Neglect!

It has been so long since I have updated this blog - we have made many changes over the last 8 months.  Most of them have been good.

The biggest change is in our location.  We ended up being unable to keep our house and we moved over to my parent's place.  They have their own operation - http://www.thecrossroadsranch.com/ - and we have combined our efforts, finding strength in numbers.  Up until two weeks ago we lived here:

It was a blessing to have a place to live and we were incredibly grateful to have such a generous family that would provide us a place to live in exchange for the extra hands we would provide.  We finally got ourselves back into a position to be able to afford to pay for a place to live and it was becoming really tough on the kids to have such cramped quarters.  We told my parents we were planning on trying to find a place close by so that we could still help out, but they decided they would rather trade places in order to keep us around.  My dad works in Sacramento during the week and is only home on weekends and they figured that they don't need as much space as we do.  They had offered let us live in their house when we moved over initially, but we were unwilling to cause them so much inconvenience if we were unable to pay for it.  So far, all seems to be working out.

Another change is that I have returned to school.  The kids are old enough that they don't need my constant attention, and since Bryan has most Fridays off anyway, we were able to work it out for me to attend classes on Fridays and Saturdays.  My first semester is nearly over and I have had such a great time.  I am attending a junior college right now - it is the least expensive option, and the credits work just as well.  I am hoping to eventually transfer to Cal Poly, with my ultimate goal being Veterinary School.  It will be a long journey and vet school is extremely competitive as there are only a few schools and a lot of students trying to get the limited number of spaces available.  But I will be working very hard to keep my grades high and- hopefully - in 8 years I will be Stephanie Winn, DVM.

We ended up finding really good homes for the pigs and turkeys.  Annie and Ego Trip ended up in a little town outside of Sacramento.  It was so beautiful up there that we almost sent the pigs back and stayed ourselves instead.  We went back up there in December to pick up a couple of piglets from Annie's litter and it was obvious that they were both very happy in their new home.  The turkeys also went to a great home.  They stayed a bit more local, a bird enthusiast in Norco was thrilled to get them.

After we did all of our downsizing, keeping only the chickens and rabbits, we got over here and have been helping my parents build up their ranch.  They have been raising Lowline Angus for over eight years and that has been their primary focus.  They had bought one Annie's babies as a pet and fell in love with pigs.  They felt that, with our help, they would like to begin raising pigs.  Which is why we went back up to Sacramento to get some more babies.  We picked up a great boar from a farm in the Bakersfield area and then we made another trip up to Walnut Grove (not far from Sacramento - apparently all of the livestock are being raised up there.  We also picked up Shyla, the jersey cow, in that part of the state)  to get some more girls.  We have one girl that is of breeding age and we are hoping that she will produce some babies for us in the next few months.

The other addition that has been made here is Shyla, the milk cow.  She is a beautiful, two-year-old heifer.  Her first calf - a bull calf named Taffy - was born on April 1st.  Shyla and I have been working out the whole milking thing since then.  Since neither of us know what we are doing it has been rather interesting.  Fortunately she is a very patient cow and a pretty fast learner.  We are all very excited about having fresh, raw milk and the pigs are really happy that she produces more than we can drink.

There is lots more to write about.  I am planning to update more often.  As long as it has been, that shouldn't be hard!