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December 29, 2007  FEMA, SBA, USDA, NCRS, and a list of others.  I have to say my only problem with these agencies has been me.  I do not like paperwork and I have the absolute worst handwriting in the world.  So not only are the answers a bit comical but they are illegible.
FEMA  I learned is an agency who works to make sure homes are safe.  They do not work with business losses.  Their job is to ensusre people have the resources to make their home safe and livable.  Not fancy, they will not replace my lost things, nor should I expect them to.  The call-in process took 20 minutes, just as they said it would.  I just answered the questions as they came.  No arguing, not trying to add things on as personal property that was business or rental or recreational.  The call was made on a Thursday and the inspection happened on Sunday.  I got the check from FEMA the day after Christmas.  It should cover hiring someone to scrape the muck out from under the house and  we should be able to replace/repair walls and floors so the house will be more weather, and rodent resistant.  I will wait after that to see what is left and what our priorities are. 
SBA  the Small Business Administration is an agency whose goal is to help homeowners and businesses with lower rate loans.  I have three applications for this agency as we can apply for funds to complete work on our house, we will need to apply for Black Sheep Creamery as it is run by Gregory Farms, Inc.  and we can apply for a loan to fix up the rental as we did not include physical property in the corporation.  I had started the applications at home and went into the disaster releif center to finish.  Business people ask circular questions to me...It is a foreign language.  I went to the Yard Birds Shopping Center, they are headquarted up stairs.  I was directed to the seating area by a man in uniform...wow.  I waited my turn and at the reception desk was asked for picture ID by a gruff older gentleman.  I provided my license and said I just wanted to talk to the SBA.  “You sure?”, “oh yes,” I replied, “I have a USDA appt on Monday” .  “Okay, here is your orange hall pass” then,with a twinkle, “If you do not bring it out with you I will put you in detention”.  “Oh I quipped that may be allright, I have a four year old at home, I may want a vacation”  He chuckled at that and off I went to the SBA office.  Once I entered the room, the first representative who caught my eye waved me on up to the table.  Poor guy.  I had two out of three partially completed applications.  I have a corporation, a rental and a home all on one tax parcel, mortgage, and equity loan.  I know how my system works but he was clueless.  It is such a small business especially since our friend Karen is off to another job in October it is just Brad and I, and I don’t even get paid.  We both have part time jobs which go up and down in hours and I went from full time to no time back to two days a week at the Doctors office.  Average that.  Sigh.  Some people would find that very black and white adding up the hours and dividing them out and there you have it.  I on the other hand confuse myself with....well I may work 3-4 days a week if Teri needs me and I have coverage for the kids and Brad has transportation under control.  If we bring the ewes due in March home to lamb then I will work less.....I was making more money as supervisor but now will be paid as a nurse.......(this is why I abhor jury duty).  We got the house application done and I took it for Brad to sign.  I have till August to finish the Business applications.  It better not take that long but now I have a list of what is needed to complete them, balance sheets, tax statements, tax returns etc.  If I look at one application at a time I will do much better.   All in all it was a fine experience.  If only they spoke english.
I will meet with the USDA/FSA  (Farm Services Agency) representative on Monday.  They are looking at ways to help us deal with the mud.  How to make our land usable.  I beleive Brad will be attending with me.   In fact I know he will.
Today we have workers coming from Seattle and Oregon!  We will face the muck and rain.  It will be great each day is a step forward.

December 28, 2007  The letter of the week is M.  What are words that begin with M?  Mice, Mud Mountains, and Murphy’s Oil Soap.  Staying at my parents home, who get TV reception, has been both good and bad.  We get to watch Sesame Street in the morning. It is a good show, especially for my 4 year old who has been out of preschool for a month.  The only problem is they stay on PBS and want to watch more and more.  I think that is the main reason we never signed up to get TV reception at the farm.  It is just too easy to watch a lot, even when the quality goes downhill.  I have discussed Mice, no evidence of death and destruction yet.  I am sorry I am not very nice when dealing with the enemy here.  The Mud Mountains, or Mud Flats as one neighbor dubbed our corner of the road, gives us this tale of the intrepid adventurer..John the Gift.  When I was at work on Wednesday Dr Miller and I were discussing that John just marches to the beat of his own drum.  We pray this becomes an admirable  trait rather than one that marks him throughout his life.  John went outside with his daddy on Wednesday, Brad was doing something in the front yard.  We had a Youth Group from Camano Chapel down and the County was cleaning out the culverts by the road.  It was a busy place.  So John in his 4 year old wisdom climbs the large mud pile in the front yard, and gets stuck in the loose mud on top.  ( I do not know if this was before or after he gave himself and one of the cats a haircut!)  Picture a little boy with a more than impish smile yelling out “Hellooooo, I’m Stuuuuck, Would someone pleeeeeease help me”.  It took three guys and several branches to get him down as the heavier adults would sink a lot sooner and a lot deeper that a 45 pound 4 year old.  Where are cameras when you want them? 
Mr. Murphy's soap and I had a day together in the house.  I scrubbed the stereo and tv cabinets with the soap and then put on Howard’s Finish Feeder.  Not too bad.  Their feet have cracked a bit and I could not reach some of the very inside corners.  But I tell you if the kids are playing in there, that far, it is not the mud they will need to be concerned with!  The cabinets look okay, I had to lay them down on the floor and let the caked mud fall off the lower infrastructure then vacuum out what I could.  It is nice to see they made it.  They are not  wonderful pieces of furniture but when we found them they seemed to fit the old house so well it will be nice to put them in their places.....and get more of the stuff out of the upstairs to give the cats more room for their mouse hunt.  We, again were very fortunate, the water came up fast and went down fast.  I suspect we only had water in the house for 12 hours or so.  There are places in Centralia the water sat for a couple days.  It was not moving as fast through there.  I at least am able to try to save the wood furniture, they cannot.  I have a nice table that my Grandmother had in her kitchen it made it too.  Small steps.  Each day if we get one more thing done we are a step further through the valley.  Today...the paperwork, get the coffee ready!

