Kitty Prints

Yesterday we poured the floors for the holding area and the exit area/mechanical room in the dairy barn. Finished the holding area and moved to the exit area. Went back to the holding area and there were the prettiest little kitty foot prints in the cement. My husband asked if I wanted him to fix it. I said, "NOPE! These are special." So now we have nice little kitty prints in our milk barn courtesy of Rylie the barn cat. :)

My Favorite Time of Year....one of them anyway :)

It's the middle of December and this is truly one of my favorite times of year. Yes, it's the holiday season, but who cares?! I have seed catalogs!!!!!!

That's right! It's cold outside, the fire is warm and the seed catalogs are calling my name!

As I pour over all of the beautiful plants in my catalogs my mind starts to wonder and I imagine my gardens as they will be come spring and summer. As the signs of spring emerge, so do all of my beautiful garden plants. I have lettuce, onions, spinach, radishes and carrots. I have broccoli and potatoes and the most gorgeous sugar snap peas you have ever seen! As spring time warms we are planting tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, squash, melons and on and on. The gardens are by far the most gorgeous gardens you have ever seen! All of the plants are big and tall and strong! The soil is dark, rich and fertile and there is not a weed in sight!

Still in my mind I am looking at the wonderful bounty that we are harvesting from our gardens and taking to the area farmer's markets. All of the local market clientele are just as thrilled as we are with the bounty of the harvest and as much as we enjoy sharing our harvest with our clients we are relishing in the annual renewal of those friendships!

After several hours of sitting with my catalogs open while staring blankly into space I slowly come back into reality and as I close my catalogs for the evening I know that only one portion of the above dream will be easy. That portion is the annual friendship renewal, but the other parts of the dream are what makes farmers farmers. Without the dream, it is all for naught.
As long we have anticipation and expectations the American (or is it HUMAN) dream lives on.

So I do my chores and hurry through dinner so that I can once again get back to my seed catalogs and stare off into space until I am called back to reality and head off to bed with the eagerness of child knowing that I will get to "re-live" the experience again tomorrow evening.

Have a GREAT night and we'll see you at the market!

News or Lack Thereof

I haven't posted in a while. :(

I was sick for a full week then spent a week preparing for my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary, which turned out GREAT by the way. Then spent a week preparing for Thanksgiving, which was also Wonderful!

Today our dairy inspector came out for a "progress" visit. He was just looking to see what all we have gotten done on the new dairy and creamery and to answer some of our questions. The visit went really well and he answered a lot of questions favorably. Chrys and I both felt very good after he left. I think we are on the right track. :)

.......on the other hand I am so ready to be done with the construction part of this and get on to kidding season then milking and making cheese. This should prove to be a very interesting venture. :)

Weekend Productivity

This past weekend was VERY productive!

We finally managed to get all of the outside insulation and metal onto the new creamery. We still have some trim to put on, but the doors are installed and the walls are up so at least we are dried in and can work "inside" throughout the upcoming winter days.

I didn't get any pictures this weekend, but will try to get some tonight and post them on here tomorrow.

It feels sooo good to be another step closer to our goal. :)

SADIE WORKING......or not.....

The big brave livestock guardian dog is not so big and brave when it comes to the sound of a gun shot (or the site of a spot light for that matter). Last night Sadie pushed her way in the house when Megan came home then promptly took up post beside the wood stove. Meg layed down on the rug with her and they both snoozed for a bit, then Sadie had to go back outside to help the other two LGDs with their goat herd responsibilities for the night.

Makes me really wonder what all kinds of trouble Sadie got into in her pre-Canyon Ridge Farms days. :)

.....PROGRESS.....

It's been a few days since I have posted.

I was off work (from my day job) most of last week. This afforded some daytime hours to be working on the milk barn and creamery. There wasn't that much visual progress, but I was sure busy all week. I did get a trench dug from the end of the new creamery to the South end of the milk barn for our drains (sure hope they are deep enough). It was hard work because every bit had to be dug by hand but Megan and Peyton helped so that made it better. Below are pictures of Peyton helping. :)

Kymberly cleaned out the milk parlor and milk room. With all of the construction going on this is an endless job. She also went around adding more screws to the interior and exterior walls of the milk barn.

Yesterday was a looong day to Oklahoma City. Very very tired by the time we got home but this morning........it proved to be well worth the trip. More on this to come later..... :)

Creamery Construction

Below are a couple of pictures of the new creamery while in construction.

You can see where it will attach to the current milk barn.

This is a 16x32 structure.

Below are pictures of the drainage pipes in the creamery prior to the slab floor being poured.

More pictures to come as I get time to post.