# Sunset Acres Ranch



## Meaghan (Feb 28, 2015)

So, a while ago, we decided to name our property, business, etc. Sunset Acres Ranch. Since I haven't really shown you guys around, I thought I would. I'll have to have a few consecutive posts in order to share all of the pictures. 

The back of the house.



 

Neighbors chickens. 


 

Garden area that we are clearing. 


 

Our large oak tree out back. 


 

The back of the house where we have raspberry vines and three varieties of apple trees (Golden, Fuji, and mystery) that the previous owner planted last spring.


 

Future pig pen.


 

Our growing orchard. So far we have Pomegranate, Black Walnut, Cherry, Peach, Nectarine, Apricot, Honeycrisp Apple, two Pear varieties, and an Apple-Pear. Later this summer we will be adding two varieties of Orange, Lemon, Avacado, Lychee, Dragonfruit, Guava, two varieties of Mango, and possibly Papaya. 


 

Our Kiwi vines.


 

The previous owner had a blueberry patch that got overgrown with weeds. It's growing above our septic drain field, so that's why this area is full of weeds that aren't anywhere else. In need of serious weeding, but it isn't high on the priority list right now.




Annnnd our front yard now has a giant hole where a Sago Palm used to be. We pulled it out because it's incredibly toxic to dogs and anything else, and we didn't want our dogs getting into it. Two dogs just died at UF because they chewed on the palm fronds and their owners didn't know it was toxic until it was too late. Said they had it for 9 years with no issues, then had them drop dead in a matter of hours. So we are replacing it with an Arrowwood tree that's native to Florida. We picked it up at the Farmer's Market today. Arrowwood is mildly toxic, but it won't kill animals only make them sick.


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## Hens and Roos (Feb 28, 2015)

very nice, looks like you have plenty of projects to do!


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## Meaghan (Feb 28, 2015)

Inside we have our pets! Every has a different story. I know not everyone on here is into rescuing animals, but it's one of my passions. 

Left to right, Gizmo, Bubbles, and Alexander. Gizmo was a kitten we got at the local shelter and he has Herpes, which means he's constantly sick and on Anti-Viral meds. He's only 1 year old this April. Bubbles is a cat that showed up on our apartment doorstep when we moved to Florida last August. She was microchipped and tracked back to an owner who never called back, and she was adopted as an 8 week old kitten from a shelter an hour south of here. She turned 2 in November, so likely just a kitten that out grew her cuteness. Alex I adopted from a shelter in Oregon as a friend for Rachel. He is a bit of a jerk to the other cats because he plays rough, but he's only turning 3 this spring so he's still young. 


 

Rachel was my first cat, and I adopted her from a shelter in Oregon because she was a feral kitten. She's still really reserved and doesn't like other people. She turned 2 in September.


 

Jack is another cat that showed up on our doorstep here in Florida. He is pretty raggidity, but I don't think he's more than 4 despite the lack of teeth. Just been through a lot.


 

Small pet room.


 

Our rats, Peach and Pear. They are 8 months old and came from a rescue near Orlando.


 

Our guinea pigs Luna and Sol are 3 years old and came from a shelter in Oregon when a hoarding case got turned over to them. They were two of a total of 38 guinea pigs and 14 rabbits that were surrendered.




Emma (b/w) and Henry (orange and grey) are 6 and 2. Emma is a Holland Lop mix I got from an Oregon rescue as a companion to Darwin my first bunny. He passed of cancer back in September, so I got Henry a Mini Rex mix as a companion for her from a rescue here. They have free run of the floor space in the small pet room. 


 

Kisses is our newest rescue, he came to us last Friday from Nathan's coworker who couldn't care for him anymore. He was her kid's pet, but they left for college and she couldn't afford him anymore. He's a 7 year old Lutino Cockatiel. 




Salt and Pepper are our 2 year old ferret pair, they came from our vet clinic where they were turned in when no longer wanted. They have a small room to themselves that was built to be an office but we use a spare bedroom for our office so this worked out better than a cage for them. 


 

And last but not least our dogs. Stella is our LabxPit mix and she'll be 4 in May. She came from an Oregon shelter and she is my first dog (aside from family dogs growing up). Apollo is our Great Pyrenees and he came from the Florida Great Pyrenees Club. He's 2 this May also. We are planning on rescuing a Greyhound from a local rescue this summer as well.


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## Meaghan (Feb 28, 2015)

@Hens and Roos: Definitely plenty of projects

Got a better picture of the dogs. Yes, they are spoiled rotten.


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 28, 2015)

Nice looking place 
Enjoy


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## Chivoville (Mar 3, 2015)

Wow...that is quite a herd you have there Meaghan!  I bet you are one busy lady taking care of everyone...Your property is beautiful and it sounds like you are really enjoying it...I love how the goats are racing towards you in the first picture.  Just curious, are the goats usually penned up or do they have the run of the place?  How do you keep them from eating everything in the yard?


