Moon Shadow Ranch Blog

 I’m sorry for not letting you all know what has been going on.  Since the fires we have been working non stop to install erosion control  in case we have a wet winter.  We have thus far had a very wet winter.  Stacy bless her heart did this wonderful mixed media video to tell our story.  Check it out   http://current.com/items/88797028_the_struggle_for_recovery
I’ll update you on what’s happening now next week.  Thank you for your patience and prayers.  I know that we are blessed and can’t express the depth of gratitude I feel for all the kindness that has been shown us through out this ordeal. 

The effort to save our farm and those of our neighbors were heroic. I owe a dept of gratitude to all those involved. They managed to save all of our buildings and most of our pomegranate grove. Still about 80-90% of our beautiful land is burned beyond recognition. We actually are finding ourselves not knowing where we are on this strange moonscape that was once a beautiful habitat teeming with life.

I think a piece of my heart has also gone up in flames.

We managed to evacuate most of the animals. Lee took these photo’s while we were getting the horses out

Goats

on the

Beach.

I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed blogging until I lost my password and couldn’t write an update on our farming activities. Thank you, to my son, Hakon, for getting this all straightened out. We spent last week at the Ventura County Fair. What a wonderful vacation it was. The livestock and security staff are great people. They made everything easy and pleasant. We were camped right on the beach, we’re talking waves crashing 20 feet from our trailer! The girls brought their bikes and rode the beach front trails to the pier and back and forth to the barn. Our goats had fabulous pens. The Nubians penned next to our goats belonged to a lovely family that we hit it off with immediately. They have invited us to attend their club’s show in Arizona which we are looking forward to. Our nieghbor’s boys, Jensen and MacIne, (I hope I spelled that right) took care of all the milkers at home and Andre took care of everything else. Our kids didn’t do to well. Taz Berry Cream decided that she didn’t want anyone touching her and was quiet naughty in the ring. Chocolatte,one of our dry yearlings, who Andrea had left a big heart shape unshaven on her side, won Reserve Jr Champion. In the senior division Honey won two year old milkers and the judge actually said in the Grand champion competition, that it was between her, the aged doe and the three year old. Not bad for a first freshener. Molly and Hazelnut won the dam and daughter class. Hazelnut got second in the yearling milker class and won first place udder in the same class. Most importantly we won best dairy herd which pleases me to no end.

            the Ranch                                     kids at play ♥
I can’t believe we’re already into the middle of summer! The pomegranates are setting a promising crop and we feasted on the first fruiting of our Persian Mulberry. The Boysenberries and Blackberries are producing enough berries for pies this year and in honor of our many berries, we named all our doe kids “berry creams” and all our boys “bears”. Kidding season went really well but unlike last year when we had all doe kids, this year we had an equal number of buck kids. What to do with all the boys. As a “no kill” dairy herd I can’t sell them to just anyone because the odds are pretty high they’d end up being eaten. So we are going to be launching a campaign to promote packgoats to the local hikers. We are starting the kids training but they won’t be able to carry weight until their bones are mature. In the mean time we have some mature wethers we are going to offer for packing. Hobby Farms just did a cover story on packgoats so that should help us in our promotion. Show season is going well our two year old buck, Umbra Luna’s Half and Half, appraised 90 and went Grand Champion in two out of the three rings we showed him in. We sold our first doe. Umbra Luna’s Cottage Cheese, a yearling milker,who has gone to live with a lovely family in Ramona California. Congratulation’s Nallie. MS Debussy and Frappachino are out on lease to another wonderful family that just happen to be our neighbors. Shannon is jumping Bussy Boy already and he has taken such a shine to her I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t do to please her. Frappy one of our wethers that went with Bussy as a companion is “tugging at the heart strings” of the whole family. He is getting as much or more attention as Bussy. It’s so wonderful to be able to share our many blessings with all of you. Peace be with you. Kira