Ranch Guests

We've been so lucky to have so many visitors at the ranch this summer!! Between 4th of July and last week I think we had almost 50 friends and family come up and most of them stayed for a night or two

One weekend we had FOUR families at the same time! One if them was our neighbors from Los Altos and their sweet girls (Maisie's buddy Marisa here) and above with our old neighbors who also have four girls who are moving to Portland!

And we got Emmy for 10 DAYS!!!

Aunt Kat and Uncle Donald come up from Red Bluff or stop on their way from Oregon often too- always so much fun to have them and to talk cattle with Donald (he is a 6th generation cattle rancher). Kat is due with her third baby in a couple months too!

The Keeley family came up for a weekend - it was a HOT weekend so we took a trip to the river and turned lots of sprinklers on. 

So great to have good friends to share this place with!

The Alticks stopped on their way home from Oregon with their girls and adorable baby boy Elliot. So fun to have a baby around

And our LA heff cousins made a big move up to Portland snd stopped for two days between one house selling and the new house closing! We are so excited for them and their new farm in the PNW.

The Henderson family stopped with their three kids too- they moved from Los Altos to Hawaii for a slower pace of life and were back visiting family on a drive up to a Oregon too. 

We love having visitors - you have an open invitation to come up to Camp Heff friends!! ❤️

Lots of Exciting New Additions to the Ranch!

We've got lots going on at Sharps Gulch Ranch!! We've been adding to our chicken flock raising the day old babies. After a batch of 50 rainbow layers that got delayed it transit and only 18 made it to 2 weeks old (!) they hatchery sent us another batch and then I ordered 22 turkeys with a trigger happy laptop hand (might have involved a sidecar) and 45 more baby chicks arrived with the turkeys. Oops! So the count now is 130-something chickens and 19 turkeys (3 drowned themselves the first night, not the brightest birds ;) I love my day-old chicks!

New painted mailbox - it was faded red and silver and the address was worn off. I was going to go all metallic silver but Jannie voted all red. She won. Good call.

New baby chicks in the nursery area next to the big coop. We will introduce slowly when they are big enough! Attempt 1 was not successful. Chickens are mean.

Post Office pick up of 50 rainbow egg layers - batch 2. Much more successful (49 still going strong) 

New pigs! We got four gilts who will be our breeders. They are Glouchester Old Spot pigs, a heritage breed - here are Baby, Mercy, Eugenia and Hillary. I could watch pigs all day long.

A new "pool" haha ;) I got a big huge feeder trough at the garden center and brought it home as a swimming pool. It works great!

Cabana for shade and maybe a cocktail for kid watching. Who needs more?!

I picked up two pool noodles at Raley's and told the lady I was trying to convince my kids a horse trough was a pool. It pretty much worked. 

New cows!! Finally! We've been waiting patiently to find just the right herd to start our operation.  Uncle Donald helped us find a beautiful load of black angus cattle - 37 pregnant mommas - all from a closed herd that descended from some of the very first Black Angus brought to California from Canada in 1938. They are big beautiful moms all due in September.

More photos to come!

And we host some neighbors cows in one if our pastures so we get to see some cute calves too. 

Heff got his tractor. A lifelong dream come true ;) and now he can move, lift, pull anything I ask in minutes win-win

And 7 weaner pigs! These guys will not be breeders but fattened up for pork chops this year ;)

And ewes! We got 30 ewes (momma sheep) and 4 baby lambs. We will breed them with our Navajo-Churro rams in the fall for spring babies. This was me sorting - and there is a GREAT story an hour after this involving 3 big horned mamma sheep jumping ship from our trailer on the road!! 2.5 hours and miles of chasing them through wet knee-high alfalfa they see safely back in ;)

And every night is a new sunset over the barn - more blogging coming soon I promise!

Family Weekend

4th of July we were lucky enough to have a group of my family up to the ranch! My parents, my Uncle John and Aunt Kim and their three awesome kids and Jen and Zach and their two sweet girls. Everybody pitched in for ranch chores and making lots of good food. We went out to the wet hay fields Friday night for some firework action from the back of a pick up, swam in the river, BBQed and explored the ranch. It was so great to show my family what "ranch life" is like - they all approved and agreed it's pretty sweet!! 

Jannie's first trip to the ranch and she jumps right in with the pigs and girls ;)

My Dad treated us to a few rounds of fireworks from the volunteer fire department stand. 

Emmy is back and staying for 10 days. Woohoo!!

Sweet cousin Ella with hr biggest fans - the girls in matching outfits Jannie got at the Gap outlet on the way up. 

The girls were so excited to show the cousins the river. Only on a serious CA drought it's mostly a river bed! Come on rain. 

River selfie. 

Sweet girls in the teepee decked out for the 4th! The girls decided Lola and Amelie are their honorary sisters ;)

Heff and his flock - they beg very time the ATV starts up, especially Tiny - "wif you dada!!"

And sometimes I get a turn too

Jannie playing games on the porch with the girls - lucky ladies 

And hammock and a sidecar to follow!

Sunset dinner at the big table 

And games with James and Luke

Ranch breakfast. Tiny wants mine. 

Trip to the u pick berry patch next ranch over 

Berry snacker

The whole crowd relaxing in the shade

Bounty

Four wheeler ride up the gulch Saturday afternoon

And so thankful for this friendship of 36 years 

This kid! Found a dead bull snake and carries it around like a trophy

Aunt Kim giving JJ a lift to the barn 

Adorable Lola striking a pose. She has the cutest personality 

Tess loves to squeeze those chicks

Thanks for such a fun weekend family!!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th if July from our little homestead to yours! ;) 🇺🇸