Latest News on Farm Fresh Eggs!

Mother Earth News, a long revered publication on natural and green living, has released results from a new study on the value of pasture raised eggs (versus commercially produced).

A short article well worth reading!

More Great News About Free-Range Eggs

Farm fresh eggs! Get your nutrient-rich, free-range eggs here! :)

Ducklings!

A somewhat unexpected hatch of tiny ducklings greeted us this morning with a round of enthusiastic peeping! Six little, yellow Indian Runner ducklings scattered, tumbled, jumped and peeped as they ran along behind their Momma, who strolled along quacking quite authoritatively.

After proudly showing off her new hatchlings, Momma Duck quickly took her brood back to the nest for some more warm bonding time.

Stay warm little ducklings!

The New Brood

Just before Thanksgiving 2008, we added 50 new Red Sexlinks pullets to our flock. While they are maturing, they are living in a protected "brooder pen". Now that they are about 8 weeks old, they are just about fully feathered and started to test their wings a bit. It will still be a number of weeks before they are large enough to be able to join the big flock.

Gone Home

Our handsome little miniature Scottish Highland bull calf, GWR Niall, left Saturday to go to his new home in Louisiana.


Niall has been an exceptionally friendly little boy since he was born, and it was hard to see him leave. On the other hand, we are VERY happy to know that he has such a wonderful new home with Ed and Lynda.

Upgrading the Hen House

At the end of December, we were able to buy some "real" hen nesting boxes for our chicken coop. These new boxes offer many more nesting cavities than the homemade ones we were using! The hens have taken to these upgraded accommodations without so much as a blink.


To go along with the new nest boxes, we built the flock a brand new "mega perch" to roost on. This structure is large enough to handle not only the current laying hens, but also the 50 new upcoming chicks when they are ready to join the large flock.


This new roost is protected from wind by new clear partition walls on the outer pen, and an overhead tarp. While the chickens roam the ranch during the day, they voluntarily come back to their enclosed pen to lay eggs and at the night to enjoy their rest in safety.

Llama Kisses!

Meet "Moony", or more formally, GWR Moonlight Dreams.


Moony was born here on the ranch in early November. From the start, he had this great, interactive personality - just like his mother, Dancy. In fact, he is pretty much the spitting image of her! Definitely a cutie.

Ah, there is nothing like getting sweet little fuzzy-faced llama kisses! :)

Plans for 2009

We have just a few goals for the ranch in the new year - and they are some pretty major ones!

First, we are working to setup our dairy barn to be fully compliant with Texas requirements for a "Grade A Raw for Retail" dairy license. When we succeed in this venture, we will be able to legally sell our goat milk for human consumption! We are currently working on determining final layout for the dairy barn and milk processing area, and getting the necessary funding for this lofty venture! This also means getting new milking stands and an automatic milking machine. We are very excited about this project! :)

Next, we are planning on creating a new line of handmade products to be offered from the ranch. Our products will include various goat milk soaps and bath items. We also hope to offer handmade goat coats, llama fiber filled pet beds, and other related items. For our own use, we are looking forward to learning to make various cheeses, kefir, and maybe even butter from our goat milk.

We are also preparing to plant a garden for the Spring and hope to have an abundance of garden produce this coming Summer. The ideas of what to plant are already spinning around in our heads and we are scoping out various types of seeds we are interested in trying out. We added some new fruit trees to the ranch this past Winter, so we have that produce to look forward to as well (eventually). We have planted peaches, plums, pears, and blackberries so far, and are planning to plant some orange trees in the next month or so. We are still looking for pecan trees.... maybe those will get added next Fall.

Finally, we are planning to work with a new trainer to get our horses trained to ride (finally!). Two of our herd should be going to start their training this month, with two others going later in the Spring. We will also be rehoming two of our six horses; it looks like Sonny and Rita will have good homes with two different trainers. With our horses getting trained, this means that we will need to brush up on our riding skills too! We are sure looking forward to being able to spend some time together quietly riding along on horseback ... talk about a dream fulfilled. :)

In addition to these new ventures, we will continue all the work with our livestock, offer llama shearing services in the Spring, and Teresa is continuing to grow her website development work with our other business, Images with Flair. If you need a website created, or want someone to help with your site's management, please drop Teresa an email.