December 26, 2007  The next big obstacle has been sighted.  We have encountered a multitude of foes preventing us from returning us to our home.  Or should I say preventing me from wanting to sleep there.  I have two warriors who will gaurd the home front but in the midst of the mess from the flood they have been handicapped.  Therefore Peter and I carried boxes back downstairs today so the cats can have free access to walls and niches to hopefully fight off the mice who have all moved upstairs during the flood.  Yikes.  I am not afraid of mice....but I prefer to see them first.  I have an annoying habit of screaming and jumping on something when I see a rodent.  It has always impressed my children.  They will come running just to laugh at mommy standing on a chair.  So we set out bait and moved boxes so the cats can find their prey.  I hope they can accomplish their task fast.  It will certainly be nice to be home.  In my home that is in the midst of a “remodel”.    One other animal control problem is that there is something living out in the “bunkhouse” or storage shed attached to the back end of the house.  It has attacked our younger cat a couple times.  I saw the frenzy of flying fur as the two animals fought and I saw the results of a tussle on Christmas Eve.  Sam was mudcaked head to toe, and limping.  I could not take him in to the vet so late in the day so close to Christmas.  So we kept an eye on him and he has been recovering well.  I do not know what is out there, I am assuming, hoping, it is a cat that took refuge in a dry building (sounds better than a raccoon, possum, or skunk!).  I am not suprised at the change in habitat of all these other animals I have had to relocate as well.  I wonder what happens to coyotes, and such.  Will they swim downstream and find another home, do they drown?  Rabbits and small animals must not make it very easily.  I think my fish from my fish pond escaped.  I have to let the water clear to see what may have stayed behind.  Deer, moles, possums, beaver?  The flood has such a large impact it will be interesting to see how it affects the wildlife in the area.  But I would prefer to watch the wildlife be affected outside....not by building a large nest underneath my side of the bed.

December 24, 2007  We have been carried.  It has been an amazing three weeks since a flood of untold and unprecedented proportions hit our farm.  We were hit hard.  We had water in our house, our barn, our cheese parlour, our cars and truck, our rental home next door.  We lost 65 animals, some of our best milkers and all of our rams. 
But, in the midst of our tragedy:  We have been loved.  We have been prayed over and lifted up.  We have been challenged.  We have been blessed.  We have been hugged.  We have been humbled.  We have cried and laughed, laughed and cried.  We have received more than I could ever give to anyone in my lifetime.  I pray the overwhelming outpouring of help, love, donations, and prayers is not missed by myself or my children.  I pray for our neighbors and friends who were also hit by this surge of water.  Some lost all they had.  Homes have been condemned, belongings gone, lost to muddy water and the muck left behind in their homes.  Our children's’ school and other schools were flooded.  It has been a major event for this area, and the people who live here and around here have stepped up to the plate.  We averaged 30 to 50 people helping out the first week.  We have had work groups travel 2 to 3 hours to come and help.  Several times!  We will move home soon.  The boys are doing well.  We are tired but healthy.  As I said we have been carried.  We have been loved.
We sang this familiar Christmas Carol in church on Sunday, it seemed to hit home a bit more this year than in the past.  Knowing the Angels sang to the lowly shepherds first has always made our sheep more special to me. 
       
It came upon a midnight clear, that glorious song of old,
From Angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heaven’s all gracious King!”
The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angel sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats O’er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lowly plains they bend on hovering wing,
And ever o’er its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.

For lo, the days are hastening on, by prophets seen of old,
When with the ever circling years shall come a time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own the Prince of Peace their King,
And the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.

What a glorious vision.
Merry Christmas to all of our friends, Thank you all for your support, stay tuned as we advance to the new year and the flood becomes last year’s problem!

December 19, 2007  We wore out this week.  It has been two weeks since the flood.  A phenomenal amount of work has been accomplished by wonderfully dedicated, totally uplifting, and extremely capable volunteers.  Old friends and New friends.  We have been blessed.  Our house has been gutted below 4 feet and has almost dried out to the point we can reoccupy it!  Our yard has been scraped by a volunteer with a cat.  Our garage hosed out and is holding household items needing assessment.  Our picnic area and play yard have the first layer of mud off.  Our Machine shed has been emptied and some of the smaller engines have been taken apart in order to dry out.  We pray they will work.  Our Cheese cave was saved, it sits in the driveway, in the wrong spot, but out of the way until we can relocate it again.  Our cheese room has been cleaned out once, a group from Sultan came down today and began cleaning equipment more carefully.  We will explore with our Dairy Inspector just how to go about the sanitizing process.  Our milking parlor has been cleaned out also.  The Barn is beautiful, inside.  It has been hosed out and cleaned out well.  The rental house behind the barn is ready to dry out now and awaits new drywall, flooring, and cabinets.  Piles of garbage have been picked up and hauled away.  Our poor beloved sheep that died have been hauled away and our live animals are up the road.  Kim and Doug are more than caring for them they are babying them along nursing the injured back to health.  Not only has so much been accomplished on the farm we have been oh so very richly blessed by people sending e-mails, cards, prayers, donations.  These come from people who have sheep, people who have flooded in their past, people who like to eat, people who appreciated what it takes to make artisan cheeses, good people with good hearts.  Churches have blessed us, family, my parents have housed us and our not so quiet boys.  Our two dogs have stayed with our minister and his family, sharing their care with a family next door.  They took us in the night we were flooded out.  Our kids have stayed with friends who have “normal” lives.  Friends, old and new, have changed their lives to meet us in our mess.  People are great.  I needed to look at all that has been accomplished till now.  I started to sort papers today.  I found all the birth certificates and the kids report cards.  They are drying.  Fortunately the pictures were all up high.  Brad has begun the tedious process of sorting the machine shed, he took a load to the recycle place today and came home with $94, not bad.  The thing that will slow me down now is the paper work.  I admit it I would rather be moving ahead than sorting and claiming what is behind.  It will happen, given enough coffee, anything can happen.  We hope to take the Christmas weekend off.  We have one more group of volunteers coming from the Bellevue Presbyterian Church tomorrow and Friday.  We hope to have things to the point of just spraying bleach once a day and then looking forward to the Celebration of the Birth of the Christ Child.  We thank each and every one of you who has opened your hearts and hands to us.  We will celebrate this season of rebirth and renewal and come back stronger for the road traveled.  I hit a wall today, but then I have had opportunity to look at all that people have done for us I will be able to climb that wall, maybe using your backs and shoulders and hands that you have offered us.  When we reach the top of the wall we will offer a hand up to others as they climb.   Thank you.

