Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
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Cheese and Candy Information and Online Ordering Page
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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!
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Sunny, 80's
Buck Arragon mostly knocked off one of his big horn scurs and it is quite bloody, flopping around, and he is in obvious pain. Memorial Day and we assume that no vet will be open. Eventually K decided to leave a message with one in hopes of getting in early tomorrow with him and - to our great surprise, they answered the phone. Of course the doc was gone for the day - actually for a week so no help there.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Sunny, 80's
Made a batch of Boule
Took Aragon in to Cedar Ridge to get partially de-horned to repair a badly damaged scur. Had lunch at new burger place "Sliders" and it was very mediocre food (at best) that took FOREVER to get, and they weren't even busy. No need to go back there. Also got to PO and dropped a deposit at the bank.
Got the truck & horse trailer ready for d's trip to Phoenix tomorrow.
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Sunny, hot
K milked both times today by herself - D out of town.
D left at 5 AM for a business trip to Phoenix: Standard Restaurant Supply, United Dairymen of AZ, meeting/lunch with good customer Chef/owner Chris Bianco, Lakin Milling, Home Depot and Sam's Club. Back on the ranch about 9 PM. As usual, Discover called to find out if we knew somebody was spending a LOT of money in Phoenix with our credit card.
Friday, June 04, 2004
Sunny, 90's
Made a batch of Feta and started draining.
Unloaded the truck and trailer (except the alfalfa pellets) from the trip to Phoenix yesterday. Played with the new pressure washer and did a 1st once-over of the dairy deck - it does a very nice job. Uncrated and assembled the new cheese reach-in and got it roughly into position but need to reverse the door before finishing prepping it and firing it up. Assembled the new baker's rack. Cleaned and stocked chore to do out there anyway most of the new pans etc for the kitchen.
One of the bee hives at the orchard showed signs of swarming. K had (about a month over due) so we went out and spend some "quality time" with the bees, swapping the hive bodies around, adding honey supers. She set up a make-shift 3rd hive, moved some brood from the swarming hive to it in an attempt to persuade the bees not to leave.
Kathryn works with a swarming bee colony
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Sunny, 90's
10 AM: 2 People + a kid came to pick up "Ziggy" (boy) and "SAM" (girl) kids they'd bought and stayed several hours, bought some cheese.
1 PM: Visit from 2 people + a kid from Overgaard visited the ranch just to see the place. Stayed a while, bought some candy and cheese.
Cut and dry salted current feta batch and moved to cheese cooler. Prepped up some retail cheeses and candies to sell on-ranch. Made a chees platter for guests.
Garden: planted first 1/3 of the corn, plus pumpkins, melons, sugar snap peas, pole beans, some herbs (purple ruffle basil, fennel, marjoram, cilantro), 2nd planting of 2 types of lettuce.
The bee hives were much calmer today so either everybody flew the coop (swarmed) or K's attempts to avoid the swarming worked. She reported that ants were raiding the brood of the 3rd, temporary hive - apparently we didn't relocate enough bees there to protect it. K re-united the brood frames to the original hive in hopes of salvaging the brood.
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Sunny, 90's
Moved last batch of feta to brine and refrigerated. Made 2 Capriana. Chocolated 10 each of 6 truffle flavors.
K did special cleaning of milking machine.
Discussed selling Alisha to the people who may be buying Visa (our last goat to sell from this year's crop).
K did more research on small (~100#) ice machines for the cheese kitchen.
Garden: fencing work, weeded, watered and played.
Filled water tank at well. Moved 8 bales of hay and a bag of alfalfa pellets to buck pen.
Monday, June 07, 2004
Sunny, breezes, 90's
started a Fresh Cheese batch. Un brined 2Caprianas. Packaged cheese and candy for a bunch of ordesr going out today.
K worked on finding a mill to custom make our grain mix for the goats. Found one in Phoenix who sounded willing (even excited) about taking on the task and would get their dietitian involved next to work on something for us. They have a 3-ton minimum and require 72 hours notice to fill an order (as opposed to the local feed stores who may take many weeks to place an order with their suppliers once the run out of a product. Price was also estimated to be about $4 (over 30%) less per 50 lb bag from the mill.
Flagstaff CSA emailed for a possibly large order/delivery 6/17.
Looks like K had sold Visa AND Alisha together to some folks who seem very excited and want to come up right away. Re-Disbuded Ancho and Visa. CDT(?) shots to them plus Juniper, Jasmine, Mignonette, Anatto, and Rosemary. Trimmed all 4 bucks' hooves.
D to town: 2 feed stores, diesel and truck gas, Basha's, vets, 2 hardware stores, auto parts store, - mostly very frustrating as nobody had anything in stock.
We got something in the mail form the accountants to send to IRS in an attempt to get back some of the taxes we paid in 2002 (having been off-set by the business losses in 2003). If it all goes as expected it should mean an $8000 refund from them.
