June 29, 2008  Hallelujah the beginning is in sight!  We have things going into the house that belong.  Yesterday we had a small but energetic work group from the Faith United Methodist Chrch in Issaquah here.  We scrubbed the walls in the kitchen, moved in the new refrigerator, and planned for a return trip to cut doors in the new mobile structure, rewire around those doors, and plumb in the new sink.  There is the hope that we will begin anew in our new packing plant and move our cheese back into the large cave where they belong.  Hallelujah.  The house looks wonderful, empty.  The ladies and I considered the fact that having an empty house is not such a bad thing.   It won’t be terribly comfortable come winter or in those moments we get to sit but it sure looks nice.  The refinished floors are wonderful.  The kids have discovered sliding in socks and enjoy the bare rooms too.  Maybe that is incentive to put furniture back in.  The other incentive is that our nine year old seems to lose socks all over the yard and perhaps if sliding is so much fun he may find it appealing to go out and find all those socks and put them in the laundry basket where they belong.   One could only hope. 
Markets are busy and are fun to attend.  I sure enjoy sampling cheese to people.  I really enjoy changing peoples opinions of Sheep Milk Cheese.  I see the look, “It is what!”  I had goat cheese once, emphasis on once.  The difference between the two species can be discussed, the difference betweeen the taste of the milks.  Sheep milk is very rich and sweet even as compared to whole cow’s milk.  It makes wonderful cheese because of all the solids it has.  It makes a very rich creamy cheese that we sell flavored or plain.  It sometimes works and I sometimes get someone to try this new thing for them.  And most frequently they like it.  I enjoy that.  I think as I read and see more of the food related issues we have in this country we all need to diversify our diets and to eat moderately.  We do not need to indulge in a huge amount of anything but all things in moderation.  it is easy to be dependant on beef and cow’s dairy products as they are most prevalent but diversification has a place.   I am intrigued by Victoria Gilligan at the Wild Coho Wine Cafe in Port Townsend.  She is planning to use all seasonal products in her menu planning.  The menu changes daily  and seasonally.  It would make sure that diversified products are served and consumed.  I think of how I feed my family and how many times i reach for the same vegetables at the store because they can be shipped in from all over the world and are available to me year round.  This leads to fewer different nutrients being served to my family and possibly poorer nutrition.  I think of the fresh summer produce that is full of vitamins if served close to harvest.  The root crops that are stored well have a lot of different vitamins and minerals our bodies also need.  Our protein sources, our meats, (beef, pork, fish, poultry, lamb, goat, venison,...) cheese, eggs, nuts, all those things we consume and would be wise to vary.   What a wonderful time of year to try all this out.  I came home with Kale and Fava Beans this week from some of the markets I attend.  We’ll see what this week brings.

June 22, 2008 We have moved out of our home one more time and will now move back in on nice newly sanded floors.  Ron’s Hardwood, a local company, did a beautiful of repairing, sanding and finishing the old fir floors in our home.  They had done the front room about 5 years ago and that floor did fine having water on it during the flood.  What a job, we finished moving out last monday morning in our pajamas.  My goal is to move back in tomorrow and move only those things that actually have a home.  If in 6 months they are still in the garage do we really need them any way?  Sigh, ask me about my resolve for this in January. 
We were in Puyallup this weekend for Meeker Days Celebrations.  We did our usual spot in the Saturday Farmers Market and stayed for Sunday.  Puyallup is a fun place to go to.  People get into the spirit of things and seem to really enjoy getting out and enjoying the day, it was very good weather too, a bit chilly, not cold, with patches of sunshine.  It was a fun weekend. 