Please wish us luck in these new ventures and in the year ahead!

2008 - A Year In Review

Last year held many blessings, and many challenges for us. Overall, 2008 was really a good year!

Several new beginnings happened here, starting with the addition of our flock of chickens. We started with a few dozen hens last January, and added several more chickens to our flock throughout the year. Just for fun, three roosters joined our flock this summer - two Cuckoo Maran brothers named "Luke" and "Duke", and one handsome Blue Maran boy named "Nike". In November, we boldly added 50 new Red Sexlink chicks to our flock; we look forward to them starting to lay eggs this coming April. As of December 31, 2008, our little flock had grown to 86 chickens!

In the Summer of 2008, we were adopted by a white dove we named "Dovey". One day, while helping a neighbor next door, a white dove flew up to us. He was obviously a flight-raised bird that had lost his way and was seeking help from us (white doves do not survive well in the wild). When we were not able to locate his originating home, we took Dovey in as part of our family. Dovey has now been gallantly outfitted with a large walk-in flight in our backyard and a new "family" of over 20 other doves to keep him company. We truly enjoy these beautiful birds and their soothing sounds.

As the year progressed, we were joined by three more Nubian dairy goats from our friends at Four Mile Farm - Ashlee, Glory, and Seven Up. With the addition of Glory who was already "in milk", we started milking (by hand) regularly in late summer and were able to store up enough milk to keep us happy thru the winter. In December, we bought three more Nubian girls from our new friends at Fat Bottom Farm - Raggedy Anne, Solstice, and Frosty. We are blessed to have a beautiful herd of Nubian goats which now includes 12 does and 3 bucks. We are expecting kids from 10 of our does in the Spring!

Speaking of kids - yes, we had babies in 2008. We had 8 goat kids, 3 llama crias, and 4 Scottish Highland calves in addition to several small hatches of ducklings during the Summer. We were also blessed to have multiple litters of Great Pyrenees puppies - including a miraculous litter from our matriarch guardian dog, Trina. We met a lot of really great people who chose to give our kids, cria and pups homes! We have made some wonderful new friends this year. :)

The past year was not without challenges! We had the range of "normal" issues facing most ranches with fence and equipment repairs, rising feed and hay prices, and various livestock concerns.

One of our most noteworthy memories was when our trusty old ranch truck, Big Red, took its final drive in May. While we were en route to pick up our bull, Casper, from the collection center in Taylor, Big Red (with trailer in tow) gave up the ghost and blew a head gasket. We were truly lucky that Big Red's demise occurred right in front of a Ford dealership. Thanks to the generosity of the dealership, we were able to borrow a truck to get our trailer home and to go on to complete our ranch business that weekend. Even better, they ended up having just the right used truck sitting on the back lot just waiting for us! We are now the very happy owners of "The Great White Titan", a 2000 Ford F-250 Triton with much needed 4-wheel drive!

Once again, we faced a very dry year with our area remaining in severe drought. There was little to no grass in the pasture, no water in the creek, hay prices on the rise, and dirt from our very dry pastures blowing away in the hot breezes. At the end of the year, our records showed a total rainfall on our ranch of approximately 7 inches; that is less than half of what the neighboring Austin-area got and markedly below the average for this area. We continue to pray for some timely rainfall in the new year. We remain very thankful for our faithful hay providers!

There is obviously much remaining unsaid about the many events of 2008. It is time to look forward now to the new year ahead! We have so much to be truly thankful for, and we look forward to the opportunities and challenges the new year is destined to bring.

Happy New Year - 2009

Wishing you all a joyous and blessed new year!

As part of our resolutions for the new year, we will be working hard to keep this blog updated more frequently. Please check in regularly for the latest news from Galloping Winds Ranch.