Alexander Family Farms

Our livestock guardians are so big already that we often forget they are puppies.. We joked that Lola wanted to look just like her sheep.. We aren't sure if its because she wants to be one or if its to better disguise herself for predators... Haha!

The dogs are doing a wonderful job guarding the sheep and they work just like we were told they would. Our female works the fence line regularly and our male tends to stay close to the flock, especially the lambs, as a sort of second line of defense. Amazing!

June 2nd is rapidly approaching, if you can believe it, and that means The Vintage Barn Sale is almost here! We are putting together a really well stocked booth for this years sale. We will have lots of recycled and salvaged building supplies, including antique lap siding, old redwood t & g siding, old doors, vintage 50's cabinet doors with chrome hardware, as well as vintage clothes and housewares, $9 jeans and finished salvage products. We hope to see you there.. 8-5 at Ponderosa Ridge Ranch in Anderson, CA...

Well, sometimes. I hate pulling weeds. Don't get me wrong, I love the end result but I hate to do the work!! So every fall I let them go in my beds unless I am using them. We just got done pulling the weeds from our strawberry bed and, believe it or not, last years plants were still alive and actually thriving! The weeds seem to have protected the plants from all the frost. We already have blossoms! So feel free to let the weeds go in the fall and if anyone asks, just say they are mother nature's blanket for your plants!

We have had some problems with predators here, so when we started our sheep flock I wanted somewhere safe and secure for my ewes to lamb, or to use if one of them was injured. Our livestock guardians are great but they are still pups. We, again, used salvaged scraps of lumber and tin and built small houses or huts, four feet by eight feet, one with a door and one without. I painted them to match our barn, and then on the door I used chalkboard paint. They turned out better than I had hoped and the sheep actually use them! 

We had our very first lamb born on the property this morning and we are sooo excited! Flo had a cute ram lamb and there looks to be another one on the way. Hopefully we will know sh

We are doing all sorts of exciting things this coming spring and summer! Our store is almost completed and will debut at The Vintage Barn sale at Ponderosa Ridge Ranch in Anderson on June 2nd. We are very excited as this will be our first show. We hit the massive First Mondays sale in Canton Texas two years in a row so we have lots of ideas! (If you are a die hard thrifter or picker this trip is soo worth it! Plus the River Walk and the Alamo aren't that far away in San Antonio..One of my top 3 favorite trips) Some of the items we plan on having there will be door bookshelves, a kitchen butcher block island, a massive rack of vintage clothing and well loved denim, and lots of salvaged building supplies.  Check out pics from last years sale on Facebook, 

We were hanging out with family this morning and decided that we needed to get out and do something. We ended up hitting the thrift store, which is not something I normally do on a weekend, I am more of a weekday thrifter. But oh man, was I pleasantly surprised! The store was packed with new merchandise! We introduced 2 newbies to thrifting, which is always fun and everyone went home with an exciting find. The best today was probably the canvases that Katie purchased. New stretched canvases can be pricey, but if you find one that has been painted on and doesn't have a lot of texture to the painting, it can be spray primed and then spray painted white and reused! Katie scored $30 worth of canvases for $2.50! Who knew that by going thrift shopping together we would save money and bond!  (Well we knew about the save money part!!)

Dixon is a very friendly pointer border collie cross. He came out of a lonely situation where he was not socialized with other dogs. He moved in here tuesday and within a few hours was running and playing with our pack. He was raised with a two year old and has been fine with our daughter and our other animals. We are working on basic commands and he is picking them up very quickly. Dixon is eager to please and will learn quickly if given the chance to bond with someone. He is just under a year old, comes with all of his own stuff and is a very healthy, happy dog. With a little patience and consistency in training, Dixon will make someone a great best friend. Contact us if you are interested in adopting Dixon! 

Our new litter of rabbits is doing very well so far. I am too nervous to claim success as of yet, but they are growing and pulling in fur so that is a great sign! I just checked them this morning and got an accurate count and we have 12! A few of them are huge! I also checked my does to see who is nursing and at least Daisy is, and Rose may be lactating as well.. We will keep you posted on their progress. And hopefully, with the weather warming up bit by bit, everyone will begin to see healthy litters again. I spoke with my vet about some of the problems we were having and one thing he mentioned as a possibility was that we are taking very good care of our rabbits which makes them healthy and strong. Perhaps because of this they are breeding during winter when they normally would not; and maybe the mamas'  instinct is not to put the energy into raising a winter litter. Either way it is really reing to see a healthy litter again!

Last night we had a litter or two born! There look to be 15 babies in the nest, which is why I am not sure that it is just one litter! So everyone keep your fingers crossed that they survive this crazy weather!