Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
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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.
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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
© 2000-2008 Black Mesa Ranch Inc. All Rights Reserved
Arizona Grown!
Friday, March 01, 2002
Worked on butchering the cow for the freezer, breaking down the primal quarters we had hung in the barn yesterday for chilling. D bashed his hand pretty good in the truck door at the barn loading the carcass then, later, cut a finger smartly doing the butchering. Made many, many freezer packages and started a huge beef stock to cook overnight. Also braised the ribs overnight.
Working on the beef carcass
Trudy’s new twin boys are getting 6 oz pasteurized milk, 4 times a day.
FedEx came to deliver a box from M&G (a weather thermometer) that the driver had originally left for us at the Bashas grocery store in town?! “Well I knew you worked there so just left it for when you came in”. Yeah, right. Like either of us has ever worked there. Whatever.
Saturday, March 02, 2002
More work on the Beast. Finished reducing down the stock to about 2 lbs of a nice glace de viand. Ground 44# of meat for burger. Finished, packed, and froze the ribs for future BBQ. Gave lots of bones to dogs. Still don’t know what to do with the hide. Final yield: 141# boneless meat, 30# ribs, 11# offal = 182# useable meat = $ 0.68 per pound plus bones, chews etc.
Made bread. Wormed Trudy, Choco, Ordoño, and Guajillo. New kids at 8 oz, 4 times a day.
Sunday, March 03, 2002
Just 3°F overnight for low temperature. Goat barn pipes frozen and some burst. Ran the aux generator today (had to jump start it from the truck). Did some web page and logbook work. Wormed Callebaut.
Monday, March 04, 2002
Called Generac dealer: parts still not in. They will trace them down.
Trimmed hooves today and weighed goats: Trudy=155, Angel=140, Nutmeg=107, Anise=75, Ordoño=90, Choco=72, Guajillo=95. Had to give “Little Star” (Cayenne) a mineral oil enema. Hooboy, worked good.
Converted remaining rabbit nest boxes to openable tops. Investigated frozen and broken pipes in goat barn: 1” shut-off valve cracked badly.
Hung the cow hide on the chicken coop West wall. Made bread & Osso Bucco with cow shanks: Mmmmmmmmmm! Replaced furnace filter. Located a leaking hose bib at the Bosa which was contributing to our high water usage, but probably not enough to account for all of it..
Tuesday, March 05, 2002
Soapy warm water enema for “Little Star” (Cayenne). Seems to be working OK.
According to Generac, Roadrunner freight lines has the generator parts somewhere. The dealer will try to find the tracking number and find where they are now.
To town: PO, feed store, McD’s lunch, Ranch and truck gas, groceries, hardware store.
Fixed goat barn plumbing: replaced freeze-busted 1” valve.
Wednesday, March 06, 2002
Moved 24 fryer rabbits into the unoccupied “Rabbitats” for overnight purging, prior to butcher day tomorrow.
Worked at well looking for clues to high water usage: Cut all out-going 2” and 1 ½” lines except #4 (which feeds our house and goat barn). Capped off lines #1 and #3 which both showed some leakage past their valves. Filled the water tank. We will assess usage rate to see if there is still a leak on the main line to find and contend with.
Generac dealer says that the parts we’ve been waiting on “…must have fallen off the truck…” because they can’t find them to trace anywhere. They will re-order and have them re-shipped express freight. Should arrive Monday 3/11.
Thursday, March 07, 2002
CDT shots to new twins.
Butchered 24 fryer rabbits. Very windy so we did most of the work in the kitchen. They were at about 8 weeks of age and weighed 3 ½ to 4 pounds live weight, 2 ¾ # headless, 2 ¼# skinned and 1 ¾# dressed on average. Fried up 3 of them and they were excellent!
Processing fryer rabbits
Friday, March 08, 2002
Windy again. Disbudded the new twins.
We surmise that we still have a water leak somewhere along the main (#4) 2” supply line past the storage tank.
Made a cheddar cheese. Linda @ the feed store called: they want ~10 bunnies for Easter “mixed colors and tamed” to be delivered 3/25 AM. They will pay $7 each. We will have to take back any that don’t sell. They might need more than the 10.
We bought another string of 8 Trojan T-105 batteries for our power house. Chuck @ Value Solar delivered them this afternoon.