This coming week we will be preparing fresh cheese to deliver to both the Market of Choice in Eugene (via the West Linn Store) and also New Seasons in Portland.  These stores are wonderful fun places to shop and are looking to sell local products.  Local is an interesting concept.  It is good to eat local, the carbon footprint of foods can be huge.  We are frequently asked at market “where is your farm”.  Sometimes from the reaction I am not sure if we are considered “local” or not.  I go to Portland and will travel to the greater Seattle area.  Both cities are about 100 miles from home.  We have also shipped cheese to these cities if it cannot be combined with a trip or other deliveries.  If it takes me longer than three hours to get to a market and get set up it is not as appealing to me.  We can be encouraged to go farther afield with the proper enticement.  Like the wine and cheese events at French Prairie Gardens in St. Paul Oregon, fun decreases mileage in my estimation.  We have chosen to do our local market since we live in such a wonderful place and we like to have a presence here among friends.  We have done the Moreland Market (Portland, OR) since it opened in 2006 it was the first Market we went to outside our local area.  We tried the Bellevue Farmers Market, which was beautiful and well run, but it was an afternoon market and traffic was not to my liking.  We also tried the Centralia Farmers Market but found the customers who stumbled upon market while antiquing in the many shops were not inclined to purchase a perishable product.There are plenty of closer markets to our home but I am not sure how to plan or approach the time and travel it takes.  I did the Milwaukie Market (Portland, OR) on Sundays last year and it was not only a very nice “foodie” market but a wonderful shady lot.  I hope to return when we have more product to sell.  It was there I had my first glimpse at “local” as two women would come buy my feta cheese, which they liked, but they had another sheep milk feta from Isreal that they really liked but did not want to buy it from so far away.  Local.  Olympia has a huge market but we could not sell there as we have been wholesaling and they did not want vendors who were already wholesaling as new vendors.  Longview has a couple nice markets as does Tacoma, Des Moines, and several cities inbetween.  I have not the nerve yet to do a Seattle Market.  We are not that big of a Creamery and they seem so big to me.  So I wonder if customers in Portland and Puyallup  think of us as “local”.  Hmmmm.  What do I think is local?  I guess my criteria has always been time.  If I can get to a market and be set up in two hours it is okay for me.  Much longer than that and I get tired before I get there especially if it is bad traffic, it wears me out.  Hmmmm. 

June 19, 2008 How did we get to almost summer?  What a wonderful time to be back at markets and thinking cheese, meeting old friends, making new.  Each question that is asked about sheep and milking and cheesemaking is a new way to share our farm with our customers.  It has been fun to get back to this life.  It has been awful busy though.  We now have a Pacific Mobile Structure in our yard.  Right where our friends from the Poulsbo Lutheran Church helped romove a shed and four trees.  Our neighbor Bill Reisinger took the dirt away with his excavator and truck and brought in rock.  Within two weeks of finding this structure we have it in our yard.  The Truck driver from Pacific Mobile helped us to move the cave into position and with one whack from Bill’s loader in was buddied up next to the new mobile building. As soon as we can cut the doors between the two, plug in the electrical and get the refridgeration connected we have a cheese packing room and our cave will be humming and waiting for cheese again!  Wow, It all went so fast.  It has been a huge feat and we could only do this thanks to the multitude of hands and prayers and donations that have come our way.  I thank each and every person who has made this possible because if it was left up to us I would still be in the corner of our kitchen scooping out mud with a rubbermaid spatula.  I can only pray for those in the Midwest who are being inundated with water at this time and hope they are blessed as richly in the process.  Our flood pales in comparison to 1300square blocks of a flooded city, wow. 
It is June and the milk has begun to decline.  We did get 4 newly freshened ewes to keep us going and the ewes from Deb Bender have begun milking.  They look full of promise and we hope to carry fresh cheese to market all summer with them.  The cheeses Brad began to make in April will be taken to market in July and it will be so fun to share samples with all those customers who have been waiting for Mopsy’s Best to return to our cooler.  The cheese needs to age at least three months.  It is tempting to cut into it earlier but we know from experience it is just that much better if you wait.  Sigh.  Brad made Feta a couple weeks ago and we made Mithzythra.  It was taken to market as “Greek Noodle Cheese” since is was the consistency of Ricotta.  It was good though, we tried it our ourselves before we took it to market in Puyallup.  It had to be that market it sold at as I am located next to a Pasta Vendor, Pacific Pasta Works, and it was a wonderful pairing. 
