Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
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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.
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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!
The goats enjoy their new straw bale toys
Monday, November 01, 2004
mostly sunny, 40’s gusty breezes
Got delivery of baskets and gee-gaws for making them pretty (ribbons, whatitz, hooples).
K got estimate for roof trusses for horse run-in we’re planning for the north side of the dairy building. Yikes!! Guess we'll be stick-building the roof!
Got a nice corporate order inquiry for toffee from a real estate firm in MA.
D to town: Ship via shuttle 8:15 AM @ NAPA, Amelia’s delivery, Val-U Solar delivery, PO, Feed store, Nature’s Realm delivery, 10:45 DCH @ Dr Bornstein, Sierra Blanca Clinic (General Physical, Prostate exam, etc), Liberty fence: Pick-up roofing/order screws, WalMart
Got home unloaded truck and moved feed around, pumped out 55 gal diesel (tractor and generator), did generator servicing.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
sunny, 60’s
Made a couple of Caprianas, did cheese affinage work
Worked on candy brochures and printed a bunch for mailing.
Worked on mailing list database.
Went to town to vote. Turned out that the poll they sent us to in Taylor was the wrong one and we were supposed to vote in Cedar Hills. Grabbed a togo burger and headed all the way back out there and voted then home. D almost immediately headed back into town to pick up a couple of parts for the generator shed project and drop off the truck at Alverez to have the parking brake repaired and a leaf spring replaced. Eddie Hansen drove me home and will take me back for the truck on Thurs AM.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
sunny, 70 high
Almost finished new generator shed part of powerhouse roof.
Had to milk by hand after a long delay. The generator just wouldn’t start this AM. Jumper cables were in truck (at Alverez getting repaired) but it didn’t matter ‘cause tractor wouldn’t start either to jump it with. Turned out that the “fuel pick-up line” had fallen off the diesel supply line on the tractor and was lost somewhere on the bottom of the fuel tank. After speaking with John Deere in Flagstaff, I stole a section of milking machine tube and made a temporary fix.
Buck pen washroom water was all frozen this AM.
Brought the Coleman Vertex generator over to the goat barn feed room and prepped it for use anytime the big generator doesn’t cooperate in the future.
Non-burnables to dump.
Around lunch we discovered that the buck wash room had thawed but the water was still on and we ran a bunch of it out on the ground. Had to fill well tank.
E
Kirby and his goats
Got Eddie to swing by Alverez on his way home to bring us the jumper cables from the truck
Thursday, November 04, 2004
beautiful - 70’s sunny
Worked on powerhouse/generator shed roof until ran out of screws. More on the way, tomorrow to finish?
Made a Capriana batch with overflow going to a Blue cheese experiment
New scale came to try in milk parlor for weighing milk as it flows into the machine. It seems real good (as opposed to the first ones we tried) and it is a real sharp looker - all stainless steel etc. We’ll try it a few more days and order the twin Monday if all goes well.
Burned trash.
Fixed hardware cloth on garden fence that goats had trashed getting to the end-o-season goodies we’d given them. Brussels Sprouts look pretty frosted but no buds yet. Might have started them too late. 5 Fresno chile plants I moved indoors look in great shape.
D to town: Eddie picked D up at BMR @ 7:15 on his way into work and dropped me off @ Alvarez to get truck. Leaf spring and parking brake cable were replaced ($500), went to PO (mailed holiday candy flyers), Bank, muffler shop (stretched pipe to fit over generator exhaust better), hardware store, NAPA.
Friday, November 05, 2004
mostly sunny, 60’s
Worked on gift basket designs.
Dr White out to fix Li’l’s umbilical hernea and castrate Guajillo. Lil doing great, Guajillo died a couple of hours after the operation for no obvious reason.
We’re a bit in shock tonight after the sudden death of Guajillo, the first goat buck we ever owned and the sire to much of our herd. We, having pretty much used as much of his line as we could, decided to sell him. Some people came along a few months ago, looking for a couple of big packing goats. They thought Guajillo would be perfect so we agreed to have him castrated after he was done with his work for this fall. The vet came out today and the operation went normally. There was a little more bleeding than we expected but it stopped on its own after a short while. Once the effects of the general anesthesia had mostly worn off, we went inside to do evening milking. I even went out to check on him about half way through and he was up, walking around well, alert and checking everything out. After milking, less than 15 minutes later, I went back to see how he was doing, and found him dead. He looked completely peaceful as if he just lay down and fell asleep. We have no clue what happened. We’ve gone over it a hundred times and can’t think of anything the doctor or we did wrong. I guess sometimes things like that just happen. Doesn’t make it any easier to deal with though. (later: we now suspect a clot/embolism based on discussions with vets and goat people.)
Sunday, November 07, 2004
cloudy all day, sprinkles and some beezes
Worked on holiday cheese and candy basket designs, photos and such. Also got photo compilation 90% done for the 2005 calendar.
