Visitors (potential, expected and unexpected).
This week the ranch was bustling in preparation for visitors -some expected, some not.
Expected visitors - Guests for our first farm to table experience! Last week we worked to get the decks ready in preparation to launch our new farm to table experiences (big thank you to Shauna, Nicole, Lil and Jackie for all of your help here!). Guests arrived on Saturday morning and enjoyed a gourmet coffee, followed by some time with the chickens, gathering eggs, foraging for strawberries and picking veggies in the garden. The experience was capped off relaxing on the new terrace while enjoying a light brunch made with food from the ranch, drinks and great company. Keep your eyes open for the next newsletter with more details about what the experiences are and how to book them.
Unexpected Visitors: Canines
One evening on the way to baseball, a HUGE wolf crossed our path, right in front or our neighbour’s property. My stomach dropped and my guts churned - this guy could annihilate our entire fowl operation. I still went to the baseball game (instead of immediately heading to our place to patrol our fences, which crossed my mind), and decided to implement other methods to try and mitigate that potential disaster. These methods included staying up until 2 am, blasting music through the window, keeping the front spotlight on and setting up trail cams along the perimeter of our fences. All methods expect for the trail cams went to the wayside after a couple of days of no sleep. The trail cams did give us a better understanding of what is out there - no wolves (thankfully), but we do have a fox that has begun visiting regularly. Our fences are clearly working. However, I may have to resort to some earlier methods if he continues to stop by.
Potential New Visitor: BEES!
Why bees? They would be efficient contributors to the ranch. They help pollinate plants in the garden and orchard which increases fruit production all while producing delicious honey (a natural sweeter that we use in a lot of our cooking) at a decent ROI. (plus, they were in the movie the Biggest Little Farm). To learn more about bees, the boys and I attended a bee tour at Golden Bay Honey (check out their website and book an experience - David is knowledgeable, patient AND funny - do not wait another minute, book this now!! https://www.goldenbayhoney.net/). We are just doing a little more research and aiming to have at least 1 hive set up before the end of June.
Other visitor news:
Representatives from a local Economic Development Council will be coming by for a ranch visit this week to learn more about our offerings.
We have a team coming on Wednesday to help us get our first batch of meat birds ready for delivery. YUM!!!!
We’ll be prepping the brooder to welcome another 100 chicks next week!!
