Jumping the Moon Dairy - the next chapter

[OneFineAcre]

Congratulations

 

[lalabugs]

Congratulations!!!!!

 

[babsbag]

So -- now that it is a reality and you will soon be certified --
how/where/what is your market to sell?

My market for bottled milk will be by subscription to start and then hopefully a couple of stores will take it too. The health food store is on the fence about it since I am not organic so we will see. The cheese will be farmer's markets and a few of the local grocery stores but most people don't think that I will end up making cheese, they think that I will have a bigger demand for bottled milk than what I can supply. That would be ok with me to start with; a lot less work. However, I just had someone contact me about supplying cheese for a restaurant and also the local brewery supply store wants to have cheese to go with their wine tasting gigs. It seems that the outlets are endless. I will be looking for someone to do my marketing for me, at least the online presence as I just don't have the time.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Kind of related but it was a couple weeks ago that it was National Dairy Goat week.
Maurine made arrangements to get some cheese from Spinning Spider Creamery for the farmer's market.
It sold really well.
May work out a deal to get more and Rachel can make a few extra bucks on top of the lemondade/orangeade

 

[babsbag]

It is really great that Rachel is able to sell at the market; you can never instill that work ethic too early in life. Good for her, and for her parents for encouraging her.

I think I could do well selling cheese at markets. The other dairy that was here has retired and they didn't sell their business, they just closed up shop. Not sure why, they had been here quite a while. So right now the local goat cheese market is wide open. I just need to make enough money to hire someone to milk or do markets...I can't be doing both.

I can't tell you how exciting it was to see this system work. I didn't have any goats connected but it ran through all the cycles and did the wash/acid rinse/sanitize/ cycle and was just so amazing to see it work. I have glass milk pipe line for part of the system so you can actually see what is going on in the pipe, really cool.

I just spent about three hours trying to get a leak to stop on a faucet, good grief. This isn't rocket science but it sure felt like it; I was successful, finally. I have one other sink valve leaking, but I think it is the actual valve that is defective. I really dislike plumbing. Yesterday when I turned on the water I was very happy to only see those two leaks, all the rest was good, as were all the drains. Not bad for a non-plumber kind of gal. I also wired in the two lights and the fans and the 2 junction boxes outside so when the breaker was finally turned on it was a good feeling to see those work too.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You are definitely a "jill of all trades" for sure! Good thing you can handle a lot on your own!

 

[Goat Whisperer]

So happy for you Babs!

 

[goatgurl]

yea for you babs. I can only imagine how excited you are to get things all done and ready to start up. to bad i'm so far away because i'd do the markets for you in a second.

 

[Mini Horses]

I am anxious to see photos of your "first day" LOL...so much work you have done and it deserves a great finish -- USING it all. Personally, I've enjoyed your journey and if I lived on that side of the country, I'd sure help you milk!!!!

won't be much longer....we can see those does hooked up and pumping. It's exciting.

 

[babsbag]

Why is it that everyone that would be happy to help me lives on the wrong side of the country? Not fair at all, but thanks for the "I would if I could" offers.

It is so hard to work outside this week, over 110° and even I melt. I will be making my girls a plywood ramp to get into the dairy for now and then a metal one needs to come soon. I so wish I knew how to weld. The one person that I know that does it for me is $$$ to hire but I may have to; at least he is good and honest. I need to make my certification list and knock one thing a day off of it, that is the only way I will get it done. Now that I have lights I can paint and caulk at night which I may do, at least it is cooler that way. Part of my problem is that I don't want to give up anything else that I do which means gardening this time of year and watering right now is almost a full time job. Almost everything is on automatic timers but at 112° that just isn't enough and I find myself wandering through the orchard and garden giving more water to things and fixing valves or drippers that inevitable want to fail on the hottest days of the year. And of course there is still everything else to do to keep life functioning.

There is one code section for the dairy that I need to figure out too and I'm not entirely sure who to ask. I don't want to ask the inspector as they will just tell me what they have seen and not give me any options. The code is just so poorly written, as if it was written by a lawyer who thought that they were a dairyman, or maybe they stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and that would explain it all.

And the funnest chore of all will be tattooing all my goats so that they have a permanent ID for TB and Brucellosis testing. Of all my goats I think 11 are tattoed so that leaves about 30 to be done. Guess I better order some ink.