Speckle Farm

05/30/2025

My neighbor Simone took these photos, baby goats don't understand about personal space and are very active so hard to get good photos of and she did an amazing job. If you're looking for Nubian kids, a buck or does in milk I have options! A total of 18 kids with only one stillborn this year. I am very happy with what I'm seeing from my new bucks already.

04/13/2024

Fancy, double and peony tulip bouquets, multiple sizes and build your own option. It's going to be a short season with the weather, don't wait to contact me or they'll be gone!

06/25/2022

On Monday June 20th 2022 My mother Kim and brother Ray were shot and killed in their home. My grandmother Judy who also shared the house is with our family and surrounded with love and support. My mom, grandmother and brother had dedicated the last year to turning a barn into a home and creating a life in the Aeneas valley. They will never finish building that home and life. We need your help to make sure that my grandmother feels safe and is financially able to start over after having the sanctity and peace of her new home destroyed.

Donations can be made through the link below to our Empathy Fund to cover funeral costs and our Help for Judy fund at STCU to cover legal fees, caring for their beloved pets and caring for my Grandma Judy’s needs. We ask for privacy for our family and loved ones at this very difficult time. We appreciate the outpouring of love, support and offers of help from our community. It means more to us than we can ever fully express.

A memorial will be help July 2nd 2022, at 1pm at the General Assembly & Church of The First Born on the Bridgeport bar.

Help for Judy account # 663864 STCU
A venmo link connected to the STCU account will be set up soon and a P.o. Box for checks will also be set up. You can visit a branch or call STCU at 509-326-1954 https://stcu.org/

To directly contribute to funeral arrangements:
https://www.empathy-funding.com/380/224/Smith

06/06/2022

Today I played every livestock farmer's favorite game "why isn't the electric fence working". After days of rain and a collected total of (I think) 1.25" inches I wasn't surprised. But it wasn't just the rain messing up the fence. Our resident A hole deer once again jumped the fence like drunks and took down -not to be recovered from the flattened 5' grass- multiple insulators and tens of feet of fence which then tangled itself into the pasture, a Hawthorn tree and the barbwire fence. After multiple trips for tools and materials and turning the fence on and off I finally found and fixed everything. And then I went and started chores when I would normally be finishing them. Because of all the rain we haven't cut hay yet so I haven't moved the pigs down to the lower pasture because I usually run an alley down through the middle of the field, which is 5' tall now. So the pigs are together (because little bit hasn't successfully got bred yet) in a too small pen which -thanks to all the rain- the outdoor part of has literally turned into a p**p lagoon. I dug a trench to drain it and at one point resorted to using my hands, which now seems to be permanently imbued with the stench of a sewer. Enzyme cleaner seemed to work a little but you know it's hard to leave it on with the burning and all (and yes, this is definitely off label use) so now that chores are done I'm going to go shower and maybe soak in some bleach.

06/05/2022

Was greeted first thing yesterday morning by our boar Kernow trying to make babies with this barrel. After trying to sneak past him to go back to the house and shut the gate and get tools and being seen and chased by the very excited afore mentioned pig in 15lb rainboots to go shut the gate before he really went on an adventure he followed me like a dog back to the pen and had breakfast with Little Bit while I looked for tools in all the places they should have been and then found them elsewhere and finally put back up the roofing sheet wall they took down during their ongoing disagreements about living together.

03/11/2022

A local farmers barn burned down, it was also her home and her storage. All her belongings, her seeds and her delivery truck were lost. Annie is an amazing human and a dear friend. Please share and if you can, donate.

Hi Friends, My name is Chef Maria Hines. My close friend and farmer for 20… Maria Hines needs your support for Help Farmer Annie Utigard from King's Garden

09/18/2021

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I have a birthday request.
My birthday falls at the start of what Tolkien fans call "Tolkien week" which contains Bilbo and Frodo's birthday and the fall equinox, so it's arguably the best week of the year. I usually celebrate by a marathon of cooking middle earth- especially hobbit- inspired dishes to be eaten while watching all of the Lord of the rings movies in a single day with friends and family that either really love me, the food or Tolkien.

Hobbits especially appreciate good food, good company and their gardens. Since I won't be celebrating this year with all the people I would like I'm asking you to have your own celebration some time in the next week.

Take the people in your house away from their tech, and go find some local food: forage, hunt, buy or pick it from your garden. Spend time outside appreciating the big beautiful living world and feel tiny and be in awe. Like in the old days, make the food and eat the food together and talk about hopeful things and look at their beautiful faces and listen to their beautiful thoughts and be thankful.

07/22/2021

Eggs get away from you?
Boil and smash whole, a potato masher works the best, and feed back to your flock. I usually only do this a few times a year since the pigs and dogs also get eggs but it's a really good way to recycle the nutrients when there are way too many eggs.

07/20/2021

AJ's fix on our irrigation pump did the trick, we are so grateful to have irrigation again.
Remember that I said our pump was damaged when it shorted out? One of the fires burning in Okanogan county right now was started by a shorted out irrigation pump. It's sobering to think of how easily our pump could have started a fire.

We got our second cutting of hay put up in our beautiful, dry (thanks to the new roof) hay loft. This is the most beautiful hay we've ever made and the field looks the best it has since we've been here as well. We switched to 24 hr water cycles, we are using a tractor that allows us to leave more residue behind when we cut so the plants recover more quickly and we're learning to manage our crazy river bottom/clay soil morning dew. It's a funny feeling being so relieved and thankful while also non stop worrying about the neighbors dealing with fires.

07/17/2021

A lot of things have broke around here lately. The range top regulator in the stove, the kitchen sink drain backed up, AJ's impact drill died, the basically brand new w**d wacker bump feed head was being an equine's rump and the irrigation pump shorted itself out.

AJ replaced the stove regulator and blew the clog out of the drain; the new drill should be here soon and we bought blades for the w**d wacker (take that rage inducing string!) But the irrigation pump is the big expensive cherry on top of the crap mountain.

AJ discovered a bearing had came apart and part of it welded/arced between the side of the case and the windings of the motor shorting it out. It could be ruined. AJ has done his mechanical genius magic and we're hoping it had a little life left in it otherwise we'll be looking at coughing up $1.5-3k to replace it. He's testing it tonight 🥴🙏
We aren't farming after making big money and retiring, we don't have a trust fund to dip into and we didn't inherit our farm. All the infrastructure needed to farm costs a lot to create and maintain. We are fixing and building as we're able and it is sooooo slow. We were insanely blessed to get this farm, even though it was very neglected and run down, because land is SO expensive. Our story isn't one of quickly built, new, tidy, clean, or easy things. We're on a slow steep trudge, but the view is fantastic.

07/14/2021

During our extreme heat at the end of June Echo, one of our Pomeranian geese, was just about to hatch her clutch. I was mad and sad because I knew how unlikely it was that the eggs would survive the week of 110- 118 F weather. Miraculously 7 eggs out of 10 survived and hatched, which by any standard is a good hatch rate but in this situation it's downright awesome.

07/13/2021

Before and after of the barn.
You can't tell in the photos but on the end pictured the barn was leaned a good couple inches out of plumb, the top framing of the barn was leaning in at the top and a lot of framing was missing. Standing in the loft when it was windy seemed like a really unsafe thing with all the ship like movement going on. The barn is still wonky, that's from how it was actually built, but the wonky that's there is stable.