Ranch Newsletter | April 2023

Originally sent to subscribers on April 30th, 2023

The Busy Season Begins

The time has finally arrived to get plants and seeds in the ground! We have tomato plants in the greenhouse, leeks, broccoli, onions, and chard have been transplanted, and carrots, beets, parsnips, potatoes and turnips have been sown.

The entire month of May will be busy with soil prepping, seed planting, and transplanting the numerous plants that are sitting in my office. If you purchased one of our Farm Shares, you'll be happy to know we are currently on track with our garden with all the plants except some of the seeds we have to direct sow. We're about 1-2 weeks behind with root vegetables. You'll be getting a separate email about mid-May with more updates and news about the Farm Shares.

In goat news... Honey has reached the halfway mark in her pregnancy! And Reba has not gone back into heat so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she is also pregnant. I've also decided that even though I feel capable of drawing blood from Reba, I want someone more experienced to do it for me. When it comes to pregnancy, I'm okay waiting and watching. But once a year, I need to test all my goats for disease, which does require a blood draw. I'm also a little bit nervous about being on my own when they give birth. This will be my first time witnessing an animal (other than a cat) give birth, and if I need to assist, I would feel so much better if I had a vet or a more experienced goat owner on hand to advise me. (if you know of someone like that, please let me know!)

In chicken news... If you've been following my stories on Instagram, you'll know we attempted to hatch some eggs in our new incubator. It did not go as well as we expected it to. Out of 28 eggs, only 3 hatched. Of those three, only 1 was perfectly healthy. One had splayed legs and curled toes. We gave that little chick some tape and carboard booties and a couple days later, her feet and legs were perfect.

The other little chick didn't fare so well. She was unable to use one of her legs at all. She also had curled toes, which we were able to fix. We tried everything we could to get her walking again, but unfortunately we were not successful and had to say goodbye to the little one after six days.

I've been experimenting with our incubator to find out what went wrong and have discovered the heating element/sensor doesn't work correctly. Even though the display says it's the correct temp inside, it's actually about 6 degrees warmer than it should be. After a lot of fiddling and testing, we are ready to try again. With a smaller batch this time, only 10 eggs. Hoping this batch goes much better.

Another exciting project is almost finished! I've wanted to have a Little Free Library in front of our property since we moved in. Well, I finally got moving on it, and we're waiting for the concrete to set on the base. Once that's done, we'll attach the library and set it out front. I'll post on our Instagram and Facebook accounts when it's ready. Soon you'll be able to find us on the official Free Little Library map. If you want to donate books to go into the library, let me know. I'm currently stocking it with my own collection of books. I'm currently interested in children's book since I don't have a lot of children's books and would like to add some.

In soap news: You might have notice I'm not sharing as much about the products I make. There is a reason for that. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do yet, but one thing is certain. Once we have goat milk, I will be transitioning all our soaps to goat milk soap. In that process I will be looking at the scents I have, possibly getting rid of some, maybe creating new ones. I'm also in the process of experiments with some additional ingredients. But since I'm in a transition/planning phase, I haven't been saying much about the soap side of things. I'm also not creating new batches of soap. As I run out of current stock, I won't be making new stock until I can remake it with goats milk. The ETA on that is Autumn of this year. The other products, such as lip balms, and lotion bars will be restocked and continue to be available.

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