K’s brilliant idea for having some people close to Tucson pick up the buck she wanted from Marana and keeping (and using) him until they could bring him up here is turning out to be an AAA maneuver. She didn’t have to go down this weekend just to get him, nor do we have to worry about quarantine now, plus we get to keep our buck Ancho (who we’re selling to the same people who picked up this buck) for a while longer to make sure everybody we need to breed is covered.
Li’l is sowing no signs of her hernia operation bothering her at all. She is still out with Sandy and Smokey and all are doing fine.
Monday, November 08, 2004
partly cloudy, sprinkles, windy
Finished Holiday gift basket design, development and photography.
Made Feta, worked with blue cheeses, prepped, wrapped, and packaged orders going to Phoenix and for shipping tomorrow.
Got truck-trailer etc ready for trip to Phoenix early tomorrow. It’s gonna be a big day but everything seems to be set to go.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
mostly sunny, nice
K did both milkings by herself (well, she and 14 goats!)
D to Phoenix: p/up new (used) convection oven, deliver cheese, pick-up Estrella, COB, straw (3 separate stops), Sam’s club shopping, took milking stanchion to Beth , etc. Some lady in a mini van backed into the flatbed trailer at Sam’s while D was loading the truck - trashed the back of her car but we couldn’t find a scratch on the trailer. later, D noticed a “funny sound” when almost home ( near the Country Store) and slowed way down but a trailer tire blew out just before El Dorado (probably just the load nothing to do with the accident in Phoenix). Limped home on a rim and a prayer (took an hour to the ranch from the store), but made it. Parked the trailer in the orchard until we can get to unloading it in the next day or two. Left at 4 AM, back at 9 PM - long day indeed.
Horses investigate the new oven
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
sunny, 70, gorgeous
Started a big test batch of pasteurized Brie.
Got the new convection oven into the dairy kitchen. Had to remove the big west window to do it: used the Tractor fork lift to get it through, then got Eddie to come by and help get it onto the floor.
Using the tractor to get the new oven through the window
Finalized $1600 corporate Holiday candy order for real estate firm near Boston. Took some time this AM to do some major re-grading around the dairy.
Unloaded the truck from D’s trip to the valley yesterday.
Saturday, November 12, 2004
Been working on the convection oven for 2 days and can’t get it to work. Repeated calls to the store have been no help at all. The damned thing is apparently wired for 240V despite our agreement that it be 120V. Haven’t even hooked it up yet to LPG to see if they got that part of the conversion right.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
cloudy with sprinkles all day
Worked some more on convection oven (the guy gave me some instructions on converting the fan motor to 120V but there are so many other issues – ARGH), finally giving up on it as a waste of time. Will try to return it for full credit and perhaps buy Chris Bianco’s one or even a new one ($2600 delivered)
Discovered that I had forgotten to culture or rennet yesterday’s fresh cheese batch. Made a (sort-of) stirred curd cheddar/ jack cheese, getting it in the press about 7 PM. We both stayed late processing peppers and chiles. Martha called. She and G are planning on coming for a visit 12/18, leaving 12/21 with candy (if necessary) to deliver in Tucson.
Spent much of the day working on Herd Management Software article for DGJ and on updates to our web site (adding baskets etc)
Chef Greg (sunrise ski resort, ACF) brought his family to the ranch for a visit. Stayed a couple of hours.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
sunny, 50’s, breezes
Made a feta
Graded large area and erected 50’ round pen for horse training.
Finished putting on metal roofing on generator shed and power house, finishing the project
Thursday, November 18, 2004
sunny, near 60, nice!
Worked a bit with yesterday’s feta
D worked in garden most og the day, rototilling, mulching, raking, planted garlic bulbs, etc.
K worked with both Li’l and Smokey in the round pen. Both did well and are “scary-quick” learners.
Friday, November 19, 2004
sunny, 60, nice
Made Boule
Spent most of the morning on the tractor, grading the north side of the dairy. Prepared a pad for the horse run-in, created a drainage channel and cleared some area near the horse round pen.
K’s sister Jan is starting to look into getting some goats and K worked a bunch in helping her screen potential possibilities
Worked on plans for covering the rear deck at the dairy with a roof.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
much cooler, partly cloudy
Worked on a flyer for the local co-op. Did updates on the web site. Uploaded pix and entered new gift basket sections on Local Harvest website.
Made an early Thanksgiving meal with a turkey, stuffing and gravy. Just couldn’t wait!
Processed more jalapenos (started a hot sauce batch) and FY peppers (fried up 4 gallons of well-cleaned “capones” and froze)
Sunday, November 21, 2004
mostly cloudy and windy, low 50’s
Candy work almost all day with a little cheese late in the day, prepping for shipping and deliveries tomorrow. Started toasting almonds for toffee for a big order (130#) going out next week. Started a small (13 gal maybe) fresh cheese batch.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Cloudy with rain on and off all day, few flurries.