It has been busy but fun, School is out for the summer and life should be full of those late evenings with the kids playing outside making “summer sounds” wrapped up in the cooling air after a warm day.....we will get there I just know it!  It has been the coolest June on record here in the Northwest but summer will come.   The kids don’t mind anyway, they play outside till they are blue.  That is what being a kid is about isn’t it.

May 29, 2008  What a wild ride!  What huge progress we are seeing as the weather moderates just a hair here in the Pacific Northwest.  We have had some wonderful workers here...we have had wonderful workers period...but at this point in time it has been jobs that are onto developing the next step and not just clean up, clean up, clean up.  God is Good.  We have been blessed with groups who supply the skills needed at just the right time.  Some men from Marine View Presbyterian Church have taken on finishing the bathroom and laundry/mud room.  They put up a base coat of yellow paint and the next day two women from Silvana Lutheran Church took on the Sponge Painting.  I have the most gorgeous knock you out of your socks, wake up in the morning laundry/mud room you could possibly imagine.   These women like to paint and given this opportunity to learn sponge painting was not a problem, Evie is an oil artist....Wow just what was needed at the time it became available.  God is Good and People are great!  There were lots and lots of jobs finished and it is nice to see progress.  This past Memorial Day Weekend we had about an average of 20 people from the Poulsbo Lutheran Church come and help out.  We saw a shed come down, four trees, the cave was gutted, even the cement was hammered out from between the rails in the floor.  The irrigation pipes were cleared of mud.....I cannot even list all that was accomplished.  Things I would consider a huge undertaking for Brad and I were accomplished in 3 hour stints.  The group leader would come check in for the next job.  Wow.  We had two days prior found a mobile structure to bring onto the property to house the cheese packing plant.  This will be a “temporary” structure on wheels that we can elevate to a level above water line.  This unit will come with vinyl walls and flooring, a heating and cooling unit, and electricity.  We can add plumbing and there we have a cheese packing room.  The shed and the trees had to be moved, I had hoped to have this unit moved in by August.....I can now reasonable look to moving in by July 1st!  Woo-Hoo!  I think our marriage will be better for this, It has survived the flood, three kids, building a business, but working almost on top of each other in a 16 by 16 foot room with 5 additional pieces of equipment in it...that may put us over the top, especially as the temperatures warm up.
Lambing has continued this past week.  Deb Bender’s Ewes have done well.  Most have lambed out on the pasture and are very good moms and the babies very sturdy.  Too Sturdy.  One little baby, a week old, was missing Wednesday afternoon.  I was at market and Brad called me to let me know the black ewe had two girls but that 8060 was missing.  He and John had tromped the back field twice looking for it and by 8:30 it was nowhere to be seen.  The new babies were in the barn Brad had to milk so at 9:30, just getting home from market, I had to go look.  Out to the back field I went with the only working flashlight on the place, John’s small 2 AA battery  size he bought with his Christmas money.  Out I go taking the “trail” around the perimeter of the field.  The dirt portion was fine, but no baby there, then the knee high grass.  I listened well as I called hoping to hear just a peep to guide me in the right direction.  Nothing, silence, just the breeze in the Cottonwood trees.  I enter the tall grass, I am committed to the course now.  The course I am not “on” just the knowledge that if I continue I will meet the river or find the flock’s favorite point where the grass is all eaten down.  Batting the 6 foot tall grasses out of my way using the breast stroke I tried not to think of how utterly impulsive this was and avoided thoughts of coyotes.  I made a lot of noise.   So much I probably would had scared my little lamb friend if it could hear me.  I found the point where the grass has been eaten down and could walk and listen again, but all was silent.  I came home unloaded and got the kids in bed.  Brad says it was harder to think of losing one little lamb than all our girls in the flood.  I think it is just the single hit versus the numbing jolt.  We were saddened but the momma milked out well and will be a great asset to our flock.  The next morning as I was feeding the lambs in their pen this momma and all the others with lambs were yelling at the gate to go out to pasture.  I thought on the outside chance that baby would come out of hiding if she were still there, her momma would be the only reason to do so.  I let these four mommas out and they hustled out to the pasture.  Momma was in the lead I could see her calling and running back and forth, I wanted to cry at the frantic note in her voice, the kind we get when our two year olds hide in the clothes rack at the store and are silent.  You start to get that feeling in the pit of your stomach.  Suddenly all the mommas convened at one point and I hustled over to see and there was our little girl, trying to nurse from her just milked momma and momma chasing and smelling her baby.  I think I did shed a tear at that point.  Brad came out with the rest of the flock and he checked on the pair several times during the day.  All is well with our lambs that think they are fawns.  All is well.

