Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
Cheese and Candy Information and Online Ordering Page
Featured pages on this site
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Alternative Energy (updated 10/11)
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David's Culinary Blog
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New!
Take a 4 minute "tour of the ranch" on YouTube .
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Award Winning Artisan Goat Cheeses
4 Awards 2010 ADGA National Competition
2 Awards 2008 ADGA National Competition
4 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
3 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
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(available seasonally)
1 Award 2010 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:
December 29, 2011
Š 2000-2010 Black Mesa Ranch Inc. All Rights Reserved
Endorsed by more than 36 humane organizations, the Certified Humane Raised and HandledŽ program is nationally recognized as the Gold Standard for certifying animal welfare.
Arizona Grown!
NOTE: We continue to work on converting our hand-written logbook pages to this format. Some of our earliest months here at the Ranch are now loaded and we'll be adding pictures and more recent entries as time allows.
Logbook Introduction
From the moment we purchased this Ranch in mid-2000 and started telling people about our plan for renovating and homesteading it, almost everyone it seemed wanted to vicariously follow our progress (and pit-falls). What started as notes, letters and emailed updates to friends and relatives grew into a full-fledged and often detailed, hand-written, daily journal of our life, projects, animals etc.
A couple of years later, as our goals and aspirations for the Ranch evolved, we began developing the Ranch web site. One of our main ideas for the site was to document our homesteading work and make that information widely available to anyone interested. Thus was born The BMR Logbook Online.
We've diligently kept up on writing the daily entries. At first, long-hand in a series of journal books and later in a journal program on one of our computers. As time allows we transcribe the older "hen scratches" to the computer and then to the web site and upload and format the journal program entries.
We're also incurable shutter-bugs and have many thousands (I'm not kidding) of digital pictures from the moment we first stepped foot on the property up through yesterday. We continue to work on incorporating the best of these images into the logbook as well.
The Cast of Characters
Like any epic, the story of our time at BMR has many players. Some are constant and ubiquitous, others fleeting or ephemeral. Here are a few key names you will encounter:
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David - I'm the primary journal writer and most of what follows is in my words. I'm afraid that, depending on my mood and circumstances I sometimes write in the first person and sometimes in the third. I am variously referred to in these pages as : "David", "D", "me", "I" and sometimes as one half of "we" or "us" .
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Kathryn - My wife and partner in this crazy life. An infrequent but indispensable contributor to these pages, she is usually referred to as "Kathryn" or "K", and is almost always the other half of "we" or "us".
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"The Girls" - In later entries, especially after we've started the Dairy, I often refer to the herd of milking goats fondly as "The Girls" (as in: "K and The Girls headed up the mesa on a long walk").
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Bosco, Roc, Blue, Ford, Kira, Cody, Hairry, Jake, Misty, Kaylee, and Kirby - These are the names of various dogs we've had over the time covered in this journal. Some were just passing through on their way elsewhere, some play key, long-term roles, and are integral parts of our Ranch operation.
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Trudy, Angel, Nutmeg, Anise, Ordoņo, Guajillo, (and many, many, MANY more) - Our goats. Hopefully you'll be able to tell from context that I'm not talking about a neighbor or friend when I say "Brought Ordoņo another bale of hay this morning" or "Trudy kidded today". When in doubt, assume it's a goat I'm talking about!
So, off you go! Enjoy the journey.
Click on any of the underlined links below to jump to that logbook, or use the "back" and Next" buttons to page through the series chronologically, month-by-month.
2000
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Leaving Tucson and roughing it at Black Mesa Ranch |
Initial solar power, movers arrive from Tucson | Getting heat, first holidays at the Ranch, lost dog |
2001
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| January 2001 | February 2001 | March 2001 |
| Building the Coop, Bosco gets stitches, Getting ready for goats | We get Goats!, We get Chicks!, orchard clearing | Our first ranch baby - Nutmeg the Goat! |
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| April 2001 | May 2001 | June 2001 |
| We get wind power! Orchard work, cheese experiments | Building the "Rabbitats", Orchard and Garden work, chicken butchering | More meat chickens, Angel kidded, Garden-Orchard work |
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| July 2001 | August 2001 | September 2001 |
| Our first eggs!, Meat chicks to coop. disbud Anise | Orchard fencing, meat chicken butchering, build pen and get 1st goat buck | Buck Hall work, ordered 3rd solar array, goats go free-range! |
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| October 2001 | November2001 | December 2001 |
| Bred Trudy(?), got a meat goat, work on new solar array | K to family reunion, big trip to Phoenix, Deck plans, makin' cheese | Bred Angel, candy work, rabbits go colony-style, big snow and COLD! |
2002
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| January 2002 | February 2002 | March 2002 |
| Cynthia visits, new baby bunnies!, Anise gets sick, Ford arrives, trip to TX for Blue, big snow storm | Big Generac trouble, buy new generator, major water leak search, Mucha's visit, buy a beef cow at auction, Trudy kids | Butchered a cow, COLD, processed rabbit fryers, found and fixed the big water leak, seed starting, Guajillo de-horned |
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| April 2002 | May 2002 | June 2002 |
| Angel kids!, work on new deck for south house, LGD "Kira" comes to BMR | Playing with goats, finish south house deck | Rodeo-Chedesky wild fire, goat packing with Ordoņo, making cheese |
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| July 2002 | August 2002 | September 2002 |
| Renovation work south house, cheese making, garden harvesting | Monsoon flooding, trip to Phoenix, making soaps and lotions, demo and framing work at the south house, we get the property re-fenced. | Dairy planning, lots more rain and things are very green, 1st State Ag Dept inspector's visit, K's b-day, gardening and orchard work |
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| October 2002 | November 2002 | December 2002 |
| More renovation work south house, dairy tour in Chandler, final garden harvest for the year, soap making. | South house renovation work, Muchas visit (twice), "Hairry" come to BMR, gear up for holiday candy making. | Holiday candy work, Blue gets hurt-visits Tucson surgeon, "Hairry" goes to new home, begin Dairy construction. |
2003
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| January 2003 | February 2003 | March 2003 |
| K goes on a trip, Dairy construction, Jake comes for rehab. | Angel and Anise kid, more Dairy construction work, 2 new goats come to BMR | Dairy construction work, Trudy kids, M&G visit, Kids learn the "nipple bucket", Jake goes to his new home |
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| April 2003 | May 2003 | June 2003 |
| We get bees!, more work on the Dairy, Cynthia and Jim come for visit, Nutmeg kids. | More work on Dairy Project, Blue and Ford learn a lesson about porcupines, garden and orchard work. | Dairy Cheese Kitchen nears completion, we move a neighbor's old trailer on property, Garden and Orchard work. |
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| July 2003 | August - December 2003 | September 2003 |
| Our Dairy gets Certified! Lots of preliminary cheese work, experiments and getting ready to sell product. | Photo album of the last 5 months of 2003 | |
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| October 2003 | November 2003 | December 2003 |
2004
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| January - April 2004 | February 2004 | March 2004 |
| We break ground on the new doe barn | More doe barn work | No, Bosco is NOT eating this kid! |
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| April 2004 | May 2004 | June 2004 |
| The Unknown Wether | The Gang's all here! | One of the hives tries to swarm. |
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| July 2004 | August 2004 | September 2004 |
| A new water trough arrives | Cheese-making in full swing | Bountiful Harvest |
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| October 2004 | November 2004 | December 2004 |
| Li'l...meet Smokey | Kirby and his goats | Milkin' time...HURRY! |
Under Construction from this point on...
2005
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2006
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2007
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