Whiskey Tango Farms - WTF

08/21/2024

This is my friend Tiffany from Teal Stone Homestead! She’s amazing and posts so much wonderful content! I’m not great at being consistent and I’m sorry but she’s got a ton of content over there to check out when we fall off the face of the earth lol.

I want to be better about consistency but struggle with keeping up while feeling overwhelmed so… maybe someday I’ll be better. Until then (and even then) I’ll happily share the successes of my friends! 😘

08/17/2024

ARBA members-

Don't forget to vote by August 25th! Check your emails! All adult members can vote!

08/07/2024

🤭

07/24/2024

Where to start with so many wonderful people that we are blessed to have our in our lives!?

We want to give a huge thank you to Bryan and Lacey Bula of Bryan Bula Farms, LLC in Oxford, WI for being the winning bidders of BOTH Prestin and Liv's turkeys at Sunday's market animal auction at the Portage County Fair in Amherst, WI! We also want to give a giant thank you to Patrick Eger & Family of Big E Outfitters in Central, WI for also being a pledged and active bidder of the turkeys at the auction! We greatly appreciate the support from fellow business owners working diligently to better the Ag community! We cannot express our gratitude of your support of our future generation enough! We also want to thank Brandon Eger & Family of Badger Mulching for the good luck wishes and support! They supported our fair by purchasing a turkey from another 4H kiddo (there are only so many animals to go around lol!) We are glad you were able to make it and cheer on the kids!

All of the bidders & buyers are essential to the future of our farming and agriculture community and lifestyle! Without the support of these amazing folks, the legacy of what we are working for will be lost.

We also want to thank Timothy & Sue Pederson for always continuing to back the animals projects and making everything come together just right, Debra & Mike Helbach for endless time and effort to support the smooth ex*****on of so many moving pieces, Roy & Lissa Danforth for being the directors and voices of a barn that has the potential to be extremely chaotic but somehow never is, our 4H club leaders and barn superintendents & volunteers - Michelle & Jesse Waltenburg and Emily Whitman. There are so many names of folks that put on and support the Amherst Fair. We see, love and appreciate ALL of you!
There are so, so many others that also help and support these kids and other families- countless kids helping other kids, parents helping kids that aren't even theirs and also being a shoulder for the parents needing someone to help them know what in the world is going on! Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottoms of our hearts! 🩵

Much love and blessings,

The Kugels - Brandon, Kristin, Prestin & Liv

07/24/2024

07/21/2024

Full update to come but we wanted to quickly remind everyone about the market animal auction today at the Portage County Fair in Amherst, WI. The auction starts at 1 pm. Swine, sheep, beef, & turkeys will be available. These kiddos have all worked so hard. Please come support them! I can bet you these animals are all more loved and cared for than anything you get from the store!

Prestin and Olivia will be selling their turkeys today! Tom (Liv) & Jerry (Prestin) will be in the auction ring to sell their birds. These guys have been hand raised and loved- they even run up to the kids for hugs. We are so proud of the kiddos for all of their hard work and being able to provide other families with a meat source that is ethically and lovingly raised. We also want to mention that Prestin won 1st place Intermediate Showmanship for Poultry/Waterfowl! Showmanship includes knowledge of health, handling, and various species & breed knowledge!

Please come support all of our 4H and FFA youth today at 1 pm in the Ruth Otto auction building today in Amherst, WI!!!

07/19/2024

Portage County Fair in Amherst, WI this weekend!

This is fair year #2 for us! For animal entries we have:

🦃🦃 2 market turkeys (Broad Breasted Bronze) - Tom & Jerry
🦆🦆 2 Ancona ducks - Chocolate Chip & Silver Dollar
🍎🍎 2 Silver Appleyard ducks - Devilbutt & Angelface
🇺🇸🇺🇸 2 Bantam Ameraucana chickens - Mocha & Frappuccino
🧡🧡 2 Crème d’Argent rabbits - Gravy & Spork
🖤🖤🖤 3 Silver Fox rabbits - Toto, Denali, & Zira
🐐🐐 2 Nigerian Dwarf Goats - Belle & Trixie

Whew! 😴 Everyone is all tucked in for the night and we will be back super early in the morning! Tomorrow we start with poultry/waterfowl & turkey judging! Wish us luck!

06/22/2024

Heads up folks near Whitewater, WI!!

Our friends at Beckard Family Farm-J.B. Black Label Silkies have some really neat things coming along! Sure wish we could do something like this too! Maybe someday when we get a “true” country farm, rather than a suburban one!

06/09/2024

Had a good time at the Fox Valley Rabbit Club Spring Fling!