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## Meaghan (Mar 3, 2015)

@Chivoville: We are definitely very busy. Just feeding, cleaning, and daily animal stuff takes a minimum of 30 minutes in the morning and 1 hour in the evening. 

Our goats have a temporary pen in our garage until they are large enough to be outside full time. Later this week we will be clearing out the pig pen area to pen the llama in with the babies during the day so they are used to each other and can safely be together in the pasture. The babies are only out in our yard when someone is with them, otherwise we wouldn't have any fruit vines, trees, etc. left!


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## HoneyDreameMomma (Mar 3, 2015)

The place looks great, and it will be fun to see how it grows.   Be sure to continue sharing pics with us!


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## Meaghan (Mar 3, 2015)

Well, we have made a bit of progress in the garden. Two days ago we managed to get three large trees pulled out of the ground. Nothing like tree removal without a chainsaw that works! 



 

 

These are the trees we have left. 7 in the garden area, 4 outside of the boundaries that just need to be cut down and not derooted.


 

Babies like playing in the garden area for now. They won't be able to in a few weeks!


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## Meaghan (Mar 8, 2015)

The babies are doing fantastic with Cloud! They have been outside most of the daytime for the past 3 days and are great with him. Cloud scared off the neighbors dog, which meant no harm as she hangs out with the neighbors goat all the time, but we were still proud of him for chasing her off because that means he's doing his job! 



 

We also got another saw, this time a reciprocating saw, and got one of the largest trees felled for the garden area. It's about 30ft tall, and our chainsaw isn't working, so we dug out the roots and felled it by hand. We should be able to get another smaller one or two felled in the morning.


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## HoneyDreameMomma (Mar 9, 2015)

Good boy, Cloud!  What a great llama!  Looks like you've been putting in some hefty hours clearing those trees.  Good luck!


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## Meaghan (Mar 15, 2015)

It's been a bit slow going lately, but today we had a bit of a disaster. Two neighboring dogs got into the pasture and had a tussle with Cloud. His face and chin is pretty torn up, and he's slightly lame but still weightbearing on one leg, and is going to need several days of antibiotics and wound care.

The long story short was the neighbor's kids were letting their dogs out to go to the bathroom and weren't watching them, and we had only just woken up so we hadn't been outside yet. Their father was angry with them, and paid the emergency vet bill for us. 

Poor Cloud.  It may be his job to guard, but I still hate seeing any animal in distress or pain. He's going to be on banamine and penicillin for a while.


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## Hens and Roos (Mar 15, 2015)

Poor Cloud...


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## Meaghan (Mar 15, 2015)

Thank you @Hens and Roos. It's been a rough day. He was perky enough to fight us for his second penicillin injection this afternoon, and he seems to be bearing weight normally now on his leg. 

Off and on all day we've stumbled outside to check on him only to hear the neighbors (their house is about 200ft from ours) reprimanding the kids today about what happened. Both the husband and wife next door apologized profusely for the situation, and that neither of them were home this morning to oversee the kids. 

I'm just glad that the kids had sense enough to come get us when the situation went bad, even if it was only 9am on a Sunday. I may live on a farm now, but I am still not a morning person!


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## Hens and Roos (Mar 16, 2015)

that he makes a full recovery.  

Glad to hear they came and got you!


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## Meaghan (Mar 18, 2015)

Really sad news for you guys... Cloud unexpectedly passed away this afternoon...


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## Hens and Roos (Mar 18, 2015)

so sorry to hear


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## norseofcourse (Mar 18, 2015)

I'm so sorry to hear that


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## Meaghan (Mar 18, 2015)

Yea.. He was doing fine at noon and was dead at 3:30 when I went outside to bottle feed the goats... The emergency vet we called on Sunday thinks his tetanus vaccines weren't effective enough or he didn't receive the right booster series when he was young... 

Poor Cloud... I don't know what we are going to do without him... We're now tight on money and without a guardian or electric fence...


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## Chivoville (Mar 18, 2015)

Oh, so sorry...Maybe the neighbors will compensate you...It sounds like they tried to do the right thing so far


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## Meaghan (Mar 18, 2015)

I don't know... It's one thing to pay the vet bill, it was only $250. We paid $450 for him and $200 to have his body hauled away today... I don't think our neighbors have another $650 just laying around... Not that it would do much good, LGDs are around $800 here...  not something I should be worrying about right now but it would be awful to lose one of our goats because we lost Cloud...


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## Latestarter (Dec 5, 2015)

Hope you get an Email alert... How are things going? Have any pics to share? How are the goats, the dogs, the land... Hope you had a good summer/fall/Thanksgiving and are getting ready for Christmas.


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