Hummingbird Rancho

03/13/2025

Guys!!! It’s the worst time of year for scams in the farm world!! Here is an awesome article by Silver Homestead to help you avoid being scammed by someone!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1686nTmsTq/?mibextid=wwXIfr

The scams are absolutely out of control this year. AND SCARY GOOD since the scammers have created legit looking pages of their "farm". Here's how you can spot scammers:

11/15/2024

AVAILABLE THIS WEEKEND FOR PICK-UP at Hummingbird Rancho - Message me your orders today!
*Fresh Fall/Winter Wreath or Centerpiece
BAKING ITEMS
*Raw Honey
*Vanilla
*Pumpkin Pie Filling
*Apple Pie Filling
EGGS/DAIRY
*Chicken Eggs
*Hand-churned Butter (salted, unsalted, cinnamon honey, rosemary sea salt)
*Whole Buttermilk
FRESH PRODUCE
*Winter Squash (black futsu, porcelain doll, blue doll, acorn, pie pumpkin, marina di chioggia)
*Heirloom tomatoes (several varieties red, yellow)
*habanero peppers (fresh or dehydrated)
*Pears
FRESH/DRIED HERBS
*Sage (f,d)
*Rosemary (f,d)
*Oregano (f,d)
*Hawthorne Berry (f,d)
*Raspberry Leaf (f,d)
*Blackberry Leaf (f,d)
*Lemon Balm (d)
*Mint (d)
*Dill (f,d)
*Lavender (d)
*rose petals (d)
*rose hips (f,d)

11/02/2024

THANKSGIVING IN A BOX🦃
• Nearly everything you need to prepare your Thanksgiving Feast
• Farm Fresh and Local!
• Only 6 left!
• Message me to secure yours today!

10/19/2024

**FARM STAND POP-UP**
Saturday, October 19
Noon-3pm
7816 W Daybreak Run Court

And if you can’t make it let me know and we can arrange something!!

03/18/2024

Okay guys!! Check out this photo and DM me if you’re interested in the half dozen hatching eggs I have available! 💚🥚
ALSO… ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Don’t have an incubator? These chicks specifically available tomorrow! 💚🐣

03/13/2024

Memories. Sometimes they make you happy and sometimes they’re just so bittersweet. 💔
I woke up this morning and these photos popped up on my memories. The first one is Plumette. She was my very first Silkie that I purchased from the Meridian Feed Mill when I still barely knew what I was doing. The second is Fleur Delacour, my very first Mille Fleur, also purchased from MFM. Both were lost to the dog attack last Fall and it just breaks my heart every time I think about it. 😢
The third photo is of Baby Tidley. He’s my OG Whiting True Blue Roo and the very first breed I ever reproduced after the local breeder from whom I purchased decided she was no longer going to breed. And bless his heart, he’s still with me having individually produced the most offspring pure and crosses of any of my Roos to date. 👏🏻👏🏻
It made me think about my chicken keeping journey over the past 4 years and how far I’ve come. The happy and the sad, the magical and the most difficult, but most importantly how much I’ve learned and am still learning all the time. It’s a huge responsibility to care for these animals and know their lives are in your hands. Some years are difficult in terms of loss and this year has been no different, but it’s also been the hardest in terms of growing pains. Trying to find the delicate balance between what’s enough to sustain the business side while not being overwhelming. Factor in the unseasonably warm Winter and the mud that’s resulted in all that rain and moisture and it’s just a recipe for disaster. The mud this year is seriously pushing the limits of equilibrium and I’m not sure how much more we can or want to take. To be continued…

03/09/2024

Taking a poll… Would any of my local peeps be interested in seedlings if offered at our Hummingbird Rancho Farm Stand? Here are just a few examples. Leave a comment! 🪴❤️

03/09/2024

GUYYYS!! There are still some Fibro Mix Easter Eggers and Rancho Green Chicks available Meridian Feed Mill today! If you want to add a variety of color to your egg basket you need some of these! 🌈🥚possibility of ANY of these colors out of these flocks! 🥰

03/02/2024

There are still chicks available!!! I adore my Salmon Favorelles and the Blue Australorps are GORGEOUS!! 🥰

02/29/2024

WINNER, WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!! 🐣
Amber Langdon
Kayli Lewis
Athena Maldonado
🎉🥳🎈🎊🍾🎁
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to EVERYONE who commented and shared their stories!! I am so grateful for wonderful clients like all of you! 🙏🏻🥰

02/14/2024

Day 7
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.
~Herman Melville
Every year I choose a word to focus on and use as a part of my goals for that year. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years! I usually begin thinking about my word for the upcoming year around late Fall while I’m also assessing how the current year is wrapping up. It often takes several weeks or more for the perfect word to ‘find me’, but my word for this year actually came almost instantly by late October.
In February I turned 50 and Bryan and the kids planned an amazing birthday surprise that included my brothers, other family, and many of my closest friends. It was a most wonderful time because I was able to connect with almost ALL of my people together for the first time, really in more than 3 years! It was wonderful! While I hoped those kinds of get-togethers would continue to happen more often, as the year progressed they still just didn’t happen. Months passed by, people were always busy, it just wasn’t a priority for any of us like it once was. So it was no surprise when the word ‘connect’ found its way into my mind as I pondered what I wanted 2024 to look like. It was solidified for me after teaching a wreath class to a large group of women where I was reminded not only of how much I loved and missed doing that, but how important it was to stay connected to people. This is something I’m planning to continue, and in fact I taught another class this weekend. It was amazing to have so many people interested in something that I could offer to them that would be useful in their daily lives, and I was again reminded of the value in creating community. It is what feeds my soul and I’m so happy to be able to help people. I will be offering more classes and other opportunities to connect as the year goes on. Some things will be free and informational, while others may have a small fee but you may leave with something more tangible. Hopefully I can get the next couple of months of classes planned out so they can be part of your year too!

