Postponement of Grand Opening
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Some of you may have seen a Save The Date notification or heard by word of mouth about Mustang Court Commons’ (MCC) Grand Opening on October 6. The MCC team is so excited to show you all that they have done with the house, but we will be postponing the event until spring next year and combining it with Mustang Acres’ annual sheep shearing. We will be using this time to make everything perfect, ready for our big celebration. We will send out a notification to save the date in early 2025. We can’t wait to party with you all in the spring!
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To celebrate the arrival of the new batch of our very own Mustang Acres’ yarn, we held a pop-up event on September 7 that was hosted by
Avenue Yarns
in Albany. Our sheep’s fiber that was harvested in 2023 and 2024 was processed by
Valley Oak Wool Mill
in Woodland, where the fiber was washed, carded, milled and plied into double ply knitting yarn. As much as we could, we processed the fibers of the same breeds together in order to offer breed specific yarn. We also kept track of the names of the sheep that provided the fibers, which means you can identify which sheep the yarn came from.
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We have a dark blend from our Shetland-Finn Cross and Shetland sheep, medium brown yarn from our Corriedale sheep, grey yarn from our grey Romney sheep, and cream Corriedale, Romney and Finn yarn. All the yarn are luscious with high squish factor! Sales from the yarn support the farm. They may be purchased from Avenue Yarns in store or
online
. Type
Mustang Acres
in their search box to find our farm yarn.
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Land Resilience Partnership
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Mustang Acres was honored to be selected by
Daily Acts
to be part of their Land Resilience Partnership. Daily Acts, in collaboration with
Conservation Corps North Bay
and
The Water Folk
, came together to install a laundry to landscape greywater system. The project was sponsored by Daily Acts, thanks to a grant from the California Department of Water Resources to support community based drought resilience in Petaluma. The team provided free technical assistance, full scope landscape design, and labor for installation. Diverters were installed at each washing machine to allow the user to divert greywater to the landscape or septic, 6 fruit trees were planted, and an irrigation system was installed. This greywater system will enable us to reuse laundry greywater to irrigate the newly planted fruit trees. By doing so, it will help us conserve water and increase our farm’s climate resilience.
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An ongoing project on the farm is replacing all the perimeter fencing, which spans over a thousand feet. When we started the farm 2 years ago, the surrounding fences were rusted and dilapidated, and some sections had been crushed by fallen tree branches. It has been a priority of the farm to replace them, and we started doing this in phases as we raised the funds to do so.
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Recently, we were able to replace the south perimeter fencing with 5 feet high no-climb fencing, which is the recommended type of fencing to use with farm animals. The new fencing will keep predators like coyotes and foxes out, while also providing secure boundaries for our human and farm animal residents.
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The farm has continued to host almost-monthly gatherings to build community and enable families to connect. The most recent gathering in August included a drum circle and wading pool that some enjoyed cooling off in. Families that come are often interested in learning more about housing options for their neurodivergent adult child and being part of the Mustang Court Community and Mustang Acres farm.
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We are a growing speller community where a number of our members are non-speaking or unreliable speakers, and use spelling to communicate. We welcome all who may use other forms of communication. Please email
susan@living-unlimited.org
if you are interested in this housing option or attending our gatherings.
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Spotlight On Our Community Member
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As our farm grows, so does the community that rallies around it. One of our community members is a remarkable young man named Noah McSweeney. Noah has autism and is non-speaking, and he uses spelling to communicate. He is currently attending Santa Rosa Junior College and studying liberal arts. He is an inspiration to many who see all that he
has accomplished, and he enables those who are like him
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to see what’s possible for neurodivergent individuals. He has written some thoughts about the farm and what it means to him, which is showcased here.
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The Underlying Spirit of the Autistic Heart
The gatherings at Mustang Acres farm consist of many of us who are autistic "spellers" in the community and their families. Real connections abound effortlessly as we share life's happenings, and a slice or two of gluten free pizza. The farm, too, is under construction, lasting a while. Though the excitement hovers in the air for its completion, we are acclimating to the space as it changes.
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The happy faces of so many in our growing community can be found here under the shade of a great oak tree. There are lots of activities to join in but no one is pressured, simply welcomed and encouraged to participate. I enjoy the drum circles and being with my friends.
I really appreciate the Mustang Acres family and recommend it to anyone with non-speakers in their life. It is a place we all belong just for being who we are. - Noah McSweeney
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We Are Fundraising For a Barn!
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Our ongoing fundraising project is to raise a barn! Mustang Acres started with 5 acres of depleted land and a gift of 6 sheep. We have since implemented regenerative agriculture practices to sequester carbon from the atmosphere and increase carbon in the soil by planting hedgerows, mulching and composting. We have installed swales and a laundry to landscape greywater system to conserve water and be climate resilient. We now have 11 sheep and 1 llama. We practice rotational grazing with our animals and harvest the sheep's fiber. The yarn is non-toxic, made of 100% natural fibers from our sheep, that is nurtured by beneficial agriculture practices. Won't you help us raise a barn so that we can expand our positive impact on climate change and serve the neurodivergent community while we're at it?
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