Hillcrest Farms was conceived as a ranch for raising Rocky Mountain Horses and Angus-Hereford cattle. Severe droughts have periodically prevented grass from growing, and have created challenges for the original plan. Cattle occasionally were sold off. The horses have passed on. After this year’s drought (2018) what remains of the cattle are the original foundation cow, purchased as a calf and now a grande dame at twenty-one years of age; a home-bred miniature heifer; and a bottle-baby whose mother produced too little milk for little baby Princess Moonfeather to have survived without a good supplement. We’ll add a page with some history, photos, and a video or two of the livestock in the near future.
In 2008, we added 100 chickens to raise for eggs, and to experiment with heirloom, rare, and otherwise interesting breeds. For more on chickens, check out www.doyoureallywanttoraisechickens.info and one of these days, we’ll add a chicken page here, as well! We’ve published a few books about raising chickens: here and here and here .
After adding chickens, there was an overabundance of mice. The rodent population became an alarming concern with a bubonic plague die-off of prairie dogs through 2014 and 2015. Just about that time, the good lord saw fit to send some stray cats this way, and now, fortunately, the cats keep the mice at bay. So, over a couple of decades, there has been an evolution occurring here.