Bagged yesterday’s fresh cheese
The generator died while K was cleaning the equipment just after AM milking. The motor was running fine but the inverter refused to accept the power which was coming in with voltage all over the place, from 108 to 135+. I dinked around with it but there wasn’t anything obvious for me to fix so I called Chuck @ Val-u-Solar. He suggested just upping the inverters acceptance of the higher voltage as a temporary measure until I got a hold of Hardy. His guess was that the alternator was on its way out. The adjustment didn’t help because as soon as the inverter accepted the power, it would draw both the voltage and hertz below the low end of acceptance. Finally got a hold of Hardy - the trouble shooter said I needed a new AVR (automatic voltage regulator) or something similar. The guy in the parts department needed a number off a component inside the cover to the alternator so I went out, removed the cover and got it for him. To my surprise I found that the neutral power wire to/from the inverter had come off the terminal on the alternator. I jiggered it on again and all of a sudden everything was working like a charm (except I had to re-calibrate the gen-set speed I’d been trying to play with in order to get the hertz back where they were supposed to be). Phew! Good end to what could have been a real mess!
D to town. Amelia’s delivery, PO - shipping, Feed Store (candy delivery), Ranch Diesel, Grocery for Thanksgiving stuff, Ranch Gas, Val-u-solar - get terminal lug and drop off some candy.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
sunny, 50
Started a fresh cheese batch.
No PM milking tonight! as we end the main lactation for the year. Actually, Anise and Nutmeg will continue to be milked twice a day for a while more.
Had 2 more local queries about raw (pet) milk - one woman in Show Low ordering 7 gallons next time I go down.
Broke ground for the horse run-in we’re building on the North side of the dairy building. Did the lay-out, digging and got the forms set for doing the concrete pier pours tomorrow.
Started cooking for Thanksgiving (again?!) - baked apple and pumpkin pies, roasted off the sweet potatoes, picked the carrots and got them cleaned and sliced, etc. Also finished a batch of red jalapeno condi-sauce. It’s real good!
Thursday, November 25, 2004
sunny, 60
Got all set up to do the concrete pour for the piers for the new horse run-in but realized that I had forgotten to buy the anchor bolts for the post bases (DUH!) so we couldn’t do a damned thing on it today (all stores closed for the holiday, of course)
Bagged yesterday’s fresh cheese - smelled and acted GREAT.
Worked on designing and printing some labels for upcoming candy orders.
Happy Thanksgiving. We had : turkey with gravy, stuffing, mashes potatoes, creamed brussels sprouts, peas and carrots, cranberry relish, parkerhouse rolls, pumpkin pie with fresh whipped goat cream, apple pie w/ icecream and champagne.
Friday, November 26, 2004
sunny, breezes, 50
Got concrete piers poured for horse run-in
Unbagged current batch of fresh cheese. Made 6 batches of toffee layers (24 sheets, about 90 lbs), chopped 50# dark chocolate, made seasoning blend for Hot Pecans, toased up another 24 lbs of almonds, K assembled 130 1# boxes and lids and 24 ¼ # one-piece boxes for upcoming orders.
Mace and Marjoram both in with the Ancho again today.
D to town early to get concrete anchor bolts and go to PO.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
mostly cloudy, very windy, 50
Separated cream from 8 gallons of milk.
Big candy day. K & I worked on 130# of dark toffee for an order to ship in a couple of days. Full case of chocolate from Shamrock was bloomed but I was able to re-temper it successfully. Unfortunately, the first batch (15 toffee layers) didn’t stick very well and we had BAD delamination problems. Rest went smoothly. Got about 100# finished and boxed.
Rob the ferrrier came out remove Sandy’s shoes and to work w/ K on hoof trimming instruction. He was very informative and will continue to be a good resource.
Hoof trimming lesson
People from NM came to pick-up Ordono late today. They got lost coming here (hadn’t called to even say the were coming), didn’t bring a map or our phone number. They bought a little candy and hit the road again with ‘Dono without much socializing.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
cold, mostly cloudy all day, breezes AM with flurries turning to snow PM
Chocolated the rest of the toffee for a big order going out this week, made Spiced Pecans, dark Rubble, and 2 pans of shortbreads for a dozen candy baskets also going out. K worked at boxing, labeling, wrapping and making gift baskets. We also rolled 70 fresh cheese logs. Got the 130 boxes of toffee and the basket orders all packed for shipping.
Monday, November 29, 2004
Awoke to 2” of snow on the ground. Cold, mostly cloudy, flurries
Did a big cleaning in the dairy then jumped in on cheese work and filling orders for shipment tomorrow. Bagged yesterday’s fresh cheese.
UPS delivered ModPac Order.
Placed order with Shamrock for another case of dark chocolate (hopefully not all badly bloomed this time).
Spoke with Esther in Tucson. She will be sending us another large candy order, much of it shipped around the country, some over-seas.
Major cold front moving in. Temps expected in the single digits over the next few days. We prepared what we could for it.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
mostly sunny, cold
K milked alone this AM - D off to town early. Generator wouldn’t start - had to jump it eventually. Replaced one of the barn lights, mounted the new Horse “dinner bell”.
D to town: shuttle, PO, bank, Amelia’s, Shamrock order pick-up (messed up and bloomed chocolate), Home Depot, WalMart, lunch, deliver milk, LPG,
Our milking machine set-up