Spring Broccoli is Finished :(

Well, it is official. The spring broccoli crop is finished. We harvested the remainder of the broccoli for market weekend before last and Chrys tilled up the broccoli gardens to get ready to plant more summer produce.

In the pictures you will see Chrys tilling the front garden area where the broccoli was and then the result. It's kind of sad looking. Those were sure some big beautiful plants. Chrys has one more tilling to do (hopefully it will be dry enough tonight) and then we can start setting in the remainder of the summer veggies.

Sunshine

Finally! We sure needed this sunshine and it looks like we are going to get serveral days of sun and NO STORMS! It is amazing how much better the sun makes you feel. Here is a picture of the sky one evening this week after a storm.

Sugar and Pepper are doing really well on the milk stand now for the most part anyway. The last two milkings I have milked them two handed which means that I didn't have to hold a leg or hang onto my milk bucket. (I sure hope I didn't just jinx it.)

Enjoy YOUR weekend!

Wednesday Already!

WOW! It's already Wednesday!

The Farmer's Markets went great this last weekend. We sold out of everything at two markets and almost everything at the third market. We now have a little bit of a break before our summer produce is ready, but honestly, I am already missing our customers. I can't wait to get back to market.

The weather is....Oklahoma weather I suppose. Lots and lots of rain on Monday. Really nice day with lots of sunshine on Tuesday and now back to rain on Wednesday. :( I am just tired of mud!

Sugar has had a complete turn around on the milk stand. Monday I contacted my brother and told him how horrible she was. Monday night she started acting like an angel. I wonder if he went over and had a talk with her. I really don't care how it happened as long as it continues. I actually really like her now.

Pepper is a little different story. She started out pretty good, then got really good and now she has regressed a little since Sugar has started behaving. Still not to bad, but it could be better.

When I got home last night, Chrys and Daddy were working in the garden. We already have little baby squash and little tiny baby cucumbers! This is SO exciting! After I milked, I managed to get almost 1/2 of the yard mowed while the guys worked the garden. I could have probably gotten all of it before night fall if the lawn mower hadn't been acting up.

We have kind of slowed down a little on our cheese making, but today we got an order for four different kinds so I guess we need to step it up a bit. This weekend we are planning to start some cheddar and mozzarella.....I'll let you know how it goes.

Rain, Rain, Rain

WOW! Lots and lots of rain today! I know we needed the rain, but we really didn't need it all at one time. More rain is predicted for the next couple of days....

We did have the forsight to at least start picking produce last night when we had a clear spell. We got about half of the garden picked and that much at least is ready to go to market tomorrow. Dad called earlier and said that he was going to go out and start picking more while we have a little break in the rain this afternoon. :)

We went out to milk this morning and I guess the "honeymoon" is over with Sugar and Pepper. Actually, Pepper isn't doing that bad, but Sugar, well, that's another story. I think she is part bucking bull. LOL .....I just can't wait to go milk tonight.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Sugar & Pepper and the Weather

My brother's goats, Sugar & Pepper, have come to live with their "Auntie" for a few months while my brother is tied up with other things.

We brought them home night before last. Understand that our goats are kind of hateful little ladies for a while to any newcomers in the herd. Well, Sugar took a couple of good hits from Stormie and Patty joined in a time or two then Maggie thought that it was her turn to torment them. She got her hair all bristled up and headed in for the head butt....just as she was about to butt Sugar, she stopped and sniffed her...then she started rubbing her neck and licking her head. I swear, she realized that these "new girls" were her babies. After a few minutes of that, Thunder got all bristled up and was moving in to see if she could get in a good butt or two. Maggie stepped between Thunder and the girls and wouldn't let Thunder do anything to them. Then Thunder settled down and started rubbing on them too. Animals REALLY ARE intelligent!

I went out yesterday and bought Pepper & Sugar new necklaces (collars) and then last night, I got out the scissors and clippers and trimmed their tails, udders, and bellies. That sure makes it easier to milk and much more pleasant for both them and me. I finished up the make-over with a nice relaxing (hah!) pedicure. The girls took it all very well and this morning they came right back onto the milk milkstand as if I hadn't just completely worked them over last night. Good Girls!

We went out to milk at 4:00 this morning. It was soooo hot and muggy! We just finished up and got back in the house when it started raining. As I was about half way through my morning shower, Chrys hollers at me and tells me to get a move on because there were storms moving in pretty quickly. Luckily, the storms just kind of split around us and we didn't get more than just a little rain. They lost power in a lot of the Tulsa area and I have even heard that an F1 tornado touched down in the Jenks area. I love spring but hate the storms! I am always very very glad to get into June when the tornado season is mostly over.

Have a Blessed day!

Spring in N.E. Oklahoma

We will start by saying that we have lost (forgetful old mind) our old blog spot so we have decided to start another one.

It has been a fun year here at Canyon Ridge Farms. We had a winter that seemed much to long and so far we have had a terrfic spring.

The goats have all kidded and most were weaned......until we decided to save back some more doelings. We made this decision and then of course the two does that were pregnant had four kids and only one doeling. The doeling, affectionaley known as Pynkie is "ROTTEN". Then with Pynkie being the only doeling, she was lonely so we decided to get a few more doelings. Fortunately for us, my brother had two does that he had gotten out of one our best milkers and our younger buck. They had four kids (3 doelings and one buckling....lucky him). Anyway, we were able to acquire the doelings so that Pynkie would not be so lonely. Unfortunately, she is still "ROTTEN".

The gardens have been doing great so far this year. We had a crop failure with our sugar snap peas, but other than that the gardens are going great. Almost all of the spring time veggies are nearly done for the season. We probably only have one more harvest and then we "try" to patiently wait for the summer crops to mature.

We will keep you updated on the farm happenings (hopefully quite frequenlty).