K got a nice check from her dad in the mail.
Changed oil in diesel generator - oil filters I bought were the wrong ones so the old filter went back on for the time being.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Sunny, windy, 80's
Bagged Fresh Cheese curds from yesterday.
Major cleaning/organizing/work in dairy kitchen - setting up new reach-in; cheese affinage; pressure washed cheese "cave".
Vinyl laser labels were delivered.
Did first oil change on Hardy Generator (112 hours) but filters I bought yesterday don't spin on as they are supposed to - like the threads are a little different. Put old filter back on and will have to figure out what the problem is.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Mostly sunny, WINDY, 80's
Started a Fresh Cheese Batch. Got an order from the Flagstaff CSA for 2 logs of cheese for each of their 145 members for 6/17 - that's almost 100# of cheese, plus I'll be able to bring more to sell too. Also unbagged, salted and mixed yesterday's batch.
Aragon's head continues to improve - it seems to be all scabbed over. His eye is still swollen.
Spoke with Randall @ Am Fam Insurance in town, opening discussions about broed insurance coverage for the ranch, house, business, vehicles etc.
Finally got the horse trailer finised unloading form the trip to Phoenix - remaining 18 bags of Dyna Foal and a 100# drum of dairy cleanser.
Filled water tank at the well and watered/tended orchard
Did a number of small projects: repaired buck's hay manger, fixed house screen door closer, foamed under hayroom pedestrian door, cleaned out and organized hayroom at barn.
Worked in garden a while. Moved 12 tractor bucket loads of dirt from "the pond" area to the garden perimeter and spread to improve grading.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
sunny, breezy, upper 70’s - NICE! Finished the garden fencing (more or less), putting up the last fo the ½ x ½ hardware cloth around the perimeter and temp gate. Still need to finish and install the double tractor gates. Bagged yesterday’s fresh cheese batch.
Picked up a ton of goat chow in town and got it loaded into the hay room.
The guy from nature’s Realm in Show Low called. He had received the info packet he’d requested and now wants to meet, sample and talk about getting his store supplied with our cheeses. He had originally said he was thinking about adding some of our line in the fall, after they complete an expansion/renovation We scheduled a meeting for next Tuesday 8:30 am at the store. K tended bees today: checked every frame over on north hive but didn’t find queen or new eggs since we disrupted them so much last week. Lots of uncapped brood so probably she just didn’t see what she was looking for. Lots of orderly activity and lots f bees. Guess they were persuaded to saty and not swarm after all. Other hive just had it’s second honey super added and a few frames rearranged.
Bought some chiles (12 Big Jim, 12 Santa Fe, and 12 Fooled Yous) at the feed store. Got them planted D to town: PO, feed store to pick up 1 ton of goat chow, got syb sandwiched to bring home for lunch.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Unbagged a batch of fresh cheese and w/ k’s help we rolled about 75 logs.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
sunny, 80’s K did thorough cleaning in milking parlor today including bringing all of the stanchions out to be pressure washed. Couple of hours in the garden. Harvested first beets of the year - they were very good, and got enough spinach for a nice side dish of creamed with garlic. Still harvesting asparagus in decent amounts. Lots of tomato flowers and the cornichions are flowering too. Zuchini plants are 16 across and beginning to bud, purchased pepper transplants are all doing very well (those from seed are not). Lots and lots of good variety of lettuces and the scallions (red and white) continue to make themselves available for every meal we wish.
Worked in the orchard for a couple of hours, watered everythig well and spent time weeding. A few raspberies to the white syage - coverd that section with bird netting. Grapes are looking the best ever.
Filled the water tank at the well almost full.
Monday, June 14, 2004
mostly sunny, high 80’s Started a batch of fresh cheese. And spend much of the day putting together a number of orders that will be shipping or be delivered tomorrow. Also have a sales meeting with the owner of a natural foods store in Show Low early (8:30 am) to sample some cheeses and discuss putting our products in the store. He called us a couple of weeks ago, prompted by several customers coming in asking if he would start carry them.
K is dealing with a number of goats with spiking temps. Banamine works to knock down the temps but it looks like an antibiotic is better for getting rid of the problem completely.
Alisha is doing much better probably in response to her CPK treatments - more energy, moving more fluidly, better attitude (for a goat), etc. She has also gained 10 much needed pounds from that last time K weighed her, not long ago. Got the trailer ready to take into Show Low tomorrow - going to leave it with the tire people to see what they can do about keeping all 4 from ging flat within a few days, if not pumped all the time. Also goignt o have them look at the braking system which seems to not be working. Pulled the wood slat sides off the trailer as they were getting in very bad shape and mostly held together with bungee cords.