December 17, 2007 I think the only time I am aware what the date is is when I am sitting here by the calendar.  We had a very busy weekend.  Saturday a wonderful group came from Mt. Vernon with additional friends from Whidbey Island.  This group was organized by Karen Gribble who has visited us in the past and has been building her flock of dairy animals.  What a blessing these folks were, thank you Joanne and Steve........  Another friend just joined us for the day Keith Chadd who I met at the Puyallup Farmers Market came down to help out. Together these folks finished taking out the floor in the Rental House, finished gutting insulation, pressure washed the garage at the rental and then they moved over to the Machine Shed, emptied it out along with Teri and Ted Blankenship who pressure washed what what left in there.  There were several other folks who dropped in, two men who work together at the Dept of Licensing came and helped remove all the wood that was up against the wall in the woodshed, then they helped my son and his friend Caleb dig out the play yard.  The "Cat" man was back to move more dirt, we have a 5-6 foot mountain in the front yard now.  It was a good day!  Kailey and I dug through the house trying to free up the bedrooms so we can move back in.  People delivered a washer and a dryer, a refrigerater, a stove, and I have not told the kids, a TV.  A couple had a loaded trailer and brought down a bunch of things from Anacortes.  They had their two boys with them and the first thing they did was walk in the mud, boy do I see that happening a lot from here on out.  We were hugely blessed by a gift from a group at the Everett Boeing plant.  Wow, Thanks to those folks who work hard and had chosen to sponsor a family for Christmas.  Apparently they were such a generous group the put together enough to sponsor two families.  We were selected for that.  This experience has  been a huge lesson in the generosity of people.  It is so tempting to say oh no but thank you we will make it, my pride wants to do that. But then I look at the person offering the hand up and the sincerity and the genuine caring about our losses are there in their eyes.  God has been good to us.  We have often been on the giving side of these events, maybe not often enough as I look at what has been pouring into the community.  God has blessed us in the past and will again, and I tell you I will not waiver a millisecond to send a blessing to someone who needs it in the future. 

It was very special of Keith to come down to help us clean up.  Keith raises St. Croix sheep which is one of the breeds that could be considered as a dairy breed.  The St. Croix is a hair breed rather than wool.  We were going to buy a ewe to see what the potential was for this breed.  When we collected the animal Keith talked us into taking two, then told us to pay off the debt in cheese.  He wanted to see what the dairy potential for these two ewes would be.  The sad part of the story is that neither of his animals made it through the flood and there will be no milking records to share with him.  But he came to help anyway, thanks.

Sunday the FEMA inspector came to verify our losses.  It is a brief visit so we had planned to go to church for the Christmas Cantata.  Then Transalta came and began to suck out the 6 inches of mud in the basement next door, and then Brad called me over to help because there were too many boxes and things down there for the machine to suck around.  We spent an hour or two running gloved hands through chocolate pudding to find bits of dishes, Christmas tree ornaments, Phone books, toys etc.  It was sad.  I was muddy down into my boots.  Luckily I knew where a clean set of clothes were and I could get to them.  Also there was no one in the house so I did not have to track the mud all the way up stairs.  Back to sorting and organizing.

Then the visit of all visits came.  Our friend Delphine Tramm came.  There were three boys born to the original Tramms that bought the property back in the 1800's.  Two of the brothers stayed after their parents moved into Chehalis.  Wec and Lee farmed the land and had  a cow dairy.  The third brother , Willis, had a feed store up in the Parkland area.  Delphine is the only relative left from the original family that built up the farm, or ranch as she called it.  She has stories to tell as did Lee Tramm when he came to visit.  I think she was one of the hardest visitors to have on the property.  She knew what the losses were.  She knew how long it took the family to build up what was there, and could probably tell us who built what, how it was used and a story about it as well.  I felt a twinge of guilt as she viewed the property.  Not a rational feeling by any means but I felt I had not taken good enough care of the farm.  Isn't it amazing what we can do to ourselves.  Delphine left us a very nice note, along with a boatload of groceries and stuffed animals.  She told us to "the ranch is a forgiving ranch and a loving ranch.  It's also a lucky ranch.  If you give to it , it will give back to you as you probably already know.  We were always so happy that people like you bought it because you seem to love it as much as we did and still do".  Thank you Delphine.  She knows we will pick up from here and we did not do this to the farm/ranch.  One of the next generation of "Tramms" stayed and helped me organize the kitchen.  Thank you Susan, I hope to move home soon with all the kids under one roof!!!

December 16, 2007 AM  Will keep this short as we have a 7:15 appointment with the FEMA inspector this Morning, and my mind is dead, I will go "coffee up" and get on out there :-).

December 15, 2007 AM Saturday.  I should be doing flu shots today at Northwest Pediatrics.  I have missed several days of work at my Winter fill-in job.  Not only have I missed days there but several have come out to help us dig out of our mess.  About two years ago I met with Teri at a local coffee shop to encourage her to look at taking my job at NWPC since I knew I was going to cut back on hours.   Yesterday Teri and I met at the same place and worked out some days I could go back to work at NWPC till May.  What a funny turn of events, but so nice to know we are good enough friends she could lay out what her needs were and I mine and come to a workable solution for both ends!  People are good!

I had plans yesterday to continue working upstairs, to get a computer set up to do bills on and then go outside in the PM to work on a pile of our farmers market things that need to be cleaned.  Mr. Burbee showed up with his pressure washer.  Angela and I had thought his offer of washing would be great to get the mud off the porch and house.  My new area of focus was to remove all the stuff we had piled out to the front porch.  We could only take it that far at first as the yard was still soup!  Now the water is beginning to drain and a tractor had cleared the thick part from in front of the porch.  We moved and scrubbed and I will bleach the outside of the house today.  It looks so much better.  I even turned the Christmas lights back on the wreath by my kitchen door.
Later in the day a man with a cat showed up, "would you like me to scrape this mud away from the house?"!  You bet!  It turns out this man is a Pilot who lives here locally, happens to have heavy equipment and the ability to operate it and was just out trying to help people in a way he could.  He had even take time off his job to help people in the area.  He had some gruesome stories to tell of homes with 7 feet of water in them and a deep residue of sludge.  In many areas things are just plain bad.  Mike and Heidi Peroni at Boistfort Valley Farms were really hit hard with this.  I read in the Capital Press yesterday of a farm whose animals were floated to the rafters in their barn and caught.  How does one remove a cow from over their heads!  My favorite nursery was hit hard I saw Connie Davis of the Dirty Thumb at the meeting  Thursday pm,  she will be back. It is good to see.

December 14, 2oo7 Angela and I began to unearth the beds yesterday.  On Monday, 12/3, as Peter and I carried things up stairs we just put them anywhere we could.  On Wednesday when we got back into the house I had two "clean kids" upstairs and as we found dry goods we tried to get similar products into similar rooms.  It went fairly well but now is time to dig out.  I put away the Christmas decorations.  They belong upstairs in the bunkhouse so we could get them put away.  The bathtub is piled high with books so I will get a few boxes to store them.  Our bed has the bills on it and all the stuff from the office that was dry...will get to that one.