May 22, 2008 We had more babies this week.  The ewes Deb Bender sent to us are bringing on the babies.  407 had a single ewe lamb yesterday morning.  She is a wonderful mother, she talks a lot to her baby.  Baby is quiet but strong.  It is always so amazing to see them up and nursing within 5 to 10 minutes after birth.  Some mothers are so intent on drying off their baby they do a circle dance chasing the baby while the baby is stumbling after the teat and nourishment.  Sometimes it is tempting to step in and hold the mother’s head so the baby can eat.  This was not an issue for 407 she did a beautiful job.  Today I went out back to check on our three mothers who look ready to lamb.  Sure enough I found twins.  I was very pleased with how I found the trio as well.  As I walked out to the pasture I could see the flock down by the river’s edge.  I walked on down but kept an eye out for Brutus too, It was very quiet and he usually announces our presence to the flock.  I was rounding a large clump of tall grass and saw Brutus laying down intent on watching an new mother lick off her babies.  He had settled about 20 feet away and was quietly gaurding her as she lambed.  She had two babies, quite fresh, and already up nursing.  What a beautiful sight.  Andrew and I carried the two babies up to the barn and put them in a jug with their mom.  They were worn out after their birth and long journey to the barn.  Momma was worried about our interfrerence but followed along focused on those babies.  They all look good.
Dominic and brother Demetri had a busy afternoon chasing each other around. They were butting one another then turning to chase the other.  It looked like a fun little game of lamb tag.  I am glad Dominic has decided he has enough energy to stay with the flock.  We do have coyotes about who would love a bit of lamb for lunch.  It was always so disconcerting for mom to leave him out back by himself.
Joy has joined the weaned lambs and has made herself right at home.  I grain the lambs using three gallon round pans.  Each pan gets 4 scoops of grain and if the lambs would just choose one pan to eat out of there is plenty of room for all of them.  They like to try each dish to see if it is better than the last so there is a lot of nervous scooting between pans to get the best meal they can.  Joy being quite a bit younger than the others could have gotten lost in the melee.  I need not worry.   She plunked her head into a pan, put her front knees in it and had a whole dish to herself.  She will make a wonderful Dairy ewe with that kind of presence.  She may even be the Matriarch of the flock some day!
Lambs are fun.  We are usually done lambing by now so these entertaining moments are a bonus for us.  Bonus Blessings for the season.

May 15, 2008  Wow, I usually want to say stop the train I want to get off when our lives get so busy it seems you have to think about taking a breath, but this year, it is a joy. It has been wonderful to be selling cheese, and going to markets, meeting old and new friends.  The Seattle Cheese Festival is this weekend.  We will be selling cheeses from 2 to 5 on Sunday.  Our Ricotta is being used in a presentation Saturday and also the Pecorino d’ Adna will be used Friday pm in a presentation of old world cheeses and the new cheese modeled after them.  It has been a great week.  Back to the Moreland Market in Portland yesterday.  It is such a warm and pleasant neighborhood.  Many times I have said I feel like an honored guest to their neighborhood.  It is a fun market to sell cheese at.  Wow, it is good to be busy and not have to make a lot of decisions.  Except I will call the floor finisher to accept his bid and get myh floors fixed so we can really move things back to rights! 
