Contact Information
The four of us that live at Sunflower River call ourselves Stewards. We take care of the land and work to improve our soil and ecosystem.
Katharine Heatherington
Kat has spent most of her life aimed at sustainable community, except for a brief diversion into graduate school, from which she emerged with an M.A. in Literature and a career in academic advisement. In spite of graduate school, she still loves books, and is one of the people primarily responsible for the state of the livingroom (i.e., book-lined). She's a poet, artist, and appreciates a good drum jam in the very inmost depths of her soul. She grew up gardening, managed to find time to keep up with potted tomatoes through grad school, and launched back into real in-the-dirt gardens upon moving into a one-person casita in 2003, where she also started harvesting rainwater and greywater, and learning the first principles of greywater recycling. Sunflower River community and farm is her dream life come true.
Tristan Fin
Alan Post
Alan grew up hiking, fishing, and hunting in the wild places of Arizona. He did not have any previous gardening or husbandy experience before coming to Sunflower River.
Jenny Rice
Tattersall
Tattersall, also known as the Fluffaluffagus, is our Maine Coon housecat. He's also the only yurt-cat, spending his nights in the yurt with Kat & Alan most of the year. He came to live with Kat in 2005, and is, near as we can tell, about twelve years old. He loves living on a farm. His primary occupation is Love Sponge, and like most older cats, his primary interest, when he's not cadging cuddles, or playing with toy mice, is sleeping.
Woodwose
Wose is our Barn Cat. She came to us from a rescue agency that works with local shelters to rehome feral and semi-feral cats. She is young, probably not more than four years old. She was semi-domesticated by someone before being turned in to the shelter. She has decided to stay with us, and decided to trust us, and absolutely loves to be petted, provided that the barn door is shut and the dog can't see her. She is a fierce and efficient mouser, and has solved the barn mouse problem.
Thistle
Thistle is our Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog. Like the farm, she's chock-full of potential. Actually, she's a great dog, who also happens to be a puppy at the moment, and thus very excitable and wiggly and, well, large. She is a good guardian of her poultry and rabbit charges; we have had no predator problems at all since she joined the farm. She's enthusiastic and sweet, and will win your heart away the moment you meet her.
Penny
Penny is a Rhode Island Red hen, whose feet don't line up quite right, and who consequently cannot get around too well. So she lives in a chicken tractor where the other hens can't peck at her. She's a reliable egg-layer, and likes to have her shoulders scritched. She's the most domesticated hen on the farm.
Ora
Ora is an Americauna hen, and has the distinction of being our oldest hen. She came to Kat & Alan from a friend when they lived in Mulberry House, and moved onto the farm with us in Fall 2007. She was boss hen to an increasing number of chickens until this past summer, when other hens usurped her authority. At that point, we moved her in with Penny. She's about six years old now. She is retired, and spends much of her time drowsing in a sunny spot.
Chickens
We raise chickens for meat and eggs. We have had good luck buying day old chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery and raising them in brooders. We have a diverse flock, encompassing many heritage and standard breeds of chicken. We are working on getting an incubator set up so that we can raise meat and laying chickens from our own eggs.
Rabbits
We raise New Zealand/California cross rabbits for meat and fur. We spent 2009 designing custom rabbit condos in order to solve several housing problems. The rabbits love their new condos, and we are back in the process of breeding them for meat again. In the future, we also plan to get angora rabbits and raise them for their wool.
Turkeys
We raise heritage turkeys for the thanksgiving market. As with the chickens, we have had success with ordering poults from Murray McMurray Hatchery and raising them in brooders, but are planning to incubate our own in future years, for cost efficiency. In 2009, we raised White Holland and Bourbon Red turkeys, and found them humorous, quirky, fun to raise, stupider than the average fence post, and excitingly delicious on the thanksgiving table.