Brad did very well with and is very grateful to the group from Classical Farms.  They cleaned out a storage building, and began to take apart motors that got wet.  They attacked the old Granary first.  They stuck a shovel into some old clover seed that was in there, it sparked.  They dug deeper and found a place in the center that had smoldered to ashes.  I have always heard wet hay etc burns.  Peter explained it to me "the water evaporates and the vapor rising causes enough friction to ignite the product".  Yikes, timing is everything.  Brad felt very good about progress outside, the machine shed is next, the woodshed needs to be emptied....we just filled it up, but the wood is stacked so it is retaining moisture in the walls.  It must get out.  The play yard will need to be shoveled.  I want my younger two boys to be able to come home.  We went to a meeting in the community last night.  As the man described all that was in the water as it washed into houses and yards, I can understand a bit more how dirty it is.  We have also determined it is not good topsoil that floated in, it has a lot of clay in it.  I will dig it into my flower beds as there in only a few inches there and I have very good soil underneath but the yard and the play yard, what a mess.  I did hose out the 8' by 8' play cabin last night, in the dark, in the cold, with a leaky hose.  I could only think of the fun the boys and I have had out there, especially on hot days we could take toys out to the play house and I would fall asleep on a mattress while they played and drove cars through my hair....I never stay awake in the heat.  We have spent the night out there, Peter more than the littler boys.  They could run a cord out to the building and watch a movie on the laptop when a friend spent the night.  I will look today to see how well I did.  It was pretty dark when I finished. 
Representatives from the Washington State Farm Bureau stopped by bring wishes of good luck and information about feed that has been sent into the area.  I had a chance to speak with Kim earlier and discussed the differences between the appetites of our animals and her Shetlands, and Churros.  Ours are greedy.  We were told early on one sign of a good dairy ewe is that they are greedy when it comes to the food bunker.  We will see if we can get some additional feed out there as our girls are big and demanding....which is a wonderful sign to us who know them and know this is healthy behavior.  It is very daunting the first time they rush you and your legs are pinned between animals with heads in the feeders and you cannot move until one of them is done eating.  We will look for feed!

We attended a meeting in the community last night, Wonderful information all sorts of helping agencies had 5 minute spiels on what is available or what is important. How to clean homes, the lecture on mud, where to find water, how to clean wells, who has grants, loans and information to get us back up and going.  It was well done.  The Sheriff spoke and I had not realized we only lost one life in this flood.   The rescue efforts were huge.  Another man shared the velocity with witch the water was spilling down the river and how much larger that was than 1996.  It was huge.  It is an amazing thing. 

December 13, 2007 Today is the paperwork day I have to get through to FEMA and get that done.  I also copied off the list of sheep we have left from Kim.  I will revamp my ewe log with the due dates listed in order so I will know when we actually will start lambing and in what order.  That will help me a lot.  It is my thing to watch the ewes, make sure we start graining on time and know who we are to check on which nights.  This year will be a bit different but we need to know what to expect.  The ewes are doing well, I saw Kim at the lunch center in Adna yesterday.  What a blessing they are!

Mrs. Gregory, Pam Jones and I scrubbed the floor in the mud room yesterday.  Yes it is an aptly named room and will be for several months.  It has a tile floor so we bleached and scrubbed it and it looks beautiful.  We brought in some metal tool shelving to stack all the cleaning supplies on and the kitchen has space to move in some appliances.  As long as something is necessary and mobile it will work in the house.  The two Mr. Gregorys worked in the rental and got the last of the kitchen cabinets and the flooring out.  It still has 6 inches of muck in the basement but the Transalta gully washer truck will be by again soon and we are on their list for a basement cleanout.  I wish the ongoing house cleaning was that easy.  Today our friend Ross Merker from Classical Farms in Yelm will be there with his crew to help Brad do what needs doing.  I think they may attack the machine shed.  It is a mess.  Ross has a man who is good with motors we hope he can look at what we have that went under and see if anything is salvageable.  People who recognize and use their gifts are a blessing.  It really takes all sorts of skills and ability to lead and see the whole picture all the way down to the small picture.  God has been good.  The bible talks about one body many parts, it is nice to see the hand scratching the ear, the mouth speaking ideas the brain has placed there and the heart keep beating.  We are blessed by people working together to get this community back on its feet.  I am in awe.

December 12 2007 The answer to yesterday's mud question came from the Health Dept....mud and muck has various chemicals in it that will cause rashes or illnesses.  I can understand that but I have boys who play in the dirt...The thought is just hose them off good when they come into the house.  The mud is also is the area where I used to have my vegetable garden.  I have not had time to garden for a couple of years so it needed refreshing.  I guess it will be a bit longer......I think I can find a few other things to put on my to do list. 

Last night we were able to attend a worship service at the Church of God put on for families whose kids go to the Centralia Christian School.  It took on 18 inches of water.  Brad works at the school and we have walked through it but have had not time to volunteer.  They have had so many families involved and helping they are in fairly good stead to reopen on January 2nd.  It had not really occurred to me how big this thing is.  I know it has been on the national news but we do not have a chance to watch that.  I know a lot of businesses got hit but I went to the disaster meeting Tuesday and there was standing room only in the Ballroom of the Aerie I saw a lot of people I know and have worked with over the years.  It is heartbreaking as I have had a chance to drive around a bit more.  Copy and Printing stores under water.  All that beautiful equipment.  Restuarants with their chairs and tables outside, copiers.  Wow.  Furniture stores, Mattress stores.  Drywall piles at the Home stores.  Piles of belongings as you drive down the street waiting on the curb for pickup.  It is incredible.  The school has been blessed by loads of volunteers, which is huge.  Jamie Kaiser, who was a student there in his younger years, now owns a Construction Company, he came the very first night they got back in and with his crew pulled out 80% of the carpeting.  Incredible!  The kids did all get out of there by 2:00 on Monday the 3rd and "God will provide all our needs according to his Glorious riches in Christ Jesus".  I will trust that as I look at what is being provided, we have been blessed., I say that over and over but our spirits have stayed up quite well, the task could be daunting but the prayers we are being upheld with are working.   My mottoes have been "things are things", God has a bigger plan than Me, and now I will know that what is being supplied to us is of as plan far beyond my understanding.  It did not dawn on me till last night  that not only was our town and farm hit, our two boys' school, but  Brad's off farm job, he works there about 10 hours a week.  It is time to get my head out of this bucket I placed it in..Kinda like taking the ewes across the running water we could do that If they could not see what it was they were walking into.....I must be a good shepherdess if I can act like them as well as I have been!  We will carry on.