I have an excavator in my front yard.  It is quite a special treat for a house with small boys in it but also for their mother.  The mud from the driveway and the yard was pushed forward and piled up front.  What else to you do with mud soup?  Our new friend Doug Brown scraped and scraped the mud forward off the trees and the septic field.  It was piled about 5-6 feet high, It is now disappearing, off to be fill dirt.  It is another huge effort by our nieghbor Bill Reisinger.  It is huge for me, I had no idea what we would be able to do with all this mound of dirt.  Whew. 
We have one little lamb with a death wish....Dominic was born out on the pasture Tuesday May 6.  He and his brother are about the two cutest babies I have ever seen.    One is black with white splotches and Dominic is White with black splotches.  He has big round spots over each eye and two circles on each front knee, kinda like the Dennis the Menace comics.  He keeps wandering away from his mother.  He was laid out flat in the field the other day and I was sure he was dead.  The Gaurd Dog was hanging over him and Dominics neck was all wet ....”oh Brutus what have you done?”  I picked the lamb up and carried him to his mother, he was fine.  sigh.  The next day Deborah and I went out to check on the animals.  I had seen a Bald Eagle flying low over the field and wanted to make sure all was well.  No Dominic.  We looked and called, finally when the mommas came back out to the field he emerged from the bushes around the edge.  He thinks he is a baby fawn with all those spots.  He beds down in a cool place and sleeps till his mom calls him out.  What a nut.
That was all written the 15th, the Seattle Cheese Festival is over, we had another Moreland Market, another lamb born Wednesday am and I still do not want to get off the train.  It is good to do cheese and be busy and make no major decisions.

May 3, 2008  Here we are, Market Season is here.  Wow, how did that ever happen.  Five months ago today we were evacuated from our home by a boat, we lost 75% of our flock of sheep and today I enjoyed the people and community of Puyallup at their opening farmers market for the season.  Sigh
 It has been an amazing journey.  The past few weeks readying for market I had a nervous stomach.  Unfounded really, but it just seems so long and so far away that I was selling cheese at markets.  The first market of the season always offers the challenge of finding everything. I am always just certain I will overlook a small detail, like the cashbox, or something just as essential.  It was a bit harder this year wondering what was thrown out after the flood, what was cleanable and what needed replacing.  Then there was the vehicle issue, which one will it all fit into.  The Jeep was the most logical choice but it is just a hair shorter than the back of our Subaru used to be.  I will need to do some strategic packing for the markets I need to take the canopy to as it is the largest thing I take.  Cheese.  What were my recipes?  Where are the tubs?  How much to take?  We may only have fresh cheeses this year I hope not to disappoint.  Sigh.  It all went very well, except the transmission, we thought, went out on the Jeep on the way up north.  Yikes, I was going down a hill and suddenly the car was not in gear.....we pulled over and called Brad..Help.  He was on his way to rescue us when he recalled the shift for the 4 wheel drive was on the floor and may have been kicked or wiggled out of position.  Praise God that was all it was!  The Market Manager was called and said get on up here so my helper Deborah and I went on our merry way to market.  We met a lot of wonderful caring customers who asked about the flood.  I had pictures for those who wanted to see, fresh cheeses to sample and sell and it was just like it should be.  Deborah has been an amazing help this week and I think knew I needed the comfort of another helpful soul for the day.  Whew.
Actually Deborah has been a blessing for several weeks.  She and I worked together at the Lewis County Health Dept many years ago.  We have seen each other in town a bit.  She became the caretaker for her father and had wanted to get out and help after the flood but her duties as caretaker were huge at that point in time.  Her father passed away on January first and Deborah has been a steady volunteer for many in the area when she is able.  She called and offered her help on Tuesdays.  She has helped dig up the septic tank, cleaning, hosing, paint a ceiling, reorganize kitchen cabinets, make Ricotta, and has been milking with Brad.  She went to Market today and has been a huge blessing in a quiet, come alongside, let me help you sort of way.  What a gift.
