8/8/2026
Hello everyone,
It’s been really busy here and just didn’t have time to get the June newsletter out so this will be for both June and July.
June has been a busy month getting the garden planted and getting some new ducks. No mishaps this month and our goat family is doing well. The kids have been getting trained on electric rope fencing as I started setting up pastures again to move the goats around for weed control near the house area. Every year we have some thistle that comes back but not near as bad as the year before now that the goats get to eat the plants down to nothing. They really like thistle. We also have Mullen, teasel, burdock and a few other plants that most animals leave alone but that the goats love to chow down on. I always know how well my goats are eating after doing daily stall cleanup. Today I scooped up enough manure to fill two 5-gallon buckets worth. It’s great stuff for the garden. High in nitrogen but not hot like chicken manure and no weed seed. The goats four stomachs do a fantastic job of breaking plant matter down. I wish more people would take me up on my offer of goat manure. Who needs rabbit manure when goat manure is just as high in nitrogen and not hot.
We did another round of tattooing. We sure have had trouble getting the tattoos to read well. The kids have been easier than the adults. I suspect it is due to their ears being softer and more pliable in accepting the letter piercings. We are attempting to tattoo the adults’ tails now since it just isn’t readable in the ears and the mommas do not like their ears played with. Hopefully soon we can get this done and over with so we can finally register the three Does we want to register. One of our Does we plan to sell this fall so haven’t gone through the tattooing process with her. She is a fantastic milker, good personality, has healthy big bucklings but her udder is lopsided. I don’t know if that is genetic or due to former owners not taking good care of her when she had her first kid that died. We were told she had gotten really sick after her breeched kid died. I don’t know if she got mastitis or something else but her udder has always felt different when milking compared to the other Does and is very lopsided. We want to build a good quality herd so hopefully we can find her a good home. I’ve had mixed feelings about selling her because she does produce a lot of milk and has really great kids with friendly personalities. She’s a wonderful mom too. So, if I can’t get what I hope to ask for her than I may keep her for another year. I’d sort of like to get a doeling from her to see if her doeling would prove to be as good of a milker but have a more balanced udder. So far, her record has been single bucklings in all three kiddings.
We were given six Silver Appleyard duck hens and one Silver Appleyard drake the end of June. They are much larger than our Khaki Campbell ducks and lay very large eggs. They are a beautiful duck. If these ducks prove to be good layers, we may sell the Khaki Campbell ducks. We will give them time to settle in and see how we like them.
Summer is in full swing and warming up fast. Mark continues to work in Pollock, Idaho at Nightforce Ranch and is enduring 80-to-100-degree weather. This is his first summer in Idaho and is having to adjust to the hotter temperatures compared to Alaska summers. I don’t like working in that kind of heat either but we both guzzle lots of water and wear hats. We both have developed nice farmers tans.
July has been hot and mostly dry. We have had a few days of rain which has been a huge blessing. We are so grateful to have a good well system to water all of our garden, orchard and flower bed plants. The garden is finally starting to look like something and I finally finished the first round of weeding. Even with the weed fabric there are always weeds that pop up where the vegetables are growing. The corn especially had a lot of weeds in particular thistle. There is no weed fabric between the corn rows. My buck and wether helped with the thistle. Once I pulled the thistle, I threw it over the fence where I have the boys pastured and they just loved munching it down. The boys have been very spoiled this summer with about an acre to browse. There’s lots of hawthorn, grasses and much more. There is enough to keep them fat and sassy all summer long. They have grown so much in the last six months and have sleek, shiny and soft coats.
The girls and kids are enjoying rotational pastures. The bucklings in particular are almost as tall as their moms now. They sure grow up fast. We’ve been weaning them off of milk by separating the kids at night from their moms. The bucklings have one more month to be with the girls and then they will have to be separated permanently. By September there is a chance for the girls to go back into heat as the days start to cool and the bucklings will be old enough to potentially service them. We hope by then we will be ready to sell two of our bucklings and one doeling.
I did get to do one fun activity late July. Mark took me down to the Nightforce Ranch he works at and showed me around. The ranch has 2,600 acres with three small orchards, an alfalfa plot, airstrip and lots of high steep hills. I really enjoyed viewing the orchards. There are a total of 28 fruit trees with cherry, apricot, plum and apple of varies varieties. Mark has even been allowed to bring home some of the fruit so that’s been a nice perk for working there. He took me on a side-by-side four-wheeler drive through the property on a narrow steep four-wheeler road that if you were afraid of heights likely would not want to do. He explained all the shooting sights that the shooting school does on the property. It was really fun and a great way to spend a relaxing day. I got to try some of the ripening plums and thornless blackberries in the orchards and he showed me a patch of grapes he’d like to cut starts from in the spring to try on our property. Mark says he enjoys working there and enjoys working with Steve who is the property maintenance supervisor.
There have been a few days when the shooting school is shooting on the property that Mark stays home and we have been busy with projects like wood stacking and splitting. We have acquired so much wood now for several winters worth and there’s still more to split. We have a very nice 5hp log splitter that makes it easier than hand splitting. Hopefully soon that project will be done for this year and we can start working on field fencing our pasture area. As our herd grows it will become even more work for me if I have to set up more rotational temporary pastures so it would be nice to have our 19-acre field fenced. This is also the pasture where we have boarded horses during the summer.
We are starting to harvest some of our produce. The Rainier cherries were picked and I sold several bags worth and mom made Rainier cherry syrup. The cherry syrup is really good as a flavor for soda stream. I recently picked our first cucumbers and we’ve had a couple cherry tomatoes ripen. Our produce always comes on slower than most in this area because of our higher elevation. My customers are always asking me in June when I’ll have this that and the other. I do fortunately have a friend who lives down by the river that provides me with some of their produce earlier to sell so that really helps kick start my produce sales. He also has bees and this year was able to provide me with honey to sell. That has been very popular. I’m told that those with pollen allergies who eat local honey won’t have as many allergies to contend with. These bees get a lot of their nectar from the star thistle plants which makes the honey and very clear light golden brown and is very tasty. His honey is very popular and has even gone as far as the United Kingdom.
I hope this find everyone well and enjoying the summer. We are already half way through.
Many Blessings,
Joey