Hayes Family Alaska

06/20/2026

These folks Bauman's Fiber Farm Valais Blacknose Sheep raise some adorable sheep. Lovely family trying to keep farming alive and well. Would everyone hop on their page show them some love, give them a follow and ACTUALLY engage. ❤️

Keep on Keepin On. 🫶

DID YOU KNOW MANY COUNTRIES WASH THEIR SHEEP BEFORE SHEARING? 🐑🛁

In much of the world, washing sheep before shearing is a common practice.

In the United States, it's much less common.

But maybe it should be.

A clean sheep produces a cleaner fleece.

Less dirt.
Less dust.
Less vegetable matter.

That means higher quality wool and less waste during processing.

There is another benefit many people don't think about...

Clean wool is easier on shearing equipment.

Dirt and grit dull shearing blades faster, making the job harder on both the shearer and the sheep.

Is washing sheep extra work?

Absolutely.

But when you're trying to produce premium fiber, every step matters.

We believe great wool starts long before the sheep reaches the shearing stand.

What do you think?

Should washing sheep before shearing become more common in the United States, or should the wool mill handle the cleaning later?

👇 We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Wash pits in Switzerland 🇨🇭

06/20/2026

They Sold You “Health”.. 😂

Here’s the part of the plant-based movement no one wants to talk about:

It was never just about compassion.
It was never just about the planet.
It was never just about “health.”

It became a billion-dollar sales pitch.

Big food companies bought up the brands. Global corporations rolled out fake meat, fake cheese, fake milk, fake eggs, protein isolates, seed oils, gums, starches, flavor enhancers, and lab-made “better-for-you” products — then wrapped them in green packaging and called it progress.

And while farmers were being demonized, factories were getting richer.

Follow the trail.

Gardein is under Conagra. MorningStar Farms is under Kellanova. Garden Gourmet is Nestlé. Kraft Heinz partnered with NotCo to push AI-driven plant-based foods. Unilever bought The Vegetarian Butcher and then later moved to sell it when the category started struggling.

And it gets even more interesting: Pfizer sold its nutrition business to Nestlé for $11.85 billion. GSK sold Horlicks and other nutrition brands to Unilever. Abbott, a healthcare company, sells Ensure, Similac, and Pedialyte.

So forgive me if I don’t clap when billion-dollar corporations tell us farmers are the problem while they sell us factory food under the halo of “health.”

Then they handed you ultra-processed substitutes and told you it was enlightenment.

Meanwhile, studies have raised uncomfortable questions about meat avoidance and mental health, with some research finding higher rates or risk of depression, anxiety, and self-harm behaviors among people avoiding meat.

No, that doesn’t prove plant-based diets cause depression.
But it sure should make people pause before swallowing the propaganda whole.

Read the label.
Follow the money.
And stop letting the people profiting from confusion tell you farmers are the villains.

Receipts:
Conagra / Gardein: [https://www.conagrafoodservice.com/products/gardein](https://www.conagrafoodservice.com/products/gardein)
Kellanova / MorningStar Farms: [https://www.kellanovaus.com/us/en/brands/morningstar-farms.html](https://www.kellanovaus.com/us/en/brands/morningstar-farms.html)
Nestlé / Garden Gourmet: [https://www.nestle.com/brands/culinary-chilled-frozen/garden-gourmet](https://www.nestle.com/brands/culinary-chilled-frozen/garden-gourmet)
Kraft Heinz + NotCo plant-based joint venture: [https://news.kraftheinzcompany.com/press-releases-details/2022/Not-Your-Average-Joint-Venture-Kraft-Heinz-and-TheNotCompany-Create-Partnership-to-Accelerate-AI-Driven-Plant-Based-Innovation-Globally/default.aspx](https://news.kraftheinzcompany.com/press-releases-details/2022/Not-Your-Average-Joint-Venture-Kraft-Heinz-and-TheNotCompany-Create-Partnership-to-Accelerate-AI-Driven-Plant-Based-Innovation-Globally/default.aspx)
Unilever / The Vegetarian Butcher sale: [https://www.unilever.com/news/press-and-media/press-releases/2025/unilever-to-sell-the-vegetarian-butcher-to-vivera/](https://www.unilever.com/news/press-and-media/press-releases/2025/unilever-to-sell-the-vegetarian-butcher-to-vivera/)
Pfizer sale of nutrition business to Nestlé: [https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-completes-sale-nutrition-business-nestle](https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-completes-sale-nutrition-business-nestle)
GSK sale of Horlicks/nutrition brands to Unilever: [https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-to-divest-horlicks-and-other-consumer-healthcare-nutrition-products-to-unilever/](https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-to-divest-horlicks-and-other-consumer-healthcare-nutrition-products-to-unilever/)
Abbott nutrition brands: [https://www.abbott.com/en-us/products-solutions/nutrition](https://www.abbott.com/en-us/products-solutions/nutrition)
Meat avoidance and mental health review: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32308009/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32308009/)
Vegetarian diet and depression risk meta-analysis: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33822140/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33822140/)
Meat consumption, depression, and anxiety meta-analysis: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34612096/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34612096/)
Vegetarian diet and depression scores meta-analysis: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34375207/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34375207/)