Yes we made ricotta and took several pounds to Portland last week.  It was fun to deliver cheese again and visit with Steve Jones at Steve’s Cheese in Portland.  Then I took the younger two boys to the Zoo and met the Cheese Chick Christine Hyatt.  What fun, our boys played in the sandbox and I enjoyed getting to know Christine better and hear of her upcoming plans.  Though the mud and farm and making decisions about things are a distraction it is really nice to get back into action with the cheese again. 
Life on the farm is progressing as well, the Ewes that Deb Bender sent our way are just about ready to begin lambing.  It will be a joy to have lambs born here this year.  Our ram has had his opportunity to do his thing and has been removed from the pen with the ewes we purchased with the gifts of many of you.  We will finally get them sheared next week and then they can join the flock that is out on pasture during the day and eat the good sweet grasses that are growing in the lower field.  Brutus, the gaurd dog, is doing a good job and is going out with them each day.  Jewel, his sister, wanders, so she is in the lamb pen.  Don’t leave the gate ajar or she is out like a shot and down the road.  It is much too busy, and fast, for her to wander onto.  We had a group here last weekend who cleaned up the shed for our lambs and put up siding the lambs are loving their house and I am enjoying having gates to close them out while I pour the grain into their dishes.  Some of those ram lambs are jumpy and big and I do not like to fight them off as I prepare the grain.  What a huge help that has been.
We also last week had the mud cleared from under the house.  We only had one end that was really bad and these guys did a great job clearing dirt, plastic, replacing one beam, raising the chimney wall!!!! and then spraying and replacing the plastic vapor barrier.  Wow.  I walked into the kitchen and immediately I could tell the house was different It did not just run downhill but was level.  A friend came over and commented ‘your dining room floor does not wiggle any more”!!!  What a huge blessing this is not only because it looks and feels great but I can now get on with other needs we have for the house.  I had no desire to put in floors or do much in the kitchen untill I knew how much we needed to repair underneath the house and how many FEMA dollars that would take.  I can move on with our plans, it may take a while since market season is here but we will ba able to move ahead!  Sigh what a blessing
Spring is still trying to come to the Northwest, though we are seeing a bit of sunshine, some days are still quite cold.  We will see more sunshine soon of this I am sure.  Thank you all for your help and generosity.  One woman at market today said she just could not do mud but she was praying for us.  It is all part of the big picture, slinging mud or sending prayers.  It is what makes this big world a caring community.  Thank you all again and again

April 19, 2008 Snow.It snowed today, this has been the craziest year in my memory.  Snow.  sigh, makes me afraid to ask what is next.  But what has happened “next”is that we have had a huge week.  Our bathroom has been wired by two engineers.  How many people can say that?  We now have half a shower, trim in the office, and a red ceiling in the laundry room.  On top of all that we have a fence line that is clear and ready for rewiring and cheese.  We have our cheese home from Beechers.  We will forever be thankful to Beechers for taking care of our rounds of cheese. 
Whew, I need a rest.  It has been a wonderfully full three weeks but I have to say I am exhausted.  I can see a light out there though, and it is a good cheery sunny light!
