Ranch Newsletter | April 2026

Originally sent to subscribers on April 29th, 2026

Farm Update

"A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke-and that the joke is oneself."- Clifton Paul Fadiman, American Editor

I am not a fan of April Fool's Day. Not for any specific reason other than I don't like pranks. I have zero bad memories of this holiday. The only time I can remember even experiencing April Fool's Day was once as a kid when some neighbors TP'd our house, and once when I was teaching English for a homeschool co-op. Both pretty mild events.

But as I said in my last newsletter, I'm trying to learn to embrace change and April Fool's Day gave me another opportunity to do just that.

Craig had a minor surgery on the first of April to remove a cyst on his finger that has been bothering him for over a year. It was supposed to be a quick, in and out surgery with a weekend to recover and then it would be back to life as usual. Only, there was a complication with a detached tendon, so Craig has been recovering from his surgery all month and he still has a ways to go.

So, for the month of April I've been tutored in what Craig does around here and I would just like to say, I am extra grateful for what he does around here because everything he does is heavy, dirty, and/or complex and I'm glad I don't have to do what he does very often.

The biggest task I helped him with was replacing the gas tank on our tractor which had a hole in it. (It wasn't me!)

The weather in April has felt more like winter than the actual season did. It's been cool and wet, which has actually been a nice change. It's given me a little room to breathe and has reminded me that I don't need to be so rushed to get plants in the ground.

Honey is due to kid in about 2.5 weeks. She is a such a good mama and has a history of kidding easily. She even pushed out a breech baby in 2023 without any issues. But even with her excellent birthing history I'm more nervous than usual.

She had 4 kids in 2023. Three of them were perfectly healthy, but the fourth had some kind of neurological issue and we had to put the kid down. The vet told Craig he'd never seen anything like it and said there wasn't anything we could have done to save the kid. It was my first goat loss and I'm feeling all the feelings again the closer we get to her due date. I've been extra attentive to her nutrition intake this time around because even though I know things happens that are out of my control, there is part of me that wonders if I didn't do enough for her while she was pregnant. She's also been getting lots of extra attention and back scratches from me in recent days and I suspect it only increase in the coming days.

We also have a broody hen - Peppermint - and while I would love for her to hatch out some chicks for me, I'm facing some challenges in the coop that I haven't had before. Another of my hens - Ginger - seems to dislike the idea of more baby chicks because she has been stealing the eggs I gave Peppermint to hatch and eating them.

Ginger isn't touching any of the other eggs, only the ones I gave to Peppermint. So I've been working on making a safe place for Peppermint to hatch some eggs away from Ginger. I was hoping we would have baby chicks by time our first farm tour arrived on May 15th, the timing was perfect. But Ginger... grr. So now it will be the end of May before we have baby chicks.

The goats and alpacas finally ventured into the tree line where we put up the electric fence and did exactly what we hoped they would do. They cleaned up all the underbrush. We need to move the electric fence to give them a new area to graze but with Craig's surgery and the weather, we haven't done it yet. I've strictly forbidden Craig to operate the chainsaw until his finger is healed and he will need to operate said chainsaw in order to clear some more areas under the trees for the goats.

We did get the wheat field planted, and I have one garden totally free of mallow weeds, although they broke my weeding tool and I had to order another one. Craig is going to fix my original one once his finger is healed and he has some time. I have cool weather seeds in the ground in that garden and on the clear days I'll be out working on the other garden, which has a few cold crops in it already.

I also weeded the tea garden and removed the last two wooden boxes, which I'll be replacing with rock. I also decided I was tired of the cinder blocks I have around 4 of my gardens. I've tried planting succulents in them and other plants, but the weeds just take over and they are hard to pull out. But I didn't want to remove and replace the cinder blocks, so I flipped them so all their flat sides are facing up. I'm much happier with this setup and it gives me a nice place to sit while I weed.

Market season has started. I attended my first market last Saturday and I'll be at The Kid's Patch this Saturday, followed by the Utah's Own market at Oliver's Place in Pleasant Grove. I'm still looking at other markets for June, but I may just skip June since I have signed up for the July 4th Market with Mountain Arts and Music again and the McFarland Farmer's Market, which used to be at the Historic Monastery, but is moving this year to the Jensen-Fower's farm. I'll post more information about that as it gets closer.

Farm Tours – Available to Book Now!

I've been wanting to offer farm tours for awhile now, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work with our schedules. Well, I finally figured it out! We are going to be offering 2 farm tours a month from May to September. One will be a public tour, where you can purchase individual tickets prices for adults and kids, and a private tour meant for your group of up to 10 people only.

These tours will be in the evening so it won't be quite so hot, at a time when our animals are typically more active. We'll walk the property and you'll learn about how we do things on the ranch, why we do them the way we do, and meet our animals. You'll get to go into the doe goat area and interact with our female and kid goats and the alpacas as well. You'll be able to take pictures and shop at our farmstand if you at the end if you'd like to. You can learn more and book here.

My next soap making class:

May 8th 6:30 - 8:00pm

Held here on the Ranch.

Cost: $55/person

https://www.julbudranch.com/events-1

 (If you can't make this class, but want to attend a different one, my classes are scheduled for the whole year and you can see all the dates at the above link)

Age Requirements

• Suitable for ages 14 and up

• Children ages 10–13 may attend if accompanied by an adult who can actively assist them

• Supervising adults do not need to purchase a ticket unless they wish to make their own batch of soap

• Children 9 and under are not permitted for safety reasons

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