December 11 2007 We did get into the rental house yesterday.  I think I found a good way to deal with frustrations.  Lily Lo and I were there doing the first bit of dry wall removal.  A swift kick into the wall and it is amazing how tension eases.  Sigh.  Lily and my cousin Kathie did great, they got all the walls exposed.  I went to a meeting at 11:30 put on by the Chamber of Commerce on what is available for business owners as far a assistance, grants, loans etc.  It was very useful information but took time.  I got on line today to begin filling out the forms, hit a wrong button on the keyboard and now cannot get back into the site.....yes, I am over 40 and these computer things sometimes throw me for a loop.  Sigh.  The two younger boys went back to the property for the first time yesterday.  It went better than I had feared as they had been asking questions.  They thought all the mud was cool and once they found the transformers had been saved all was well....oh to be that far under 40!  John went out to check on his play yard, got his boots stuck in the mud and fell over.  I have a call in to the Health Department today.  There is mud everywhere.  We have 6 to 12 inches of silt in the yard.  How long and in what temperatures will the bacteria they warn us of live????  I know as soon as we move home I will have muddy clothes to deal with on a daily basis.  (except for days it never thaws out)  What are the risks, and for how long or is it more of an issue in a warmer enclosed space and in actual water not mud.....Gotta get more info.  I was a public health nurse but never dealt with those questions.  We are stymied by this mud thing.  We have a lot of offers of sheep and people would like to buy a ewe as a Christmas present but we have no experience with what the progression of the mud will be.  We have fence lines to fix but the post bottoms are set in 12 inches of silty mud.  We have a lot of ground that is already showing green again and may be able to support our own spared ewes on our land this spring but it will be March or April before the grass will grow and we will not want it churned up and chewed down until it gets a chance to regain a strong foothold.  Time will tell and we will post information as we know it.  In the meantime we thank all who would like to send animals....we will address space and pasture as we can.  Brad is out attempting to unearth the machine shed today.  I am trying to deal with finding bills and paying those I know were on the desk when we bagged it all up and put it all in a nice pile up stairs...behind the dishes books pots and pans....etc.  I know there were only about 4 as I thankfully had paid everthing on the 30th on November.  Kids are getting restless will go be a mom and get back to bills applications etc soon.

December 10 2007 AM  The weather turned a little colder yesterday, but spirits remained warn and energetic.  The Barn crew had a big fire burning and accomplished a lot.  Jeff Sherer returned with his heavy equipment and fire hose and the Southwest Washington Sheep Producers Association came and got the barn cleaned out.  I saw a lot of my friends from Northwest Pediatrics scooping the barn as well.  Its beautiful.  It is a lovely barn that is over 100 years old.  We had just applied to have it listed as a historic barn in Washington.  I had a call from Artifacts Inc. last Monday, as the waters were rising.  I assured her they were not predicting this to be too bad the barn will be just fine.....  This group is doing some of the investigation work for the State Archeology Dept.  We had a date for them to come out today 12/10 at 10:30 to see the barn.  Last week after the flood they extended the date to January.  Little did I know we almost could have had them come today. 
My cousin Kathie came down from Tacoma and we have been ripping out the last of the drywall,  scooping mud out of the crevices at the edge of the flooring and in the grooved bead board walls.  Diane returned today to help and with a spirited smile deemed it a very "Groovy" old house.  They driveway was scooped yet again and is now passable all the way around.  We will be having a topsoil sale this spring ans summer.  If the people up river do not reclaim this land we will be passing it on!  The Childrens program was at church last night so we left in time to see how life should normally be progressing towards Christmas.  It  was very nice to see all the kids singing .  We were getting ready for the arrival of Christmas at the house.  Advent started the Sunday before the flood.  Christ's birth will be celebrated on Christmas but I see the reflection of His birth each day as more and more help is given,  more and more offers are given to us.  The sacrifices others are making to meet us in our need is so remarkable.  And not only at our farm all up and down the road those who were flooded are seeing the light of the generosity and we are smiling. bouyed by the gifts and we are loved.  Thank you!

December 8, 2007 PM Wow, the Heifer Project Group from the Seattle area showed up with boots, overalls, shovels, rags, bleach, etc.  They helped to finish mucking out the barn.  They scraped and scraped and scooped and scooped.  The Barn was smelling.  they attacked the last bit we had not yet gotten to from last years lambing.  One area was still 1 1/2 feet high with old straw.  They finished the job as Jeff Sherer and his family showed up with a backhoe, a water truck and a long hose.  They hosed out the barn....you could hold a dance on one side of the barn!  Woo Hoo, Big thanks to the Heifer Volunteers and Sherer Excavating.  Wow.  The Heifer Volunteers also hope to come back later when we need to be putting up fence or we know how the grass is to respond to all the silt and mud that has piled up.  Hurrah to the LDS Church as well.  They donned their yellow shirts and traveled up and down the road looking for places to help out.  Wow, I saw some pretty messy yellow shirts this afternoon along with some extremely nice faces that reflected the joy they had at helping out.  Thank you so much.  Thanks again to Symons Frozen Foods, whose Plant Manager thought to bring us a truck trailer for the furniture, a pickup with a water tank, a blade for our tracter and spent the day pushing mud around and collecting the straw from the back of the barn the Heifer Volunteers pushed out.  I don't think that I am supposed to mention the time he got the Tractor stuck...Sorry Vernon the word is out.  Thanks to these groups the other side of the barn....the collectable side, the wood storage side has begun to see daylight.  It has been the farmer side of the barn "someday we my just need this, put it in the barn"  it is scary.  Well Brad and I let Jennifer Polley make the decisions for us and walked away. Smart man.  It is looking good and may just be ready to dance in as well.  Wow Jason and Jenn, Kailey and Anna disinfected two of the rooms in the house.  The bleach and scrub thing thirty inches up the wall.  Such hard workers and such beautiful results.  It is coming together.  The Gregorys returned and pulled the fireplace insert,cleaning the mud out. along with several other jobs that just keep us going.  Along with a delicious taco soup, we may gain our winter weight yet.  Thank you Lord for a beautiful sunny day.   Spirits were soaring all up and down Bunker Creek Road lots of volunteers and help everywhere.

