Shots from around the farm this week

 LaVasseur gentleman rebuilding our green barn so we can move stuff out of our storage containers.

 Lots of gardening going on...

 Raven busy trimming around the beds and earthboxes

 Elizabeth is hard at work

 The lilacs are in bloom

 Frostbite found a cool spot

 Gina enjoys her farm chores

 Goats are excited to move to fresh grass

 Lambs are growing

 So is the grass...

 Farm Panorama

 Chloe taking a needed rest

 Hen chicks are doing well

The smell is amazing!

More updates to come this week...

Soap currently available for sale..

Blue Swirl - very light scent

Patchouli-Lime

Fresh Slice - smells like Mimosa

Tea Tree Acne - works great!

Chai Tea

Calming Chamomile

 Allegria - sort of minty

Soaps are $4.00 each or 5 for $15.00 - all of these soaps are made with essential oils and herbs/clays for color so they are completely natural.  If you have any questions, send us an email!!

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Weekly Update

This week I have been busy making soap - on tap were Vanilla Pear, Country Gentleman, Herbal Green Tea, Hannah's Tulips, Summer Storm, Lavender Oatmeal, Hawaiian Coconut and Peach Magnolia Raspberry.  Here is a picture of Hannah's Tulips in the mold:

In addition, we were blessed with 8 free Shetland Sheep - 6 wethers and 2 ewes.  They will be sheared on June 25th and then we will hopefully be sending those out for processing into roving.

We suffered some meat chicken losses last week, but this week, all seems to be well.  The chicks are all growing and we plan to butcher the Freedom Rangers July 2nd.

We also swapped one of our Bourbon Red hens for two Bourbon Red toms - now our remaining Bourbon Red hens can reproduce!!  We had one mixed breed turkey poult (Royal Palm X Bourbon Red) hatch this week - its Mom is keeping it warm despite the still cool temperatures.

Part of the garden is planted - we see lettuce, radish, spinach, peas, beans and onions all sprouting and we had our first taste of fresh cilantro in our salsa today.  Our weather is supposed to warm up this coming week, so I hope to get the rest of the vegetable crops planted.

Gina, Nicki and Anthony will be at the Chewelah Farmers Market this Friday - they will continue to sell our goat milk soap and will also have our past season candles at half price - we will take the sales from the candles and process our Navajo-Churro and Shetland fleeces into roving for local spinners.

All the children and animals are doing well - we are all anticipating warmer weather and enjoying the lilacs and irises we are discovering on our property.

Have a great week everyone!!

Opening week at the Farmers Market

Gina and Nicki took our goat milk soap to the Chewelah Farmers Market yesterday.  They had fun meeting people and making some sales. 

We now have the following soaps available for sale:

Patchouli Lime
Lavender Oatmeal
Chai Tea
Coffee Mint
Calming Chamomile
Fresh Slice (my personal favorite)
Allegria (black swirl)
Blue Swirl (very light scent)
Tea tree acne (Nicki says this works great!!)

Soaps are $4.00 a piece or 5 for $15.00.  We have decided not to ship soap (well maybe we will for family members) so that we can encourage you to find a local soap maker and support them.

All of our "everyday use" goat milk soap's contain no synthetics - all are scented with essential oils and colored with herbs and clays.  We want to encourage folks to quit using detergents (ie grocery store soap) and switch to good soap!

Here are a few more pictures from the Farmers Market:

Today on the farm we are picking up 15 piglets, moving our boar in with our female Olive, building a weeks worth of cow grazing sections, fencing off the garden and planting potatoes.

Unfortunately we lost about 1/4 of our meat chickens currently out on pasture to owls and bad weather this past week so we will need to recover this over the next month or so. 

Hope your Saturday is fruitful!!

The Maus Family

First batch of freedom rangers, jerseys and horses

      Our first batch of freedom ranger broiler chicks arrived today.  We will be testing broiler varieties this year to see what works best for our farm.  After the growing season is done, I hope to publish the findings regarding the differences in Freedom Ranger broilers and Cornish roasters.               

Water!!

We were also very blessed to be able to purchase 7 Jersey cows (6 Heifers, 1 bull) for the price of about 1 and a half Jerseys in milk.  These heifers are yearlings and will help grow our hopefully raw milk dairy and will also be a "systems feeding systems" permaculture operation in that we plan to feed our pastured pork and chickens milk next year.

Finally, we bought a couple of rescue horses for very cheap.  This is the first time we have had horses and everyone loves them.  First off is Steve's horse Lady Clare:

Then we bought Gina's horse Marec:

Hopefully, we will have pretty foals in the future...

Lavender Oatmeal Soap

After a break for moving and various life experiences, we are back to making soap here on the farm.  Our first batch, Lavender Oatmeal, is in the mold.  I will pull it out tomorrow, cut it and then let it cure.  It will be ready for sale March 26th.  If you would like to reserve a bar, leave a comment below...:-)

Puppies Sold!!

All of the puppies from this litter are sold - will post when a new litter is available.  Keep watching for soap, essential oil candles, turkeys, pigs, chickens and eggs...

Feeding Dogs

While we are on the subject of selling puppies, I wanted to just post briefly about feeding dogs.  Dogs are carnivores - that means simply that God designed them to eat nothing but meat, bones and carcasses.  They are not omnivores,  needing to eat both meat and grains, but yet all dog food contains large amounts of grain, because its cheap and filling, not to mention other gross things depending on the quality of the dog food.  Disease rates among canines are increasing (just like in humans) - this is because we are not feeding them as God intended.

To keep your dog the healthiest (this is especially true for working dogs) feed them raw, meaty bones.  Eggs and milk are OK too but mainly raw, meaty bones.  We feed our dogs chicken legs, chicken thighs, pork necks and beef necks.  When we butcher animals on the farm, the dogs get the offal (organs, feet, etc...)  DON'T ever feed dogs cooked bones, they will splinter and choke the dog.  Your dog doesn't need great amounts either - we feed our large dogs one chicken leg or thigh in the morning and one pork or beef neck in the evening.  Their coats are shiny, they are full of energy and their manure is greatly reduced.

Now back to watching the puppies playing outside the window...:-)

Our Great Pyrenees

Autumn Creek Ranch Livestock Pyrenees

Here is Chloe, Our Breeding Female:

Iceberg, Our Breeding Papa

Frostbite, their 3 yr old baby

Our future breeding male, Claus

Our Female pup

                                           

Puppies For Sale

We currently have puppies for sale.  Here are some pictures...

Goats in winter

Our Saanen dairy goats enjoying their alfalfa and grass hay...