This is a bit of a belated post, dear blog-readers, and for that, we apologize. Those of you who visit our farm regularly are well aware that we have a motley crew of canines that accompany us everywhere. We refer to them as the "welcoming committee". The leader of the pack was Jake (shown above), Donna's "right hand dog". He showed up on the farm, about 13 years ago...full grown, out of nowhere, and said "Hi. I'm going to live here now." He was the perfect dog, gentle, quiet, never needed a leash or did anything wrong. He was just..there, steadfast, calm, and wonderful. He adored Donna with all his canine heart, and was there for her in great times of need. Time passed, and while his spirit remained valiant and true, his body became old, and simply didn't work anymore. He passed away, peacefully at home, surrounded by his human, canine and feline family, shortly after Christmas. So next time you visit the farm, you won't see the big lovable chocolate lab there....but we know for sure that he is with us in spirit.

So, as you may know, Donna and Maggie help a local organization with some pet foster/rescue. THis lovely fellow is Al/Bullet (we prefer to call him Bullet). He was shot by his owner, lived, and is now, fortunately, recovering and in fostercare at Prairieland Herbs. He spent his first night in a house (Maggie's house) last night, and did remarkably well, considering! Isn't he a sweet fellow? To read his whole story, go here: Bullet's Story. He is needing money to cover his vet care, so if you are looking to make a charitable donation this holiday, consider donating to cover his vet care! Some of our VERY generous friends and customers have already donated (thank you, FACEBOOK friends!) - it is MUCH appreciated!

So this morning I headed to work with my faitful Dobercompanion, Duncan, Bullet, and 3 foster kittens. Welcome to my world. :) Bullet is doing GREAT, working on housetraining, is TOTALLY great with the cats and dogs, utterly confused by the mini horses (what ARE those?, he says) and is perfectly behaved on the farm - no leashes or fences needed. So far, so good. Now he just needs to find his forever home.

Huzzah! My camera battery arrived. Now I can show you the pics I took a week or so ago. Here's a bit of late-winter sunshine.

Here's Contessa, one of our mini-horses, getting nosy :)

Here's Princess and her onery baby Delilah.

And Mo, posing beautifully!!

Local animal lovers -we need help!


A local fellow has had 2 sort of accidental litters. There are 2 litters of puppies - one is purebred Jack Russel Terrier, the other is 1/2 Jack Russel, 1/2 rat terrier. They REALLY need homes. They are about 8-10 weeks. One Jack Russel puppy is deaf, so will have some special needs.They are free.

Folks, these are high-energy, very intelligent dogs, with a long lifespan. IF you are ready for that responsibility,and are wanting a puppy, please do call or email us. Phone - (515)438-4268, email, shop at prairielandherbs dot com. We will put you in contact with the fellow. He really does need help finding them homes. We are hopeful he has learned his lesson.

We have kittens. We always try NOT to have kittens - all of our friendly farmcats are of course spayed and neutered. However, it's a farm, and having a feral cat or two in the barn is unfortunately a common occurrence. We have a feral tabby that had 2 kittens, which we caught and tamed. And, 2 slightly older kittens were dumped on the road outside our house. So, we have 4 kittens in need of homes. Above, is Princess Miranda. a VERY long-haired torti - she will need to go to a home where someone will be wiling to brush her and help care for her long glorious coat! She was one of the feral kittens that were dumped on our road. She is now super-loving, athletic, and very playful!
This is little stripey (not yet named). She is a talker - BOY is she a talker! Quite cuddly, she is one of the younger ones that was born in our barn. She has a sister, and all-black kitten we call Burdock, because she sticks to you like glue. She declined to be photographed for this blog -she was too busy sitting on the photographer's shoulder. She really will sit on your shoulder for hours if you let her, even if you're wandering around the house doing dishes or putting the laundry away, etc.

And this little beauty is a beautiful grey tabico (mostly tabby, with a few bits of calico marking). She's very loving and the most playful of the bunch!! She was one of the feral ones found by the road.

They have all been wormed and treated for fleas. We are hoping to get them spayed through the local animal protection agency, for very low cost. If you are interested in a kitten, please do let us know, as these are up for adoption to good homes!

I've been very lax about posting pictures lately - I'm sorry, everyone! it has been a busy few weeks. heck, it's been a busy month. I'm not sure where it went? We didn't even have time to do an October e-newsletter!!! Anyway, here are a few photos, taken yesterday. We had a "hard" freeze about a week ago, but have had gorgeous weather (almost 70! balmy, sunny - I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt) since then. Go figure. The cold-hardy herbs - mints, catnip, sage, thyme, are still green and lovely, but most of the others are either harvested or just - done. The photo above is a shot of our annual herb beds.

The farmers were delighted with the week of sunshine and dry weather - all around us, the fields are bare and empty, like this one.

And here are 2 of the "babies" - the miniature horse "kids" grow so fast! Baron is on the left, and Delafino is on the right.

More soon......

