Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

Carol and I are going out with friend and mentor, Farmer Mike and his wife Karen.  Their wedding anniversary was yesterday and ours is today.

25 years ago, this morning, Carol and I were married at The Chapel Of Love, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  At the time, both of us were students at the Willmar Area Vo-Tech.  Carol was studying to be a nurse and I was going to school for Parts & Merchandising.  Our classes had not yet started for the year when we took off for the City Of Lights – Las Vegas.

With a borrowed car secured just days before and $600 in my pocket that was loaned to me by my dad, Carol and I headed west, out of our town of Willmar, MN.  Thinking back to other road trips, the food and snacks that we brought was most likely a loaf of bread and a package of bologna, corn nuts, corn chips, a large bag of pretzel rods and of course pop/soda.  The car we were using was a green, 1975 Datsun B-210, hatchback.  It was powered by a little 4 cylinder that we later found out was not built for the mountains of Colorado.  It looked like the Datsun in the photo below.

This is nearly the identical car that brought Carol and I to Las Vegas, where we married.

The one and only major break-down was in the rain, outside of Vale, Colorado – the water pump went out.  After limping the car to a nearby town, we were towed to a Chevron station in Glenwood Springs, CO.  It was there where we spent 2½ days, waiting for a new water pump.  It seems one of the station attendants knew the part’s store owner and only after we paid him more than we should have, he gave his buddy a call and got the part.  Thinking Carol & I would run short on cash, I “rented” some tools from the station and installed the pump myself.  We slept in the car behind the station over the Labor Day weekend.

It was very early in the morning when we rolled into Vegas on Sept. 2nd.  Not knowing where to go or where to stay, at 3 am we rang the door bell of a small motel.  A short, older gentleman unlocked the door and checked us in.  He was kind enough to take interest in us and asked why we were in town.  We told him we were here to get married and gave him the short version of our trip’s follies.  He told us that he would take care of everything.  He simply asked what time we wanted to get married and what time we wanted to wake up… that was it.

Sometime after our wake-up call we received another call from the front office.  The limo service had a car waiting for us.  When we walked around to the motel office, there waiting for us was a white, stretched limo.  The driver was in the lobby waiting for us.  From that point forward, neither Carol nor myself touched another door until we were back again at the motel.  Our driver brought us to the marriage license bureau where he held the door for us, sat us down, and sought and retrieved all the paperwork we need to get hitched.  When everything was in order, he wisked us off to get married.  The drive to the wedding chapel was where we got to know our driver better.  He asked us where we were from.  We told him we hailed from a small town in Minnesota.  He then asked what town.  When we told him “Willmar,” he stated he too was originally from the Land of 10,000 lakes.  In fact, he once was an Old Dutch Potato Chip truck driver out of the Metro… and Willmar was his main stop.  We chatted a bit more, mentioning the rotten luck we experience on the road.  He must have felt sorry for us as he gave us some money-saving advice when it came to the chapel where we were to get married.

Carol & I got married here at the Chapel Of Love in 1985

At the Chapel Of Love, we chose the basic, no frills, wedding package.  Our limo driver was our witness.  After the short ceremony, we were handed an envelope with a large dollar amount written on the outside of it.  Our driver told us about this envelope… it was for us to tip the minister guy.  We put a $5 bill into it and walked to the car with our newly signed marriage certificate in hand.

On our way back to the motel, I asked our driver [and witness] how he makes money driving limo.  He stated he owned his car and he made his living on tips only.  Since he saved us $$$ with the advice he gave us about the goings-on of the chapel, I asked him what his normal tip was.  He would not tell us and would not take our money.  He just told us that he wanted to give us our first wedding present and the use of his limo service was it.  We thanked him as he dropped us off back at the hotel.

Shortly there after, Carol and I headed back home, via Hoover Dam.  We visited the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park before arriving back home.  We got home late, but in time for a few hours of sleep, just to head to our first day of class at the Vo-Tech the next day.  To say the least, our friends and classmates were surprised to hear we were married just a few day before.