Wednesday I drove the Jeep to Seattle to get our cheese from the Cave at Beechers.  The cheese rounds have been well tended by Bjorn their Affineur.  I will never forget the day after the flood and Beechers called to say what can we do to help you out.  I was standing in the middle of the driveway looking at our cave perched on a fence post.  It had been disengaged from the electricity and had landed at a crazy angle but the cheese had stayed on the shelves.  It was truly amazing.  My sister and her family had been praying for us during the flood, James her eldest son had prayed for the cave....Barb thought oh my.  Well, that prayer and the prayers of many upheld us and our cheese and the wonderful folks at Beechers took care of it till we could bring it home.  We have a quasi cave which was full to the brim, so much so that Norm Peterson brought us out another unit to borrow till we can get another pop cooler for a secondary cave.  Wow, could we even imagine we would have that sort of a problem 3 months ago?  Brad made his third batch of cheese today amidst a flurry of work and snow.  A group of fencers came from The Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Olympia.  They worked in the snow and made wondrous progress.  We have been blessed with fencing help for several weeks.  Kids and adults have cleaned and chopped off brambles, sawed off the trees, pushed in fence posts and worked their tails off to get the fence back into working condition.  It is very good not only for the sheep but for the gaurd dogs.  Keeping Brutus and Jewel in and the Coyotes out.  God Bless each one of these folks, their blistered hands and frozen toes.  It has been a huge undertaking.  These groups have been so gracious and giving, even working around the carcass buried under some debris.  I was out there on a cold day so the odor was tolerable. 
Our bathroom project is getting on well.  It has been plumbed, wired, mostly sheetrocked, and awaits the floor.  It amazes me how one 8x7 foot room can be such a problem.  It is out of square, we changed the plumbing, the wiring has gone from one light with a plug in attached to the base to a real set of outlets, including the GFC outlet we should have in a bathroom.  It has a fan now, will have a functional heater, I may feel as if I have moved uptown!  Many thanks to Bob and Evan who have taken this challenge on, to Rich Hill and Ted Bowes who got the ball rolling, Jim Truitt and company who kept things on track, and Jason and his crew from the Langley Christian Missionary Alliance Church on Whidbey Island who came today and really kicked the project along.  These “kids” had the energy and the know how to really work. 
I was out feeding lambs when they came this morning, Brad was milking and planning to make cheese.....oh boy another day of work groups....just feel the excitement as the snow flurries around my cold fingers and the lamb pen has been reduced to just plain mud.  Lord, I prayed for strength.  It came and these young people were such a huge blessing to us and our home, and our kids.  Brad was able to make cheese, just giving enough direction to keep the guys going.  The women scrubbed and began painting the laundry room.  We also did touch up in the office and Shelby put the trim up around the room!  I was so very thankful for all the help and the renewed energy these people brought.  It is good. 
I got all the permit checks written and in the mail for the Chehalis Community Farmers Market on Tuesday, the Moreland Farmers Market in Portland on Wednesdays, the Redmond Saturday Market and the Puyallup Farmers Market on Saturdays, and the Seattle Cheese Festival at which we will be Sunday May 18th from 2-5 pm.  The season is at our doorstep.  We did find there was mildew in the cheese packing room under the floor so we will need to work a bit more before that part of the operation is totally ready for the season but we are so close.  We are so very thankful for all of the volunteers and folks who have helped us get to this point we are at today.  Making cheese and preparing for markets.  It is just what we should be doing.  Thank you all.

