Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
Site Navigation and Links
Cheese and Candy Information and Online Ordering Page
Featured pages on this site
Updated!
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.
______________
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
____________
Click here to read the online version of Kathryn's booklet
______________
________________
____________
This site last updated:
October 11, 2008
© 2000-2008 Black Mesa Ranch Inc. All Rights Reserved
Arizona Grown!
Goats at rest under the porch
Friday, February 01, 2002
Order new Sears generator
Just 1°F for the overnight low last night and the batteries sure could have used a bit of a boost this AM but there was none we could offer them.
Recognizing our, now dire, position as far as power was concerned, we did a bunch of research into getting another large portable generator. We looked for one we could use as a back-up for both the well-pumping generator and for the LPG one. In theory we would have triple redundancy IF we ever get the others working again. We decided on a Sears Craftsman 10kW ($2,500) and ordered it over the phone from the store in Show Low. It is scheduled to arrive in about a week, on 2/7/02.
We continued to fight with Generac about getting our generator fixed. Our fight is with the people at Norwall from whom we bought the thing, THEY have to fight, on our behalf with Generac. I don’t know how motivated they are or really what the problem is with getting it fixed. They are telling us that the application of the generator in an off-grid situation is being considered a primary application, not covered by the warrantee (it only designed for stand-by and back-up usage). We keep telling them that it is NOT a primary application since we only use it to augment our solar and wind generated power. The fact is that we have about 340 hours on the unit in the year we’ve had it (less than an hour a day on average). Furthermore, the generator is factory programmed to automatically run a 30 minute exercise cycle every week, accounting for 25 of the hours on it. Sam keeps saying that it’ll all work out.
We implemented severe water rationing rules, though we feared that it would only be marginally effective because we suspect a tank or pipe leak is the major contributor to our water usage. We went to the well and filled 5-gallon buckets and 10-gallon barrels with water from the stock tank (Roc’s Pond) to bring to the house for animal use, toilet flushing and other non-potable uses.
Saturday, February 02, 2002
Completely clouded in today with almost no wind to help out with the electricity situation. We shut off all power to our 2 big chest freezers and to the furnace for the whole day. It was 8° this morning and only got to 42° for the high so we pretty much froze our butts off even with lots of extra clothes on.
We discovered 15+ little bunnies running around in the chicken/rabbit house this morning! These would be the first ones out of the nests from our first litters ever. We put them at about 4 weeks old.
Went to bed early without TV etc. to conserve electricity.
Sunday, February 03, 2002
The clouds overnight kept the temperature up to around 20° overnight. The sky cleared in the morning, allowing us enough power to re-connect the freezers after 41 hours of being shut off.
The water tank ran completely dry this morning and we shut off power to the pressure pump and began using stock tank water for dish washing etc.
K counted at least 24 little bunnies hopping around in the chicken/rabbit house today. Most looked completely healthy but a couple had only one eye opened with the other looking stuck closed. We caught a couple and tried to unstuck the eyes as best as we could.
Day became gorgeous and we were able to sit outside, read and enjoy the weather which got into the 70’s.
Shut off the power to the freezers again to conserve power, no TV, furnace etc.
Monday, February 04, 2002
11°F this AM and darned cold in the house. Still no generator for running water, so we’re still carting stock tank water from the house (to keep it from freezing) out to the animals so at least the problem of the barn pipes being frozen is not too immediate. Sun enough to give the batteries a good drink but no power to spare for amenities or domestics.
We weighed the goats: Trudy = 160#, Angel = 135#, Nutmeg = 105#, Anise = 74#, Ordoño = 84#, Guajillo = 90#, Choco = 66#.
Took a phone call from some old friends from Tucson, the Mucha’s. Living now in MD, they will be coming out this way for a business trip for Mike next week. We make arrangements for Angie and their 2 daughters Grace and Eva to stay with us while Mike does his business down in Phoenix. He’ll then come up for the next weekend to visit. They will be arriving next Tuesday 2/12 for about a week (assuming we have running water and some kind power to share with them by then).
