This year, we’re starting a new venture-cut flowers! When we were in the hospital after having Anne, we received a vase of fresh flowers as a congratulations. I’ve never really been into growing flowers, but seeing how much it brightened up the hospital room and later our house, I thought about how nice it would … More Starting a Cut Flower Garden
As we grow our farm, we’re really making sure to do things as deliberately as possible while keeping things manageable. Last year, we focused on our chicken production which went from 25 chickens for ourselves in the summer of 2016 to raising and processing 300 chickens in the summer of 2017. We only raised 4 … More A New Addition to the Farm
We picked up our pigs last week! This year, we got 5 red wattle crosses. When we first get them, we keep them near the pig shed so they have shelter while they’re little. After they acclimate to their new home, we’ll move them out to the pasture, so they can start really grazing. In … More The Pigs Are Here!
Last year was our first year with bees. There’s a pretty steep learning curve with the first beehive. Ryan does most of the bee work, so he installs the bees and inspects the hive. Last year went really well. Our hive split on the 4th of July, and we weren’t able to recover the swarm, … More Bringing Home Bees
I think it’s safe to say spring is here to stay. Finally! Here’s what we’ve been up to! Ryan was able to get the chickens moved to the farm after the snow finally melted. Crusher (the rooster) is busy keeping an eye on all of his hens who are enjoying the shade of their coop, the … More Around the Ranch-May 6, 2018
*I wrote this a few weeks ago and am just getting to posting it. I hope you enjoy! A more recent post will be coming soon! SPRING IS HERE! For now at least. And that means that we’re finally able to get outside and start getting ready for the year. Here’s what we’ve been up … More Around the Ranch-April 26, 2018
Getting ready to cook supper and staring at a whole chicken can be intimidating. When we started butchering our own chickens, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the whole thing and where to start, so I went to YouTube. Gordon Ramsay’s video on How to Part a Chicken helped me get started along … More How To Use a Whole Chicken
Yesterday morning, Ryan got a phone call saying our first batch of chicks was in! We weren’t expecting them until today, so after a bit of scrambling around to get their brooder ready, off he went to pick them up. Because of the weather, we haven’t been able to get the big hens into their … More The Chickens Are Here!
Just as we were gearing up to get started on all of our spring tasks, winter struck again with many inches of snow and temperatures below freezing. So, we’ve brought out our winter coats, and here’s what we’ve been up to: Ryan’s sister had 3 roosters that she needed to have butchered, so she brought … More Around the Ranch-April 6, 2018
It’s been a loooong time since we’ve posted anything, but the winter months are slow for us with no garden and no animals to tend to. Most of the winter is spent dreaming up plans for the coming spring, and now that it’s spring, it’s time to put those plans into action! Here’s what we’ve … More Around the Ranch-March 17, 2018
Spiked M Ranch 