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
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:
March 29, 2008
© 2000-2008 Black Mesa Ranch Inc. All Rights Reserved
Arizona Grown!
Sunday, December 01, 2002
Woke up in a cloud, literally – neat!! Cleaned goat barn, rearranged ramp, etc. Brought new straw over. Built new plexiglas chicken coop window: stole other one 'cause we needed it for the dairy. South house: Made bathtub and attic access panels and linen closet door. Hairry out all day off leash.
Monday, December 02, 2002
To Show Low: Shamrock for 160# of chocolate, Pepsi, PO, gas, feed store, Mexican lunch. Major cleaning of kitchen for candy making. Sealed off the room from the rest of the house. Toasted almonds. Very foggy almost all day. Hairry out for first time at night. It rained, sleeted then snowed (poor guy). Mailed Christmas cards.
Tuesday, December 03, 2002
Made dog biscuits, 7 batches of toffee – 35 half sheet pans. K chopped 75# of chocolate.
SNOW!! A nice dusting (1/2”) on ground in AM, melted by end of day.
A dusting of snow
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
Chocolated toffee: 9 white, 8.5 milk, 12 dark. Milk chocolate from Shamrock is bad – very bloomed with lots of hard little lumps. Couldn’t get them out or get the chocolate to temper properly. Mucho extra time was taken to “super temper” it so that it was usable. K assembled 80 2# boxes. More AM fog but it cleared very quickly.
Misty frost hangs in the valley
Thursday, December 05, 2002
K packaged toffee – 68 2# boxes. Prepped almost all for shipping. D: labels, cards, more labels, more cards, made 2 batches of honey comb that came out weird. Hairry is acting more like one of the gang. K may have felt a couple of little kicks from a kid inside Anise!
Blue has hurt his leg badly and needs to go to a specialist in Tucson. Prep for Tucson trip: lists, called bee supply place, Vince for pottery, made maps. Very foggy/frosty AM with beautiful little ice crystals formations everywhere.
Frost crystals on petrified wood pieces
Friday, December 06, 2002
To town: Napa to get generator battery replaced, PO to mail international candy shipment, bank to try and get BMR name on account but couldn’t, Mexican lunch, feed store, vets. Angel has slightly lumpy milk, no temp, CMT: marginal, udder seems fine. Got word that Peter Higginson died on 11/13 – quite a shock!
Monday, December 09, 2002
Washed Blue, D off to Tucson: Saw a gas truck wreck in Salt River Canyon, stayed with Mike G overnight, delivered toffee, returned porch swing to Sam's. Lost eye glasses early in the trip and had to where sun glasses the rest of the time. Looked at Fontana ( a house we hold a mortgage on), bought a toffee spoon at restaurant supply. Blue was great. He stayed inside Mikes expensive house and acted like a proper “in-side” dog – though he’s never been in a house before! K made laundry soap out of first bar soap that came out very hard: came out well.
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
K made lotion. In Tucson, D took Blue to Dr. Penwick. Blue has a torn ligament but it’s healing on its own. Doc says to let it be. He took several x-rays for a baseline in case there is trouble down the road. Got truck washed, picked up KOH at Snowdrift, to-go fomr Nicos and lunch at Mongolian buffet. To Vince’s to get pot for CFH , to bee supply place to get hive and other start up stuff, delivered more toffee, did Sam’s Club shopping. To feed store: goat chow, but no Pen G – it was WAY too expensive. Out to Gavi’s on E Broadway with Mike for dinner: very good, exceptional calamari.
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
K put together a pair of “Franken-glasses” for D to get through until we could buy another pair. D still in Tucson: to Home Depot, then to Vaquero Vet Supply for Pen G (great price) then headed to Phoenix: Lowe’s for windows, French doors, etc. Then to Stanley’s sausage (sandwich for lunch and stuff for freezer) then headed HOME (finally)! Got in just before the sun went down.
Thursday, December 12, 2002
Cleaned out goat barn to compost. 3 bucket loaders full. Assembled a dresser for K. David went to town for eye exam and to order new glasses. Couldn’t find the office at first – they had moved for the address in the phone book and hadn't bothered to mention it when I made the appointment. Eyes healthy, prescription adjusted, but no significant deterioration. Unloaded truck – doors and windows, etc.
Friday, December 13, 2002
Trimmed goat hooves. Trudy:135#, Angel 170#, Nutmeg 110#, Anise 125#, Poblano 66#. Put together first new bee hive set-up: Base, 2 deep brood chambers, one medium super and 20 deep frames with foundation ( missing parts for 10 super frames).
Assembled bee hive, ready to paint
Saturday, December 14, 2002
Made 2 batches fudge and 5 batches of honey comb.
Sunday, December 15, 2002
Finished all candy work, took down barriers.
