Hello's and Goodbye's

I haven't written in a while, because lets be honest, life got away from me. In August of 2019 we welcomed our daughter, Riley Kay into the world and she is the sweetest little kiddo you'd ever meet, (I might be a little biased, but there's a reason we call her Smiley Riley). She has taken up most of my time along with still working full-time, and starting another side business. We've also been actively working on more updates to our fixer-upper home. It seems like we have never ending projects! 

9 months old hanging out with the cattle!

In the last two months, we decided to pass on our donkeys to a new home. I'm so so sad and I miss them, but since having a baby, we weren't able to give them the attention they deserved. Miss Jenny is now a model (yes a model) at the Weeping Willow Magical Ranch in California! This ranch has everything from lamas to ponies to peacocks and is a photographers dream. Photographers are able to use this picturesque ranch and their friendly animals for wedding, baby, family, etc photography sessions. I personally hope to someday visit! 
Forrest went on to live with a young family in eastern Wisconsin where he'll be loved to the fullest! 

Although the donkeys were fun, we really wanted to get back to our primary focus of our highland cattle. It also freed up space to have a halter training pen when it comes time to work with our calves. We also had to say goodbye to our bull Scotty. He was what helped us start Highland Creek Ranch and give us our first set of calves. We ran the risk of him potentially breeding family, so we knew that we needed to say goodbye and find a new man to run the ring. 

Two weeks ago we welcomed Fergus to our ranch! Fergus is a pure bred AHCA (American Highland Cattle Association) registered miniature highland bull with a strong pedigree and a champion show bull. Weeks before he came to join us on the ranch, he won a breed champion buckle in Oklahoma. He stands at 39" and is nothing but a teddy bear and loves butt scratches and alfalfa biscuits. We are so excited to have him on the ranch and further develop our pure bred highland herd. 

With Fergus, we now have a small herd of 6! It was our goal by 2024 to have a herd of 10 and we are more than half way there. Maybe by 2024 we'll have expanded so much that we need a full sized barn! Wouldn't that be the dream. Thanks for following us on our journey at Highland Creek Ranch. Hopefully it doesn't take me another 10+ months to blog again!