GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!

Link

It’s time for another GIVEAWAY!!!  Our friends over at Got You In Stitches Custom Embroidery would like to give away one of these beautiful hand towels to 1 of our fans custom designed especially for you!

towel

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s what you have to do to qualify!

1. You must be a fan/”like” BOTH Rose Shadow Ranch AND Got You In Stitches Custom Embroidery facebook pages.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rose-Shadow-Ranch/304828516241656

https://www.facebook.com/gotyouinstitches?fref=ts

2. You must “share” BOTH Rose Shadow Ranch and Got You In Stitches Custom Embroidery facebook pages with your friends, and be sure to tell them, to tell us, you sent them.

3.  Person who sends the most “new likes” to Got You In Stitches Custom Embroidery WINS!!!

Contest starts now and ends next Tuesday March 5th by 9:00pm EST.  Good Luck everyone!

 

 

Meat Birds

It is almost spring here on the ranch and you know what that means…..chick season!!  This is one of my favorite times of the year!  This year, on top of our usual hatchings, we will be raising for the first time ever, meat birds!  In our quest to live a more self sufficient lifestyle, raising meat birds was a no brainer.  We will be trying 2 breeds, Red Rangers and Plymouth Rocks.  My hope is that after this season, I will never have to buy chicks or meat bird hatching eggs ever again.  My plan is to keep 2 hens and 1 rooster from each breed to keep the cycle going.

MEAT BIRDS

 

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, we are busy working on yet another coop and run area for them.  For the most part they will be free ranging, but for those times when no one is home they need their own run area.  The coop is yet another recycled fruit/vegetable stand that a local grocery store gave me when they replaced them with new ones.  It measures 5 feet by 5 feet and 4 feet tall, perfect for a chicken coop after a few modifications!

COOP

We’ll keep you posted on our journey with meat birds.  Until then, Happy Hatching!

News On The Ranch

Hi Friends!

Nothing in particular to post about today, so I thought I’d catch you all up on what we’ve been up to lately.

First and foremost, we are farm shopping!  It’s time for us to move onto bigger and better, so we’ll be listing our current house in the very near future.  I’m really excited about this, but it will be bittersweet.  The house we own and currently live in, has been in my family since it was built in 1952.  3 generations have now been raised in this house.  I have so many memories here, I will be sad to see it go, but the reality is, it is just a house and the memories will live on in me forever.  Brings me to tears just typing this out to you, but in order for me to live out my dreams, this is what we have to do.  Holding back because of sentimental reasons will only result in regrets later in life.  I already have enough of those, I don’t want anymore!  I also don’t want to look back and say I never got to do what I always wanted to do with my life.  Pursuing your dreams, is where you’ll find happiness.

Homesteading

When we’re not shopping for a new farm, I am focusing on learning new homesteading skills in addition to the canning skills I learned back in the fall.  In the last month or so, we have not bought bread from the store, I have been making it using organic ingredients!  Now that a very close friend of mine has moved to an Amish community, I am able to get supplies from really great sources and at really good prices!  I have also taken to making our own butter!  I have been buying organic cream from the store, but with any luck, I will soon be getting it by the gallon from the Amish for a fraction of the cost of buying it in stores!  I’m so excited for this!  Maybe, just maybe, once we move, I’ll get a milk cow! I have been making our own laundry soap, body wash, dishwasher detergent and body lotion bars too!  We have also made the move to stop using so much paper towel.  This has been one of the most challenging for me, because I love the thought of throwing away the germs and not putting them in my washing machine! We also just bought a quarter beef from a USDA certified organic Amish farm!  Not only will my family be eating healthier, but I will be rendering the fat/suet from that to make my own oil! I am also going to be getting supplies this weekend to attempt making my own cheese! I am AMAZED at the amount of money we have already saved!

The Norwegian Buhunds

Our newest dog “Storm” continues to do well with us.  She and Cherokee are best buddies now and have so much fun playing “wolf wars.”  Cherokee is due to go in heat this spring and we plan on breeding her for the first time!  This will be very exciting!  If you’re interested in a puppy, get your reservations in now!

The Alpacas

Not really too much to report with them.  We have high hopes that “Buffy” is expecting again, but she has not been ultrasounded yet so we’ll keep you posted on that!

The Poultry

It’s been a cold winter this year, a far cry from the extremely mild winter we had last year.  with that said, I have had NO eggs from the Serama Bantams, I hope that changes when the weather warms up.  The rest of the ladies have been doing well with laying except our Easter Egger, who is around 9 months old and still has never laid an egg!  She’s definitely a hen so I’m not sure why this is happening.  My hope is she will start laying this spring.

That about sums it up folks.  Spring is right around the corner and gardening plans are under way, differently this year due to moving but still with produce nonetheless.  I hope you’ve enjoyed catching up with us!