Ranch Newsletter | August 2023

Originally sent to subscribers on August 30th, 2023

Farm Update: September

Fall is in the air... kind of.

We've had some rainy cool weather and there is a hint of color showing up on our trees. But summer hasn't left us entirely. We still have plenty of hot weather and sunshine, but I'm not complaining about the cooler mornings and evenings.

The seasons are beginning to transition and so are we. September is the month where we start to think about winding down and wrapping up projects.

The garden is still going strong, but I've started clearing out space as well. I wanted to save seeds from as many plants as I could so I had to wait until the seeds formed and dried. This past week I managed to save spinach, sugar snap, and snow pea seeds. Soon I'll be able to save arugula and lettuce seeds.

Craig has decided to move up a project we had planned for next spring, to this fall. he's going to be building a dual purpose shed, which will be able to store our hay and house our male goats. This will keep the deer out of our hay and give us the shed we've been storing hay in to put some of our equipment in instead. 

Our CSA season is almost done. We have four weeks left. We are planning our end of season CSA potluck. Once the season ends I'll take some time to reflect on the year, go over my notes, and make and adjustments I feel need to be made. Then, I'll be reaching out to our current members to see if they want to sign up for next year. Any open spots will be offered to those who have been waiting so patiently on our waiting list, and if there are open spots after that, they'll be open to the general public.

In goat news... Honey's babies are 8 weeks old and growing like weeds. Finnick, our boy, is wearing a buck apron for the time being. We don't want any accidental pregnancies and he is old enough now to get the job done. In a couple of weeks he will be banded and a couple weeks after that he'll be free to roam again without the apron. Depending on the timeline of our new shed being finished, I may separate him with Reba until I'm sure he's not fertile anymore.

Reba did not end up being pregnant and after consulting with a couple of people, I believe she has a hormonal imbalance. I'll be working to try and correct that through the fall and winter and if I'm able to, will try to breed her again. If I'm not, I will retire her.

Katniss and Primrose will both be available for purchase when they turn 12 weeks old. If you might be interested in taking one or both of these girls home, check out our website for more information.

In chicken news... Out of the chickens we hatched this spring, 5 ended up being roosters, and honestly, I'm wondering if we might have another late bloomer. Four of the five roosters have been dismissed from the farm, three went to be food for a local family, the fourth went if IFA It's hard to let go of animals you raised, but it was getting chaotic and there were too many roos for the number of hens we have.

We're slowly moving the chicken tractor to it's winter resting place in the new goat area. As we wrap up the gardens, we'll allow the chickens in the coop to be in the gardens. The chickens in the tractor will be allowed to roam the goat shed and the two groups of chickens will get to know each other through the fence. After a week or two, we'll let them mix and choose which coop they want to sleep in. We'll utilize both the chicken tractor coop and the regular coop through the winter.

In soap news: I've been making soap as often as I can with the milk Honey gives me. She is still a little stingy, and wants to save it all for her babies - I can't really blame her. But I do believe all the soaps will be made and ready for the holiday season.

In the next few weeks I'll be taking new photos and updating the website. When I do that, I'll be sharing updates on social media and sharing more about my new line of soaps based on books.

I've been a vendor at the History Monastery Farmer's Market and will be until September 9th. They changed the hours a little as vendors were selling out early in the day. I'm still selling all my soaps at a discount there, so if you want to stock up on soap come see me!

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I realize there might be some confusion with the title of this post, and the heading of this post. My intention was to talk about what was coming up in the next month at the end of the previous month, but I inevitably ended up talking about both the previous month and the upcoming one. I did eventually realize how confusing this was and changed my methods.