hello from Arizona

[Ariel301]

Hello everyone,

I just found this forum and am excited to see what I can learn here. I am just starting out in making my own cheese, and I haven't been terribly successful yet, but I'm still trying.

I am 24 years old and female. My husband and I were married three months ago and moved in with his parents due to unemployment and the bad economy; we were in Colorado but could not afford to live there anymore. We are blessed to have seven acres of beautiful desert, where we can keep our six dairy goats--Grace, Flora, Ebony, Buck, Bonnie, and an unnamed buckling we're raising to butcher. We also have a horse (not for dairy purposes lol...), two cats, and an aquarium. We are working on growing an organic vegetable garden as well, but most plants aren't thriving in the dry Arizona heat. We should have better luck growing things in the winter time, I think.

Besides goats and cheese, I enjoy art, gardening, cooking,horseback riding, quilting, raising tropical fish, hiking, reading, and religion. So I am fairly busy with all of that! I just got a new job as a nurse's aide at an Alzheimer's treatment facility, where I will start working on monday, and my husband is in training to become a rabbi.

I guess that's a decent introduction to myself. Anything else you want to know, just ask. =)

[DeejayDebi]

Welcome Ariel. Some really talented folks here all willing to share!

[Cheese Head]

Morning Ariel301 and welcome to this forum! Very nice intro, I have no idea about farming but I do find it interesting how many people name their animals (except I assume SwissBrowns as has 100 diary cows). Congrats on marriage and new job, keep trying on cheese!

[zenith1]

Howdy Ariel- and welcome to the forum. You are going to need this forum after coming home from work at a Alzheimer's treatment facility. That has got to be a very difficult area of health care to work in. Don't over reach in your quest to make cheese at first. Start with the soft cheeses as they are less demanding and there is more instant reward. And they are tasty! Then you can progress to the pressed cheeses that require a little more work and equipment. Have fun with it. Where in Arizona do you live? I have vacationed there a couple of times and seen a good part of the state. Of course who wouldn't love Sedona, but there are other great areas also. And how about that time warp called Bisbee. Love it!

[Ariel301]

Zenith, we live in Kingman, which is about two or three hours west of Flagstaff, near the Nevada border. I haven't been to Sedona or Bisbee yet. I never foresaw myself living here, but I love it. I was getting sick of the Colorado cold, and am enjoying the warm weather.

It definitely took the animals some time to adjust; they got to Arizona still in their shaggy winter coats, and were used to a high daytime temperature of about 50, and suddenly it was 95 degrees! We had to shave them all and keep hosing them down every few hours for a couple of weeks until they finally adapted. We do name all our milk goats, they're not just working animals to us, but members of the family. (Bonnie and Buck will occasionally get let in the house for a while in the evening; they seem to enjoy a nice petting and some tv lol) We ended up naming our buck "Buck". We got him as a surprise when we bought some other goats; he was about 10 hours old, and while we were deciding what to call him, we called him little buck, and it ended up sticking. Someone with that many cows might name them...the farm we got three of our goats from has 90 milk goats and several bucks, and they all had registered show names, and barn names on their collars. I wonder if the owners knew them all lol

Yes, from what I've heard, working with the Alzheimers people is going to be tough. The nurse who interviewed me said the average mental age of the people in the facility is that of a seven month old child. But I love that sort of work, so I am excited about it. It's going to be 12 hour shifts, so I will be exhausted after work (I'm hoping to train my husband to do the evening milking for me on my work days), but at least I get extra days off.

[goatherdess]

Hi again Ariel,
Just noticed your greeting post and am so glad to hear I'm not the only one who lets the goats into the house! They like standing in front of the air conditioner in the summer. We put our milk stand  in the living room right in front of the air conditioner and they just love standing there and getting cooled of while we milk them.