Worked for a bit in the garden
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
motly sunny, light breezes, 80’s K am milked by herself while D finiahse packing a good numbe rof oreders being shipped today.
While D was in town, K unbagged a batch of fresh cheese. Later we both worked on rolling ffesh logs, getting about 250 done. Need about 100 more for the Fagstaff CSA order etc. Picked up some pepper and chile plants at Ace in town today - got them planted this afternoon, did some other gardening for an hour or so. D to Show Low or a cheese sales presentation (got a new retail account), leave off the flatbed trailer to have the chronically flat tire worked on, to town for : feedstore, PO, bank. Hardware store, McD’s for lunch togo, Met with people at Natures Realm in Show Low, did some cheese sampling and got us a new small, natural foods store account.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
sunny, breezes, 80’s Started a batch of Fresh cheese.
Kept busy all day packaging cheese for a Flagstaff CSA order (300 logs plus cheese to sell to individuals) for tomorrow.
K worked more on web site updates, especially Buyer’s page, Lineage updates and Goat pages.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
sunny, nice K unbagged and refrigerated yesterday’s fresh cheese batch and dealt with PM milking by herself. D to town and Flagstaff vet’s office to pickup some meds, PO: Sam’s Club (dog food, tables, couch,etc), look for casters for dolley and gel ice packs (no luck on either), deliver cheese order to CSA and sell cheses (did great!). Left about 10:30 am, back about 9:30 PM.
Friday, June 18, 2004
mostly sunny, 90 Made a batch of feta,.
Laura Little came by to finish paying for her goats and to yack for a while.
Sent a request to Mark Engle to assist in writing a matching grant application for “value added producer grant” money from the USDA. Sent fax to Golden valley Organics in Phoenix with pricelist and commercial credit application (they and their members loved the samples we sent earlier in the week, and say they will be ordering soon)
Ordered and paid for new metal ranch gate signs. Jeffers Supply order arrived: CMPK, tank fill valve etc. Unloaded the truck of all the stuff from Flagstaff. Got the new couch in and positioned .
Worked in the garden for a couple of hours.
Sunday, June 20, 2004
sunny, breezy, 80’s Dry salted a batch of Feat and moved it to the cheese fridge to harden up.
K trimmed some goat hooves this afternoon. Alisha continues to improve with the administration of CMPK, twice daily.
Today the 5 remaining kids on milk got cut to once a day in the morning. I gave them water in the nipple bucket tonight and they sucked it down without appearing to notice.
Called Torreon for order: nothing this week but will need cheese next. Also mentioned the chocolate truffle samples I’d sent with the last order - he loved them and is going to order an assortment very soon. Watered orchard and filled water tank at well, Re-tied up grapes with floral tape, replacing the string that I’d used the was cuttin into the branches, did more weeding. Bees looked good but there were a lot of drones just hanging aorund the entrance of the North hive.
Worked in garden a couple of hours. Zucchini will be small-ready tomorrow, cornichons have set some fruit, pumpkins have their second leaves, melons are up, some corn up (thought there were more yesterday - maybe something is getting to them? )many, many tomato flowers and a few small fruits set, new peppers/chiles all seem to have survived transplanting and have stated to show new growth, some Simpson lettuce starting to bolt but the goats are enjoying them, new lettuces are coming along well, harvested more asparagus, spinach and beets.
Monday, June 21, 2004
sunny, 80’s, breezes Started a Fresh Cheese right after morning milking. Was able to bag it after PM milking. Rolled 50 logs of fresh cheese for orders to be sent/delivered tomorrow.
Nearly all th girls’ milk has been up last couple of milkings - don’t know why, but we like it!
Cleaned out the buck pen and barn, building the compost pile quite high. Removed the whole buck compound fencing and replaced it with cattle panels. Got in a bit of garden work in the am. Moved the rest of last year’s compost pile to the garden for use, cleaned up and smoothed the area where it had been piled, moved the pile of chicken/rabbit coop cleanings K had mucked out last Thursday to the compost pile.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
mostly sunny, 80’s with some distant storm build-up in afternoon, breezes Unbagged a batch of fresh cheese and started a new one. Prepped, packed and got several orders ready for shipping. Bagged today’s fresh cheese after PM milking. D to Show Low: PO, deliveries to Amelia’s Garden and Natures realm, got ranch diesel, went to Pepsi, shopped at Home Depot, & Wal-Mart, picked up flatbed trailer at Big O tires after having tubes put in all the tires.
Practicing for next year on the milk line
Thursday, June 24, 2004
mostly sunny, some afternoon cloud build-up, breezes Unbagged a fresh cheese batch. Unloaded the truck from the shopping trip yesterday to Show Low
Something must be wrong with he flat bed trailer electrics - it completely drained the truck’s battery dead had to jump it with the tractor twice. Let the truck run 30 minutes but battery will not hold a charge anymore.
