Chad Sloan, above, pulls a wagon full of plants to help his mom Lacey with the family garden. Lacey said he enjoys being the “little helper” and keeps transplanting the same potato plant to tell her he’s “planting potatoes.” Above, he climbs the fence to hop into the sheep pen. This year, the family is raising four ewes and one lamb.

“My entire life I’ve been a critter lover,” said Lacey Sloan, owner of Dos Acres Farm. “One of my cousins — she was like, ‘I always knew that you would have a farm and that you’d have a lot of animals.’”

Sloan is now living that dream with her husband, Jonathan, on their just over two-acre farm a few miles southeast of town. In addition to two children under the age of 3 — Chad and Molly — the couple also raises sheep, chickens and ducks, and Lacey enjoys experimenting with her garden. 

Although Sloan says she has always wanted a farm, the wheels started officially turning in April 2017 when she and her husband still lived in town. At the time, she owned a single chicken named Cricket that she kept as a house pet, so she knew they had to find a place out of town. When they moved to their property, their friends Hale and Alicia Redding gave them their “Dos Acres Farm” sign, which reflects the size of the acreage and the Sloans’ love for tacos. 

They kicked things off at the farm by buying more chickens and starting a garden. They also bought ducks the first year to breed, and usually wind up having 30 ducks by the end of every summer. By January 2018, the farm grew a bit more when Marissa Sweet called Sloan to see if she was interested in adding two bottle-fed lambs. 

“I said I had never had lambs before, but this is going to be fun,” Sloan said.

They started breeding the lambs to raise and sell the meat, although this year they aren’t selling meat because only one lamb was birthed. They also have four ewes and hope to raise more lambs in the future. She also hopes to start her sheep on “intense grazing,” sectioning off three small “pastures” in the yard.

Sloan expanded her garden this year by using tractor tires to plant, allowing her to increase her garden without taking up much space, and she is tinkering with hydroponic systems. She is growing pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, gourds, beans, onions, brussel sprouts, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, asparagus and more. She is also growing echinacea and chamomile to make tea, adding that her son loves chamomile tea. Her garden includes flowers — sunflowers, zinnias and wildflowers. Her gardening motto is “we’ll plant it and see what happens.” 

The Sloans shear their sheep once a year, usually at the beginning of April, and she uses the wool in her garden to retain moisture and stabilize soil temperatures. The wool also acts as a weed barrier. Another benefit to wool, according to Sloan, is that it adds nitrogen to the soil as it decomposes rather than intaking nitrogen like wood mulch does. 

Sloan said she never uses Sevin dust or other pesticides on her garden because she wants to keep it as natural as possible. Instead, she uses soaps and essential oils and similar natural garden pest remedies.

“If it’s not something you put on your skin, don’t ingest it,” she said. 

The farm has allowed her to get creative as Sloan has learned to cook with lamb and various vegetables, including kohlrabi and rutabagas. Her family enjoys eating lamb with saffron rice or having lamb burgers, as well as using duck meat for an Asian-inspired dish. With 39 tomato plants this year, Sloan aims to can salsa and tomato sauce, as well as make homemade tomato soup to freeze for the winter. 

“I thought the canned stuff was good,” Sloan said. “Once you realize how much better stuff tastes either fresh or homemade, you just can’t go back.” 

Sloan said homemaking is increasing in popularity across the country, and it is entertaining to her that it is considered a “trend.” She grew up raising exotic birds and plants, including an owl when she was 13. She even carried a baby bird in her purse during her senior year of high school and fed it worms.

“I’ve always been an animal person. And my husband knew that when he married me, but he definitely knows that now,” Sloan said. 

She credits her interest and much of what she learned to her grandparents, and it is something she hopes to pass down to her kids. 

“It’s something that I don’t want to be lost,” she said. “It’s worthwhile to pass down.” 

Although they are young, her kids are already joining in the work. Chad, who will be 3 years old in the fall, enjoys collecting eggs, helping to vacuum-seal meat, and checking on the garden. 

“He wants to be the little helper,” Sloan said. “It takes more time …, but in the long run, it’s nice to be able to share what we enjoy with them.” 

Sloan enjoys the privacy of living out of town, allowing her kids to be kids as they play in the mud, climb trees and run around. She admitted that the hardest part about the acreage is “finding the balance between having the farm and also keeping the farm out of the house.” 

She laughed and said it doesn’t usually happen that way. She once kept four baby lambs in her bathtub for two weeks to keep them warm during a freeze, and her downstairs bathroom is frequently utilized as the “chicken nursery.” 

Farming is a never-ending cycle, according to Sloan, and they keep incorporating more animals to their farm, recently bringing home a turkey as the newest member. 

“I know that there is a fine line between hoarding and farming. Farming is hoarding with intention, I think,” Sloan said, with a laugh. 

Sloan has offered small-farm tours in the past, so her long-term goal would be to expand on that. Although it is just a farther-down-the-road idea, Sloan said, she would love to possibly host a one- or two-day farm camp for kids.

News Letter Journal 14 W. Main St. P.O. Box 40 Newcastle, WY 82701 Ph: (307) 746-2777 Fax: (307) 746-2660