Homesteading with Hair Sheep

Join us as we continue our Lean Grazing journey. We are working sheep and combining flocks. We discuss important issues like food security for your family and what you can do to improve your own food security. Raising livestock isn't only about the work but also about enjoying the fruits of your labor. Delicious eggs and bacon, a smoked leg of lamb. It's amazing to have meat in the freezer from your own animals that you raised on your land!

Today we are foraging on the homestead for fall goodies! Come along and see what we find and how we prepare passion fruit cheesecake!

After a long HOT!!! Summer, we have reached fall here on our mini ranch. One month left until we introduce rams to the ewes so we need to have a breeding plan and a grazing plan for fall and winter. Our Lean Grazing operation means we graze on pasture 365 days a year and will have to deal with all of the challenges nature throws at us!

Sheep health is best managed by keeping them healthy to begin with. One of the most common parasites sheep have problems with is the barberpole worm. We care about our animals so we take the necessary steps to keep them healthy without the use of medications.

Running two flocks on 30 acres means more work when rotational grazing but doesn't have to mean double the work. We have our rams separate from the ewes and have a simple strategy to minimize waste in our process.

Today we are moving the rams to a separate section. With another heat wave coming soon we have to utilize shade in different areas to ensure our sheep have adequate protection from the sun on severely hot days. Join us while we run the rams from the back pasture to their own shady spot.

One of the first things many potential graziers do is start shopping for all the expensive farming "necessities". Take a look at our Lean Grazing operation to see how we accomplish our goals of raising an increasingly high quality flock of hairsheep as well as using regenerative agriculture to improve pasture health without all of the expensive equipment and infrastructure!

Our regenerative agriculture practices have yielded some great results this year! These Dorper x Katahdin sheep are excited to get into a new paddock.

We are focusing on the health of our sheep and soil today. We run our sheep on a 30 acre first generation mini ranch. We are running a lean grazing operation and are continuous improvement minded.

Is it possible to graze successfully without expensive infrastructure? Join us as we perform daily tasks with our sheep without miles of perimeter fence, expensive barns or expensive corral systems.

The hairlambs are excited to have a tree to play on while they help with brush control and soil fertility! And we finally got some rain!

Big Springs in Van Buren Missouri is absolutely breathtaking! This was our second trip here and this time in summer when all the trees were beautiful and full of leaves. One of the most beautiful places on earth!

Shelf cloud with Mammatus. Absolutely mind blowing sunset tonight! To see the Mammatus clouds built up and rolling over and over off of the shelf was extraordinary.

Take a look at these awesome! insane! mammatus clouds!!! It's not every day you get to see these. Stormy evening.

We have survived the heat wave! And today we are heading to one of the most beautiful places in the world! Blue Spring Park Missouri! A short trip but an awesome one. Then we get back to the ranch after our blessed family day!

We are dealing with record heat this week. Our Dorper hairsheep health and safety is very important so we want to ensure they have adequate shade to keep cool. Our pasture does not have many trees so it makes summer very difficult at times! We show our solution for this hot week and we also find a milk thief among the flock! Our flock has grown so requires bigger solutions. We always want to get to the root of the problem without spending money first as you will quickly go broke by throwing money at every problem.