From The Farm

  Dairy goats are becoming an increasingly popular choice for small-scale farmers. These animals offer numerous benefits, including low maintenance requirements, high milk yield, and suitability for small-scale farming. In this blog post, we will explore the advantages of raising dairy goats and how they can benefit small-scale farmers. Low Maintenance Requirements Compared to other livestock, such as cows or horses, dairy goats require minimal maintenance. They are relatively small in size, which means they require less space and feed. Additionally, goats are browsers, meaning they prefer to graze on a variety of plants rather than just grass. This makes them easier to manage as they do not require as much specialized feed or care. High Milk Yield One of the primary benefits of raising dairy goats is their high milk yield. On average, a dairy goat can produce 2-3 quarts of milk per day, which is a significant amount for a small-scale farmer. Goat milk is also highly nutritious, co...

  Since it was our first year at the farm, we needed winter storage for our hay. Even though there are thousands of trees here, we still need to find one with dollar bills for leaves. Thus began the  build a barn from pallets  project. We found some places locally that were giving/throwing away perfect pallets. Even better, we found a place where the pallets were mainly the same size. This is particularly important when trying to build a structure from pallets. It makes the process significantly easier than having to match greens and yellows up to form a purple. Step 1 :  "Figurin" I needed to do some figurin about the size of what I needed to build. I wanted something that wasn't going to take forever but something that sufficed our current needs while accommodating our growing herd requirements. So I needed to get a grasp on what our hay requirements would be to get through the winter. This involved a little bit of math: area and volume calculations. Being a c...

  We are a family-run, and owned farm started in 2014. Thirsty Creek Ranch is home to LaMancha dairy goats, free ranged chickens, handmade Goat Milk Soap, Goat Milk Cheeses, and numerous farm-grown fruits and vegetables. Located in the old apple country of the Kansas countryside, we have a small orchard with apples, peaches, plums, and pears. We offer farm-fresh eggs and our line of  Goat Milk Soap ,  Goat Milk Lotion ,  and  Lip Butters .  We moved from the city to the country in search of a better environment to raise our family. Having spent the better part of our lives in the corporate world and living in various big metropolitan cities, we wanted a change. We felt God was calling us to a small city we had barely heard of. Who were we to argue?   Having started out on this new adventure, we quickly felt the desire to become more self-sufficient--in terms of providing more of our own food. What started as a trip to the local farm store, returni...

  Mabel blessed the farm with two babies in 2019. 1 boy and 1 girl. Enjoy Mabel and Her Babies

  2019 Babies In The Books 2019 Baby Season has come to end. Thanking God for another successful kidding season. This year we had no major issues other than a handful of does deciding to have their babies at.the.same.time. We were headed into work and got about half way there when the house called to let us know Charlotte was pushing. Lovely. Could have definitely been worse but, yeah, she waited until right after we left to go into labor. Goats. So, I told the wife I'd drop her off at the store and head back for baby delivering duties. The kids are more than capable of delivering babies but, I like to be present when possible.  Fig.1 - Go Kit With the wife running the store, I drive back to the farm and by the time I get there, the kids have Charlotte in the barn and have everything ready to go--towels, the "Go Kit", goat separated in a separate barn stall, toddy and grain ready for afterwards . Man, I love these kids something crazy. Charlotte is thinking about getting ...