I attempted to get some positive information about the warrantee repair situation on our LPG back-up generator. Sam at Norwall said that Generac was still stone-walling her and that she wasn’t getting very far with them. We learned today that the governor (the part which had been diagnosed as the problem) in these units is somehow integral to the whole engine assembly and that often the whole engine is replaced as the repair. They called this “short-blocking it out”. This is apparently a big, very expensive part and it now seems like they are stalling based as much on that fact as the question of whether or not they are going to warrantee it at all. Another apparent consideration is our distance from the nearest repair center. Generac only covers the first 200 miles or something and then the rest the service center has to absorb, making nobody very happy.
Tuesday, February 05, 2002
Begin search for our water leak.
Again temperatures in the low teens last night. Still can’t turn on the furnace in fear of drawing down the batteries too far. It actually looks like we could probably make it on most days with conservative, normal power usage but with no way to get back-up juice into the batteries if we do get a cloudy day, or exceptionally cold night we can’t take the risk. We continue on critical power and water usage rules.
It has become imperative that we find the cause for the rapid loss of water from our tank. We are sure that we cannot possibly be using anywhere near the almost 1200 gallons a day we are going through. Our best liberal estimates are more like 300 gallons tops we should be using. That means that 800 gallons or so EACH DAY are slipping away to somewhere. In our minds, this amount of water should mean that somewhere on our property there should be a geyser of water spurting up, or at least a small swampy place with water burbling up in the center. We have done extensive searching for such a place along every conceivable route we can imagine pipes going. In all fairness I should point out that there are water pipes EVERYWHERE on the property (with the possible exception of the far west part section we call Woop-Woop) so it’s hard to guess where all the pipes run.
We had previously cranked down all of the 8 valves in the valves house, (only 3 of which we knew where they lead to) with the exception for the one we knew fed our house but this had not slowed the flow appreciably.
So, in anticipation of soon picking up our new portable generator from Sears, and again being able to pump water, we did some repairs and modifications to the supply piping up at the well in hopes of tracking down the leak problem.
One of our thoughts had been that there was a leak in the tank itself. We’d had a running problem with leaking tank fittings for months after it was installed with obvious puddling around the tank. The eventual repairs and re-building of the water inlet to the tank, we thought had fixed the situation but how could we be sure? As it turned out we could now be sure because the water had emptied the tank only down to bottom of the tank outlet (about 8” up from the tank bottom). Several days of sitting had left the water there but if the tank was leaking then we would have expected the water level to have fallen below the level of the outlet. So now the tank, at least, had a clean bill of health.
Our next thought was that, perhaps the check valve at the pump motor was faulty. This would allow water to drain back out of the tank once pumping had ceased. This was both a plausible explanation and easy to check and eliminate as a cause. Far easier than physically checking who-knows-how-many miles of buried piping. Toward testing the check valve, today we installed a 2” manual shut-off valve in the line just after the pipe emerged above ground from the submersed pump. In the “off” position it would prevent any water from returning to the well if the check valve there was faulty. It’s use would also require us to manually open the valve before any water pumping to fill the tank.
After making installing the valve we added a bunch more packing peanuts to the insulating box around the piping. We later learned that the peanuts we had used were food starch-based, biodegradable ones designed to be “sprinkled on your lawn and watered in”. Perhaps not the best choice for a long-term exterior insulating solution.
We also repaired the frost-proof hose bib at the well head which had burst a joint after leaking enough to freeze.
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
In the low teens overnight again, high of 48° today. Still no furnace usage or running water. This is getting very, very old indeed.
Thursday, February 07, 2002
New generator arrives. We have running water again!
A very happy man with his new generator. Baths for everybody!
Trip into town and into Show Low today. Went to Coke and Pepsi (to get fountain soda supplies), N&N Small Engine Repair (to drop off the broken Coleman Vertex Generator), White Mountain Computers (to have them check out the laptop for Internet connect speed problems), Wal-Mart, lunch, Sears (to pick up new Craftsman 10kW generator!).
After arriving home we assemble the new generator and fire it up for a test then take it up to the well and use it to pump a full tank. Hooray!
Still no good word from Sam at Norwall about the Generac LPG generator warrantee situation. She says there is “just one more person she needs to speak to” at Generac to get it all straightened out.
