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 ;)