March 12, 2026

We have our first booking for 2026, a traveler with Harvest Hosts. She was excited to learn that her visit in late April is perfectly timed to enjoy baby goats cavorting in the barnyard. We except the first kids to be born about April 15th and kidding will continue for about two months. While Craig is busy preparing for kidding season, I’m excited at the progress we’ve made with Square Space Experts help to transform our Healing Hooves website to feature our Country Skies ag-tourism venture as well as our goat sales, targeted grazing and soil health coaching services. Will be sharing my 2026 Life on the Ranch journal for our initial blog posts. Almost ready to go live!

March 7, 2026

Took a walk to get the mail on this beautiful spring day. Marvelous opportunity for walking prayer and taking time to purposefully notice my surroundings. There is beauty in the landscape just beginning to escape dormancy, in the weathered rocks, in the big sky arching over rolling hills.

March 4, 2026

First sign of spring at Cloverdale Ranch is I'm not wearing long underwear today! Sparing everyone the pic I took of the bare knobby knee behind my jeans, adding pic of pansies that made it through the mild winter instead.

February 26, 2026

Just finished the project installing tubing for radiant heat into the joists under the living room. At one point as Craig was drilling overhead while I was holding the ladder, I thought to myself "maybe I should grab that hard hat off the shelf." Then I got hit on the head with a falling piece of wood. Yup. Wore it the rest of the day. Should have paid attention to the US Coast Guard sweatshirt I was wearing and remembered the motto Semper Paratus. Always Ready.

February 21, 2026

Today's project - install two 300 foot lengths of radiant heat tubing. We're not "done" done but we're definitely done for the night. And googling advice we probably should have googled before starting.

February 9, 2026

Life on the Ranch: With Craig off to a symposium on alternate cropping systems, I had to get my own firewood and it's like playing Jenga, or at least it was the way I did it. I pulled the wrong piece and got a cascade at my feet. Checked the water troughs, relieved to find they were all full and the heaters were working, so no ice to break. Spotted Gigi out at the edge of the crop field positioned for maximum sun and minimum wind. She was okay with having a big pen to herself for a vacation from being on duty for awhile, but got bored and let herself out while we were on vacation. She's not going anywhere, she's a "homing" breed of LGD (Livestock Guardian Dog) and not a "roaming" breed. Still well supplied with wreaths from the cemeteries, they will provide goat treats for the next few months until the pastures green up.

All in all a quiet day, with a skiff of snow this afternoon to remind us it's still winter.

February 4, 2026

Even after 30+ years as a rural EM, there’s always something to learn. Attended Pediatric EMS class hosted by Airlift Northwest at their Davenport base. Gorgeous sunset, eh?

February 1, 2026

It was a crisp, sunny Saturday afternoon on the last day of January. I was just about finished with my writing assignment when Craig came into the office. "Would you like to go for a walk?"

"That would be lovely," says I, turning to see a slightly different smile on his face. One that said this was not just a romantic stroll. "And . . . ?"

"We need to walk the goats back from the meadow to the barn, and I need your help."

Afte hitting publish on Substack, I dressed appropriately for a walk involving ranching and we headed down the driveway. It really was lovely, always delightful to take time to enjoy the view together.

Then the work started. I had Oakley on leash and waited. One false start, the goats wouldn't follow without Oakley's help, but Gigi came so I swapped dogs. Gigi and stood in the driveway between the gate out of the meadow pen and the county road. Our assignment - to pretend to be a fence so they'd turn towards home instead of the open road. We did our assignment well. I took pictures.

Oakley, however, is the most frustrating border collie we've ever had. He brought the goats across the meadow to the gate nicely bunched together, out the gate, turned toward the barn and headed up the driveway and then . . . he decided there wasn't enough action. He does not have a slow speed. He disobeyed commands, ran at them, split the herd in three groups and had a grand old time doing four times as much work as necessary.

His humans were not amused. We got 'em all moved in the end, but there are no after pictures back at the barn, we'd almost lost daylight. Darned dog.

January 20, 2026

There was a time when I would have adamantly and perhaps just a bit angrily insisted I can do anything a man can do and don't you dare be stereotyping me. These days I volunteer to be in charge of washing dishes because I can soak my aching hands in warm water and incidentally duck being too involved in chores like finding and fixing broken pipes in the barnyard in January. Speaking of the barnyard, these wethers are looking pretty satisfied with their winter quarters. And much more pleasant to contemplate then a broken pipe!

UPDATE: One day and three trips to the hardware store later, what started out as a one-man job turned into husband and wife
DIY. Good news is finally got the pipe repaired and the goats have water without hauling buckets.

January 15, 2026

Life on the Ranch: We were blessed to share the Cloverdale Ranch with Pastor Katie and the Reardan Presbyterian Church youth group for a Friday/Saturday mostly off-grid overnight. Time for one last party before taking down the seven Christmas trees we splurged on putting up in December. Instead of a Friday night movie, they were invited to dig into the board games in the entertainment center after a hearty spaghetti dinner. A giant checkboard the size of the Twister mat came out, then the actual Twister mat gave one group a workout while games of Uno, Sorry and others popped up. Christina had also prepared a special Jeopardy competition for the group and Oakley prowled the living room looking for anyone who wanted to pet him.

Then there was a hilarious and uproarious game of Five Second Rule played on the large area rug. I totally spaced out the rug was located right over the sleeping quarters downstairs, where a young missionary couple is staying as our guests. Even our careful soundproofing was not up to the task for a dozen rowdies, and we got a gentle request for quiet hours at 10pm (sorry about that!). A quieter game of Mafia closed out the evening. You were right, Lydia, when you said judging by the noise they must be having a good time!

And just have to share this gem from conversations over breakfast pancakes and sausage. As the kids discussed whether each of them was Gen Z or Gen Alpha by their birth years, one young woman remarked "2009 is the cutoff, hard to imagine anyone older than that."

To which I replied "If you think 2009 is old, then 1955 is going to blow your mind."

And my Boomer advice to the young whippersnappers? If we'd known we were going to live this long we'd have taken better care of ourselves. So watch yourselves and take care of those bodies!

January 10, 2026

Picked up about a hundred wreaths at Pines Cemetery in Spokane Valley as treats for the goats, and of course whenever we drive off the ranch we have a list of errands. Also visited Mom's place for lunch (our favorite "restaurant") and pinochle, North 49 for livestock salt and parts for the watering system (also for the goats), haircut for Craig, diesel for the pickup, and groceries for us. Oakley came along for the ride. We left him in charge of the groceries while returning the cart, something that would have been impossible with any other dog we've ever owned, especially our favorite flat-coated retriever named Herbie, infamous for his appetites!

January 1, 2026

Happy New Year! Craig and I (Sue Lani here) started agri-tourism last summer on a small scale and decided we enjoyed having visitors on the ranch to share our journey. It’s a blessing to us to see through our urban guests eyes what we too easily take for granted living every day in the glories of God’s creation. Looking forward to what’s in store for us in the new year as we seek to bridge the ancient rural/urban divide!