Livestock Edition: September 2026

Pictured: Mean mama hen with some of her chicks in the orchard Sunday, August 30th.

Welcome to the September edition! This past month has been a busy one on the ranch. We officially kicked off breeding season, welcomed a few more fluffy chicks to the flock, and finalized some important policy changes for next year’s sales. Pull up a chair and dive into all the ranch updates below!
Enjoy,
Amy
Table of Contents:
~ The Barn: Sheep News
~ The Market: Pricing & Wait List
~ The Coop: Chicken Updates
~ The House: Kitties are Silly
~ The Holidays: Ranch Decor
~ The Funnies: Ranch Humor
~ The Blog: Upcoming Editions

The Barn: Sheep News

We had to make an emergency adjustment within the very first 24 hours of breeding season! When you try using young ram lambs to breed ewes that aren’t quite in season yet, things can get rough. The ewes will beat the crap out of the young guy because they just see him as an annoying lamb, not a respectable adult ram.

Because of this, Duke and Akoyo were pulled safely into the barn before any breeding could happen. Here is how the new breeding groups look now:

  • St. Croix Group: Registered St. Croix ewe, Kin, was paired up with Registered St. Croix ram, Sparks.
  • Katahdin Group: Recorded Katahdin ewes Rusty, Nymph, and Ibis, alongside Registered Katahdin ewes Rowan and Serena, went back out with Registered Katahdin ram, Archie.

Since the Katahdin ewes that left Duke are all Archie’s daughters, this means one intentional round of linebreeding. It will be perfectly fine, though I won’t be keeping any of the offspring for my own flock. Instead, this means some fantastic potential Registered or Premium Commercial Recorded Katahdin breeding stock will be available for my customers!

Pasture views of our Registered/Recorded Katahdin flock (top) and our Registered St. Croix flock (bottom) getting settled into their breeding groups this August.

Other than breeding season plugging right along and our regular pasture rotations, things are fairly quiet around the barn! Due to the dry weather, we have started feeding out a bit of hay. They only get it every few days—even though they beg dramatically for it! Truth be told, there is still plenty of ‘hay on the stem’ out in the pastures and brush to forage in the woods. They just want to be lazy!


The Market: Pricing & Wait List

📋 Reserve Your Stock for Next Season!

Breeding stock goes quickly. Tap the links below to view pricing or secure your spot:

👉[Click Here for Our Hair Sheep Price List] (Prices subject to change)
👉[Click Here to Join Our Waiting List]

Available Categories Include:

  • Registered Stock: St. Croix & Katahdin
  • Commercial Breeding Stock: St. Croix & Crossbred High-Percentage Katahdin
  • Market Stock: St. Croix & Katahdin Feeder Lambs

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⚠️ Important 2027 Meat Lamb Policy Updates

If you are planning to purchase meat lambs this coming spring, please take note of our updated timeline and pick-up changes:

  • Spring 2027 Timeline: Weaning is scheduled for early April 2027, and meat lamb pick-ups will begin approximately one week later. Please plan ahead for a spring pickup!
  • First-Come, First-Served: To avoid pasture logistics issues from late-summer pickups, we are moving to a strict first-come, first-served basis for meat lambs. We will contact everyone in order of the waitlist, but you must arrange for prompt pickup. Delayed pickups mean we cannot guarantee specific breed choices, as our Katahdin meat lambs typically sell much faster than our St. Croix lambs.
  • No Meat Lamb Deposits: We will no longer accept deposits to hold meat lambs. Moving forward, deposit holds are strictly reserved for premium registered breeding stock.

The Coop: Chicken Updates

We have even more chicks on the ranch! We had a determined hen setting on a clutch of eggs right in the middle of my alfalfa hay pile—a spot I walked past every single day. We decided to let her sit, and she successfully hatched out 7 healthy chicks!

When Shane tried to move her and her new babies safely up to the coop, boy, did she tear him a new one! Haha. She is a fantastic, fiercely protective MEAN mama.

Here’s a photo of ‘Granite’, a gorgeous pullet who hatched out earlier this spring from our very first round of chicks. The only other chick from that original pair to make it is named ‘Rusty’, who turned out to be a little roo! Granite is growing into such a pretty girl.

Some chick pics:


The House: Kitties are Silly

Our sweet Sabina ‘Bean’ Burrito has been keeping us constantly entertained lately! First, she sat on mom’s dresser for a full minute completely frozen with her tongue sticking out (left). Later, out in the barnyard, something minor spooked her—she went into full ‘silly mode’ running around with a hilariously HUGE, puffed-up tail (center).

To top off her busy month, Shane captured this truly beautiful shot of her looking elegant while watching the birds from the safety of the front porch (below).


The Holidays: Ranch Decor

Tractor Supply has the absolute best ranch-related Halloween decorations! Even though I didn’t plan on spending tons of money on seasonal decor this year, I absolutely couldn’t resist this little mummy ewe. She was just too perfect for our flock!


The Funnies: Ranch Humor


The Blog: Upcoming Editions

We’ll see you all again on October 1st for our next Livestock Edition, where we will discuss how breeding season went!

Hope you enjoyed the Gardens & Nature posts that I’ve been doing separately from the Livestock Edition!

The next series of Gardens & Nature blog posts will drop every Monday in September, as the world is still alive with garden harvests and woods walks!

Here are the links to the August ones in case you’ve missed them:

As always, I deeply appreciate every like, follow, and subscribe. You can find our Social Media links below!

~ Thank You! ~

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