Saturday, March 09, 2002
Cleaned out the goat barn today. Dumped all the cleanings into the veggie garden for tilling in soon.
Re-configured the layout of all the batteries in the powerhouse, moving them onto the floor for eventual boxing-in. Installed new string of batteries.
Went to fill water tank but Coleman 8.5K generator died again: engine runs good but no “juice” coming out. This is pretty serious with our main aux generator still out of commission and no firm fix date in sight, but at least we’ve still got the new Sears 10kW. Triple redundancy, what a great idea!
New twins spent their first night out with the big goats.
Brought 15 bunnies in to begin taming for Easter sales through the feed store. Set up the big metal ring we use for chick rearing in the downstairs bathroom and put down a bunch of oat hay for them to mess around with. We’ll begin handling them all several times a day to see if we can get them calmed down a bit.
Sunday, March 10, 2002
Windy again today. Goofed off, worked on personal finance data entry to computer.
Monday, March 11, 2002
We got confirmation today that our last piece of investment property in Tucson has closed on the sale. Money’s in the bank!
Gorgeous day today, hung out outside, reading.
Filled the water tank late today (used the Sears 10kW) and shut off all valves from it, including the manual check valve to the pump we installed. No water available for domestic or animal use for the night. This, once we check it out tomorrow AM, should confirm our fears that it is indeed the main house line which is leaking.
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
We discovered 3 new nests of baby rabbit “pinkies”. New goat twins to 3x per day feeding.
This AM revealed a completely full water tank so we are 95% sure that the problem is somewhere in the ¼ -mile long, #4, main house line. We set about doing a bunch of exploratory holes with the backhoe, after measuring the water in the tank to get a better feel for the size of the leak we’re looking for. Our digging hits pay dirt (actually pay mud) in a hole about 30’ from the valve house where we found a good-sized leak from a broken joint. We repaired the joint and will see how the water level looks over the next few days.
Waterline repairs
Waxed a cheddar cheese.
Norwall says that the Generator parts will finally be there late today or tomorrow. They have made arrangements with a technician Bill Smith from Flagstaff to come here to do the work.
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
Windy today. To town & Show Low: PO, Bank, Feed store, Truck Tire fixed, Chinese lunch, Wal-Mart.
H2O looks GREAT! Dare we think that our major leak has been fixed? We hope so! Discuss possible foreclosing or refinancing options on mortgage we hold for a house on Fontana in Tucson. Mortgagee is way behind and not getting caught up as in past times. K got some $ distributed into investment accounts. Sent tax stuff to Tucson accountant.
Thursday, March 14, 2002
Still no part has come in for the generator. Nobody seem to know what the heck is going on.
Garden work: preliminary layout for irrigation main lines. Water still is holding at a very good level. B Lopez called and says she wants to buy the new goat twins. The bunnies we are taming in the downstairs bathroom are coming nicely and are really beginning to socialize with people much better already.
Windy all day.
Friday, March 15, 2002
Last coccidiastat for new goat twins.
Sam @ Norwall says she can’t figure out what is going on with getting the part from Generac. She says “We will fix that for you even if Generac won’t”.
We declare that the water line leak is fixed for sure! We do some investigating about possibly purchasing an e-Gator – BIG bucks and maybe not the power we’re looking for. But it would be handy (and quite!)! K finished financial data entry.
We lanced rabbit Paul’s abscess and got a LOT of nasty stuff out and injected some Bio-mycin as well. Worked on tanning rabbit hides from butcher day. They are at 2.10 pH in their battery acid and slat solution.
Bosco is limping on LR leg, not putting any weight on it late PM.
Bosco rests with the kids
Saturday, March 16, 2002
Windy with some snow flurries today. Wormed the new twins. Made a batch of mozzarella. Discussed designing an “Adopt-a-Goat web page for the ranch. Bio-Mycin shot to Paul.
Sunday, March 17, 2002
Windy. Did a major computer backup. Bio-Mycin shot to Paul. New Trudy and herd milk record today with 7.9#
Monday, March 18, 2002
16°F overnight and periodic snow today but no accumulation. Gave some yogurt to Paul (drench) to help boost his digestion after the antibiotics.
To town: PO, Val-u-Solar, Feed store, Mex lunch, Bank.
Uncle Steve’s Seeds arrived. Started 10 each of Japone, Del Arbol, Tobasco and Yatsafusa chiles.
