Last January, we had an idea. An amazing, wonderful idea! We would start an animal sanctuary. Within two weeks, Encanto Sanctuary; Farm Animal Sanctuary and Learning Homestead had its 501(c)(3) charitable status, a donated logo, and a passion behind it that would push it forward. It started out strong, lots of support and a fair…
Category: Animals/Chickens
Ducks on the Homestead
I love walking out onto the back porch and being greeted by the ducks. Sitting with my cup of coffee in the mornings watching them splash in their swimming pools and quacking at the goats and wagging their tail feathers (they love the goats!) just makes me happy. It looks like we may have one…
Natural Insect Control (cont.) and Before and After Pics (so far)
Yesterday, while lamenting the incredible overpopulation of destructive bugs, I posted a picture of the gardens with three adorable ducks sitting outside the closed kitchen garden gate, practically yelling, “Put me in, Coach!” They were employed this morning and have been doing a great job eating grasshoppers. I am afraid they take way too many…
Spring Babies and Spring Fever
Summer is filled with gardening, preserving, get togethers, coffee on the porch at sunrise, and blessed warmth. Autumn brings with it the first fire in the hearth, flannels, and skies filled with stars, majestic colors splayed upon the trees. Winter brings holidays and rest, crafts by the fire, and a bit of cabin fever. Spring…
Baby Goats Join the Farm
It was nearly five years ago. As we stood outside in the dirt of the prairie, the wind howling, watching our animals being trucked away one by one to new homes, tears ran down our faces. We were leaving the world of farmers and joining the world of the homeless. We prayed that one day…
Life With Animals
The last two homesteading books that I have read were great to read because they outlined clear and practical guides to subsistence farming and homesteading without the use of animals. In the books, Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self Reliant Gardening and Helen and Scott Nearing’s The Good Life, the authors are/were all vegan…
Cuddlewell Mission
One day when we were quite a young couple, snuggling and giggling, I said to my husband, “You cuddle well!” He said, “That will be our last name!” And so it was. Mama and Daddy Cuddlewell. Our children were told that their actual, secret last name was Cuddlewell, as we would snuggle them. Andy, Shyanne,…
The Wishy-Washy Writer (and kindness to all)
This is the story of a wishy-washy writer (therefore all her business is out there confusing the world) and her battles with what is right, and what makes us well, and what serves the most people and animals, yet finding what is beneficial to us (because if we aren’t happy then we can’t inspire others)….
The Wintry Farm and Kittens
I opened the front door to great heaps of snow. For southern Colorado, this is quite a storm. It is still blustery and the snow is falling thickly with glints of sunlight shining through. It is a chattering 1 degree with the wind. Our farm dog, Gandalf, is sleeping indoors this morning despite his woolly…
The Duck Healer (and other tales in Cherokee Home)
I was standing in the kitchen of the tiny farmhouse we lived in out on the prairie. A small school bus turned into the winding dirt drive and proceeded towards the house. Dust pulled up behind it as it bounced along. I yelled to Doug in the next room, “Did we have a school group…
Farmgirl School 