The barn is full! We picked up four rescue alpacas last week: Bling, an adult male with a dark rose grey fleece; Mirthful (aka Bella), a rose grey female; Cinderella, a white/beige female; and Prince, a four-month-old male cria, the son of Cinderella and Bling. They are enjoying the spacious barn and the paddock for now while we pull a few poisonous plants out of the pasture and put up some more fencing. 

When they were originally rescued, they were quite malnourished. Their rescuer helped them put on weight and address a few health concerns, but they still need some extra attention. Each morning and evening April walks up to the barn and feeds them their supplemental snacks, and spends an hour hanging out with them--reading up on alpaca care, scooping up their valuable fertilizer, checking on their body condition, and watching some barn birds--so that they get used to people. (They'll approach you eat food out of your hand, but they don't enjoy being petted or approached by us quite yet.)

We look forward to helping them become healthy, happy alpacas. They're going to make great therapy animals! 

Click here to watch a short video of them on YouTube. 

​If you're teaching someone how to canoe or kayak, you might explain the J stroke and feathering, and take some time to practice before you go out on a river or lake. You might go over the importance of wearing a life vest. You'll probably discuss how to move in a canoe to reduce the risk of capsizing, and how to re-right it and get back in if it does capsize. But if they do capsize, will you keep instructing them on the J stroke in that moment? No! You help the right the canoe.

​I've been thinking about this and emotional/mental health, because sometimes we see people in our daily lives (or in our social media networks) who are sad, grieving, depressed, anxious, or otherwise in a crisis and we do things like telling them about J strokes and life vests when what they need at the moment is help getting out of the water and maybe a nice warm blanket so that they can dry off. Knowing the J stroke may help keep ya from capsizing your canoe, but it does no good once you're flipped and freezing cold.
 
It's something I (april) been thinking about after a friend was in crisis recently. I’m trying to weigh my words if I *have* to speak, and weighing if maybe it would be better to just be with the person in silence. Maybe we don't have to speak as much as we think we do. Maybe most of us have the knowledge of the truth that we need, and living it is the problem—or maybe, just maybe, there are bumps in the road from which no amount of knowledge can completely protect us. 

So, when choosing what to say or do, let's ask ourselves: am I helping them right their canoe?  

**** 
If you want to know one way to right a capsized canoe, check out this Boys Life Magazine article.
If you want more information on how to provide Mental Health First Aid, look for trainings on their website. Some areas may offer them for free--Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health used to (and may still) offer classes for free to churches, schools, or other groups that had at least 15 participants.
If you want to learn more about the difference between empathy and trying to fix someone, this short animated video narrrated by Brene Brown is good. 

April enjoys baking, and we both like having not-too-sweet muffins on hand for quick breakfasts or an afternoon snack. Here is one of the recipes we made recently. If you like this recipe, there's a 1-page printable download at the bottom of this post.
​
Molasses Spice Cranberry Bran Muffins
From the kitchen of Sanctuary Farm & Rest House

Makes 24 Muffins
15-18 minutes at 400°
 
Preheat oven to 400° while mixing up the muffin batter.
 
In a large bowl, combine thoroughly and let stand for 10-15 minutes:
      1 2/3 c. wheat bran
      1 c. boiling water (make a pot of tea to enjoy with the muffins?)
Set aside so that the bran absorbs the water.
In another large bowl, mix thoroughly:
      1 ¾ c. whole wheat flour
      ½ c. white/all purpose flour
      2 ½ tsp. baking soda
      ½ tsp. salt
      ½-3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
      ½-3/4 tsp. ground cloves (or substitute both spices for 1-2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice)
Set dry mixture aside. Enjoy a cup of tea & line muffin tins while waiting for the 15 minutes to be up. 
Whisk into the bran mixture:
      1 c. molasses
      A drizzle of honey (optional)
      6 Tbsp. grape seed or other healthy oil
      ¼ c. dark brown sugar (reduce as needed)
Then whisk in:
      2 eggs 
Stir in:
      1 c. dried cranberries
Add dry ingredient mixture to bran-egg-cranberry mixture and stir just enough to moisten flour. Batter will be very thick but also runny. Divide mixture between 24 muffin cups. Bake 15-18 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 2-3 minutes before removing from pans to serve warm, or to cool on a rack. These are very good with butter or plain.
 
Notes 

• Set a timer for this muffin, as the dark brown color isn’t a good indicator of done-ness.
• The moisture content means they spoil quickly in hot weather so store them in the freezer or refrigerator if they won’t be eaten in about three days.
• Or store batter in refrigerator for up to 1 week and bake as needed.

Billy spent about nine weeks at The Rodale Institute in their veteran farmer training program. He learned a lot, came home with a wounded-and-now-healed chicken named Miss Ellie and a hive of bees, and jumped right back in to working on our guest house. Here is a blurb about him during his internship: https://rodaleinstitute.org/veterans-to-farmers/. We're thankful for the opportunity he had to learn from a large farm with years of organic experience, and for visitors who kept April company and helped us make progress on the renovations while he was gone. 

Last but not least, one of our out-of-state board members was here for a visit. Jennifer Mathews helped us build a large raised garden bed out of untreated scrap lumber we found around the property. We are filling it with our second-hand moving boxes, old newspaper, fallen leaves and sticks, and kitchen scraps. We will let these materials compost in place over the next few months and they should be rich soil in time for spring planting—the last frost is around April 13, so that’s about when we will set out seeds and the plants we’ve started inside.
​
Thank you for your encouragement as we continue to move forward! We hope you are as encouraged by this momentum as we are. ​