Starting some pepper and chile seeds
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Norwall (Generac): Boss Jerry didn’t come in today so didn’t find out anything. Sam doesn’t know anything either. This is getting too old. Wrote a performance demand letter to them and copied it to our state representative Jake Flake.
Worked in orchard today getting 10 of the 15 new sunflower beds roughed in.
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Repaired all of the waterline segments we had damages in searching for the leak in all the various holes we had dug. Spent a good deal of time documenting the location and designations of each of the eight main lines with photos, maps and descriptions. Filled in all the holes and re-graded the upper road.
Finished roughing-in the last 5 of the 15 new sunflower beds in the orchard and started the excavation for a new valve in the irrigation lines for the fruit trees. Brought 4 bales of alfalfa to the goat barn.
K did the lay-out for our proposed new front deck and we evaluated the size and discussed details.
Had 3 escapee bunnies from the taming pen in the downstairs bathroom both this morning and in the evening. Guess they’re learning to jump really well if nothing else. They are socializing nicely.
Thursday, March 21, 2002
Pasteurized a batch of milk for the kids, made bread and Chile Colorado. One bunny out this AM.
Orchard work: finishing the 15 sunflower beds. The water tank is still 7/9 full! Very excellent news indeed. Brought 2 barrels of wheat over; one for buck goat pen and one for chickens.
Friday, March 22, 2002
Went out for mail and ended up going into town to the PO.
Started seeds for the garden: Broccoli, chives, marjoram, Summer savory, and parsley.
Dave, a Generac tech from Flagstaff called. He will be here tomorrow noonish to look at generator.
Oral, (drench) wormed with Ivomec: Trudy - 3cc, Ordoño – 2 cc, Guajillo - 2 ½ cc.
Arranged a trade with Claudia in Flagstaff: We will give her the Rabbitats in exchange for the registration papers on all the goats we got from her! Good deal all around.
Saturday, March 23, 2002
Dave Lakin from Flagstaff took Generac 10kW generator back with him to do repairs.
Major windy: called “winded-in day”, worked on front deck plans the rest of the day.
Weigh taped Guajillo: 110#.
Sunday, March 24, 2002
Light flurries driven by wind most of the day.
Prepped-up for taking Guajillo in to have his horns banded by the vet: Shaved his head (gnarly as it was!) and cleaned and readied the horse trailer. Tank Campbell Hausfeld air compressor stopped working ½ way through pumping up the tires. It’s JUST out of warrantee. Worked more on front deck plans. Made flyers for finding a new home for dog Max and selling goat Cayenne.
Monday, March 25, 2002
To town today: Feed store to drop off 15 “Easter Bunnies” for them to sell, Bashas to post Max and Cayenne flyers, PO then to the vet to get goat buck Guajillo’s horns banded:
We had done much research on the best method for removing scurs (small horn growths from a presumed disbudded animal) from Guajillo’s head. He has been growing some very gnarly and thick scurs which look like they may eventually grow back around into his head, a very bad thing. There is a good deal of information on the Internet on using elastrator bands to remove the scurs. In theory they can be applied to the base of the scur and, if prevented from getting rubbed off, will cut off the blood supply to the scur and eventually (over the course of several weeks) kill the bud and the scur will fall off. We had tried the method and were not getting very far. The bands were definitely starting to sink into the scurs and might have been doing their job, buit because of the shape and thickness of both Guajillo’s head and the scurs themselves, we were unable to get the bands to stay put low enough on the horn. We had read that in this case, a notch could be made around the base of the scur with a surgical grinder or something enough to hold the band in place. This is why we went to the vet, to have him do the notching.
Well, the vet took one look at Guajillo and said that our idea simply wouldn’t work, but he had a way that would. We assumed he meant a way to get the bands to stay on better and said to go ahead. He brought us all around to the back door to the clinic (right next to the big dumpster), prepared and gave a shot to Guajillo. He said to watch him because it would act quickly. It was not the local anesthetic we though he’d use, but a general one. Soon our buck was down in a heap in the parking lot. Out comes the doc from the clinic again, this time with a large hack saw. He had us get down on the ground and help hold Guajillo still and instead of notching around the horns as we thought he would, he began to saw into the goats’ head proper. Just a couple of powerful strokes and he was well into the skull of our buck. Blood was flowing everywhere, we were getting covered and what could we say or do? So we hung on to the poor guy who was very much awake, but too drugged to do anything but groan.
