2023 in review

And just like that, 2023 is a wrap.

As we look back on last year we’re incredibly grateful for everything we have accomplished so far. What a wild ride! This time last year…

We had just built our fence.
We had no garden.
We had no livestock.

We were just starting from scratch! But as we all know, things made from scratch are usually better.

In the past twelve months we’ve managed to start a new flock of chickens and also raise hundreds of quail not only for meat and egg production, but also for our own color genetics breeding program.

We’ve grown our own produce and raised our own meat. Our quail covey and chicken flock have started producing enough eggs that not only have we been able to start selling at local farmers markets, but we’re able to give back to our local community each month to do our small part of combating food insecurity.

Since we have accomplished so much in our first year on The Ridge that I thought it would be fun to look back on all of our highlights.

January

We welcomed the pigs to The Ridge.
February

We added our first adult quail from Southwest Gamebirds and hatched our first quail eggs from Thieving Otter Farm.
March

Our first chickens arrived, we started our garden and hatched even more quail.
April

Our second batch of chickens arrived, our March chicks moved outside and we expanded our quail breeding infrastructure by adding a Hatching Time layer cage. (Get your Hatching Time cage and incubators here!)
May

We started hatching our own quail eggs, incubated our first batch of Celadon coturnix quail eggs from Southwest Gamebirds and incubated our first batch of Black coturnix quail eggs from Thieving Otter Farm. It was a very busy month for quail on The Ridge!
June

We kept hatching more and more quail, our April chicks moved outside and we started our late summer seeds.
July

Our blackberries and wineberries were in prime season and we canned our own jam for the first time!
August

The March chicks are no longer chicks and have started laying their own eggs! Our garden is starting to yield some produce and we have now processed nearly 100 meat birds.
September

We vended our first Farmers Markets! A huge goal accomplished in our first year on The Ridge. And we also wrapped up our first hatching season with our last hatch of Coturnix quail.
October

We wrapped up our summer harvest in the garden, sold our first piece of taxidermy and Farmer J processed his first deer.
November

Our last quail hatch moved outside, we did our last batch of meat birds and closed the garden for the year.
December

We wrapped up the year with our last Farmers Market of the year and the piggies celebrated their first birthday.