Wehner’s A Noble And Daring King (barn name Toto) took BOS in show A as a 6/8 buck. Unfortunately only 2 exhibitors were entered in Open so we weren’t able to acquire a GC leg but appreciated the positive feedback. Can’t wait for this dude to grow up a little more. He was incredibly sassy for photos and we are definitely going to work with him more on posing. He hasn’t been shown or handled as much as we usually do with our animals because of some personal things but we are hopeful he’ll come around with some treat bribery and practice. So please excuse his AWFUL posing in this photo. 😅

Sterling’s 3M29 took BOS as a 6/8 buck in A. Funny story about this one…. He was picked up at Nationals as a DOE. She was s*xed by myself and the other breeder as a doe. She showed 4 times that weekend at the HOF Classic Show in Canton as a junior. Fast forward to her moving into our barn: I couldn’t figure out why she was being such an absolute slob lately and spraying her neighbors. I’ve never experienced such a nasty doe! I thought/hoped maybe she would grow out of it. Flipped “her” over on a warm day during a routine nail trim to find a set of testicles… pushed on her and “she” also had a pen*s… not split either! So I guess the s*x change fairy stopped in. 🫠 I had given her the barn name of Gertrude but obviously HE needed a new name. As a nod to his “versatile” history, he will now be called Spork. 🍴😂 We are blessed to have been able to pick up a GC leg for this win. Plus, look at his pose for his photo. Such a gentleman! He needs to have a word with Toto regarding manners. 😏🤣

This was a much needed self-care day. Thank you to FVRC for a smooth show!

05/18/2024

FIRST FROST ALERT at Whiskey Tango Farms! ❄️ Yes, in May!! 😉

It’s a bunny boom here at WTF but this litter was a special one. This was the FIRST time I got to witness a kindle (birth) and also our FIRST Czech Frosty litter! Rose Arbor’s Plum Pretty (by Rose Arbor’s Cash the Czech) kindled 5 alive & 3 DOA pink mini hippo jelly beans! She did an amazing job! Doesn’t she look She weirdly didn’t pull hardly any fur but it’s pretty warm out so I’m not too worried. I do have spare fur from over-achiever moms as backup if it gets too cold for them. Overall, I’m super excited and happy I got to see my first kindle! Special thank you to Dori from Rose Arbor for helping me along this Frosty journey! Hoping these babies grow up to fill in big shoes! Edited to add: Plum Pretty did end up pulling more fur but it was in her water dish. 🤭🤦🏼‍♀️ I decided to use some (dry) fur from other mamas to put under the kits as cushion. The hay was a little too pokey for these fresh babes. And they were kind of falling through to the bottom of the nest box. We don’t want anyone getting lost or accidentally smushed.

05/18/2024

Good morning! We are all setup at the PK Farmers Market & Swap in Amherst, WI! Today we have a slew of plant starts, homemade laser decor & hats, rabbit cervical dislocation dispatch tool, j feeder, quail chick waterers, turkey/gamebird start, chicken layer crumble, all flock pellets, & more! Come on down and see us to get first pick and before we sell out!

04/28/2024

No filter or edits needed here! The girls made such stunning art! Great job, ladies!! It is always fun to see what we’ll get each time we do an inspection- it’s different every time; like a snowflake but way better! 🐝🍯

04/17/2024

Barn blindness at its best.

04/15/2024

When well-water ladies visit the city, lemons are a requirement. 🍋 Impromptu dinner with Teal Stone Homestead from Friday night was low key but heart-filling, even if we almost got blown away by a storm on the way out to our vehicles and then I drove through the downpour with no wiper blades. 😅 Worth it. 💛

04/14/2024

Spring has arrived in the north woods, and dandelions are emerging.

04/13/2024

Busy day working on getting things ready for some additional bees coming in a couple weeks. Of course we had our project manager latte out making sure everything went the way it should. She took up a spot under the farm truck to stay cool.

We hand built these nucleus boxes to expand our apiary and we are going to get an additional apiary this year to the south of us. It’s going to be a fun filled year at Whiskey Tango Farms with the bees!

04/10/2024

Calling all procrastinators.... 😉

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO GET YOUR ENTRIES IN FOR CANTON!

The deadline for the National, Specialty and All Breed Double (Sunday) are ALL due TONIGHT at 11 PM CST via easy2show.com.

Get those entries in, Creme Team! 🧡

04/08/2024

Wow! What a weekend! I definitely have more to share later but alas work called bright and early this morning. However I wanted to share our biggest & most exciting news now because I just am so excited!!

This weekend we made the trek to Decatur, IL to the National Silver Fox Rabbit Club’s National & Specialty shows, in conjunction with the D5 Convention & Oren Reynolds Tribute Show, hosted by Rabbit Renegades.

