New To The Farm

Introductions are in order!

These two darling little girls have a future in the security system here at the farm. These girls are half Anatolian Shepherd and half Great Pyrenees, which is what our other three livestock guardian dogs are and we just love love LOVE this mix. :)

With Sadie being 7 and Shasta & Gypsy both being 5 now, we felt like it was a good time to get a couple of young recruits and let the older girls help train them. After all, experience trains well. :)

The little girl on the left with the black mask is Tess. The little blonde girl.....we are still debating on a name. Any suggetions?

( I guess I have the date messed up on my camera. The date should be 7/18/2011.)

My BFF

Introducing to you my BFF (Barn Frog Friend). He (or she) is waiting every morning in the same place which is on the board just above the latch to the holding area.

It seems that every year we have a "barn" frog and I guess this little one is this years frog.

He (or she) doesn't have a name yet and I am thinking of just calling him my BFF unless you all can come up with a better one. :)

Cammi

I haven't posted any pictures of Cammi lately. Meg took some good ones of her this weekend so I thought that this would be a good time to show you how much she has grown and how pretty she is. Cammi is now 8 months old and we have had her for 6 months....and YES....she still loves Chrys and Megan more than she does me although now that I am at the farm full time, she does follow me everywhere and always waits patiently nearby until I am done with whatever I am doing.

Now.....If I could just get her to round the goats up for me at milking time.....

Finally Finished!

In April we took a flying trip to Pennsylvania to pick up our pasteurizer. It was a fast, long and hard trip but we accomplished our mission and had the added bonus of getting to see a little bit of the country that neither one of us had ever seen before.

Once we got back home, we jumped in and worked day and night (that's what it felt like anyway) to get the dairy and creamery finished. The good news is that as of June 2, 2011, Canyon Ridge Farms, LLC is officially a Grade A Goat Dairy AND a Grade A Milk Processing Facility. As a side note Canyon Ridge Farms is the 1st privately owned farm in the state of Oklahoma to be a licensed "ON FARM" processor of dairy goat products.

Anyway, below are some pictures of the completed project. We hope you enjoy seeing it as much as we enjoy sharing it with you.

Two compartment sink in the milk room used to clean the milking equipment.

The door on the right with the window is the outside entry door into the milkroom. The solid door on the left leads into the creamery.

This is the milk parlor where the girls come in twice daily to be milked. You can see the milk lines up above that take the milk directly to the bulk tank.

Another view of the milk parlor. The door in the middle leads into the housing barn. The door on the left leads into the holding area. By the way, YES! This area is air conditioned for the comfort of the girls AND the comfort of the people conducting the milking session. :)

Here is the creamery. You can see the refrigeration units, shelving and prep tables. The piece of equipment on the front table is the pump that pumps our milk from the tank to the bottles and/or pans. Both of the doors in this room with windows lead directly outside.

Another view of the creamery. The door at the back of this room leads into the milk room.

In this view, you can see the three compartment sink used to clean all of the utensils.

Another view of the refrigeration units and prep tables.


This is the bulk tank/pasteurizer and the chart recorder. This is the equipment that we went to Pennsylvania to pick up.



We hope you enjoyed the tour!

More Progress

Another weekend has come and gone and another piece of the project is almost complete. We now have lights and power in the creamery!!! The only thing left to do on the electrical is to run power for the air conditioner. The creamery looks awesome all lit up, but I am wondering just how awesome it will all look at 3:00 in the morning. I'm thinking it may be just a little to much bright and a little to much white. LOL Now we need to put the base boards down and install the sinks. Oh and I still need to paint the doors and trim them out and then........we can set all of the equipment and the creamery will be DONE!!!!! With the completion of certain parts of this project it sure makes it feel like we are "almost" there. Getting Excited!

One Project Complete and a New Baby LaMancha!

WOW! The septic tank was set in place on Friday afternoon and we spent a loooooong weekend working until dark, and later, both days getting the lateral lines in and covered and hooking everything up to the tank. BUT...It is in and that is one project that I don't think I want to repeat anytime soon. On a bright note: When I got home from work yesterday Ciarra had presented us with a new baby! This is the first LaMancha baby we have ever had. I think she is sooooo cute. I have decided that all of the LaMancha babies will be named after elfs. This first baby gets the honor of being named Tinker Bell. :) It's kind of funny. As early as January I still would NOT have ever owned a LaMancha (it's an ear thing with me..lol). In February we purchased the herd of goats from Colorado and there were 4 LaMancha and 2 LaMancha/Nubian crosses. I accepted them as part of the package. After about month or so I was ready for some LaMancha babies because I wanted to 'see" them. NOW....I think Tinker Bell is about the cutest little thing I have ever seen. :) I am thinking that I do like the LaMancha girls. Below are pictures of Tinker Bell and her momma, Ciarra.

The Septic System

We rented the equipment and Chrys dug the hole for the septic tank and the trenches for the lateral lines this past weekend. It was a job that took a full two days (see previous blog) and Chrys was sure tired by the time it was over. They are suppose to deliver the septic tank tomorrow and then hopefully we won't get to much rain until we get the lateral lines in and ditches filled back in.