02/11/2024

Day 6
“Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality.” ~John Maxwell

Ever since Covid things have been different. At first, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. 2022 was a rather difficult time for me. The farm was growing, but I struggled with Bryan being gone so much for work. Bella had just moved to Nebraska, Marissa was just newly married, Lexie moved out, and Dirty Curty was in college and living 1/2 the week in Ontario. My friends with whom I had lived in the same neighborhood were acting like I moved to Siberia. My brothers, who all finally lived closer than they ever had, hardly came over and I actually saw them less than when they lived further away. My mom was terrified to leave the house, and my step dad didn’t even see the new farm for almost 2 years after we moved in! I felt actually very isolated and alone. At the peak of my despair, I realized, that people were using Covid as an excuse. The world, including my own personal one were more disconnected than ever! This was not something I was used to at all & I hated it. As I continued to struggle last year, and after a very hurtful friend’shift’ (more on this later) I tried to lower my expectations of people and figure out how to remediate the situation myself. Instead of being angry and blaming others what could I do to make things better and feel more connected? How could I facilitate better relationships and reconnections? Often turning the focus outward forces us to see things in a less selfish way and can change our perspective for the better. It enables us to see how we can be part of the solution instead of wallowing in our own self-pity, which is extremely unhealthy. Sometimes this first step can push you down a path you never even knew existed, or maybe might have been lost for a while. ❤️
To be continued…

🎨 original mixed media art - Lori Simpson

02/09/2024

GUYYYYS!!! I’m teaching a fermeting class this weekend at Meridian Feed Mill!! Come check it out and I’m giving away a few goodies from my farm if you’re there! 🥰

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Wgsb75djtVShWu4s/?mibextid=WC7FNe

02/04/2024

Day 3
The Oxygen Mask Theory 🆘🫀

Did you know that when the heart is deprived of oxygen, muscle cells of the heart begin to suffer damage and start to die?

This past year included its fair share of rough patches, as most years do. My work has been particularly busy and stressful, Bryan being gone so much and my son working way more outside of the farm has left me alone to take care of a lot of the things required to manage the farm, which in turn has left me in a deficit position both physically and emotionally.

One of first things the paramedics do when a patient is complaining of chest pain is to immediately give them oxygen, this is to try to prevent irreversible damage to the heart.

It’s so difficult to remember to take care of oneself, but I realize how important it is to apply what I like to call the ‘oxygen mask theory’. This includes employing methods of self-care. It means sometimes saying no, or even taking a sick day from work to just ‘reset’. It means doing something for YOU, something that brings you joy instead of doing everything for everyone else.

This week I was part of a seed swap and I wanted to do something unique, something a little ‘extra’. I made my plan and executed it, feeling very happy that I got to be creative again. Honestly it filled my cup and although I was still doing something for someone else, I was really doing something that made me genuinely happy, while also using my unique and special talents. It just fed my soul. Stay tuned for part 2 of this little story tomorrow! ❤️

02/03/2024

Day 2
Did you know that February is Women’s Heart Month?

Coincidentally this month marks 22 years ago that my beautiful Mama, Ramona almost died from a major heart attack, the first and only she’s ever had, however recently she had to have some additional repairs that almost certainly prevented another one. 1/3 of first heart attacks are fatal and another 1/3 result in permanent damage to the heart, neither of which happened to her, amazingly enough. I know many friends whose moms are no longer with them so I know how lucky I am to still have mine. ❤️

Instead of chest pain, heart attack symptoms in women include nausea, indigestion, and shoulder aches. My mom had all of these symptoms for about 3 weeks and had no idea she was actually having a heart attack the whole time. Coronary Heart Disease, which can cause heart attacks is the single leading cause of death in women in America. One of the things The American Heart Association does to support women’s heart health is to distribute as much information as possible about the differences in women’s symptoms versus men’s, and to raise awareness about the dangers and staggering statistics of heart disease in women.

Because of the lack of information we had about heart health, we were not able to see the signs my mom was presenting and it could have cost her life, which is why I wholeheartedly support the AHA’s mission to educate and prevent this deadly disease in women. Today is National Wear Red Day, so I challenge you to wear red and spread awareness by sharing some of the facts. Think about a disease or a cause that means something to you. Maybe it has affected someone special to you, or maybe it has affected you directly. Look on the Internet and find an organization related to that cause. Read about it, learn about it, maybe even try to volunteer at an event for it, but spread awareness. There is nothing more beautiful to me than seeing people show love by supporting a cause on behalf of someone they love and care for. Let this post motivate you today to make a plan, to make a loving difference! xo ❤️