Farewell 2023
2023 was an intense year for many, and the residents of Salt Ranch are no exception. As is tradition in our other business, I wanted to sum up the year with our accomplishments and some of our struggles. Like many last year, finances were pretty tight and we had to make do with less than we are used to.
January
January brought us a litter of baby satin rabbits, and we upped our game with our rabbitry this year by showing a few of them and increasing our exposure by working with our local FFA. We bred three of our (goat) does in anticipation of a spring full of kids.
February
Mom and Dad constructed two additional new goat shelters. We knew come spring we would have a lot of separating and wrangling to do with three does expecting at different times and our buck awfully randy. Bottle feeding and milking is not an easy undertaking.
March
March was spent building an extension on our garden - four large raised beds and a few trellises enabled us to plant quite a crop for the spring - unfortunately the amount of prep involved meant we planted a few weeks later than was ideal, so our yield wasn’t what we had hoped. It was a lot of work… for the next planting season it turned out.
April
In April I added 15 new peeps to our flock, making a total of two dozen chickens allowing us to sell some eggs to cover our cost on the feed. We also spent some time inside the house, Dad installed an exhaust system and I began the design for a new hood for our kitchen, which makes a HUGE difference when frying up chicken for schnitzel! The kids started taking horseback riding lessons - inspired to ride by our resident six horses and I started taking shop lessons with Dad so I can learn how to use all of this amazing equipment in the wood shop.
May
May is always a busy month with the bursting of spring. This year spring came with an extension of the chicken coop - it was starting to get crowded in there with all of those hens! Much to our dismay we discovered that one our our pullets is a rooster. Thankfully we have been blessed with a pretty cool dude, he is friendly and chill and we decided to keep him around. Dad fabricated the most amazing hood for our stovetop. We repurposed some of the surplus 30 year old flooring I discovered in a closet. We also lost a baby bunny to a snake, which was shocking and sad.
Also in May, thanks to Aunt Becky, we pick up about a ton of Granbury stone and hauled it back to the ranch. We have found it quite useful in laying some paths around the coop and house deck. Not a job for the weak - it was a lot of lifting and digging for three little women. At the end of May we were blessed with twins from our doe Jager, which we listed for sale and then decided to keep. They were just too darn cute. Jager has given us a bounty of milk.
June
June brought us the start of a very hot summer and the painting of our kitchen, new doors fabricated for our sheds, the birth of Bailey to our doe Khali, horsebackriding camp and long days of giving ice to the rabbits, keeping the chickens shaded and with plenty of air circulation. It was a difficult month and we did lose one rabbit to the heat. We also planted the squash garden for pumpkins in the fall.
July
By July it was so hot that our garden mostly stopped producing, which was quite deflating, but it is also when the cutest kids we have ever laid eyes on were born to our doe Brandi. It was at this time that we decided to transition our herd to a registered herd.
Everyone except Jager and our wether went up for sale which was difficult. We found great homes for everyone and we know they are thriving - and we are glad to have only one doe to milk. We had another (unexpected) litter of bunnies and did some improvements to our rabbit run. This was also the month when we added Annie - our first registered doeling - to the herd. She is just precious and still our favorite doe to date.
August
August heat was almost unbearable and we could only work outside about an hour a day in the morning. The stone we picked up in May and an acquisition of a steel cable reel inspired us to start digging for a new fire pit - which has turned out to be the longest project we have embarked upon to date. We spent most of this month digging a 16 foot diameter base for our fire pit. It was very slow progress. We acquired Lilly, our second registered doeling. I decided it would be a great idea to add a kitten to the mix, so Maisie joined the compound, and the (human) kids started back to school.
September
September was consumed by bottle feeding a lot of goats, more milking, kids sports, cheer coaching, PTA and some time in the shop with Dad which produced a new loft bed configuration and room makeover for my daughter. I also made my first cutting board in the shop - it was WAY harder than I thought it would be. This was also the month we had some issues with our septic, but thankfully they were minor and remedied quickly.
October
October was intense! The rabbits were shown at the Dallas fair, Lilly got bitten by a copperhead, and we lost one of our goat kids (Fern) to a tragic accident in the pen. Those last two I prefer not to revisit here. We also started production for our first vendor event here in Sunnyvale called Sip and Shop. We put together a supply of goat milk soap, beautiful wooden ornaments, candles and room sprays and other woodworks, and my daughter launched her Slime Factory. This was also the month my husband decided to switch careers after a difficult year and a tough internal struggle on leaving marketing. I am grateful and excited for this change.
November
November was the vendor event, at which my daughter (age 8) out-sold all of the rest of us with her slime. Mom harvested and shelled about 40 pounds of pecans from our trees which yielded for the first time in three years.
One of those trees lost a huge branch (which I was waiting for in a way,) and I began work on a glorious cat tree which is still in process and will deserve a post all its own.
December
December was quiet on the ranch as we prepared for holidays. Chores continued as always, but we embarked on no projects aside from boxing up gifts for friends and neighbors and spending quality family time to wrap up the year.
It is amazing how fast a year flies and how this summary doesn’t even begin to touch on the amount of work it takes to maintain a property like ours with such a small amount of manpower. I am grateful every day for my husband who whole heartedly supports my dedication to this compound, to my parents, Barb and Steve, who are my partners in executing and maintaining the visions I have (many of which earn me a lot of eye rolls) and to the friends and family who support us by reading our posts, consuming what we produce and contributing to our crazy. I am also incredibly thankful for my kids, who inspire it all. We welcome a new year of adventure and can’t wait to see how we all grow in 2024.
Farewell 2023!!!
