Dear friends, customers and followers,

this was (and is) not only a very hot summer, but also a very busy one for us on Big Bear Ranch. I am sorry to have missed several month with our next newsletter, but it was just so much to do and quite a challenge due to the dry season with lots of hot days, no rain and the forest fire – situation in the Cariboo region. Most of our animals did not seem to suffer much by the smoke of the forest fires and the dry weather, except for the chicken. They hardly layed any eggs.

Horsefly was cut off for a while as Williams Lake got evacuated and we were lucky to have virtually all of our food grown on our place. We were very close to the evacuation order area, but so far we were only bothered by the smoky skies with dark days and no growing happening on the field or in the garden. We had to cut 30 % more acres for hay than in other years to get the hay we need for the winter. 

Because of some road closures due to the fires we were not able to deliver beef to the butcher in Kamloops. And he had to discard all the lower value cuts of all his customers. This was his only solution to at least take care of higher value cuts because his freezer was filled to overflowing and his customers  could not pick up their meat in time. For that reason we are now short on certain cuts and organs, as well as on beef bone broth the next deliveries (all the bones are gone).

But we have now pork bone broth available, because these bones already were in our walk in freezer. Thanks to friends in Horsefly, who lend us their big generators, we could save all our meat in our walk in freezer on the Ranch.

Our Cattle, sheep, horses and pigs depend on the hay to survive the long cold winters up here.

The fires and the smoke are not only frightening, it creates sometimes wonderful pictures.

We hope you are all well and wish you all clear skies and a fresh breeze!

Your team on Big Bear Ranch