06/20/2026

Yes.. It's most definitely a needed word in certain situations. 😅

It is not always a nice word, but sometimes it is necessary.

06/19/2026

This all of this.. Also sprinkle them with a little love today. 💕 Not all heroes wear capes. 🙌🫶

06/19/2026

That’s a whole mood. 😂

It’s funny being in a robe, still enjoying coffee at 10 a.m., like the world expects productivity… and I’m over here negotiating peace treaties with my sixth cup. 😅🤪

And yes. Those are Mr. Hayes's house shoes I stole 8 or more years ago. 😂

06/19/2026

Island Beef Detective Needed 🕵️‍♀️🥩

Well, here’s today’s off-grid conundrum…

I was talking with another island neighbor, and she mentioned the beef we’ve been getting has been giving her belly issues, issues she said she’s never had before. And since most of us order from the same grocery store… naturally, my brain put on a trench coat and grabbed a magnifying glass. 😅 We've narrowed our belly issues to the beef. We joke in our house don't trust a fart. Like really don't. What's on the other end is nothing short of an explosion. 🫣🤣

Now, here’s where I need help from someone smarter than me in the grocery-store meat-sourcing department.

We raised our own beef for years. We sold direct to families, not grocery stores, so I never had to become a full-blown beef detective. I knew the animal, the farm, the feed, the processor, the butcher date, and basically everything short of its favorite pasture gossip.

But now I’m staring at beef in my freezer wondering:

Where exactly did this come from?
What ranch? What processor? What country? What plant? What lot?
And who do I ask to trace it back?

Do I start with the store?
The label?
The distributor?
The USDA establishment number?
A barcode?
A strongly worded letter from my stomach?

Because apparently I have questions… and this pot roast is now a person of interest. 🥩🕵️‍♀️

Any meat-market, grocery, USDA, butcher, or “I’ve solved this mystery before” folks — point me in the right direction.

Signed,
A former farmer who never thought she’d have to interrogate a chuck roast. 😅

゚

06/19/2026

Plant-based food isn’t a movement.
It’s a marketing machine.

They took ultra-processed factory-made products, wrapped them in green packaging, sprinkled words like “sustainable,” “ethical,” “climate-friendly,” and “cruelty-free” across the label, and somehow convinced people they were making a healthier, smarter, more compassionate choice.

Meanwhile, the factories got richer.

They demonized the farmer.
They villainized the cow.
They made real butter scary.
They said raw milk would make you sick.
They made eggs controversial.
They turned beef into a climate crime.

Then they handed people fake meat, fake cheese, fake milk, fake eggs, seed oils, gums, starches, protein isolates, synthetic vitamins, preservatives, flavor enhancers, and ingredients that sound like they belong in a science lab.

And people clapped.
Because the propaganda worked.

When you dumb people down long enough, they stop asking questions. They stop flipping the package over. They stop wondering why the same corporations selling them “health” are profiting off sickness, confusion, and disconnection from real food.

A cow turns grass into milk and meat.
A chicken lays an egg.
A farmer grows food.

A factory makes a product, hires a marketing team, buys a moral halo, and sells it back to you at triple the price.

That’s not progress.
That’s propaganda with a barcode.

06/18/2026

Animal activists love to scream about “saving animals,” but let’s be honest - most of them don’t actually live with animals, raise animals, doctor animals, sit up all night with a struggling mama, bottle-feed the weak one, bury the ones that don’t make it, or make the hard calls when suffering begins.

They see a 30-second video online and suddenly become experts in farming, livestock care, slaughter, land management, nutrition, and morality.

Meanwhile, the farmer they’re attacking has dirt under their nails, heartbreak in their chest, feed bills on the table, and animals depending on them every single day.

The reality is this: loving animals doesn’t always look soft. Sometimes it looks like hard decisions, blood, mud, loss, responsibility, and respect.

You don’t have to agree with farming.
But maybe stop pretending the people who actually keep animals alive know less than the people yelling from behind a screen.