Hair Sheep, Hens & Harvest: Early Autumn 2026

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

Welcome to the early autumn edition! This past season has been a busy one on the ranch. We officially kicked off sheep breeding season, welcomed a few more fluffy chicks to the flock, and finalized some important policy changes for next year’s sales. There’s a ton of harvests due to be ready as well as a few things needing to get planted for autumn harvests!
Enjoy,
Amy

Table of Contents:
~ The Barn: Sheep News
~ The Coop: Chicken Updates
~ The Garden: Blooms & Harvests
~ The Plan: Nature’s Garden Guide
~ 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!

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📋 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

⚠️ Important Spring 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 Garden: Blooms & Harvests

Shane’s harvest Aug 26th! Sadly a doe has discovered his garden and hopped the fence, eating his lettuce, carrot tops and the tops of some strawberry plants. He’s in the process of rearranging tubs to make it narrower and harder for her to jump into. Things are starting to wind down with a Aug 30th morning temp of 43 degrees!

The Plan: Nature’s Garden Guide

I switched to using phenology to plan my garden, so I created a practical planting guide to help you do the same! Instead of following a rigid calendar, phenology means watching local indicator plants to know exactly when the soil is ready for your crops and when it’s time to harvest.

What to look for:
– Pacific Crabapples, Blue/Black Elderberry are ripe or ripening. Might also see the Hawthorn berries turning orange, though they are a way off from being ripe!

Harvest immediately as they become ready:
– Cherry Tomatoes LAST CALL!
– Slicing Tomatoes LAST CALL!
– Eggplant LAST CALL!
– Peppers LAST CALL!
– Tomatillos LAST CALL!
NOTE: Nightshades – pinch flowers to let plants put energy into existing fruit. If rain is in the forecast, remember to cover your tomato plants or the fruit will split.
– Cucumbers/Summer Squash LAST CALL!
– Melons (look for that creamy yellow underbelly) LAST CALL!
– Evergreen Huckleberries LAST CALL!
– Italian Prunes LAST CALL!
– European Plums LAST CALL!
———————–
– Potatoes (look for green growth to die off, stop watering once growth turns yellow, harvest after a couple weeks. If heavy autumn rain is in the forecast, harvest them immediately instead of waiting a couple of weeks, or cover the bed to keep the soil completely dry so the tubers don’t rot in the ground.)
– Beets
– Swiss Chard (Keep harvesting! This summer staple will carry you right through the autumn transition.)
– Corn
– Pole Beans (Keep picking your pole beans every 2–3 days! Regular harvesting prevents the pods from getting tough and woody, while signaling the vine to keep pumping out new flowers for a continuous autumn yield.)
———————–
– Blue/Black Elderberries
– Figs
– Pawpaws
– Asian Pears
– European Pears
– Apples & Crabapples

Start Seed Outdoors for Fall Crops:
– Radish
– Mustard Greens
– Spinach
– Arugula
– Lettuce
– Cilantro
– Parsley
———————–
– Money Plant
– Primrose (shady location)
– Foxgloves
– Hollyhock
———————–
– Cover Crops like Crimson Clover, Winter Field Peas, or Hairy Vetch

If you grow any of your crops in containers or bucket gardens, expect your phenological timeline to move faster than what is happening in the ground. Because containers are exposed to the ambient summer air on all sides, their soil temperatures are significantly elevated compared to the earth. Whether it is root development, leafy green production, or warm-season fruiting, expect bucket-grown crops to hit their harvest triggers up to two weeks earlier than their in-ground counterparts!

Make sure you pay attention to what nature is doing, as the months listed are APPROXIMATE, especially with the crazy weather we’ve experienced this past winter! It may sometimes seem early to start some tasks, but trust that nature knows exactly what it’s doing! Just because I am here in Molalla, OR, doesn’t mean you can’t use the same phenology in your own yard! The concepts work anywhere, though the exact timing will shift—for example, higher elevations or colder regions may take longer for some plants to bloom or set fruit.

Ready to garden by nature’s clock?

Check out the Phenology Planting Guide

The Blog: Upcoming Editions

We’ll see you all again in mid-autumn for our next Hair Sheep, Hens & Harvest (formerly Hair Sheep & Chickens) blog post, where we will discuss how breeding season went and what to plant/harvest next!

We have a new kind of blog post coming out the 15th of each month called Home & Hearth! September 15th might have any of the following in it: folklore, recipes, remedies, cute kitties, dog antics or more!

The next series of Hedge & Hollow (formerly Gardens & Nature) blog posts will drop every Monday in September, as nature is always changing!

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! ~