Ranch Newsletter | June 2025

Originally sent to subscribers on June 30th, 2025

Farm Update

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ― John Steinbeck

June had me tempted to start complaining about the heat. But since the warm days don't last very long in this part of the world, I'm trying to choose to be grateful for every single one.

Afterall, it's because of the heat that I am no longer working outside from sunup to sundown and exhausting myself in the process. Instead, I get to work in the cool of the morning as the sun rises listening the birds and my animals. Then, in the afternoon, I get to come inside and take care of indoor tasks in the cool of our airconditioned house. And again in the evening, I get to go out and enjoy the outdoors and get a little more work done as the earth cools off.

June 2025 will forever be known as the month when the goats escaped. Multiple times. No sooner would I have one spot repaired when they would find another weak place and break through. This resulted in us replacing a whole section of fencing with no climb horse fence, which is a little more durable than the welded wire fencing we have up. It's much more expensive, however, so we're going to replace sections at a time. Thankfully, since we replaced that section of fence, no goats have escaped. I'm crossing my fingers that it stays that way.

We're STILL working on our backyard project. We have made some progress. We took large rocks and tree roots from the dug up area, leveled it a bit and put in road base. We still have to tamp that down and level it, but we're getting closer!

June also brought the start of the CSA season. This is going to be our last year doing a CSA and we are transitioning to a farm stand. One of our neighbors had an Amish Cart they were willing to part with and I cleaned it up, painted it, and now it is sitting out front as our brand new farm stand! It has been out there for less than a week, but I am already in love with my new morning routine of going out the garden, harvesting what I need for the CSA and for ourselves, and setting out everything extra in the cart. I've chanced to talk to a few people who have stopped while I've been restocking throughout the day and so far everyone seems to be glad for this new resource in the neighborhood.

July kicks off market season. I'll be at the Mountain Arts and Music July 4th Festival all day long. And after that I'll be at the Historic Monastery Farmer's Market every Saturday from July 12th - August 30th.

In goat news: Daisy has started developing an udder and is 5 weeks away from her due date! I have to admit, I've missed having baby goats and fresh goat milk around.

In natural skincare news: My newest product is set to be released on July 4th, however, I've already made my new Ranch Hand Soap available on the website. This soap is made with pumice to clean up all the extra dirt and grime from summer time projects! This is exclusive news for my newsletter peeps and the link to these soaps is below!

My next soap making classes are:

• Wednesday, August 13th, 6-8pm

• Saturday, October 11th, 2-4pm

• Wednesday, October 15th, 6-8pm

Learn how to create your own small batch of Bastille bar soap using entirely natural ingredients, resulting in a soap perfect for sensitive skin.

You will discover the science of soap-making, explore the ingredients suitable for homemade soap, and create a 1-pound batch of soap to take home, cut, cure, and enjoy.

Please note, you will be required to wear safety gear for this class - gloves, glasses, and an apron. We will be working with lye.

Classes are $55 each, are limited to 10 people, and have an age limit of 13 and older. If you'd like to sign up, you can do so here: https://www.julbudranch.com/events-1

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