Monday, December 16, 2002
To town: Mailed domestic candy orders and presents. Got 3 pair DCH eyeglasses ordered. (2 regular, one sunglasses) Delivered gifts around to friends and businesses. Hardware store, Mexican lunch. Cleaned the house some, Bea and Lou – the realtors that facilitated our buying the ranch – came to see the place and pick up their candy order. They took 2 last minute orders to the PO for us.
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Rabbit “Notch” was found dead this morning. Snow flurries, stuck a little. Finished K’s new bedroom dresser – 3 coats. Brought 3 bales of hay to the girl’s barn. Fixed back door latch. Installed tub trap door on lower level. Did first of month stuff (oops!) Checked solar batteries - 12 needed a little water, all volts OK, checked generator oil, checked LPG levels. Washed kitchen rug.
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Dairy work: Took a series of "before" picture of the soon-to-be Dairy building. Lots of demolition progress today - most of lower floor done.
Some "before" pictures of the Dairy building interior
Demo work in the future Dairy (lower level)
Made cheese (moz) and dog biscuits. Called LPG and went to monthly service instead of “will call”. Snow showers ~1” total accumulation. Updated main web page.
Thursday, December 19, 2002
Cold but all pipes A-OK! New heater in goat barn wash room worked great. Worked on lighting plan for dairy. Installed 2 new window frames in dairy. UPS came with packages from Nasco and CFH. Most of snow melted, temp to ~40 degrees.
Friday, December 20, 2002
Windy, low temp of 12 degrees F! Installed sashes in new dairy windows. More demo upstairs, and clean up downstairs. Cookie package arrived from Esther and Lindsey in Tucson (complete with anatomically correct "ginger people").
Saturday, December 21, 2002
Worked on Dairy deck plans.
Sunday, December 22, 2002
Flurries, 15 degrees. Goofed off.
Monday, December 23, 2002
To town: 3 inches of snow on ground and still falling. We were gong to got to Show Low but weather too iffy. Went to PO, hardware store, Basha’s, glasses place (not ready). Several cars off road on way back but we had no problem with 5 inches of unplowed snow on El Dorado, San Carlos, and our road made the trip back lots of fun. Total accumulation 6”.
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Harry gone!? Haven’t seen him since yesterday evening. Somebody has written that they are interested in adopting him. Had cheeses and crackers and a steak off the 7-rib roast we bought – cut 8 more steaks, the rest will be for Christmas dinner. Did a couple of small projects at the goat barns. Trudy got her ear nipped by Kira in a tussle for biscuits – lots of blood everywhere, but not much damage. Got a few flurries.
It's gonna be a white Christmas after all
11PM Harry’s back, looks fine, happy as a clam. Put him in buck pen.
Wednesday, December 25, 2002
CHRISTMAS! Played out with goats for a while. Opened presents. Read new books, K walked with the goats. Had Prime rib dinner (3 PM). Lots of sun and cold temps (high of 32 degrees, low of 4!) made lots of power: 58 volts at one point. Got lots of personalized ranch, dairy, and goat stuff: Shirts, towels, pillow, etc.
Prime rib Christmas dinner. Our own cheeses (of course) for appetizers
Presents!
Thursday, December 26, 2002
Too cold to do much – low of 1 degree. Organized south house store room. Mounted some clothes hooks in bedroom, hung linen closet door. Read some books, More work on 3 deck plans.
Friday, December 27, 2002
3 degrees! To town and Show Low: Coke, Shamrock to return bloomed milk chocolate. Wal-Mart – kerosene heater and a hair cut for K, hardware store, PO, feed store, Mexican lunch, glasses place – closed. Message while we were out from glasses place that D’s glasses are ready to pick-up (argh!). Pumped 5 gallons of kerosene from storage tank, assembled heater and tested it out. Kerosene worked fine even though it’s over 12 years old – but a bit sputtery.
Saturday, December 28, 2002
8 degrees, windy in PM. Installed new window in the South House sunroom.
Putting in the new sunroom window
Brought a load form the dairy to the dump. 2 loads form south house to dairy. Cleaned out goat barn to compost: 3 bucket loads. Did a little more demo work in the dairy.
More demo work in the Dairy (upper level)
Sunday, December 29, 2002
28F with wind. One trip to dump and supply yard from dairy. Washed Hairry. Woman came for him. He was too much of a couch potato to work hard enough for us but she seemed over-joyed to get him. Very muddy and mucky. PM snow – 1 inch.
Blow-drying Hairry
Monday, December 30, 2002
25 degrees, 2 inches of snow on ground. Dairy work: More demo and cleaning. Started rough electric, tracing circuits, making repairs: 2 circuits done, 1: 90%, 1:started. Main web page update. 2 inches of snow on ground this AM. Separated cream from 4 gallons of milk and made ricotta. K called WSU about goat tests. USP arrived with package from Martha and Glenda. Front web page updated.
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
18 degrees. Cooking day, New Years Eve Buffet (for two).
New Years Eve at BMR
To town: 1 pair DCH glasses, feed store, Mexican lunch.