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Blogs & Newsletters

Our tenth farm newsletter (July 2022)
Our ninth farm newsletter (July 2021)
Our eighth farm newsletter (July 2020)
Our seventh farm newsletter (January 2020)
Our sixth farm newsletter (August 2019)
Our fifth farm newsletter (April 2019)
Our fourth farm newsletter (May 2018)
Our third farm newsletter (January 2018)
Our second farm newsletter (September 2017)
Our first farm newsletter (February 2017)

Tiny Tune’s first egg

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“Tiny Tune” hatched from a blue egg laid by a Cream Legbar hen mother via a Wyandotte rooster. Tune, a bantam hen, raised her, and the name “Tiny Tune” just stuck, even though she’s now three times the size of her hatching mama.

Cream Legbars lay light blue eggs and our Wyandottes lay light-medium brown eggs…voilà! Tune lays a light olive green/sage green egg! She’s the grey-ish hen in the center of the photo below.
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1/24/2020 0 Comments

A free knitting pattern

After knitting and knitting and knitting, April decided to write a pattern using alpaca yarn. The pattern is designed with purchased alpaca yarn, but hopefully soon we will be able to make one with yarn spun from our own alpacas!

If you knit or know someone who  knits, feel free to download the pattern from Ravelry (a free site for knitters and crocheters). 
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8/13/2019 1 Comment

Our First "Open Farm"

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Mercedes wears her lunch while Duchess says, "Hey! Hold still and I'll eat that garnish right off your head."
Want to meet alpacas? Curious about our recovery program? You are invited to join us for our first open house at the end of August.

What:
An open house to see our farm, visit the alpacas, talk with the director of recovery and our guests.

When:
Saturday, August 24, noon to 4 pm
Sunday, August 25, 1 pm to 5 pm

Where:
At the farm on Brakebill Road, north of Middlebrook. 
Follow the red and yellow "FARM" signs from Hwy 115 in Middlebrook, going north from Maynard, AR.

Cost:
Free! 

But you can support the farm with a purchase at the farm stand:
  • Alpaca dryer balls
  • Fresh baked goodies
  • Woven willow bird nest fluff
  • Farm fresh free-range eggs
  • Hand-knit cat toys stuffed with alpaca fleece
  • Hand-knit dish cloths and scrubbies
  • Miscellaneous hand-crafted items

Please note: as this is a recovery farm, please, no alcohol or tobacco products during your visit.
1 Comment

4/8/2019 0 Comments

Snapshots

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A few days ago we and our guest built this bluebird nest box following plans from the North American Bluebird Society. The box is made from an old oak board we found on our property last year, while the roof is a pine board scrap stained with food-safe stain. Now to decide where to hang it!

​Projects like this are 1) useful for our goal to be a habitat farm, 2) useful for helping guests feel like a contributor and successful right away, especially if it’s been a while since they’ve felt that, and 3) useful for practicing reading instructions, problem-solving little wood-working hang ups, and managing irritability when things aren’t instantly easy.


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4/3/2019 1 Comment

The guest house is habitable!

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"A real house...when I walked in it made me feel like a real person, not just an addict."

Thank you to everyone who gave us furnishings--they helped make the house cozy and non-institutional, the goal for which we were aiming. We have one bathroom left to do and a few little things here and there in the two other bedrooms, like hemming curtains and assembling a bed, but the guest house is very close to done. 

Top left: the kitchenette. Most meals will be with us in the main house, but guests can prepare breakfast or snacks here. 
Top right: the living room (now with some houseplants)
Lower left: the ADA bathroom
Lower right: one of the guest rooms
1 Comment

3/18/2019 0 Comments

Veteran on the Move Podcast interview:

Billy was interviewed on the Veteran on the Move podcast and got to talk about our farm vision and his transition from the military to civilian life. Click here to listen to the interview. Thanks to Joe Crane for this opportunity.
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0 Comments

1/17/2019 0 Comments

Annual Summary

We send an annual letter to our financial donors. This is a summary of what we accomplished in 2018: 
Guest house
  • Mold remediation was a success!
  • New wheel-chair accessible bathroom & a widened doorway for one bedroom
  • New shower pan and bathtub installed
  • Electrical wiring repaired, new grounded outlets installed, light fixtures installed
  • New wall and attic insulation, new drywall, and fresh paint
  • Window frames rebuilt
  • New heat/ac installed and functioning (so pleasant to work in a warm building)
Farm
  • Four alpacas getting used to people so that they can be therapy animals
  • Three pigs helping us clear the pasture for the future vegetable garden
  • Guinea fowl and 30 chickens eating bugs, grass, and fertilizing
  • Lots of fence building and repair
  Networking
  • Billy had a successful organic farming internship at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania, and April went to veteran-focused yoga instructor training with VETOGA in Washington, DC.
  • Billy volunteers weekly at a women’s maximum security prison where he is teaching based on the 12 Steps, and trauma & forgiveness.
  • Billy is connecting with men at a short-term “boot camp” rehab who may come to us afterward for a transition back to regular life.
  • We took a class on trauma & spirituality at Fuller Theological Seminary; one more class scheduled toward Billy’s doctorate in recovery.
  • We hosted a dozen casual guests: some to volunteer, and some who came for respite.
 
We’re glad to have you alongside us on this journey, and we look forward to what 2019 will bring. 
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1/7/2019 0 Comments

A quick update

Because we found the window frames were icky when we gutted the house, Billy has rebuilt them using plain pine. With the new drywall and fresh coats of creamy white paint, the guest house is closer and closer to ready for our first residential guests. Up this week: scraping old linoleum glue and drywall debris off the concrete floor so that we can finish the flooring.
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And meet our pigs! Pig One, which we’ve had for about 6 weeks and who is standing in their trough at the back, was bored and also not clearing out this area fast enough. (We’re using pigs instead of the borrowed tractor to clear some pasture for the vegetable garden.) Today we got Oreo Pig and Pale Pig, and they seem to like the pasture. Pig One wagged her curly tail and started playing; Oreo Pig joined in, but Pale Pig is a little skittish. We plan to move their 25’x25’ pen every three weeks so they can clear more. Then the Rooster Brothers will come through and scratch things up, with mulch and alpaca beans. Spring is coming!

We also borrowed a tractor to help put in cedar posts, harvested from our woods, to fence the garden. 
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9/29/2018 1 Comment

A full barn

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Bling wants a closeup of his fancy halter and the sunscreen on his nose.
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. 
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Prince (a beige cria) and his auntie Mirthful investigate the barn.
1 Comment

9/8/2018 0 Comments

Righting the Canoe

​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.
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Image from Boys Life Magazine

​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. 
0 Comments

9/3/2018 0 Comments

Guest house recipes: Molasses Spice Cranberry Bran Muffins

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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.
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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.
farm_molasses_spice_cranberry_bran_muffins.pdf
File Size: 57 kb
File Type: pdf
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    Billy & April Vaughan are the founders and directors of The Sanctuary Farm & Rest House. 

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