FIVE H FARM

10/11/2026

🍂🐄 FALL HAS ARRIVED AT FIVE H FARM & RANCH — AND MAGGIE HAS A POINT TO MAKE! 🌾

What a difference a week makes!

After what seemed like an endless East Texas summer, we’ve finally been blessed with some truly beautiful fall weather. Highs in the mid-80s, mornings in the low 60s, and the kind of temperatures that make you want to spend the entire day outside.

We could still use some rain, but we’ll gladly take the cooler weather! 😎

🚜 FALL PROJECTS ARE IN FULL SWING!

Our major infrastructure effort continues between the chicken coops and the barn. We’re installing permanent drainage improvements using natural stone to create something resembling a dry creek bed.

The goal is to make the area both functional and beautiful. When the heavy rains return, the water will have somewhere to go other than wherever it pleases!

Stay tuned for next week’s before-and-after pictures! 📸

Fence repairs are underway too. I’ve learned that farm fencing is apparently a year-round subscription service. You never finish paying for it, and there’s always another renewal. 😂

🌱 With our first freeze anticipated around November 9, we’ll begin moving tender plants toward the greenhouse this week. It’s hard to believe we’re already preparing for winter after spending so much of the summer trying to keep everything from melting!

🐄 THE HIGHLANDS ARE LOVING LIFE!

Maggie, Lilibet, Isla, Skye, Charlotte and Aaran are growing, maturing and thoroughly enjoying the cooler weather.

We’re also beginning our search for a young Highland bull calf to add to the FHFR family. More on that adventure as it develops!

But Maggie provided this week’s most memorable lesson.

She spotted the possibility of some food, got excited, came running toward me and started swinging that beautiful horned head back and forth.

Unfortunately, my hands were in the neighborhood.

Maggie: 2. Joe: 0. 😂

A couple of punctures, thankfully nothing serious, but an excellent reminder that even the sweetest Highland cattle have very large, very sharp horns. They’re magnificent animals, but you must always respect their size and strength.

Maggie, of course, remains completely unapologetic.

🫏 THE GIRLS ARE HOME — AND WE MAY HAVE SOME VERY EXCITING NEWS! ❤️

After a very long stay at boyfriend camp, KC and Sunshine are finally back at Five H Farm & Ranch!

We’ve missed those long ears and wonderful personalities tremendously, and we’re thrilled to have them home.

And here’s the really exciting part…

Their breeder believes BOTH of our Jennies are in foal! 🫏❤️🫏

That’s right. We may have not one, but TWO miniature Mediterranean donkey babies joining the FHFR family in the future!

Nothing is officially confirmed just yet, but we’re certainly hopeful.

Apparently boyfriend camp may have been considerably more productive than anyone realized! 😂

We’re sharing pictures of KC and Sunshine’s homecoming TODAY! 📸

🐔🦆 Our hens and ducks are doing wonderfully. Egg production is progressing nicely, and the ducks continue their lifelong commitment to converting perfectly clean water into something that resembles swamp soup.

But we’ve had some other very special feathered visitors!

🦆 THE WOOD DUCKS HAVE RETURNED!

Our wintering wood ducks began arriving this week, with approximately 20 spotted on the pond earlier in the week. In the evenings, five beautiful males have been regularly gathering in the middle of the water.

It’s one of those wonderful seasonal traditions that makes living here so special.

🦌 The deer are doing beautifully too. Those little spotted fawns we’ve watched all summer have now lost their spots and are growing into young adults.

It seems like only yesterday they were tiny, wobbly-legged babies following their mothers through the property.

Nature certainly doesn’t wait for us to catch up.

As another week comes to a close, we’re reminded how fortunate we are to experience the changing seasons here at Five H Farm & Ranch.

The animals are thriving. The Jennies are home—with the exciting possibility of two future additions! Our winter visitors are returning. The projects continue.

And Maggie has graciously reminded me to keep my hands out of the horn department. 😂

Next week: Hopefully, the finished stone drainage project and some before-and-after pictures!

We always enjoy hearing from you, so keep those questions coming. What’s your favorite part of the fall season?

Hope all is well with you and yours. May this fall bring cooler days, wonderful memories and many blessings to each of you.

Have a wonderful week!

God Bless. 🙏

— Joe

10/04/2026

🌧️🍂 THE SEASONS ARE SHIFTING AT FIVE H FARM & RANCH! 🌾

Friends, I hesitate to announce this too loudly because Texas weather has a sense of humor…

But I think summer may finally be losing its grip! 😎

Over the last week, we’ve seen a measurable change. Mornings have been dropping into the low-to-mid 60s, daytime highs are settling into the low 90s, and then something happened that we almost didn’t recognize:

IT STARTED RAINING. 🌧️

Not a 20-minute shower. Not six drops followed by three hours of humidity.