Friday, February 08, 2002
Two week anniversary of the Generac LPG generator failing. Still no word about getting it fixed. Left message for Sam at Norwall but it was not returned.
Windy today and with the assistance of the new Craftsman portable 10kW generator we take the chance to get caught up on some “domestic units” and do some dishes and a number of loads of laundry.
After having been without running water for a week of single-digit temperatures we are not surprised that, upon turning on the valve to the animal compound, there are numerous leaks in the milk room caused by frozen pipes. Today we do some “recreational plumbing”, repairing the damage.
UPS arrives with our most recent order from Caprine Supply Company and a birthday box for D from his sister Cynthia.
Celebrated D’s birthday by mostly goofing off.
Saturday, February 09, 2002
New nest of baby bunnies born last night! We are completely happy with our “colony-style” system for keeping the rabbits.
More little bunnies on the Ranch
The water in our storage tank is still draining away much too quickly, even with all the 8 valves except #4 (our house and animal compound) shut tightly closed and the newly installed manual shut off valve in the line from the well pump turned off. We are forced to conclude that it is not a problem with the pump’s check valve OR the tank now, and have to consider how next to approach the problem.
Blue has injured his front left (as you stand behind the dog (inside joke alert)) leg. He was limping or holding it off the ground and we found several puncture wounds. We heard him out working a lot last night and he may have well had an encounter with a predator. That he is here and there are no injured or missing goats speaks to the question of how the encounter must have gone.
Sunday, February 10, 2002
The cold nights in the teens have returned after a few days respite.
In spite of the plumbing repairs we made a few days ago to the freeze-busted pipes in the milk room the area continued to be wet. Today, after more investigations we discover that the PVC shut-off valve there is also cracked and will need replacing.
We came up with a new theory about the water leak: We decided that maybe one or more of the valves in the valve house are not fully functional. Since we had no idea where the majority of the lines ran to from there we surmise that a moderately slowly leaking valve could have been running water into an abandoned line which then leached it out in a bunch of different places. This would have prevented us from finding a big wet spot somewhere. So we turned off the main water valve locate just before the manifold, then one-at-a-time disassemble each valve looking for problems. This also gave us the opportunity to do minor maintenance on the valves, applying key grease, replacing broken valve handles, and generally checking them all out. With two separate valves we thought we were able to detect water passing through the valve, even in the fully closed position. This was just the type of thing we had been looking for, so we made some adjustments to them and tightened them back down. Unfortunately we were unable to really tell if we had made any difference at all. There was this little, annoying trickling noise that we could hear from the manifold but we were unable to always hear it. We decided to crank down all the valves including the one to our house and see if the water still leaked out as fast.
K reports that there are now at least two, probably three and possibly even four nests total of new bunnies in the coop/rabbitry, all just a few days old.
Monday, February 11, 2002
Spent the day cleaning house for company coming tomorrow. The Mucha’s are to arrive, by train into Flagstaff tonight and will be driving here in the morning.
Our experiment with the water tank is inconclusive but it appears that with all the valves closed the water does NOT leak out as fast. This means that a leak either in #4 (the line to our house) or a tributary from it are the most likely problems. A leaky valve to one of the other lines could also be contributing. We will take up the hunt for the leak again after company leaves.
Sam at Norwall finally reports that the warranteed parts to repair our Generac LPG back up generator have been ordered today and will be “over-nighted” to them. They will then send out one of their technicians here to make the repairs certainly by the end of the week, once it arrives.
We had been noticing a coyote’s howl from up on the mesa for a couple of days now. It’s a different howl, very mournful. It’s always by itself (not with a pack)and always sounds like it is coming from the same place. We wondered if maybe this coyote was the one who tangled with LGD Blue and ended up in much worse shape than the dog. Blue’s leg is still very tender but we’re babying it well and it should be fine.
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Mucha’s arrive for a visit!
