This Week on the Ranch - February 6, 2026
It has been a while since I’ve written here. I think it will become more regular, though. I’m trying to find a good rhythm between home, homeschooling, and work. It often feels like there’s never enough time—or just when I think I have a schedule figured out, something happens to throw it all off. That’s just life, so I’ll keep doing my best to get as much done as I can each day.
I thought I’d try making this a weekly column with updates on what we’ve been doing around the farm and at home. It will be published on Fridays. So here we go—a long-overdue update.
Sheep
The rams were put in with the ewes on Thanksgiving weekend, which is our usual timing. I prefer to lamb a little later in the spring, when the weather is (hopefully!) warmer. Lambs seem to thrive better when we stay in sync with Mother Nature.
We ended up with only two breeding groups this year. Corduroy and Batman each had a nice group of ewes. Sadly, our favorite ram, Pig, died in a freak accident just a week before breeding season. He was the first ram we raised and retained from our flock, and his wool was absolutely beautiful. Knowing we won’t get any more yarn from him is hard—but thankfully, we have several of his offspring in the flock that look just as promising.
Batman is a Bluefaced Leicester ram, and I’m anxious to see what his lambs look like crossed on some of our Finnsheep ewes. Producing high-quality wool yarn is a slow process—it will be nearly two years before we see yarn or roving from his offspring. Don’t worry, though. We’ll still have plenty of purebred Finnsheep lambs this year from Corduroy and his girls.
We’re expecting lambing to start around April 20th.
Goats
The goats will be kidding around March 16th. We decided to downsize the herd this year since Colton wants to focus more on his Guernsey cow herd. As a result, we only bred four does. That will still provide plenty of milk for our goat milk soaps and lotions, as well as any bottle lambs we may have this spring.
Cattle
Buttercup, our Guernsey cow, calved at the end of November. Unfortunately, she lost her calf. We were able to find a Shorthorn bull calf to try grafting onto her, but she never accepted him as her own. He is enjoying two gallons of her milk every day—just in bottles. We named him Bugs because of his very prominent eyes.
Buttercup is giving us 4–4.5 gallons of milk every morning, which means I’ve been making a lot of butter lately.
In October, we traveled to Nebraska to pick up another Guernsey heifer. Colton named her Daisy, and she is just the sweetest. She’s due to calve in May.
Fiber Flurry
The 4th annual Fiber Flurry was held in November. I’m always nervous leading up to it, but it went well. I’ve already started planning for this year’s event. If you love fiber, mark your calendar for November 7th.
Snow
We received several inches of snow and below-zero temperatures a couple of weeks ago. While it’s beautiful to look at, snow makes chores much harder. I was very happy to see warmer temperatures this week.
The cold never seems to bother the livestock as long as they’re healthy. They all have shelter from the wind and are far better designed to handle winter weather than we are.
Homeschool
It took a bit, but we’ve finally found our routine this semester. One thing the kids and I are really enjoying is our weekly documentary. After watching, each child shares two or three things they found interesting or learned.
Each week, someone new chooses the documentary. This week it’s my turn, and I’m looking forward to scrolling through options and picking something we can all enjoy together.
This has probably gotten long enough, so I’ll wrap it up for this week. I’ll end by sharing five things we’re currently enjoying:
This vacuum. I bought it on Black Friday, and we’ve used it almost daily since it arrived. Kinzie especially loves doing quick cleanups around the house.
This book. I just finished rereading it for the high school classic literature class I teach at our homeschool co-op. I had forgotten how much I liked it.
Our Xcelerate drink. It keeps Lance and me going each day with clean energy and focus. We’d be far less productive without it. If you are interested in it, let me know. I would be happy to visit with you about it!
Wool blankets. I stumbled across two wool blankets recently at great prices—one is even a Pendleton. They’re currently hanging on the clothesline airing out. Great deals sometimes come with a musty smell.
Needle-felted hearts. I needle-felted a bunch of hearts using our Finnsheep wool roving dyed in shades of red and pink. They’re perfect for a garland above my kitchen window and for adding to my wool wreath.
Have a great weekend! As always, thank you for being here and supporting our ranch. Enjoy a few photos from around the ranch this winter.
Jada
