Wednesday, December 20, 2017

So Long 2017

That is right people, two blog posts in a year.  I am officially starting to catch up on life... for now anyways.   We are now finally starting to feel settled after our giant move.  After practically rebuilding an 82 year old house from top to bottom just in time to celebrate our first christmas in our new home.  We have been busy in between working non stop with home and farm projects enjoying life. Lots of lake time, day trips and we even started a new tradition of cutting down our christmas tree in a cute little town called Mineral. ( I have had an artificial tree for the past few years against my families will)  A quick trip less than an hour we are able to be in the snow!  Fun right.... yes....but you see this mom was so busy preparing everyone else I forgot boots and showed up to hike and cut our first christmas tree down in converse and no socks :/  Good thing I grew up in upstate NY, I knew my frost bite limit!  Huge success, happy kids and my favorite tree of all time.  The girls were also able to be part of some holiday float building and enjoy riding in the local lighted holiday parade.  So fun.  I have to say as scary as our giant move was to a place we knew nothing about we have sure lucked out.  Everyday  all of say how lucky and thankful we are for the new school, new friends, new experiences.  Cheesy...possibly but it could have been the complete opposite.  So the endless projects continue, yes we still do not have baseboard, but... we have refurbished painted doors, a beautiful new vent hood, graded lawn,a new horse arena and one pretty awesome horse shelter.  Which means one happy soon to be 8 year old, who by the way has not stopped riding even on days off she is jumping dogs (have you ever seen and italian mastiff jump) pretty amusing.  Avery is growing faster than we would like (can we freeze time please) down to attending her first school dance. Leary our little spitfire, I honestly say every day she should be a running back (to bad she is a girl)  she runs everywhere.  Talks a mile a minute.  We did not think talking more than the other two was possible but yup we were wrong. Joe daily has been on repeat I am surrounded by all women as we all look at him confused......so one of these days he will adjust to #lifewithgirls. Joe had a chance to get away for a week with one of his best friends on a hunting trip to Idaho. (not to mention during our dorset lambing time)  So the girls handled the farm while he had his man time. 
On the farm we are busier than ever.  We have to wonderful employees we have welcomed to our team.  Tyler + Nick, who we are beyond grateful to have join us. They have worked tiresly along with us the past months. Farm projects continue with our orchard removal.  1200 trees is a lot of trees to take down so it is going to be quite the process. Perimeter fence is officially complete (so our dogs will not bother the neighborhood walkers anymore)  The creamery projects are down to the last final few LARGE projects left which will come with time.  We are prepping for the new year with our switch from glass bottles (sad to end an era of glass bottles).  Our new 8oz grab + go packaging is complete and will be hitting retailers spring 2018.  We are EXPANDING.  Our ice cream will be expanding to the pacific northwest in 2018.  You will be able to find our ice cream in the WHOLE FOODS MARKETS locations.  We were beyond excited this month to be featured in VOGUE magazine.  Our sheep milk was one of the top 10 alternative milks. Such a humbling experience and beyond grateful for our customers and fans that love our milk.  So after one HECK of a 2017 this family is ready to close the year out and looking forward to what 2018 has in store for us.  Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season from our family to yours!  




































 

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Closing Out Summer

Well that was fast!  Summer has come and gone in the blink of an eye.  Four months since my last blog post.  Schedules full, our busy kids are growing and we are in a nutshell busier than we have ever been.  ( three kids do that to you)  I now know why our moms said wait until you are just a taxi.  Well, I am officially a taxi spending more time in my car than my house. I have been trying to learn how to stress less, and sleep more.  Not an easy task lately.  Our family had a great summer with lots of grandparent time, camps, camping trips, birthday celebrations and even had a few do nothing pajama days(my personal favorite). We made the most out of everyday.  Now back to school with a first and fourth grader.  (yes I somehow am that old already). We won't go into that though.  Joe and I also had a chance to scoot away for an anniversary trip .....celebrating 11 years of being married, and yes surprisingly we have survived the marital spats of owning and running a business together. Props to us, looking forward to many more (today anyway).
On the farm front, projects are still an everyday occurrence in our life.  Lambs are arriving the plant is keeping busy and our yummy sheep butter won second place at this years American Cheese Society awards and third place at the World Dairy Expo product contest.   Always such a humbling experience to be side by side some of the best in the industry, we feel so lucky to have such amazing milk ladies that give us such great milk that go into our products.  On a side note...Joe and I had a chance to sneak away to Loma Linda to purchase a vintage ice cream truck.  So our date weekend complete with gas station snacks (we only had so long to get to southern california + back)  We came home with a pretty adorable step van.  Hours + Hours + Hours of time and energy Joe fully restored this beauty to exactly what I had explained to him.   This guy can do anything, adding truck restoration and painting to his list!  Well all those hours paid off the truck is beautiful and now ready to book at your next private event.  After being in business we have sure learned how to work together, our marital spats in the lowes isles were limited to only three not bad in my book.  So a end to a very busy summer, more projects and endless new changes in our life. Keep up with us on Facebook + Instagram for current pictures,  my schedule is better with that then blogging! Stay Tuned.