical output but there was none from any receptacle on the generator.
We have just 1/3 of a tank of water which, at least recently since it has been disappearing so fast, will only last a couple of days.
Exactly one year ago today the exact thing happened to the same generator and it took them over a month to finally get it fixed. Now we not only don’t have very much water or a way to pump more, but we have no way to generate back-up power to our solar system.