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This is SO exciting. Last year, we purchased a few saffron bulbs from The Rosemary House, just for fun - I mean, isn't it a great idea to grow the world's most costliest spice in your backyard? These little plants are amazing! They are a fall-blooming crocus, and are extremely easy to grow! We just popped them in the ground last fall, and pretty much forgot about them until *this* fall, when I noticed they had come up and - yes - even had actual saffron to harvest! I'm going to plant LOTS more! If you're interested in growing your own, I highly recommend it - they're inexpensive to purchase, grow beautifully in most places in the US, and are practically no maintenance.

And - just to show you how naughty Donna's little horses are - on these gorgeous fall days we simply leave the door of the shop open, to enjoy the sunlight and the breezes. Well, in their morning perambulations, the little horses just stopped on in to say hi! Delilah is on the left, and Baron on the right. Ollie, our mastiff-mix dog, is in the background - the babies are bigger than he is now!

Last week we had a group of 80 (!!!!!!) homeschool kids/parents visit our farm. it was a MADHOUSE for about and hour, then...whoosh.....they were gone. Mostly, the kids liked the dogs. I tried to get a picture of the mass pandemonium. :)


I don't recall there being a calico cat for sale on our website, but someone must have ordered one. :) Here is Violet being extremely cute, in a flat-rate priority mailbox. ;)

NEW SOAPS! We have a new soapmaker, the wonderful Terri, owner of "Biscuit's Boutique Soaps". (Biscuit is her cat's name - isn't that cute?). She is from Des Moines, and makes wonderful essential-oil blend soaps. Now, nobody panic - Karla is not going anywhere! She's still making her amazing soaps and shampoo bars for us. She's just being kept very, VERY busy keeping you all in soap! So Terri is going to make a few new varities for us as well. I promise you'll love her soaps. They smell great, have cute labels, and have huge lather!

Speaking of cuteness. Here is the view from the front door of the shop, taken the other day. Donna lets her mini horses out to graze every morning for a few hours. They pretty much wander anywhere they want, and don't *usually* go too far. This day they decided the grass right outside the front door of the shop was pretty tasty. In this picture we see Contessa (the white one), Baron (the smaller brown with white markings), and Dutchess (Baron's mom).

Delilah is the oldest baby, she is a RIOT. She is SO inquisitive - she loves to investigate everything, and often does so by tasting things. (She loves to nibble - EVERYTHING). She has been known to pick up tools or items and just...carry them off. Why? We don't know. I think she is part puppy. Anyway, all the rest of the herd calmly grazed near the shop, paying no attention to the open door. Not Delilah. She looked up, saw the door, and walked right on in. What a funny girl! (She didn't stay long, just long enough for me to get this quick picture).

A few snapshots from last Saturday. Donna and Zach, our faithful summer minion, um, er.....slaveboy, no wait.....WORKER, that's it....anyway, Donna and Zach are painting the walls of our shop! For those of you that have never visited - our shop is awful tiny. It's 20 feet by 30 feet, and Donna and I built it ourselves (with help from a retired electrician/handyman friend). It holds our office, kitchen, and entire retail area. So...there's alot of stuff in a very small space, which makes painting really interesting. We move things from a section of the wall, paint, wait for it to dry, paint again, wait for it to dry again, then move everything back. Repeat.

Zach was, I believe, mildly horrified to have to paint walls PINK, but he did the job with enthusiasm and gusto.


John was constructing a manger for the mini-horses (six of them sharing the one existing one we had was just tooooooo many!).

Which ended up looking a bit like a coffin!!!
And last but not least....meet our new puppy, a rat terrier mix, named Monk! He loooooove the other doggies and kitties, and was terrified of Beaker until yesterday, when the 2 of them started this new game where they sort of harass each other. He goes up to Beaker and barks, Beaker lowers his head and sort of "fake" chases him off. Repeat.

(To be clear - Beaker is FULLY CAPABLE of chasing this little guy down and pinching the dickens out of him if he wants. He's a goose that's large and in charge. This truly is a game the 2 of them have devised).

Another hard day's lounging at Prairieland herbs.....mmmm laptops are warm, says Sassy!

As promised - pictures of the storm damage from last weeks 80-100 MPH straight line winds. This is donna's deck, which basically just disconnected from her house, because of the horrible winds. It was leaning WAY more, but as you can see was propped up on poles, and is in the process of being fixed.

We spent most of Tuesday cutting up huge branches that were downed, and hauling away branches of all sizes into this huge brush pile. it's hard to see the size of it, but it's about 6 feet tall. We'll have a heck of a bonfire when it all dries out.

The neighbors trampoline blew about a half mile away. We found their slide, lawn chairs, and a few kids toys caught in various trees and bushes. Crazy weather!



Sassy adores spending time outdoors. isn't he handsome?
And, now Violet thinks she is a candle, I guess. She is a goofy girl.

Cuteness alert!

you have been warned.

This is Contessa with her brand new little colt! He is TINY. we think he may have been born prematurely, but, so far he and momma are both doing well. We're watching them very closely and giving them extra feeding and care as necessary.


Is this not the most handsome goose you have ever seen in your life? he's peeking through an old wooden fence.

