More Snow

We were blessed with another 5-6 inches of snow today. We have broken several records for Oklahoma this year.......maybe we shouldn't be so competitive. :) The goats are all fairing well. They have been spending all of their time in the barn eating hay. We are so thankful that we had this new housing barn for the girls this year. It has made this loooong winter storm(s) much more bearable for them. On the bright side we should be seeing temperatures in the low to mid 50s by the weekend and low to mid 60s for the first part of next week. Gotta love Oklahoma weather! Below are some pictures of the snow storms.

These first pictures are from last Friday's storm.

The Greenhouse covered in snow.

View of the pond from our back door.

View of the house from the barn.

View from the back porch of the yard garden and the S.E. pasture.

Pretty little squirrel sitting on the back of the chair under the tree.

These pictures were taken of today's storm.

Above pictures were taken at 6:30 am.

These pictures are were taken at about 7:00 am

Winter Weather

Cold Cold Miserable Winter Weather!

The February blizzard of 2011 set in with a fury and left few unscathed. Canyon Ridge Farms was no exception. The snow fall amounts could have been worse. The snow drifts were pretty crazy. The temperatures, almost unbearable for man and beast.

We made it through the actual storm portion of this event without incident. Chrys had to work so the girls and I held the fort down. I am thankful that my work has been closed so that I didn't have to worry about that while taking care of the farm and critters.

Yesterday morning when I went out to do the morning chores we had a doe who had kidded. She lost both babies, a doeling and a buckling, to the cold. She had gotten them both clean and dry, but I guess it was just to cold. She, Sage, wasn't due for another 20 days.

None of them were due for another 20 days! I would have thought that that would have given plenty of time, even with an early delivery, to get past this major cold snap. We had a couple of the other does that acted like they were in the early stages of labor yesterday, one even with discharge but now I think it was just her mucus plug.....guess she has more than most.

Many of the does really really struggled with the cold yesterday. Last night we stole the heaters out of the greenhouse and set them up in the barn. We then took shifts all night to make sure that none of the goats got to close to the heaters or knocked them over and started a fire. The goats were really quite cute. They would kind of form a half circle around the heaters and just stand there. Some would stay for long periods of time and others would just come over to warm up and then move over to the hay feeder to stock up on groceries again. I am relatively certain that we probably lost everything in the greenhouse last night, but I am also pretty sure that that was correct thing to do for the goats.

It is time for my shift at the barn again. I get to milk on my shift.......I wasn't planning on milking for at least 20 more days, but then we have been complaining about having to buy milk to. :)

Have a Blessed and warm day!

COLD COLD COLD

WOW! What miserable, cold weather we have been having. Saturday was fairly nice. Sunday started out nice but by about 3 or 4 o'clock that changed. Temps have been in the single digits and low teens since then. Now on Thursday, at 10:39 am, it is finally above 20 degrees. I sure hope this signals a warming trend.

All of the critters have faired well. All of the goaties have been holed up in their new housing barn. I sure am thankful for that this year. The other thing that I am thankful for is that for the first year EVER we did not breed to kid out in December and January. It feels so weird to not be milking and caring for babies in this arctic weather. We will start kidding out around the middle of February though, however, it is usually starting to warm fairly nicely by that time.

On Saturday we went to Missouri and picked up the FRP panels for the inside of the new creamery. After we left there we came back into Oklahoma and headed to Tulsa to Sam's to pick up the new prep tables and shelving units for the creamery.

On Monday since my work was closed, I got the first coat of paint on the ceiling of the new creamery. Dad helped me out and put another coat of paint on Tuesday. Last night Chrys caulked all of the nail holes on the ceiling and tonight we will put on the final coat of paint on the ceiling.

First Cool Day

WOW! We are having a wonderfully cool day. :)

After so many weeks of 100 degree weather it is 86 degrees right now at 2:00 this afternoon and it is suppose to be even cooler tomorrow. This is such a welcome relief to us and I can only imagine how nice it is for the critters. Now if we could just add a little bit of rain, the ground, plants and trees could sure use it.

hhhmmmmmm

There is not a lot to write about right now except it is HOT!!!!! Much much to hot!

With plenty of shade and lots of fresh cool water, all of the critters are fairing pretty well.

A week from Saturday (8/14/10) we will be going to Leon, Kansas to pick up some new girls to add to our milk line. I am really really excited about that, I just hope that the weather has cooled off some before then. If not, it may have to be a middle of the night ride back home so that they don't get to hot.

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).