December 8, 2007 Progress continues to be made.  The kitchen has been gutted, the bathtub came out.  It amazes me how that fine silty mud gets everywhere, under, over, and inbetween.  We are mucking and mucking.  We have had our moments to make fun of ourselves.  The Gregorys....who are not related to us in any direct family way....have been over daily with food, with offers of help equipment.  They have been wonderful.  I would life to refer all those tough questions to "Mrs. Gregory" but it may get more confusing as we go.  Then we have the Peterson connection Diane and Debbie Peterson cleaned out the Bunkhouse together.  I do not believe they are related either.  We in our loopy states of mind need to stay alert!  Yesterday four of the cheesemakers from Beechers came and they mucked out the dairy and cheese room.  We have a drain that kept clogging and they overcame that and hosed it all down.  I only looked in the door but what great progress was made.  It was a gift and off they went with our boxes of cheese.  I did not mention, as I knew I would miss a person or two. the Blue Rose Dairy.  Rhonda and David Rider and their girls have been a constant on our farm since she began to make cheese in our cheese room in 2006.  They helped us put in the cave and had their cheese in it as well.  They have been great, especially since they are still milking their animals once a day and had 2-3 inches of rainwater in their basement as well.  Rhonda brought our lunch on Wednesday and was clean, no mud yet, she offered to brave the cave.  I did not watch.  The cave was still stranded on a fence post but they all said was somewhat stable.....yikes.  Rhonda wrapped all of our cheeses and got them ready to go to  Beechers it was a blessing, and a very big job.  They got the vacuum sealer out safely and the Riders took their remaining inventory home with them to seal for the Markets they still attend.  You will find them this time of year at the Pike Place Market.  Thank you Riders.  We have a church friend with a dump truck and we have begun to haul off the trash, Thank you Denny Sabin.  We met Bob.  He has been a long time friend of Bob Larson our neighbor who dairy was spared by inches so Bob dropped by our place and offered two days of assistance.  Being familiar with dairys he helped the hose out of the cheese room.  Thank you Bob.  The Boes showed us with mud boots and wonderful determination of healthy energetic kids.  The are a family we have met because of the sheep.  They had purchased a couple ewes from us and we have bred their "flock" for them.  Last year we posted a picture of their quadruplets with our quadruplets delivered of Snowflake.  Who by the way did survive.  The Boes with snow shovels in hand began to scrape the barn out. Wow, Thank you Boes!  I did find time to make it out to where the sheep are housed yesterday.  I almost got bowled over by Brutus the gaurd dog , whose wonderful bark greeted us when we got back to the farm.  The animals are all looking well, no one is  seeming shocky from the event, and no one has appeared to abort at this time.  Keep praying.  One did have and infected cut on her back foot so I called the vet to please make a farm call to this other place to be let in by Doug our new friend, it was 2:00 at the time of the call and the vet made it and reported back.  We were blessed and the sheep are really looking great.  We can now say that we have 23 animals left as well.  Emily was pulled out of a pile of about 12 dead animals.  She could not stand on her back left leg.  We almost had her put down with the two others who were very shocky and not responding at all.  Emily sat on the cement and ate the hay we had given her as we were pulling dead animals from her pile.  She looked to good to put down and Kim and Doug who were willing to take all the animals also took her.  We knew she may have a problem but Kim planned to nurse her along. Kim gets a medal.  We still have Emily as of today and the vet thinks it was just a bad strain and not a permanent disabling problem.  Hallelujah!  Thank you all we will go on and carry forth and be back to report more this evening!

December 7, 2007 God is Good and people are great.  Again to those who came and have offered to come as you can or as we need you thank you.  Those offers of help, those praying for us those folks who have had this experience and have helped us by sharing what they learned.  It is all so powerful and it is keeping our heads literally above water.  We thank you!  Yesterday we accomplished quite a bit.  Puget Sound Energy workers came with a crane a tractor and a dump truck. They scraped and scraped the driveway down to the gravel.  We have about 1 1/2 feet of  muck across the front of the property dammed in by the road.  They put a load of gravel in front of the main door we use to get into the house they used the dump truck to haul away the first load of garbage.  These wonderful workers from PSE also took the cheese cave off of the fence post it has been perched upon.  Brad and I were bemoaning the loss of all the new fencing he has been putting in for the last two months...That fencing is what hung up the cave and kept it from floating away.  Wow. Transalta had a couple workers there in the morning when we got to the  farm.  Transalta will bring in their heavy equipment and take care of the pile of  carcases.  It is ugly, it is such a hazard, it is now out of our hands, literally, again.  We do not have a big loader, I can only thank them for relieving us of the gory job of disposal.  The boys have also found several carcases of other animals around and I believe Transalta will be searching out those as well.  What a releif.  Ours are small, it is the cow dairy next door that lost 200 cows that I cannot even fathom the cleanup without such a gift.  Transalta has also offered to haul away the trash from our community.  The road was lined with cars and people helping their friends as we drove through Adna yesterday.  Yards were full of debris, belongings hauled out of homes, and drywall, carpeting, and cabinets.  Transalta has arranged for the community to dump garbags at a local park and they will take it away from there.  Again, Wow.  We have had two friends there with us for two days.  One is a drywaller and painter by trade,. what incredible expertise.  His wife is my Kitchen General.  I told Laurie the first day I cannot make decisions, you toss everything and direct people to do so.  Hand out jobs to people as they ask, and to me too.  She knows me well enough I can trust her judgement, and if something gets tossed she thinks should not she will come and clarify.  What a gem!!  Again, Wow.  Our Operations General is up in Monroe.  I cannot believe how much Gretchen has done for us.  She has releived us of making plans.  She has become a source for so many to call or e-mail as we only have cell phones at the farm.  She has taken offers, clarified them presented them to us and realizes we can only take so much at a time.  It has been huge!  For those who could not reach us she has taken care to communicate so much.  Gretchen has lived in a flood prone area as well she know it will take a while for us to know how much land we will have that can support animals this spring.  This muck just sits so far, I am not sure how the pastures will fare and fencing.....oh boy.  Again, Wow.  Our day care provide for the past several years has loaned us her truck and, her husband who is a contractor has been dutifully looking through heaters, discussing how to progress with fans, heat, appliances, what furniture has a possibility of salvage and what to just toss.  The Kitchen cabinets have got to go.  At first they looked okay but Matt says now think of what is behind them and under them and in a few months what that will be like.  Okay I am beginning to see the light....they gotta go.  Again, Wow.  We have had two families with us for two days helping, others have come and gone as they can.  Others calling to organize work parties, Gretchen has been doing that from afar.  Thank you all so very much.  We have been blessed by your prayers, by your encouragement by your spirit of generosity.  Thank you.  Thanks to Provista in Portland who offered a truck!  We are sending the surviving cheese to Seattle but they go back and forth every week.  What a blessing. Thank you all.  I will let you know what we are doing here and what we plan to do.  If you have any ideas or know something we need to know send us an e-mail.  We will be able to access the internet each night here as we stay at my Parents home in Centralia.  Wow, People are great and God is Good.

