2024 is behind us!

I have been procrastinating writing my summary and goals post. I am not alone in gratitude that 2024 has come to an end. It was a year of struggle and tragedy both here and abroad and it was not an easy year for the ranch either. I have written and re-written this post because I have a difficult time articulating what the year was for us.

Early in the year we decided to take a break from really investing (spending) in the Ranch. Our finances were tight as my husband was tackling a major career change, my business was more demanding and less profitable in 2023 and sorely needed my attention, and frankly we were tired of husbandry and bottle feeding and milking and exhaustive gardening and all of the other demands alongside our day jobs.

Some of the highlights from 2024: 

January

We made some progress on the fire pit - filling it back in with stone. We introduced some chickens to our flock that were spending some time with a girlfriend who was new at chicken farming… we ended up with a handful more from her flock a couple of months later when she threw in the towel altogether. It wasn’t for her. It was very interesting to see the difference in these chickens from the ones we raised from chicks. They are still very timid and fearful of me a year later. 

February

I tackled a few home projects - the cat tree and stenciling the living room which both turned out awesome.  I launched our online store, but haven’t spent much time on it since, due to demand on our time in other areas. This will be a project for 2025.

March

Mom and I finished the ridiculously long project building our fire pit - adding road base bartered from the crew repaving our street. It really turned out nice in the end, but taught us a few things along the way about our soil and about not trying to dig by hand midsummer!

When we originally designed our coop, I artistically suspended some beautiful creep Myrtle branches haphazardly across the span of the space. It was very beautiful, but it turns out it wasn’t very efficient, as we didn’t have a whole lot of room on the perches and it caused them to poop on the walls and all over each other from time to time. Add to that the fact that chickens prefer a wider perch, and we decided to scratch the whole thing and string two by fours along the length of the space with the wide side up to give them plenty of room to rest their tired feet.

April

Created our chicken moat - for a long time I wanted to build a chicken tunnel between the coop and the garden, and then run it around the outside edge of the garden. When I had that vision, I didn’t anticipate how many chickens we would have at this point, and my chicken tunnel turned into a chicken boat as we have given over quite a lot of of the square footage of our garden to the chickens. Turns out Texas is not a great place to grow crops anyway, so this worked out on both ends. But in all seriousness, we still have four raised beds and our melon patch, which give us plenty. 

May

Our first Texas tornado (almost) didn’t do much damage other than smashing in the end of the chicken run. Luckily it didn’t destroy it in a way that we had to repair immediately, so we took our time and put it back to rights in a few months.

June

We (Dad) got a new tractor! This was truly the highlight of the year and it almost felt like after this, things in general started to head north. The tractor was a purchase made by my father, who is by far the man that all operations revolve around. It was definitely not in our list of possibilities in any time that we could foresee, and we are sublimely grateful for all that we have been able to do because of it.

July

Not much happened this month, Mom and Dad repaired the chicken run and the heat put a stop to most unnecessary farm activity. Manny moved back to California which was a really sad time for all of us, and we lost Maisie a few weeks later (we are sure the coyotes got brave without Manny here) which was also a terrible loss.

Business started improving for both David and myself mid year and we made some changes in both our business and personal realms that have started to bear fruit going into 2025! This became really important in October and you’ll see why further down.

August

The tractor has allowed us to start work on the drainage issues that we have all over the property. These issues are not a big deal if you are not farming or ranching, but it creates a big mucky, muddy, wet mess anywhere that animals are concerned, and as you know, water and animals do not make a good mix because this encourages the growth of bacteria and can make everybody sick.  Dad has installed drainage in front of and around both barns, created Swails, and has started to direct all the water coming from our neighbors lots out into the pasture where it won’t bother anyone!

September

We had some stone and crushed granite left over from other projects (drainage and fire pit) so we used it to put a new path from the chicken coop to the run where I have to go to feed and water. Makes for a much nicer commute, and I don’t have to scrape mud off my boots every time I feed the chickens!!  We also added 14 chicks to the flock.

Kyla’s birthday was in September and I nostalgically remember loving the spin art at my elementary school carnival back in Pennsylvania. My father being the handiest person I know, rose to the challenge of offering this at Kyla’s birthday party. He made not one but three spin art machines and it was a huge hit! We have since used them at private parties, the police department’s National Night Out, our town‘s annual Christmas tree lighting event, and a PTA dance coming up in February. It is so much fun to watch children create masterpieces, and see the joy in their eyes when we reveal the piece at the end. The best thing is that no matter what the age or level of artistic ability, 95% of them turn out genuinely cool. I’m dying to do an adult party. You can book one here!

October

Mom has been testing dozens of recipes and methods and perfecting her goat milk soap. It is amazing - and we use it every day - and ramping up sales is part of our 2025 plan. She has made a lot of soap and you can see it here… 

Design and budgeted for pool. This has been the most exciting (and stressful) part of my year, and really of our entire time in Texas so far, but since we won’t be able to enjoy it until Spring, the tractor still takes the top spot for 2024. A visit to San Antonio inspired me to stop at a pool showroom in New Braunfels. We’ve had our eye on a pool since we moved here and Ive pushed hard for this since then. I renewed our design and budget plan, crunched some numbers with my husband and we felt confident enough to take a ridiculously stupid loan and start construction in early November. We are beyond excited, as it will keep our kids entertained all summer, provide the background for some epic parties as well as enable us to extend our workday on the property. You can’t really survive a Texas summer without a swimming pool.

November: 

Moved the garden shed and built a deck for it. This one has been on the list since very early in the year, we wanted to move the garden shed so that we can create a permanent spot for our travel trailer. The area that currently holds our travel trailer will be available for those who want to come and stay with their own campers, and we will increase our parking area in anticipation for some things we’re planning next year. When I was designing and budgeting for the pool, I also figured that behind the garden shed would be a great place to conceal the pool pump. So thanks to Dad and his tractor and some help from the neighbor, we moved it and now it looks like we expanded the chicken and bunny fortress. It looks really cool and will be complete once we update the fencing around the bunnies to match the pool 😍

December

We got swept up in the holidays and pool construction, but I didn’t mention the goats or donkeys much here, and I don’t want to overlook the effort of my mom who feeds and waters them twice a day and takes them out to pasture every day. It is rewarding in the time spent with and the joy in watching the goats, but a year without babies or milk has definitely made it more work than reward and I bow to my mom for her love and care of those animals. She is out there rain or shine without complaint and is definitely eager for some babies and milk to reap the rewards of her efforts. 

We also added Willow and Waffles to our family. 

While 2024 was a pretty quiet year for the ranch, it was an intense year for us all and we grew individually and our relationships strengthened because of it. We are not different from others who shared similar financial and career struggles this year, but we are so grateful to have our family and friends close by, an amazing local community that supports us and our kids and the blessing of being able to maintain our lifestyle despite our financial struggles. I think I can speak for all of us at Salt Ranch when I say it was definitely a year to say thank you and good bye to, but not to overlook what we learned about ourselves, our limits, our strengths and our weaknesses. We leave behind a stronger appreciation for one another and a respect for the roles we all play here.

2025 look out - we are ready.