Milka, our Jersey milk cow, got a nice calf in June.

They did extremely well for being in a competition the first time. Lisi Ohm from Vindslalur rode Isa fra Big Bear Ranch and Christine Schwarze from the Icelandic Horse Farm rode Tobi fra Big Bear Ranch.

Yes, picture a wooden-frame pen with mesh wire around it, half covered providing shelter from the rain. These pens gave the chicken free range status, yet protected them from foxes and coyotes. We moved the pens daily, thus allowing the chicken to constantly scrounge through new grass. Not only do you raise a healthy chicken this way, you also add some very important natural fertilizer to your fields.  The ranch was a busy place for travelers from the WWOOF organization again this year.

Frederik, a fellow from Germany, who was traveling the world with 2 of his friends,  stayed for a number of weeks and got to be quite the ranch-hand to say the least.  Next we had Laura, a girl from Luxembourg, who was doing a practicum at the nearby Gavin Lake Research Forest. On her weekends off, she enjoyed coming out to the ranch to help with the daily chores, go for a trail ride or take outdoor/wildlife pictures.

Later on in the year, we also had a German couple, Patrick and Sabrina, stay for a few months.  They are exploring Canada for close to a year and wanted to get some insights into the ranching lifestyle.

Others included Regina with her mom Patricia, both from Switzerland, as well as Georg and Johanna, from Denmark, who seemed to really get into the swing of things as well. Thanks to all of you for your help this summer!

Other visitors were some of our customers who wanted to come for a visit to the ranch and to pick up their meat order.  Such was the case when Matt and Felix, from Blue Mountain Wineries out of Penticton came up this fall to see what the ranch is all about.

Besides the fencing projects, other tasks included constructing a small shed, building and fixing roads, putting in new gates, improving the root cellar, installing siding on the house, selectively logging, cutting lumber, working in the garden, canning and preserving vegetables for the winter…the list goes on and on.

In addition to that, we were also busy with numerous custom Bobcat loader jobs such as piling brush, building more fences (that never seems to end!), bucket work as well as a full landscaping job for a nice family at Little Horsefly Lake.

Another big hit was the annual Horsefly Fall Fair this year. Gigi did quite well again, cleaning off numerous first prizes with her homegrown/homemade creations ranging from anything imaginable out of the garden to beer and butter.  The annual festival is quite the attraction, luring in people from near and far.

Florian participated in the Art Walk in Williams Lake this fall by displaying some of his wildlife and nature photography.  Being his first show, it went quite well, claiming first price at the People’s Choice Awards.

Rainer was also very busy as an Environmental Farm Planner. It is great to see more and more people taking advantage of the EFP program. As it stands right now, the initial program has come to an end, however, it has been extended until March 2008 and due to the large interest, the hope is for the government to keep the program running for another 5 years. We will find out in the early part of 2008 if that will be the case.

He was also involved in the development of a “Biodiversity Guide for BC Farmers and Ranchers” together with The Land Conservancy of BC.

Rainer and Gigi also attended more seminars such as a “Birch Syrup Workshop”, a “Grazing Mentor” school and the “Ranching For Profit” -school in Edmonton. They had both taken part in the latter in 1999, but due to its intensity and volume of information, they found it more than worthwhile taking it for the second time. 

Worth mentioning are the new slaughter regulations in place now. These have certainly made it even more difficult for small businesses such as ourself to compete against the giant corporate meat producers. Under the new regulations, it has become increasingly difficult to get slaughter dates at the certified slaughterhouses, since there are less and less of them.  This gives the producer two options. One is to feed the animals well past their ideal slaughter weight, thus increasing the cost to raise the animal and in the end result, increasing the cost for the consumer.  Another option is to drive the animals huge distances to another slaughter facility, if they have any room that is, adding additional stress to the animals and again increasing the production cost, thus increasing the price for the consumer.  A change is needed fast and the more people raise the issues to their MLA’s and other government representatives, the sooner we might be able to bring some order into the matter of things and try to keep the ever-increasing pressure of the giant mega producers to put the smaller producers out of business at bay.

The only sad news is that our big Akbash/Great Pyrenean guard dog, Barry White, passed on in November. He was almost nine years old, which is a respectable age for a large breed.  Since we sold our goats in 2003 Barry had to find a new herd to take care of. He chose us and followed our heels wherever we went, doing the chores, feeding the cows, logging in the bush, haying in the field….it didn’t matter, you could always count on Barry being there. He liked to be close by, yet always kept his own personal distance.  All these years, he was our loyal companion, a gentle white giant, yet a strong fighter when the need arose. His impressive size of 130 lbs together with his strong, independent, patient and confident character was sure to astound anybody who met him.  We will miss, respect and remember Barry forever!

We think he had a good life here at the Big Bear Ranch, afterall, not too many dogs can call 2000 acres their home. Even though this is a sad moment in time, the bright side of the story is that we had the honour to spend these years of our lives with such an amazing animal, whom we called Barry White!

So overall, it was a good year, with some ups and downs. We would like to thank all our repeat as well as new customers, private or commercial such as Vale Farms, for their continued support throughout the past year and we will do our best to keep the relationship going.

Due to controversies with some members of the Biodynamic Association of British Columbia, we decided to go back to the Pacific Agriculture Certification Society for our certification.

Time really flies by and I can hardly believe, that we will travel to the International Food Conference in Victoria in just 2 weeks.  I am on the discussion panel about the importance of biodiversity on farms and ranches (www.brainfood.uvic.ca).

On the way we will make our next meat delivery to the Lower Mainland and Vancouver on Monday, 28th of May.  Please let us know, what you need.

On the ranch happened a lot after the snow melted away really slowly, giving our soil a much needed good soak.  The last years were dryer than normal and the cold nights (even last night was -2C) and strong winds slow down the grass growth.

We are really excited to have honey bees at our place for the first time!  Mike Ambach from Williams Lake put up some of his hives at our place and we will have free honey for ourselves!  Bees are really important for the balance of our ecosystems and we are pretty concerned to learn about the mysterious disappearance of bees in the US.  But with more and more GMO crops around and the stress of moving the hives sometimes often and very far away, we may have an explaination already.

Another big addition is our Jersey milk cow Milka! Hopefully she will calve in the next few days and than we finally will have healthy milk without pasteurization and so on.  The surplus will be enjoyed by the 50 little pigs running around.