   

December 5, 2007  We have been flooded out of our home and are farm.  We have lost 75 percent of our flock and I do not want to even think about how the 22 that survived have survived.  We do not believe we had any ground that was not under water Monday night.  It has been a series of events that I cannot yet fathom.  We knew we would be getting high water Monday as it rained all night long.  I woke to the sound many times overnight.  Living in a flood prone area you just know when the river will rise and watch the signs.  Knowing how fast and furious this flood came upon us was unpredicted and I believe unpredictable.  We survived the 100 year flood in 1996 so once we realized it was to be that way or worse we were already cut off from any roads off our property.  There was no escape.

I had taken the kids to school in the morning as usual, the water was 5 feet away from our road but, it has been higher, so life in Lewis county goes on.  About 9:30 the reports began to predict that this flood would be almost as bad as the '96 flood.  I began to think about getting the kids back from school.  Brad was out moving the rams out of their pen to a drier, higher area.  I helped a bit as the reports on the radio were not alarming ...yet. Then it changed.  Suddenly we were seeing that this water was coming up even faster than in 1996.  I decided to go get the kids then but I could not get out in the Subaru. The water was over the road at our Corner.  I went back home as Brad was just finishing up with the rams and he went out in the Truck to get kids.  He called me after he got past our corner and said he hoped it would be passable to get home.  Oh, my.  I went out to feed more hay as the animals were done with their morning rations already.  The lambs were stuck on the wrong side of some water that had crested the bank.  I opened gates and tried to get them to follow me but resorted to the grain bucket.  One lusty soul stuck her whole head in the bucket and came right along with me.  The rest thankfully played follow the leader and got through the ankle deep water right behind her.  I tried then to feed hay in the loafing shed since about 30 animals were in there.  As the waters rose I began to see that the loafing shed would be flooding  and tried to wrestle some of the older ewe's to push them out of the door They were not impressed with my attempts and were very fearful of stepping into the mud and water.  I found 6 ewes stuck in a small alcove already knee deep in water and no way out but to go through water that was chest high.  I was thinking I wanted to panic.  I tried grain, I tried throwing hay in the mud to move the ones out of the loafing shed.  I went back into the barn looking for anything I could get to pull, push, prod.  I wanted to panic, again, but that would not help.  That was when I saw the tail end of the truck pull into the driveway and felt such sweet relief as my husband and three children tumbled out.  With Peter and Brad helping we got the ones out of the knee deep water.  They pushed the 30 ewes out into the mud and I got them into the barn through a 20 foot wide river that had grown to 30 feet by the time we finished moving those ewes to the barn.  We opened up the area of the barn that had been mucked and cleaned out to prepare for lambing season and fed hay.  All the animals were now in the barn which was the highest possible place they could be.  We took the kids back to the house stumbling through the ruts in the driveway.  Brad cut power to the Cheese Cave as it was surrounded by running water on both sides.  We were cold and hungry,  I opened up some chili as it  sounded  like it would warm us up in a hurry.  We looked out the window as we took a bit of warm food and realized the cars were in ten more inches of water than they were just 10 minutes ago.  Brad went out and moved the cars to higher ground.  I went to check on the rams.  I could not see them anywhere and could not get through the current going through the playard to see where they could be.  I returned to the house to find water in the laundry room.  Peter lets start moving things upstairs.  He got the computers as water started to bubble through the floor and seep in under doors, I grabbed a carpet and tried to put other things up on tables and couches. In 30 minutes we had 18 inches of water in the house and thankfully had an upstairs to go to.  A couple boats came into view, they saw us in the window and one came to dock at the kitchen porch rail.  we took what we could take.  A fireman from district 6 Aaron Fuller and a boatman named Clarence Lupo helped us to see the wisdom in leaving, there was not a lot to discuss on the matter.  They  carried out our 15 year old dog and our border collie and off we went with a final look back at our barn filling with water, our cheese cave bobbing in front of the barn, and 2 feet of water in the house. We took the boat on a wild ride over our field, over the abandoned railroad track, past neighboring homes, and over to highway 6.  We landed on a 300 yard dry stretch of the road, near a bridge.  Water was at the bottom of the bridge and large trees racing down the river would hit the metal bridge and shear off any thing that stuck up like it was peeling a carrot.  We were stuck on this stretch of roadway until the rescue helicopters had evacuated all those who were not as fortunate as we had been to be on solid land.  We were taken, by helicopter,  to a shelter at the Adna elementary school and were overwhelmed with the magnitude of what was going on. Stories were told volunteers were bringing in food and blankets, people were trying to feed and clothe us and others.  We had friends who lived close by who took us into their home, dogs and all and we stayed there for two nights.  We had cell phone coverage but no phone service, the local radio stations went off the air, due to flooding, and we felt cut off.  As stories were reported back to us we were numb at the power of the flood.  This was very fast and furious, more so than many people had  ever seen.  It was numbing.  Tuesday at 10:00 we tried to get through to the farm.  We were blessed to have three friends with us as we attempted to get home.  No luck water still going over the road near our home.  We could see the barn was standing and we could see the "cheese cave" container was still in our yard.  We just could not get there.  We heard out neighbors lost all their cows, houses were swept from foundations, ruts made in roads and driveways, water in every home in Adna.  Water everywhere.  At 11:00 we attempted again and got through.  Jan Bradshaw, Jennifer Polley, and Lily Lo were with us as we stepped out of the car and heard a familiar deep barking.  Brutus and Jewel the guard dogs were still in the barn.  There were some sheep back by the machine shed, standing, Oh Hallelujah!  There were a lot of other gruesome sights as well.  We assesed first, found several live sheep. Our friends horse, that lives on the farm, was still alive.  There was even a cow in the back yard.  Our house was standing our barn had several floor boards up but it was standing.  The cheese cave was upright with one end perched on a fence post.  It was numbing, and still is.  We collected at least 52 carcasses from the areas we could get to near the house.  Found mud and muck in the house.  Muck everywhere.  People were able to get through by then and a lot of then slowed to express their heartfelt sorrow at our losses.  A wonderful couple who have their own sheep offered to take our 22 surviving animals to their place.  They had water and a dry barn, they took our animals in their truck and we cannot thank them enough for this.  Others stopped to offer food, water, any help they could.  Wednesday we returned to begin cleaning and we must have had 30 people shoveling and mucking and bringing food to us.   I am so grateful as I did not even know some of these folks before today.  It has been an amazing experience.  The reality has not yet sunk in.  I have been humbled, I have been blessed, I am still numb and know when the tears come it will be hard.  We have wonderful people in this world.  There are people in the Dairy sheep world who have begun to offer so much to help us out.  There are people in the cheese world who have emailed and called.  The Beecher's Cheese Folks have offered to cave our cheese for us.. We figured it was all lost as we have no functional cave.  We thank you all and we are realizing, people are still wonderful, things are just things and I gotta believe there will be purpose on our loss.  I will look for that purpose and will need to be reminded to be looking because sometimes it will not be easy.

