Solace Farm

06/16/2026

Ask me how it’s going drying up Maisie and Myrlee. 😳

Maisie’s last kidding was in March of 2025. We have tried several times to dry her up, to no avail. I just want her body to rest, but she just keeps producing. She has been “in milk” for 14 months, and is still going strong.

Myrlee just had her 3 babies on March 30th, one of which did not survive and two of which she rejected after they were lost in an armadillo burrow for 36 +/- hours. I’ve been wanting to dry her up because she doesn’t have the best udder and teat structure, and I don’t to over-tax them. She doesn’t want to dry up either!

We lost two does to mastitis last year. Mastitis is no joke, and it takes them quickly, so I am so afraid to let them go too long without milking. We have tried staggering milking, milking out only partially, delaying a couple of days between milking, etc. They just keeping bagging up! So here we are.

06/14/2026

Well, maybe the goats, donkeys, and dogs can get clean water from the emus’ pool.

06/14/2026

Everybody on the farm is affected by the 108-degree “real feel” temp. The livestock guardian dogs dig into the cooler soil and lounge in the shade as much as possible. Sometimes they don’t even come for feeding time.

06/14/2026

Everyone failed the assignment.

06/13/2026

When friends’ kids are done with their backyard playhouse, we put it to good use! We have an adorable new goat house!

06/10/2026

I have struggled with this and come around fairly late in life, but “better late than never”, right?

You could never kill an animal you raised… Is the most ironic statement.

But did you know, there is a strange kind of disconnect in judging the hands that raise their own food while trusting a drive-thru window to feed your children something you never saw live,
never saw raised, never saw processed,
never asked questions about.

You could never butcher a chicken, but you will hand your child nuggets shaped by machines, seasoned for addiction,
wrapped in paper, and call it normal.

You could never eat from your own pasture, but you will eat from a box,
a bag, a fryer, a factory line, and never wonder what had to happen before it reached your plate.

You could never stomach the blood,
but you trust the label.

You could never face the life, but you consume the death.

You could never raise it, love it, feed it,
thank God for it, and use it with reverence.

But every morning, you rub chemicals beneath your arms, spray fragrance over your skin, swallow ingredients you can not pronounce, and call the farmer cruel.

Maybe the cruelty is not in knowing where your food comes from.

Maybe the cruelty is in forgetting.
For the farmer remembers.

The farmer sees the life.
The farmer carries the weight.
The farmer gives thanks.
The farmer wastes little.

And while the world grows farther from the soil, the barn, the blood, and the truth…

Some of us still believe food should come with gratitude, not ignorance.

Thank God for the Farmer and all the Homesteaders pulling up chairs at this Grand Table of animal husbandry. ❤️ 🤠
Hats off to the men and women embracing where their food truly comes from. 👏

📸 Sitka Blacktail Deer enjoying the lush grass across the water.

06/07/2026

A little bit of an improvement to the traditional cut and flip aquaponics setup using an IBC container.

I followed all the great advice on the web to create "Cut and Flip"...

06/05/2026

I moved Goldie, her daughter Georgia, and Myrlee’s bucklings, Todd and Benny, to the South Pen to join Charlee and her girls, where they have more space and playthings (aka, “goat enrichment”). The kids are having a blast. This morning when I woke up, they were all jumping around on the big boulder. They have also discovered the cool pirate ship.

06/05/2026

Charlee is such a good momma, and her two little doelings are just precious. They do not have names yet, but they will soon. I love them so much!