We make a trip into town and to Show Low. Went to N&N Small engine (picked up the repaired (again) Coleman Vertex Generator), Basha’s (groceries), Napa Auto Parts (battery acid for tanning rabbit hides), Ace (plumbing parts). K and I took the open house tour of the newly built, as yet undedicated, Mormon Temple just south of town, then met our old friends the Mucha’s at the Mexican restaurant in town for lunch. They are in AZ from MD for business and a visit.
After lunch we led them back to the ranch where we visited for a little while before Mike had to head off to Phoenix for a few days of work and meetings. Angie and their children, Grace and Eva, will be staying here. Mike comes back up on Friday to spend the weekend.
The little "Mucha-kins" all bundled up
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
We hitched up our horse trailer and loaded up everybody (us, the 3 Mucha’s and dog Bosco) for an excursion up to the Holbrook Livestock Auction. We’ve been up before but have yet to purchase anything. We were looking for an inexpensive cow/steer that we could immediately butcher for the freezer. We’d seen a couple of injured (transport eye gores, hip problems etc.) or wild ones go for very little money. One absolutely crazed cow had gone for $30 for the whole thing! Injured ones had gone for around $20/hundredweight (20 cents a pound live weight) which we figured we could make work out despite the expectation of losing some product to the injuries. One injured cow went for $12 – total! Today we went up with a plan and were prepared to bid but it was a very small auction and nothing came by that we were interested in. Afterward we all went to lunch at a Mexican place in Holbrook then to an ice cream parlor in Snowflake for milk shakes on the way home.
I called Sam at Norwall to ask if the Generac generator part had arrived as scheduled. She said that they had not been able to ship it overnight, as promised, because it was too heavy so it was now on a regular freight truck somewhere but should still be there in a few days, “probably Friday, but Monday at the latest”.
Several of the Mucha girls' dolls got misplaced for a while, but David found them. The girls were very happy.
A Rancher and his dolls.
Thursday, February 14, 2002
We arranged a Valentine’s Day date for our buck Guajillo. Our “neighbors” (they actually live several miles away but around here that practically makes them next-door neighbors!), the Lopez’s had been inquiring for a while about possible stud services with ‘Jillo for their 3 year old Nubian Doe “Esther”. Esther had silent heats and was notoriously difficult to “settle”, insisting on only a pure bred Nubian buck. She had been recently refusing anything to do with the Nubian buck the Lopez’s had. Today Barbara Lopez called, saying that she thought that Esther was in heat, and could they bring her over. We said fine.
Guajillo awaits his date
We exchanged Guajillo’s services, no papers or service memo included, for 5 bales of oat hay (we’d never tried it and wanted to see what it was like). The mating went smoothly and quickly with several apparently successful copulations. We also gave them rabbit “Chesney” who has been suffering from foot abscesses we have been unable to cure. They said they would give her, or some of her offspring back, sometime down the road, if they got her well and breeding again.
I did some more “recreational plumbing” in the milk room, replacing the PVC piping with sturdier galvanized iron pipe and replacing the cracked PVC valve with a new brass one, all in hopes that the work would help prevent so many freeze breaks.
K worked with Angie and the kids on cleaning out the goat barn. Angie drove the tractor skillfully, using the bucket loader to move the soiled bedding from the barn to the garden where it will compost for next spring. Grace and Eva did their part by distributing the new straw bedding everywhere.
I brought 4 bales of alfalfa to the goat house.
We filled the water tank at the well using the recently repaired Coleman Vertex.
Friday, February 15, 2002
Today was the 3 week anniversary on our Generac LPG back up generator quitting on us. Jim at Norwall called to schedule a time to come and do the repair. The part had not yet arrived but he surely expected it in Monday at the latest so we set the date for next Wednesday, the 20th.
We weighed the goats: Trudy = 160#, Angel = 140#, Nutmeg = 105#, Anise = 74#, Ordoño = 84#, Guajillo = 90#, Choco = 68#.
Did a bunch of kitchen work making Cheddar Cheese, “Rigoata”, Bread and a fresh Apple Cake.
Saturday, February 16, 2002
Mike Mucha arrived from Phoenix around lunch time. After we all enjoyed some homemade pizza he and I took a nice long walk up and around part of the mesa. That mournful coyote was again crying from up near the mesa tip so we headed up that way. The crying stopped before we were within a couple hundred feet of where we thought the sounds were coming from and we never did see it or any sign of it.