November 6, 2007 We have been very busy putting the farm to rest for the fall.  We finished Markets on the 28th of October and on the 29th I scrubbed out the ice chests, and began cleaning the cheeses left in the cave.  We need to brush and turn them frequently.  On the 31st Brad and I cleaned out the cave.  We opened up the back end and cleaned out any extra matter not conducive to the cave environment.  It was a perfect day for this.  I was watching the temp and humidity.  We like to keep the cave at 85 percent humidity and 55 degrees.  With the door open we went to 50 degrees and 86 percent humidity.  A good Washington fall day, damp, not wet.  It was so nice to complete that job!  The cave looks good.  We turned out attention to fences, pastures, and leaves.  We cleaned out all the old wool from the barn and moved some of the now unused irrigation pipe so we could get to the burn pile.  We burned three years worth of wool, about 10 trees worth of leaves and many branches from the trees we cut down last February that we just had not gotten to.  Of course we had our requisite burn pile meal, hot dogs and S'mores!  What a beautiful evening!  Saturday afternoon we began to pick up the wood that has been out there since February.  Our irrigation line cuts across this field and there was no getting a truck in there to clear it out.  My 15 year old and I moved two pick up trucks full of wood and called it for the day.  That afternoon bath was one to relish!  Sunday, after church, we attacked the yard!  We have a wonderful walnut tree in the front yard that shades the house all summer long.  We trucked out five loads of leaves!  It was a whole family project.  The two younger boys had the job of squishing the leaves down so we could get more into the truck.  Three of us loaded leaves, and when full we let the 15 year old drive it to the pile.  I laid down on that cushion of foliage and watched the sky and trees roll by!  It was a perfect day for raking leaves!  The rams are done with there job and will be returned to the Orchard now...till next year.  Happy dreams guys!  The Ewes will be fed and watched and hopefully get round over the next 4 months.  We will get our house and barns in order and have cause to be Thankful for all we have accomplished this month and this year.  We have even greater cause to be Thankful for all of our customers, friends, and especially family who have cheered us on in our endeavor!  What a busy, fruitful year!  Thank you all!

October 24, 2007  We are on the final round of the dating game,  the winners are Rams number 7101 and 7103!  They will stay with the Ewes until November 4th and then the game is over and breeding season will be done.  We sorted ewes this morning and removed all the other rams.  We checked the ewe flock and assessed their health and well being.  They are looking good, most have been bred, and we look forward to feeding and watching them get fluffy this winter.  We will shear and vaccinate them in January and then look to lambing.  If we take the rams out on November 4th as stated we should have only two months of lambing  this Spring.  In 2007 we had three full months of midnight checks.  The first month it is fun, the second it is okay, but three was too much.  We will try something new this year and will try to breed any non pregnant ewe in January or February.  The breed of sheep we own are known for their ability to be bred year round.  Typically sheep only go into heat in the Fall.  There is some angle of the sun that kicks that hormone into action.  The East Freisan Breed is able to breed year round.  We may test that theory this spring and see what will happen with a summer lambing.  Which also means new milkers mid summer, which means that our fresh cheese supply will not dry up before the end of Farmer's Markets!  I have disappointed so many people who would like to buy a tub of the Fresh Cheese after we are officially done milking therefore done making the Fresh Cheese.  Maybe, just maybe, next year we will have a solution for that!  We will keep you posted.  My last two Farmers Markets will be this weekend.  It has been a great year.  Thank you to all who have tasted or purchased our cheese.  We learn a lot from you and appreciate all the feedback.  As you can see one page closes, markets, and The Book for 2008 has begun, breeding.

October 11, 2007 We have been spreading the cheese thin.  We have been trotting it up and down I-5 and now shipping it out. Wow.  We welcomed October thinking it would slow us down a hair.  Our Moreland Market finished at the end of September and gave me an additional day off.  The sheep are officially done milking so Brad is caretaking animals and hoping to get to the long list of chores.  Whew, were we ever wrong.  First we had to prepare for "the Wedge" a cheese festival in Portland at the Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University.  We had no idea what to take or what to expect.  I had a friend I asked to help us who has had experience working in a cheese shop, what a blessing.  Portland loves cheese.  There were 24 cheesemakers from five states who brought cheese to sample and sell.  It was wonderful!  We met old friends.  Five of the 15 students Peter Dixon taught in a class here in May of 2005 were officially making cheeses and represented at the Wedge.  It was huge and fun and we sampled a lot of cheese and met lots of folks who like cheese.  We went to Steve's Cheese shop on Friday for a taste around.  Several Stores in the Portland area had cheesemakers to sample there cheese in their stores.  We were blessed to be with Kelli Estrella of the Estralla Family Creamery and also with Jeffrey Roberts who wrote the book the Atlas of American Cheese. He has chronicled 350 cheesemakers from around the country and put their stories in a book divided up by region.  It is fun to look at and would be even funner to travel with.  The e-mails have started to come in this week also.  We took cheese to the Olympia Co-op, Whole Foods in Bellevue, The Resident Cheesemonger, and I approached the Tacoma Boys since my Puyallup customers would like a place to purchase cheese after market ends in November.  We shipped cheese to Murray's Cheese in New York City!  To Slough Foods in Edison, WA and will send another box to the Executive Chef at Sagecliffe Winery in Eastern Washington. The Chef has graciously given us two recipes to put on our web Recipe page....my winter project. Wow.  We will hopefully rest in November... not much cheese left to ship out so it will be nice to work on those wool projects!