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Hazy River Homestead & Ranch

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Kooskia, ID
Hazy River Homestead & Ranch

Welcome to Hazy River Homestead! We’re on a small 6 acre off-grid farm

01/31/2026

Gumdrop and Celtie in their working clothes

01/30/2026

‘Are your pigs pastured?’

Not exactly, but sort of.

During the winter there isn’t much pasture to speak of. If we let the pigs roam right now they would cause too much disturbance and we would set ourselves back in pasture growth during the growing season and end up with fields full of thistles and burr plants (we’re trying to get rid of those!)

But did you know goats waste hay? 🙄 and a lot of it…

Right now instead of fresh pasture, the pigs get the hay the goats deem unfit to eat. It’s still green grass and the pigs love it. They also still spend plenty of time running around in the sunshine and digging in the dirt. And we bring the ‘pasture’ to them.

Since it feels like spring in North Idaho right now we did some spring cleaning in one of the goat sheds. The pigs get to eat the top, freshly wasted hay, and the compost gets the bottom decomposing layers.

When it’s warm enough to fence some more and there is active growth in the pasture, the pigs get to go out and help root out some of the roses and blackberries.

01/29/2026

Some cooking inspiration.

I thought I would start some posts with the theme of what to do with your farm goods. Most of us have lost the skill to be able to turn a whole food into a meal. When I left home, I was pretty good at cooking hamburger helper and pan frying chicken breast but that was about it.

Yesterday I made tamales from a 9 pound pork shoulder roast. Slow cook the meat, shred with spices, and pack into corn husks with a basic tamale dough (made with real lard!) - these are much healthier (and tastier) convenience meals than I could buy from the frozen section of the grocery store.

In college I had a grocery budget of $20-30 for a whole month. One month I remember spending half or more of that budget on ingredients for a giant batch of tamales. I took over the apartment kitchen for a day and fogged up the windows with the steam from cooking them. I froze them in gallon baggies and they lasted me a good while. And they were delicious for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

So here is one option for how to cook the pork from your pork share 🐷🐽

01/28/2026

Gingersnap is my sweetest Nigerian doe. She’s never even lifted a leg to try to kick, she hops right up on the stand and does her job, very no fuss no muss.

She can be hand or machine milked easily and has a buttery soft udder.

She’s a Graceridge Goats doe, most of my Nigerian does are. I’ve been very happy with the quality of Nigerians that Laurie breeds.

01/26/2026

Meet Love.

Love is an East Friesian/Icelandic ewe. She has a beautiful dense black fleece. She is a BIG girl! And the goats find her intimidating even though she’s just trying to make friends.

She’s bred to an Icelandic ram and due the end of February or early March. Excited to try sheep’s milk for the first time soon.

It’s cold here this morning, and she has a fine layer of frost on her back.

01/25/2026

Pigs are back!

We have availability for humanely-raised, non-gmo pork shares with an expected butcher date in March/April.

Our pigs get to dig in the dirt the way they were designed to, we feed locally sourced non-GMO grain and organic scraps, and once pasture is available they will have the benefit of running on grass (and digging up some rosebushes for us).

We’ve been told from previous buyers of pork shares that our lard is the best lard they’ve ever had.

If you’ve never ordered your pork directly from a farmer before, no need to feel overwhelmed! We can walk you though the process including picking out your cuts with the butcher. You can use our preferred butcher or we can deliver to your butcher of choice.

Reach out with any questions, or to reserve your whole or half hog 🙂

01/19/2026

Very happy to have chickens back on the homestead again. We just eat too many eggs to not have our own!

These are American Bresse. Their parents came from Sunshine State Bresse in Florida. Compared to other ‘dual purpose’ birds I’ve had my hands on, I’m impressed with how meaty these birds are.

Looking forward to getting some chicks hatching this season, both to grow our laying flock and fill our freezers.

01/06/2026

Clean sheets for the girls on this rainy day.

Capricana Alpines you can see that Grace approves, big smile😆

01/03/2026

Setting up a pen for a new addition - coming soon!

01/02/2026

Always nice to have confirmation that does are bred.

Gumdrop, Coconut, and Via all got positives today.

I wanted Via on my fall kidding schedule with the rest of the Nigerians, but she and Charlie had other plans. Stinkers.

12/31/2025

Entering the final stages of ‘sheep soup’ and moving into ‘sheep stretch’ phase.

This is a hide from a border Leicester lamb we butchered this fall. The hide was heavily salted to preserve it until I could come back to it, I fleshed it a week ago and put it in oxalic acid/salt solution to pickle, deactivated the acid with a washing soda soak, washed with detergent and rinsed. It’s now hanging and starting the drying process. Over the next several days to a week I’ll stretch it, sew holes I nicked while skinning, and trim scraggly edges.

Once dry it will get conditioned with saddle soap and neetsfoot oil, then brushed out with a carding brush

12/30/2025

Over 3 pounds of cheese from a gallon and a half of milk!

This winter milk is unreal 🐐

Address

Kooskia, ID

Telephone

+12084464807

Website

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