Three days of steady rain.

After the incredibly hot and dry summer we’ve experienced, it is difficult to overstate what a blessing this is. Our pastures, trees, gardens and the entire East Texas region desperately needed it.

We’re incredibly thankful. 🙏

🐄 The Highlands have apparently decided this change in weather was ordered specifically for them.

Maggie, Lilibet, Isla, Skye, Charlotte and Aaran are clearly enjoying the cooler temperatures. The pasture is getting a little sloppy and the girls are getting a little muddy—but after months of 100-degree temperatures, nobody at FHFR is going to complain about mud.

Well… ask me again after several weeks of it. 😂

🫏 THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!

We’re only about a week and a half away from bringing KC and Sunshine home from their very extended stay at boyfriend camp!

Those two Jennies have been gone a LONG time, and we’re more than ready to have their long ears and personalities back at the ranch.

Hopefully boyfriend camp accomplished its intended purpose.

We’ll let nature provide that update later. 😂

🐔 Meanwhile, the FHFR Egg Department is booming.

Our young hens are now out-laying the veteran girls by a considerable margin! Apparently the new generation arrived ready to work.

And then there’s our rooster.

He’s grown into quite a specimen—almost twice the size of some of the hens—and every morning as the sun comes up, he proudly announces to approximately all of East Texas that another day has begun.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

His enthusiasm substantially exceeds his musical ability. 😂

I’m still not sure what our mature hens think about suddenly having this enormous fellow providing an unsolicited wake-up service every morning.

🦆 The ducks are doing great as well. Three days of rain means the entire ranch is basically becoming one enormous duck playground.

For once, they’re probably wondering why we’re making such a mess with all the water.

🐶 The pups are doing wonderfully. Winter continues assimilating into the pack.

Progress is being made.

Perhaps not quite at the speed management would prefer…

but we’re calling it progress. 😂

🚜 We’re also continuing our fall infrastructure work around the ranch. The improvements planned around the barn and chicken coops were delayed last week, but we’re expecting that work to get underway this week.

We’ll be improving drainage and high-traffic areas and generally getting everything better prepared for the wetter fall and winter months ahead.

And here’s your reason to come back next Sunday:

📸 We’ll share some BEFORE & AFTER pictures of the work!

That’s the rhythm of farm life.

One season ends. Another begins.

The heat gives way to cooler mornings. Dust becomes mud. Young hens start laying. Donkeys come home. Projects get finished—and approximately twelve new ones mysteriously appear. 😂

After the summer we’ve had, though, we’re simply going to enjoy the rain.

Three glorious days of it.

Hope everything is wonderful with you and yours. Thank you for continuing to follow along with this little adventure we call Five H Farm & Ranch.

Have a wonderful week, and we’ll see you next Sunday!

God Bless. 🙏

— Joe

09/26/2026

🍂🥚 62 DEGREES, TINY EGGS & TWO DUCK EGGS — A GREAT WEEK AT FIVE H FARM & RANCH! 🌾

Well, friends, I have some extraordinary news from East Texas.

Friday morning it was 62 degrees.

SIXTY-TWO! 😎

After the summer we’ve had, I walked outside and briefly wondered if we’d been relocated to another state overnight. The high only reached the upper 80s, and it was absolutely beautiful.

The Highlands agreed. 🐄

Maggie, Lilibet, Isla, Skye, Charlotte and Aaran were clearly enjoying life without feeling like they were wearing Scottish winter coats inside a convection oven. 😂 Everyone is healthy, the little girls have settled nicely into the herd, and cooler weather is obviously very welcome.

Unfortunately, one thing remains missing:

RAIN.

We continue to be incredibly dry, so irrigation and water management have become part of the daily routine. Water the trees. Water the plants. Check the troughs. Repeat. Then look hopefully at a cloud that has absolutely no intention of helping.

🌾 Fall preparations are in full swing. We’ve been working hard to get the barn ready for fall and winter, and the shop is next.

We’re also planning significant hardscape improvements around the barn, chicken coops and duck area—lots of decomposed granite and a new dry rock drainage bed that will give water somewhere to go when rain finally remembers that East Texas exists.

And apparently this was the week that the FHFR Egg Department officially opened for business! 🥚🎉

🐔 THE YOUNG HENS HAVE STARTED LAYING!

If you’ve never seen a young hen’s first eggs, they’re hilarious. Imagine a normal grocery-store egg, then hit the shrink button until it’s about one-third the size.