After our walk Mike had his turn on the tractor. Using both the back hoe and bucket loader he alternately finessed and bullied several piles of concrete rubble from around the houses and deposited them to make a nice climbing pile in the buck’s pen.
Sunday, February 17, 2002
Took a nice leisurely stroll up the mesa with the whole Mucha clan in a successful search for nice petrified wood pieces and Indian pottery fragments.
Mike and I did some more tractor work, finishing up moving the concrete piles and then we headed out to the south to pull up a line of fence posts.
Monday, February 18, 2002
The Muchas left today. They headed to Phoenix where Mike had another week of work and Angie would be visiting with family. It was a great visit and we look forward to the next time they are able to come see us.
We trimmed goats Anise and Ordoño’s hoofs, wormed dogs Blue, Ford and Bosco, filled the water tank at the well and generally goofed off the rest of the day.
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
K found a very small bunny (12 days old?) outside of his nest and put him back in. There are still at least 2 other sealed nest boxes.
The part for the Generac generator STILL had not arrived to the dealer, Norwall so our scheduled appointment to have the tech come do the repairs tomorrow is off. They are now hoping for the middle of next week.
I set up a couple of fluorescent fixtures just above the work bench in the unfinished room downstairs in preparation for seed starting soon.
I waxed a Cheddar Cheese, made some bread and did some garden planning and supply ordering for the coming season.
LGD Blue seems “off” today. No temperature or sign of injury but he “moped around” with his tail down all day. He did eat well (7 cups of food).
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
Blue still not himself. Still eating OK but “off”.
Went to Holbrook Livestock Auction and almost bought a cow. We found an injured one that met our criteria and entered the bidding. Following our plan I stopped bidding at where we had discussed, the other guy went higher. We re-evaluated our criteria and have a new, slightly more liberal plan for the next time.
Went to the feed store for some supplies and heard about a mountain lion who has been sighted very near us in the valley.
Thursday, February 21, 2002
Massive baby bunny escape last night. K found 8 kits out in the cold. 1 was DOA and another very cold K put all the survivors in a nest with 2 others of about the same size.
Today we also installed 3 hinged lid rabbit feeders in various locations in the rabbitry, modified 2 of the 6 nest boxes with removable lids for easier access and observation, mixed up a new batch of grain for the boy goats, changed the solar panels to their spring positions, made a repair to the buck’s gate, built a second 32x24x12 hay feeder for the doe pen, removed the divider and replaced a board panel inside the horse trailer, re-welded the fender support on the horse trailer.
After emailing the guy who I bought some Fresno Chile seeds from that have not showed up, he wrote back that he would re-send them.
Friday, February 22, 2002
We try banding Guajillo’s scurs.
3 more bunny escapees again last night. One was DOA and another almost frozen but I was able to eventually warm him up. We put them all back in a nest with others then put up a board to block off the small entrance to the rabbitry where they were getting out.
In an attempt to remove the very large scurs (deformed partial horns from an unsuccessful disbudding job) from our buck Guajillo’s head we decided to try a completely non-invasive procedure which entailed using castrating bands placed around the very base of the horn. We had studied a very good series of photos from a web page of procedure being done on a number of goats. The first thing we did was to shave the area of the goats head where the bands were to go. This was supposed to help keep the bands in place by not letting them slip up on the hairs. It was soon apparent, after trimming his hairs, that Guajillo’s head was not shaped like any of the ones in the picture. Between the impressively lumpy ridges on his forehead, the size of the scurs we were dealing with and the angle they came off his head, we knew that this was going to be tougher than it looked like on that web page. Our first couple attempts at getting the bands on were a total flop. It’s really amazing just how far one of those little bands can fly sometimes. We must have lost a half dozen of them before we got the method of getting them properly over the horns. Even then they SO wanted to slide up. The backs were no problem and we eventually got one of the fronts set close to where we wanted it but the other side was persistently uncooperative. We finally settled for that one being marginally close while the other looked pretty good. All that was left was to wait. This method was supposed to take about a month but we were expecting that the bands would likely need to be replaced before then.