April 13, 2008  This was a week of firsts and lasts.  What joy, Brad made the first cheese of the season.  He made a batch of Mopsy’s Best.  He made eleven rounds that will be ready to sell in three months time.  It is such a pretty sight to see the rounds lined up and ready to be brined and then caved.....what cave?  It was delivered at 8:30 this morning and will be at temperature by the time the cheese is done brining.  People are amazing and creative and accomodating and whatever else we can find that is good in our souls, that is what we are.  Norm Peterson is a local man who sold a business that had connections to people who use pop coolers in stores.  He now just refurbishes all sizes of pop coolers and sells them.  He had a beautiful unit in which he will install a switch to allow the temperature to settle at 50-55 degrees.  We can add appropriate moisture for our cheese and there is our cave!  Another big step is that all our lambs born to our sheep are now weaned and mommas are all in the milking line up.  It was noisy here Saturday, as our work groups can attest to, but they have all settled into the grain, hay, alfalfa, and play phase of their lives.  The Popcorn Parade at dusk still just makes me laugh out loud.  The lambs will gang up and race around the pen in a mass.  One of them will just jump up in the air and several will follow suit.  It is just joyful to watch.  They are just having a lamb party out there and I am totally entertained by their antics.  Shirley, Goodness and Mercy are in the pen with the others.  They have not gotten used to grain on a schedule.  In the momma’s pen the lambs get grain free choice.  We feed them in a “creep pen”.  I guess the term comes from the lambs can creep in and the opening is too small for the mommas.  Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy were getting quite rotund with their free choice grazing....I think it was an all day thing for them.  They are the first in line when the buckets of grain appear.  My “last” celebration is that the last of the burn piles has been lit, and has tried to burn  this week.  It is the pile of things that were in the office...I am finding my old nursing texts, stacks of magazines, old files that were wet, some pictures and remnants of the Christmas tree.  The pile is out by our back patio and we will rejoice when it is gone.  It will be the close of a chapter for me.  The Demise of the Junk from the House. sigh.  The first for out back is the wonder of freshly mown spring grass.  Have you rejoiced in the Spring when all the grass is lush and green and once it is mowed it is not only a large accomplishment but it looks like it should be in a magazine.  Our back yard has much less mud than the front and what mud was there is allowing the grass to grow through.  Late evening sun on our lush green lawn, noise of kids playing.  sigh it makes the sore muscles happy.  Many thanks to the Ferndale Lutheran Church folks who cleared debris from the yard and fences, The Lutheran Girls who crawled under my house and pulled out the dried up mud!  To Marna Peterson and some Sumner Presbyterian Church youth who helped me scout the yard before the mower went through, who cleaned the barn and what we found in the old cheese cave, and to Bob and Evan from University Place Presbyterian Church who are bound and determined to get our bathroom/laundry room to functioning.  Thank you all the groups who have been here this week and blessed us with your help, and strength, and minds!  We are so very thankful for all of you and your families who sent you on your way here.

April 8, 2008  Spring Break has broken.  Wow, We have had a huge outpouring of help in the past week and a half with more to come!  Fencing is the issue at hand and the continual mud abatement.  I suspect by the end of the weekend we will move the office back into the office and enjoy the freshly painted walls and new ceiling.  The floor will still need attention but it will get it in time.  The farm is functioning, it has a limp, but it is functioning.  We are milking now, Brad is reporting about 60 pounds of milk a day.  This compares to about 150 pounds per day last year at this time.  Many of the lambs are weaned.  They are out of grass already but we are giving them a good grain ration and some nice grass hay.  They get alfalfa for dessert.  We have 5 of the ram lambs sold, one has gone on to his new home, with 7 loving kids, what tough luck.  The others will be picked up by this weekend.  Normally we could take the extra lambs to the sale barn in town and they would be auctioned off.  The sale barn flooded and closed it’s doors.  It was a 50 year tradition here in Lewis County.  It will be missed.   I now have several lambs I will need to feed till I get them sold.  It will happen, just not this week with the emphasis on fencing, milking, mudding, and what to do with the milk?  We will need to make cheese before the weekend is over.  We will need to buy a pop cooler to use as a cave.  That is the thing with freezing the milk, it adds up much faster than you would think it should and the freezer is full.  That is a blessing but takes us to a new level of recovery.  The final cleaning of the Cheese plant is being done.  Our friend Deborah came yesterday and washed and washed and washed cheese molds, cheese mats, and cheese making items.  It will be finished this week and over the weekend the Black Sheep Creamery will be making cheese.  Woo Hoo, It seems like yesterday that we were doing that but how could yesterday seem like and eternity away from us in this time and place that we live in now.  Time and memories do funny things to you. 
Today’s report is good, helpers clearing fences, cheese on the horizon, milking is going well, even the youngest ewes are getting the hang of it.  Brad is getting stronger every day.  The lambs are growing and gaining beautifully.  Markets are less than a month away!  Yikes!  we better get a move on.