Carol graduated from the LPN program and I graduated from the program I was enrolled in.  Carol is still in the medical field.  I on the other hand went to college and graduated.  From that point on I have several vocations.  I became a counselor for an are boys group home, became a DJ for an AM country music radio station.  I striped parking lots and later cleaned restaurant vent hoods.  I also owned a cleaning company and if you consider race care driving a job, I did that too.  All the while, Carol retained her nursing license through the years.  Even now, while we both embark on our farming endeavor, Carol remains a medical professional. I on the other hand am just a farmer.

I guess if you’ve read this post to the end… just be thankful this is the short version. 

Carol received a call on her cell phone this morning.  It was from a past customer of ours.  Some time back, the caller purchased a little billy goat from us – the goat’s name was Bam-Bam.  This is not the first call we got from these nice folks and hopefully it will not be the last.

Anywho -  this call was to let us know that Bam-Bam is a new papa goat.  His first offspring were twin doelings.  The caller also wanted to let us know that Mr. Bam-Bam is quite large now but remains a favorite animals on their farm.  I guess he’s a real sweetheart.  The call we got some time ago was not so posative… maybe a little worrisome.  It seems, shortly after bringing Bam-Bam to his new home, he was a little mean-ish.  During that call, they described to Carol the situation.  Carol told these folks that it sounded like Bam-Bam was in rut.  What they were experiencing was pretty normal for a new buck who now found himself in the alpha male role on the farm.  They only needed to watch him and let nature run its course.  With time, it should be fine… It was.

Bam-Bam is now quite gentle and is putting out some gorgeous kids.  Thanks for the call.

Some of you know that Carol grew up as a ‘Townie‘.  With that said, more folks know her as a farm gal.  But being on the farm for only 2 years, there are many experiences left to explore.

The last 2 days, Carol has found herself outside the ring of a couple local-ish livestock auctions, looking for goats & chickens.  It seems we are selling more livestock and poultry directly to our customers than we think we can replace sustainably.  It’s a good position to be in [business-wise] but we want all of our customers (present and future) to be able to buy the meat they want and still have a good selection in which to do so.  So, Carol has been looking primarily for more meat goats as well as a dairy goat or two… the last few weekends, we have been selling-out of raw goat milk too.

Well, today, Carol found a few things at one of the auctions she attended.  She did find some goats, but only dairy goats.  These goats will help improve her herd as she intends to cull some of her lesser quality milkers.  She also purchased a few more layer hens – yep… we have been selling out of eggs as well.  We have standing orders for 6-8 dozen and we haven’t been able to meet the demand.  My question to Carol, after she got home, was how does she know if she got hens that were actually going to lay for us.  It seems that when the hens lay eggs on the way home from the auction, chances are the hens are in good working order.  We’re both happy.  BTW:  You can buy our fresh eggs in Kerkhoven from Kristine at Inspiring Path Alternatives.

Another thing she bought was this little tool.   Or maybe I should say “little tools”.  She bought 2 cases of them.

Tote-N-Cut bale handling/feeding device

She may have paid too much for them… who knows.  But, we have one down in the barn, awaiting to be used.  It looks like it would be a handy thing to have around, but I guess the proof is in the pudding.  If you want one, contact Carol.  She’s selling them for only $2/each.  I tried to find some information about them on the Internet, but came-up empty.  As you can see, they are/were locally made… the question is “When?”

Carol also bought a Home Health brand home milk/juice pasteurizer, if for no other reason than to give folks a chance to experience or taste our farm-fresh dairy products without the worry of things made from raw milk as seeming weird.  Believe it or not, but some folks still think milk comes from a carton and not a cow or goat.  The pasteurizer Carol bought is a low temp unit.  Instead of heating the milk to 165°F for 15 seconds, it heats it to 145°F for 30 minutes.  The lower heat process does not kill all the helpful/healthful micro-organisms, like the beneficial pro-biotics… just the bad (if the milk were not handled properly).  The price of this handy-dandy appliance was 50¢, minus the 25¢ worth of puzzles she sold [that came with the pasteurizer].  Once home, we tested the Home Health pasteurizer and it seems to work perfectly.  If you would like to taste some pasteurized goat milk or goat milk cheese, let Carol know before heading out to the farm.  Of course, our goat milk soap does not need pasteurized milk – soap is soap (even if it is weird).