Leading up to the show there were several times that I decided I was just going to go to see friends but not take any rabbits; then I would change my mind back and forth. I was not feeling confident at all. I ultimately forced myself to take my best home-bred rabbit, Whiskey Tango’s Staccato - Intermediate Black Doe - plus a doe from another breeder, Five Buck’s Halestorm - Senior Black Doe - that I just wanted to show one last time before she becomes a mama). I knew that my doe was not THE best but she was MY best. I was nervous to be embarrassed and have my butt handed to me at the table- so much so that leading up to the show, I only had about 8 hours of sleep over the course of about 4 days. 🤪🫠😬

To my immense surprise, Staccato ended up taking 1st in her class under Louis Potter to earn a GC leg in the Specialty and then she took 2nd in the National show under Josh Humphries! I’m still honestly a bit shocked. I know that to a lot of folks, that’s not a big win but to me, it is HUGE and very validating that I AM actually making progress with my herd.

Thank you again to NSFRC, Rabbit Renegades, Louis Potter & Josh Humphries for the fun-filled weekend!

Will post more later once I catch up on some sleep. 😅

04/04/2024

6 days!

The countdown is on! 6 days to get your entries in for Canton! The deadline for the National, Specialty and All Breed Double (Sunday) are ALL due 04/10/24 at 11 PM CST via easy2show.com.

Get those entries in, Creme Team! 🧡

04/04/2024

BIG OPE...

*Slowly takes off party hat*
*Makes sure party hat is still within convenient reaching distance though*

Silver Fox are still a rare breed…for now. (Also I appreciate that the SF looks slightly sad but expectant in this photo. Fitting lol.)

I guess we celebrated a little too early. It was an error that Silver Fox were left off the Rare Breed list a couple of days ago. Silver Fox ARE currently still a rare breed but we have been working very closely with the Livestock Conservancy and are expecting to be off the list soon, which was why we found it so easy to believe that we finally did it.

I feel like this might be a little confusing from the outside looking in. If you feel so inclined, here is a bit of an explanation: The American Rabbit Breeders Association page had shared an image with a list that stated this was the new Rare Breed list, effective April 1st, 2024. As many of us very quickly noted, Silver Fox were NOT on the list. As we have been in close communication with LC, we really believed we had finally done it.

I'm usually hesitant to share things that may not be factual but I felt it was safe to assume that since this was shared by the ARBA page, it was "official", as did our national club. Our BOD is always very careful and precise in their matters. They, too, believed we had been successful in graduating off the LC list. We were ALL so stinking excited (in case you live under a rock and didn't notice lol). And maybe the ARBA FB post WAS meant to be official (it has since been removed to, I assume, help alleviate the issue of perpetual sharing of incorrect information). Or perhaps this is an example of why we wait for official communication- maybe in the Domestic Rabbit magazine or an article on arba.net, I'm not sure where else is safe to know for certain that it is an official communication from ARBA, if not their social media page. I realize that this also very well could just have been a human mistake, and that's ok. I choose to give grace instead of judgement. I certainly hope that others choose grace as well.

This was a huge whirlwind of excitement, many kinds of emotions - and have you SEEN how humans are when we are emotional? We tend to be a little overzealous in such a state lol - and I can imagine that just like me, many feel like someone just popped your pretty new balloon. But I have hope; I have hope that someday in the near future we WILL be off the list. I want to commend and thank the National Silver Fox Rabbit Club BOD in their handling of this. We may have celebrated a bit too soon but they are correcting things in a timely and professional manner, which is not an easy task when faced with heightened emotions.

So here’s to the limited number of days for Rare Breed Show entries! Let’s enjoy it for now! Stay foxy!!

04/03/2024

Today is the last day to enter the Oren Reynolds Tribute Show, hosted by Rabbit Renegades in Decatur, IL this weekend! This is also where National Silver Fox Rabbit Club (Official) is hosting our National & Specialty show! There will be, like, a LOT of Fox here! 😉

Entries are due at midnight. Link to the Rabbit Renegades Facebook event page for this show: https://fb.me/e/2SNFzodZi

04/03/2024

The countdown is on! 7 days to get your entries in for Canton! The deadline for the National, Specialty and All Breed Double (Sunday) are ALL due 04/10/24 at 11 PM CST via easy2show.com.

Get those entries in, Creme Team! 🧡

03/30/2024

100 PSL points to anyone that can guess which project our WTF project manager, Latte, is overseeing today! We are doing it Brandon’s way (the plans are “in his head”) so wish us luck. Latte isn’t so sure. I’m with her. 😂 It will turn out…eventually. We are stubborn so it’ll get done but maybe not be quite like we expected. Sometimes (most of the time) he really surprises us though. It’ll be a fun adventure at least.