The sawing didn’t take too long (easy for us to say, it wasn’t our heads getting lopped off) and soon the vet had the top of Guajillo’s skull in his hand which he unceremoniously tossed into the adjacent dumpster. He went back inside for a few moments and we got our first real look at what he had done: indeed the top of his head really was gone. His sinus cavity was wide open and we could see well into his head down the gaping 1 ½” exposed holes. The vet came back with some cotton ball which he stuffed in the sinus cavity (told us to change them our periodically), an antibiotic shot and some goo for Guajillo’s eyes (they’d gotten sand and dirt from the driveway in them during the procedure).
We stayed on the ground with the goat as the anesthesia wore off. When he was ready to stand, we helped him up and steadied him. He seemed very dazed and confused. We couldn’t even imagine how much he hurt as no pain medication was given.
We brought him home and stayed with him the rest of the day. He got more and more distant and depressed and was quite fearful of our being there, but didn’t want to be alone either. Poor guy, and there was so little we could do for him.
8 Japones chiles germinated today.
Tuesday, March 26, 2002
Wormed the new twins today.
Guajillo was in a lot of pain today from his operation yesterday. He also had a fairly elevated temperature so D went into town and got some Banamin (2 x 1.25 cc shots I.M.) and antibiotic Baxtrol (100mg sub q injection) at the vets and went to the PO. Administered 1 Banamin shot and the Baxtrol to Guajillo plus 5cc PenG. K spent the day with him.
Riemer Seed Co package arrived. Planted: 15 Fresno, 15 Fresno Grande, 10 Jumbo Jalapeno chiles in peat pots. 6 broccoli plants have germinated.
Wednesday, March 27, 2002
Very windy today.
Guajillo seems a bit better today but his wound site looks nasty & oozy. Administered another 5cc PenG.
Seeds sprouted today: 1 Yatsafasu chile, 1 Del Arbol, summer savory, parsley and Marjoram.
Cleaned the hay from the flatbed trailer, pumped the tires part way (the most the compressor would reach was 35 psi, they called for 60 psi), and got all hitched up for Flagstaff trip.
New Trudy & herd milk record: 8# today!
Thursday, March 28, 2002
Moved all of the seed trays, except the last fresnos, to a sunny window location.
Moved the Rabbitats out of the chicken/rabbit enclosure, cleaned them and loaded them on the flatbed trailer for the trip to Flagstaff.
Got UPS package from CFH.
Guajillo is much more himself, peeing on his own face and butting Choco around (that’s GOT to hurt!). Gave him his PenG shot for the day.
Milked Angel for the first time in 6 days. She is finally starting to actually dry off now.
Friday, March 29, 2002
Last PenG shot for Guajillo. He is paying a lot of attention to doe Anise who is coming into heat. He is really starting to pay attention to his surroundings and that’s good news!
Put together a bid sheet for the materials we’ll need to build the front deck. Submitted it to the Home Depot in Flagstaff and to our local lumber yard. To our amazement, the locals substantially under bid Home Depot!
Goat twins down to 2 bottle feedings a day now. Noticed Cayenne has somewhat loose stool.
UPS delivered new milk tote and cheese cloth order.
Saturday, March 30, 2002
Gave coccidia medicine to young twins. Administered KaoPectate to Cayenne to hopefully help with his lose stools. We saw Pima Bajo chewing his cud for the first time!
The kids romp on David
Cleaned out the bathroom from the rabbit taming and fixed a tub supply line leak while we were doing stuff in there.
75°F for the high temp today! Noticed that things are starting to grow in the garden already! Asparagus and Rhubarb, chives and other herbs showing signs of waking up. Too early, will they get too frosted?
Bought 6 new chicks at the feed store in town and found out that 13 of the rabbits sold. The feed store will keep the last two and keep trying to sell them.
Trudy milked 8.2# today a new personal and herd best.
Sunday, March 31, 2002
Worked hard to get the cotton balls out of Guajillo’s sinus cavities but it was very hard going. He was not cooperative and they were really gummed in there. Didn’t get them all out. Will try again later.
Harvested first rhubarb and chives of the year! Worked several hours in the garden. Gorgeous day with high of about 78°F, though it’s still get to a bit below freezing every night.