Apparently the egg-production department begins with prototypes. 😂

But then Saturday morning brought another surprise…

🦆🥚🥚 OUR FIRST DUCK EGGS — TWO OF THEM!

That’s right. Not one.

TWO!

After months of feeding them, watering them, cleaning up after them, refilling their pool, watching them immediately dirty the water we just replaced and generally accepting that ducks operate according to their own set of rules…

THE DUCKS HAVE STARTED PAYING RENT. 😂

Two eggs may not completely offset the water bill, but it’s a start!

The ducks otherwise remain completely unchanged. They drink enormous quantities of perfectly clean water, make an unbelievable mess and then p**p in their own pond.

We’ve explained the concept of sanitation.

They remain unconvinced.

🫏 KC and Sunshine will finally be coming home from boyfriend camp at the end of the first week of October. They’ve been gone a long time, and we’re really looking forward to having those two girls—and those long ears—back at FHFR.

🐶 The pups are doing magnificently. Everyone continues learning to mind their manners a little better every day.

And by “everyone,” I may primarily mean Winter. 😂

All in all, it was a really good week.

The animals are healthy. The young hens are laying. The ducks are officially contributing to the household. The ranch is getting prepared for fall and winter. The Jennies will soon be home. And for at least one glorious morning, 62 degrees reminded us why we survived August.

Now if someone could arrange about two inches of slow, steady rain, we’d really appreciate it. 🌧️🙏

We received a bunch of questions again this past week, and I always enjoy them. If there’s something about the animals, ranch, projects or life at FHFR you’ve been wondering about, ask away!

Hope each and every one of you had a wonderful week.

Have a great day, and we’ll see you next week.

God Bless. 🙏

— Joe

09/20/2026

09/19/2026

🍂 HOPE IS IN THE FORECAST AT FIVE H FARM & RANCH! 🌾

I hesitate to say this too loudly for fear that Texas will hear me…

COOLER WEATHER MAY ACTUALLY BE COMING. 😎

After what feels like approximately 147 consecutive days on the surface of the sun, we finally enjoyed some relief this week. Temperatures dropped from 100+ into the mid-90s, and the forecast is showing highs in the 80s by the end of this coming week.

The 80s!

At this point, we may need jackets. 😂

🐄 Nobody is more excited than the Highlands. Maggie, Lilibet, Isla, Skye, Charlotte and Aaran have weathered an absolutely brutal East Texas summer while wearing permanent Scottish fur coats.

Everyone has handled it remarkably well, but I’m fairly certain the girls would personally contribute to the electric bill if we’d air-condition the pasture.

🌾 Unfortunately, the heat and drought have ended our hopes for a third hay cutting. There simply hasn’t been enough rain or grass growth to justify it. The equipment will stay parked, the fields will get some much-needed rest, and we’ll look toward the first cutting of 2027.

Now the ranch is beginning its transition toward fall and winter.

We’re preparing the greenhouse for tender plants that won’t survive a freeze, cleaning and organizing around the property, and working on hardscape around the barn and chicken coops to improve drainage and make those high-traffic areas more usable during wet weather.

After spending months praying for rain, we’re now preparing for mud.

Farm logic. 😂

🫏 We also have GREAT news from boyfriend camp!

KC and Sunshine are coming home!

Our two Jennies are scheduled to return at the end of the first week of October. They’ve been gone a long time, and we cannot wait to see those long ears back at FHFR.

🐔 Remember our “little hens”?

They’re not little anymore.

And the rooster? He’s approximately twice the size of some of the girls and has recently discovered his life’s calling.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Every morning shortly after first light, he’s practicing.

Enthusiastically.

Repeatedly.

Whether he’s actually good at it remains open for debate. 😂

The funniest part may be our mature hens across the way. They’ve never lived around a rooster, so I can only imagine their morning conversations:

“What in the world is THAT?”

🐶 The pups are all doing great. Winter continues settling into the family, routines are becoming routines again, and the pack is finding its rhythm.

🏡 We’re also continuing the seemingly eternal process of getting the farmhouse completely settled.

You would think that after a couple of years every box would be unpacked.

You would be wrong.

After more than 30 moves, I’ve learned that certain boxes apparently achieve permanent residency. You stop unpacking them and simply begin passing them down through generations. 😂

All kidding aside, this is one of my favorite times of year at FHFR.

Summer is slowly loosening its grip. The ranch is preparing for another season. The Jennies are coming home. The animals are doing well. And there is a long list of fall projects waiting for us.

There always is.

As we enter this new season, I hope all is well with you and yours.

And keep the questions coming! We still receive them every week, and we genuinely enjoy hearing from you.

Have a wonderful week.

God Bless. 🙏

— Joe

09/14/2026

09/13/2026

09/13/2026