Ranch Newsletter | April 2024

Originally sent to subscribers on April 28th, 2024

Farm Update April/May

It is officially the busy season around here. In fact, April was so busy I couldn't remember if I'd sent my monthly newsletter last month until I sat down to write this one and was able to check. (I did.)

My USU Master Gardener classes will end on May 1st and even though I have until November to get my 40 volunteer hours in, I've been working hard to get them finished before the classes end since the summer is such a busy time for us. In April I completed 19 of those hours and will have all my volunteer hours completed by May 2nd. I am so glad I took this course, I have truly enjoyed every second of it and the hands-on learning opportunities have been fantastic.

I also planted the rest of the seeds I needed to start indoors, worked on getting the gardens ready for planting, and planted some of the more cold hardy veggies such as celery, onions, leeks, some lettuce, and potatoes.

We also had a loss on the ranch in April. We found out our dog, Trigger, had a tumor in his abdomen that had ruptured and he was bleeding internally. The news came as quite a shock since he hadn't acted sick until the tumor ruptured. He was the best dog ever and we are going to miss him a lot. Whenever we lose an animal, we buy a plant that reminds of them and we have a small memorial garden dedicated to those lost animals. For Trigger, we decided on a service berry tree because it produces a small berry that is blue in color, which will remind us of his beautiful blue eyes.

May is going to be a month of preparation for us. We will be preparing for this year's CSA, the Kids' workshops, goat babies, and chicken babies!

In CSA news: We are sold out! If you are one of our members this year, thank you! We are getting closer to the start date, so I will be sending out some emails to members as the start of the season gets closers. CSA members - mark your calendars for September 14th. That will be the day of our CSA member dinner on the farm. I will be sending out more details about this dinner as the season gets underway.

In goat news: Finnick, Reba, and Honey got their annual CDT shots about a week ago. Honey is due to kid on May 23rd, so I am getting excited for more goat babies! Caspian is growing like a weed. He still gets 3 bottles of milk a day, but has started eating hay, and will go down to 2 bottles a day in another week or so.

In chicken news: We have a broody chicken! Peppermint has gone broody on us again so we are letting her sit on 6 eggs which should hatch the week of May 6th! We are also ordering 6 chicks from McMurrary Hatchery and they should be arriving the last week of May - just in time for our Eggs & Milk workshop for kids on June 3rd!

In soap news: I have decided that any markets I participate in this year are going to be local markets only.

• I will be at most of the Eden Coffee & Cocoa Sunday markets this summer.

•  I will also be at the Huntsville 4th of July festival with Mountain Arts & Music. They hold a market in the square behind the shops in Huntsville town and have live music all day. It's a lot of fun and I'm excited to be apart of it again this year.

• I've applied for the Historic Monastery Farmer's Market as well, but won't hear back on that for a little while yet.

In book news: I've written a children's picture book about goats! It is now available for purchase! I have plenty of copies on hand if you'd like one. It's called If You Give A Goat A Flower and the goat in the book is based on our very own Finnick!

In workshop news: I still have plenty of spots open for all of our kids' workshops, so if you've been thinking about signing your kids up, there is still time! The link to see all the classes, and to register it below.

I am currently looking at dates for my next Kombucha class (for adults), but haven't yet settled on a date. It will be in June though so keep an eye on our social media for that announcement. I have also had a few people tell me I should do an adult version of what I'm teaching the kids, so I'm trying to figure out if I can fit that into my schedule as well.

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