We also gave Trudy a “birthing clip” (trimming the hairs from her tail sides and around her vulva) in preparation for kidding, probably in the next week.
I filled the water tank at the well, pruned the fruit trees in the orchard, added aluminum sulfate to acidify the soil for the blueberries, and did some raking around the cane fruits section there too.
It’s now been 4 weeks without our Generac back up generator.
Saturday, February 23, 2002
Today we did some more work at the coop/rabbitry, clearing out and re-building 2 more of the nest boxes adding removable tops for better access. We noticed 11+ very healthy 2+ week-old kits.
Sunday, February 24, 2002
We decided that there was no way we were going to outsmart our on-going water leak problem and we were getting really sick of fussing with it so we got out the tractor and started making hole in the ground looking for the problem. Our idea was to find and follow the #4 line (then one to our house), looking for wet spots or T’s off that might go to where a leak was occurring. We started with a hole in the Upper Road about 50’ south east of our propane tank. We quickly located a 2” PVC line (by punching a hole in it) but it turned out to be line #3 (garden irrigation). #4 was just under it and we were then able to follow them both up the road for a ways before eventually nicking #4. What a mess. We shut off valve #4 and after the water drained down a bit, made the repair.
Working on the water line
We had the thought that we might do better to dig holes every 50’ or so and not take the risk of damaging the pipes by following along them so closely. If we did catch the pipe in our digging, we could simply use that place to cap the line and see if the tank still drained as quickly. In that way we would at least know which side of the cap the problem was. This was a completely non-scientific approach and our inability to out-think the problem drove us nuts. We ended the day after finding the pipe in 2 more locations (and only cracking the #3 line one more time).
Monday, February 25, 2002
There were little bunnies all over the place this morning. It’s actually starting to look a bit crowded in there and they are beginning to go through more and more food. K found a very small one, from the newest litters outside but still alive and put him back in a nest.
Filled the water tank again today and continued our tractor digging in search of the leak. We made several more good holes and got a very good start up at the valve house in uncovering the area where all the water lines leave the manifold. Still no “smoking gun” but we have so much pipe uncovered that we are getting close to the point where we should be able to take a more deductive approach.
I found a gonga of a deal on a whole bunch of PVC plumbing parts on eBay and made the winning bid on them.
Sam at Norwall said today that the Generac warrantee part should be there tomorrow. It’s been a over month without the generator and we have only had to use the Coleman Vertex twice to help out the batteries in all that time. Of course we are being extra careful with our usage and are sacrificing amenities on a daily basis to get by.
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
Did a little work in the veggie garden today, repairing the gate and fences, taking down the green plastic temporary fencing we had long since put the permanent wire fence over and doing a bit of general cleaning and neatening around there. 2 rhubarb plants were showing growth and some of the mint was greening up!
Did work on the web site.
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
We buy a cow.
Went to the livestock auction in Holbrook and finally bought our cow! She’s just 610 lbs. of nasty pot roast but what did we expect for 20 cents a pound? We got her for the $124 mainly because she was kind of skinny also pretty mangy with some patches of hair missing form her backside. We overheard on of the pro-bidders talking about her and an old lion attack.
"Red" arrives from the auction
Trudy is getting close to kidding time and is starting to show some minor signs so we began evening checks of her.
I am in the process of trying to buy a barn for salvage in OK. Still negotiating but if it goes well, neighbor Eddie is will to accompany me and work for a week on the project.
Thursday, February 28, 2002
Butchered the cow this morning, getting it broken down to quarters and hung in the barn for the night to chill.
Trudy kidded this afternoon: 2 healthy bucklings, 6.8# and 7#. We got quite a scare with the afterbirth which was more like another birthing bubble but densely covered with large, filled blood vessels. We thought Trudy was going to hemorrhage or something, but it all worked out fine.
First birth of the year! Trudy kids
Played with the cow’s hide for a little while, trying to find a good way to scrape, shave, cut ott the hair. Gonna use it eventually for dog chews but gave up for today.
UPS delivered a big box of the wrong plumbing parts from the eBay auction several days ago.