Ranch Newsletter | October 2023

Originally sent to subscribers on October 1st, 2023

Farm Update: October

This past week I gave up trying to get anything on my to-do list done. A couple weeks ago, Craig and I both came down with Covid. Craig recovered after about 5 days, but it was almost two weeks before I started to feel even close to normal.

And just as I did start feeling better, we got bad news. At the beginning of the month, I noticed one of our chickens was walking funny. I looked her over and didn't see anything obviously wrong, so I started doing some research. Many illnesses and diseases popped up with her symptoms, but the most concerning one was Marek's. I'd heard of this disease before, but hadn't really looked into it.

Basically, it's a highly contagious virus to chickens that causes tumors to grow. These tumors show up in different places in the body depending on the strain of Marek's. The tumors can cause blindness, and paralysis and eventually they turn cancerous.

I wanted to get Wasabi tested to know for sure, but the usual method for testing for Marek's is wait for a bird to die, then send the carcass to a lab and have them check for tumors. Well, I'm not that patient. I wanted to know right away, especially since we occasionally have other chicken owners on our property and I didn't want to be spreading this disease to them if I could help it. So, after a lot of research, I found a lab that could do live animal testing. I ordered the kit, did the swab on Wasabi, sent it in and hoped for a negative result.

Unfortunately, it came back positive. I'd already been doing research, so I had an idea of what I would need to do if the test came back positive. But I still wasn't feeling great, and I was overwhelmed. I spent several days last week in a depressed mood. To the point I didn't even have the energy to take care of the animals. (I did, of course, but it took a lot of effort).

I started to wonder if we'd made a mistake in choosing this farming/ranching life. I also knew I couldn't trust my wonderings in my current state and I've never been one to give up so easily. I decided to let go of any expectations I'd placed on myself for getting stuff done, and just let myself rest.

I got out in nature and took some pictures of the amazingly beautifully fall leaves we're having this year. I treated myself to takeout for lunch instead of having leftovers. I force myself to go to a social event because I'd been looking forward to it before we got the bad news. (And thoroughly enjoyed myself) I also happened to have a massage scheduled for that week and I told myself the massage was my deadline. After the massage, I wasn't allowed to hold on to the depression anymore. And when I got off that table, I felt much better. Physically, and mentally.

So, the past few days have been spent cleaning. Mareks' is spread in dust and dander of chickens. It can live in the soil for a really long time. I cleaned our house, disinfected all of our shoes, and the back porch. This week I'll be deep cleaning the chicken coop, tractor, chicken run, the goat shed, and all our fenced in areas where the chicken have free access.

I sent another test in, for one our younger chickens and should find out those results tomorrow (10/2). They have been kept separate from the older chickens, so it's possible they may not have it. Although, that will depend on when Marek's arrived on our property, which I cannot determine no matter how much I'd like to.

 In other news, we wrapped up our CSA season and held our CSA potluck, which was a lot of fun. We are waiting on the siding for our new shed to come in, so that project has been stalled a little bit. Hopefully we'll be getting that done next weekend.

This past Friday, I had a group of preschoolers visit the farm to learn about goats and chickens. That was a lot of fun.

In goat news... Finnick was banded this past weekend. He's doing well and even though he's walking a little funny still, he is almost back to his normal liveliness. Although, Katniss is having some fun with his predicament and getting her revenge for all the times he's headbutted her.

Next week we'll be saying goodbye to Katniss and Primrose. They will be heading to their new home in Roosevelt. I'm going to miss them so much!

In soap news: I've finished making the new bars of soap with goat milk and I love the way they turned out. They still have a couple weeks to cure, but I'm working on updating the website and will post on Instagram when they are live.

I will also be doing a market at the Monastery on October 14th. I will have all the new soaps there that day. All the old soaps are still BOGO on the website. I've decided to leave that deal up until I run out them.

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