Friday, June 25, 2004
mostly sunny AM, clouding up with t-storms threatening in afternoon, winds picking up K worked a lot on updating the goat lineage and owner’s page sections of the web site. She is also getting involved with a new internet discussion group “Arizona Raw Milk” as a moderator.
Got some good pictures taken and organized for submission with the Dairy Goat Journal diary article we will be submitting next month.
D ot caught up on a month’s worth of cheese logbook computer entries, and processed a bunch of finished order paperwork.
Got our first order from Golden Valley Organics a buying coop in Phoenix Did a little gardening. Started a VERY small cornichons pickle batch (8 little cukes) as a test before the serious harvest begins in a few weeks.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
partly cloudy all AM, cloudy PM, breezes, 80’s, distant T-storms Made a batch (2) of Capriana. And got it into the brine this evening.
Finalized order with new organic coop in Phoenix - Golden Valley.
K work most of the day on accounting. D got caught up on various secretarial duties, worked on goat and cheese and sales data bases and reports. Uploaded changes to the web site. Worked in the garden a little. Still harvesting asparagus. Also picking beets, lettuces, small zucchinis, and a few mini gherkins.
Pickled the first 6 (only, each, count ‘em) tiny cornichons today to try new recipe. It seems easy and good. Will sample soon the see how it tastes
Sunday, June 27, 2004
partly cloudy am, 80, clouding up and pm thunder storms - sprinkles Started 2 Capriana
Got some light t-storms through right about pm milking time - made fpr an interesting time with the girls.. Very bizarre and rough day. Started off even before milking when the dogs were making a huge racket to the north, at the mesa. Turned out to be a cow (steer?). D got the dogs to come away while K started milking.
After milking D noticed that he’d left some of the irrigation on in the garden all night. Was planning on filling the water tank today anyway so there hadn’t been all that much extra in there. By the time D got up to the well to start the generator and pump, K had run out of water at the house - a very bad thing. Pulled the plug on the pressure pump and let the tank at the well fill for a while.
Both of us took the goats on a browse while looking for the cow so we could escort it off the property. Couldn’t find it at all - it should not have been that hard to see. Did eventually find where it got onto the property - a section of fence along San Carlos had been pulled down by ???, even a t-post was flattened outwardly. I was able to set it all right, but saw no evidence that the cow had gone our the way she had come in so she’s still on the property somewhere.
Played with getting the pressure pump at the house to work for an hour before it was doing OK (it’s still not right, but closer). It will be days before we get all the air bled out the water lnd everything back to normal. We HATE running it out of water.
Monday, June 28, 2004
cloudy all day with periods of rain and t-storms, 70’s rolled fresh cheese logs and ddi a bunch of packaging for orders being sent off tomorrow. Tractor battery was dead this AM because one or more of the kids foprgot to turn off the headlights when they were done playing on it. Truck batt was already dead from a bad electrical connection with the flatbed trailer, generac generator battery was dead. I hooked up the solar trickle charger but never saw the sun the rest of the day. Ended up pulling the battery off the new diesel generator to jump it with.
Water pressure pump at house still not working right - ran long and hard without fully pressurizing the tank. Ended up taking the whole thing apart (found some debris in the jet). After putting it back together it ran beautifully and pressurized the tank with no problems. We will remain suspicious and watchful for another couple of days, but we think it’s really fixed now. Ran the generator again late tonight to make up for all the pump shenanigans.
Yo-Flasher sets an example for this milker-in-training
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
mostly cloudy, with a number of t-storm cells passing over throughout the day. Good, much needed rain. Packaged up a number of orders for shipping.
Organized printing center in office. Jump started the truck with the tractor, loaded it up and went to town: NAPA (replace truck battery), PO - shipping orders (the new ranch signs for the gate arrived in the mail), feed store, and bank.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
sunny am
Just after AM milking K noticed that the bucks had gotten out of their pen and were mingling with the girls. We got out there FAST and THINK we avoided any inappropriate contact but...? Dragged the boys into the near-by doe pen as a quick fix then escorted them to the old doe compound until we could analyze and remedy the situation with their pen. Turned out that they had figured out how to lift their gate off its hinges and simply walk out. D welded the gate hinge pins to the gate frame so that problem is fixed.
Unbagged yesterday’s fresh cheeses , salted and froze the curd.
Garden really loved God’s rain yesterday - everything looks great. We are harvesting small zucchinis (4-5”) in order to stay ahead of them. Picked off a couple of squash bugs day befroe yesterday but have not seen any more since. A few tomatoes are looking droopy - I fear a wilt, but there’s not much I can do. Hopefully I’m wrong, but if I’m not I’ll pull the plants quickly and hope the problem will stay isolated.
Pressure washed the truck when I did the deck today and it got off 99% of the red mud from all the wet-road driving I did yesterday. Really should do that more often.