We're furiously packing orders from our recent enewsletter/sale. Which necessitates lots of boxes, which we brought in, and put on the counter, and then were unable to use for SEVERAL HOURS while both Mo (left) and Violet (right) took a nap on them. sheesh. don't they know how their cat food gets paid for?

last but not least, can you guess which one of these items is NOT a gift set?

I'm just posting some older pictures I didn't have a chance to post while my computer was kablooey. I LOVE this picture of Toby (Donna's grandson), in his pj's, raincoat, and sneakers, proudly walking his Delilah.
And, we have a new puppy on the farm. This is Pal, a 3 month old Jack Russel Terrier puppy. My grandpa saw him at Picket Fence Creamery and fell in love, so he came to live on the farm with the rest of the gang. He's super cute, ALL puppy, and probably smarter than the rest of us put together. He can certainly run faster than us....

WE HAVE A NEW BABY MINI-HORSE!!

Christened "Baron" by my grandpa, here he is! Born late Friday June 27th or early Saturday, June 28th.


His mom, Dutchess, is a wonderful and protective mother. She has just now started to let him wander away from her a bit, and we can finally scratch and pet him. He's sooo soft!


And now all of a sudden Deliliah, the bigger baby, looks HUGE. here she is in one of her favorite poses. a true beauty queen, she adores basking in the sunlight.....

We have some new arrivals on the farm - Miniature horses! We've always had horses (or mules) on the farm - generally, a motley assortment of equines that for some reason needed a new home. I can remember a retired barrel racer, a jumping mule, and a few just plain horses and ponies. The last 2 we had, some of our long-time customers remember (and still ask about). They were old and mellow, and didn't actually want to leave the farm, so we took down the fences and let them roam at will, like really big dogs. But the last one passed away several years ago, and Donna has been waiting for the right time to get a horse or two on the farm again.


Well....a horse or two somehow turned into 3 adult miniature horses, one with a newborn baby, and the other two due to give birth!!! (The dark brown one in the top picture is due any moment now!)

Here's mom and baby. The baby is about a month old and is SUPER funny! She leaps, jumps, cavorts and generally has a fantastic time racing around being cute. They had names given to them at their old home, but, they don't seem to know them, so we're just taking some time and learning their personalities and figuring out what their names will be.


This beautiful girl has bright blue eyes!
The inter-species introductions were most humorous. For those of you that don't know, we have a total of 5 dogs that freely roam the farm, (2 are Maggies and 3 are Donnas), and a Canadian goose named Beaker that also roams at will, not to mention several (okay, lots) cats. Everyone generally gets along. Sometimes Beaker chases the cats, and sometimes the dogs chase Beaker, but it's all in good fun, no real harm is intended - it's mostly about pecking order and sheer onery-ness, I think. Oh, and Beaker thinks he is a person or a dog (we're not sure which), and does not identify in the slightest bit that he is a bird.

Anyway, most of the dogs are very large, and the horses are very small, so there was some initial inter-species confusion during the initial introduction. The picture above shows Ollie, a 110 lb mastiff mix, sniffing noses with one of the new minis. He sorta figured out she wasn't really a dog, but....the baby horse is only about 30 pounds, and prances around playfully. For the first day or so, all the dogs were trying to initiate playfullness with her in typical dog fashion - stomping paws, play-bowing, and racing around like dorks. She of course did not understand these strange motions. The baby horse thought they were really weird horses, and the dogs though she was a really stupid puppy. Everything has been resolved now, and Ollie and the baby have figured out that they can play games where she races around the pasture and he races around after; it's quite cute.

Beaker is enjoying the warmer weather - mostly, because it means that he can eat all the fresh greens and herbs he wants - his favorite foods! He will eat dried grains if he has to, but....they are most certainly not his choice of meal.


From Donna's shade garden


Go-cat luxuriates in the sun...Isn't her expression just great?


I *think* spring is finally here. We aren't past the danger of frost yet, BUT..chives are about to bloom! always a cheerful spring sight.

I'm fully convinved that Toby, my nephew, is the only person left in the Midwest who is actually enjoying this cold and icy winter. Every day the bus drops him off at PLH after school, and he spends a happy hour or so, bundled up in snowpants, jacket, mittens, hat and boots, running around the farm, sliding on the ice, playing in the snowdrifts, and generally having a good time. Ah, to be in first grade again!

We adults however are THOROUGLY sick of it. It's pretty much the ice and the cold that are most annoying. We have had a solid sheet of ice covering the farm since early December. Donna has fallen on the ice a couple of times through the winter, and Maggie did twice just this week. (thankfully we are both well padded on the rear end). It's just awful, and there's nothing we can do about it. Even the dogs lose traction and go sliding sometimes!



Even Violet is tired of winter! Here she is hiding from the horror of it all. "Wake me when spring arrives", she says.




Beaker doesn't seem to care too much one way or the other. He's a bit bored, because his "flock" is spending all their time indoors. He much prefers warmer weather, and he loves to help garden, distill, or just generally hang out outdoors with his "peeps". heh heh.