03/18/2024

That feeling when you get catfished by a rabbit… 😑 Kringle did not have any babies; it’s Day 34 and usually our Crème d’Argents kindle the end of day 31. (We’re keeping her nest box in for another couple days though just in case.)

Soooooo…we cheered ourselves up and got our dopamine fix by breeding 4 does. 🫣 We were so excited that everyone was lifting after such a long dry spell that we kind of just kept going. And so did the bucks 😂 It wouldn’t be St. Patty’s Day if they weren’t all getting lucky, right? 🍀 The most we’ve ever bred at once was 2 does. We have a small herd so this is a lot for us. We also bred 2 other does within the last 3 weeks. That’s 6 ladies due in the next month. So I guess we won’t be a small herd in about 31 days 😅. Send help. What have we done…? All the more reason to cull hard and make sure Freezer Camp has no vacancy, right? Might need to add another freezer soon too lol. 🤭

🖤 Ohio Star’s Uptown Girl (Lady) by Silver Haven’s Mad Max (Licorice) due 03/31 - Silver Fox
💙 Silver Heart’s Serenity by Silver Haven’s Mad Max (Licorice) due 04/07 - Silver Fox (chance of blue)
⚽️ Mystic Fire’s Chae by Pecan Creek’s Vega due 04/14 - Silver Fox (chance of brokens)
🖤 Five Bucks’ Halestorm by Silver Haven’s Mad Max (Licorice) due 04/14 - Silver Fox
🖤 Silver Haven’s Moonlight by Teal Stone’s Galaxy due 04/14 - Silver Fox
🧡 Double O’s Lidia (Cheddar) by Whiskey Tango’s Gravy due 04/14 - Crème; expected meat only litter but wanted to keep her bred and curious what we’ll get

03/14/2024

“Peek-a-boo!” 🫣🥰

Ruby has 2 freshly kindled kits in the nest box currently. One may end up being a FTT but we do have a couple other does due soon so Ruby is a good backup option if another doe has a regular/large litter.

[Pecan Creek’s Vega x Silver Heart’s Ruby; Vega is broken black, Ruby is black carrying blue, both kits are solid- 1 is definitely black. The smaller one looks like it could be blue but sometimes fresh black kits look light for the first day or 2.].

03/07/2024

We FINALLY had liftoff from Silver Heart’s Serenity by Silver Haven’s Mad Max (barn name, Licorice) thanks to today’s sunshine and implementation of wheat germ oil! Here’s to hoping we have some blue in the nest box next month! 💙

03/07/2024

Quail update: Taking some time to stop and enjoy things again & cutting back.

Any folks with outstanding orders will be contacted DIRECTLY within the next 24 hours PRIVATELY.

We have made the decision to step back for a little bit and just get back to basics in order to find happiness with our covey again. We may offer small “batches” of eggs, chicks, adults & feeders in the near future and post availability as we have it. However, the demand is beyond our capacity, we don’t have the desire or means to be a huge, hatchery-level farm and the amount of orders was overwhelming. We appreciate the support and love- truly. But upon trying to keep up and balancing “real life” things, it was beginning to be too much. We don’t have employees to fill in for us whenever needed, we don’t have an abundance of land and freedom to build things how we want to (we live in the suburbs and have nosy neighbors & ordinances to appease), and to be honest, that’s ok! Maybe someday we will want all of those other things but not right now. There is nothing wrong with either thing but we do need to remain true to ourselves. And to be truthful, we need a breather for a bit. We want to revamp how some things are setup and in order to do that, our numbers are going to be extremely minimal. Our very first priority will be what is has been from the beginning- feeding our family and animals. So at this time, we will not have “extra” quail until we restructure this summer to better fit our needs.

Yes, there are ways to remodel with current numbers but it isn’t worth the trade off of headache and stress while balancing school, work and family life. So we are doing it Whiskey Tango Style- fill the freezer and figure it out as we go. 😂😉

Also while we are being truthful- yes, the drama continuously going around is just downright pitiful and childish. We aren’t about that life nor do we want to have anything to do with it anymore. We’ve attempted to step away and it just continues. We aren’t out here to compete or be apart of whatever mountain that’s being made out of a mole hill this week. We just want to enjoy our animals. So at the end of the day, that’s what we are going to do. If you want to stir the pot, find somewhere else to do it. That’s not why we are doing this but to be honest, we are looking forward to a little peace away from all of that lol.

A pretty Pearl girl for tax and to demonstrate it’s ok to slow down and enjoy the things that bring you happiness. The things that don’t bring you happiness need to be culled from your life. 😉🥰