Happy Halloween everyone! Fall has fallen at Flip Flop Ranch for sure.  The leaves are dropping from the trees and the goats are greedily eating them up.  Flip Flop Ranch continues working towards its goals of decreasing domestic violence and building relationships.  If you haven't seen it yet, look at our new program website Mended Hearts Therapy and tell everyone about it!  Mended Hearts Therapy is our couples therapy program offering research based methods of counseling that includes building a foundation of friendship, getting off the crazy cycle of conflict and onto an energizing cycle of love and respect, and creating shared goals and dreams together.   If you didn't see it in the earlier email or the post on the site, we have decided to raise a couple cows for next year.  The profits from selling the beef, as with all the ranch products, go to support our efforts to create better relationships.  We are also taking reservations for chickens for next year.  Each chicken takes about 6 months to grow because they are gourmet heritage chickens.  The breed is called Dorking and they are considered the number 1 best tasting chicken in the world.  Please email me if you're interested in either one. We are also looking into having a "Roof Raising" Fundraiser with a barn dance and live music.  Here at the ranch, we have a large home that we would like to open to women who have been beaten down by life.  The idea would be that they come and work at the ranch and earn money from the products they make, grow and sell.  They would also be receiving therapy and taking various educational classes so that they can be successful when they leave the ranch as well as having a tidy sum of money to support themselves as they get on their feet.   However the problem is that the home the ladies would live in is in need of renovations.  Having bought the ranch as a fixer-upper (this is an understatement), there is a lot of work that still needs to be done.  Our biggest and most immediate need is to get the roofs fixed before the rains come (including our chicken coop roof!  Poor chickens).  With the high winds we get in the desert, the last big storm ripped huge amounts of shingles off the top of the buildings and barn as well as knocking down a tree.  Fortunately the tree missed the house when it fell, but we're still worried about the missing shingles and there's rain on the way.  If you're interested in helping us out then please contact me.  We're looking for sponsors/donors and anyone who would like to volunteer time, supplies, expertise and muscles-remember the ranch is run by girly girls and I personally don't even know how to make a box out of wood lol!  All help is much appreciated!   And make sure you keep an eye out for the next email announcing our Roof Raising Fundraiser!! Enjoy your pumpkins! Serina Harvey at Flip Flop Ranch p.s. Many of you have blogs and websites.  Give us a shoutout if you would so that anyone who is interested can get involved with the Ranch's activities.  Thanks! New Articles on the Flip Flop Ranch Article Blog Make sure you check out some of the interesting articles on Flip Flop Ranch's article blog. Childhood and the Male Midlife Crisis Did you know that a depressed mom contributes to a man's midlife crisis?   The Importance of Men A touching student article about how important men are in life Emotional Dumbness and Destructive Anger Learn about these two relationship killers What does Love mean? Don't miss out on the bigger picture of love and family. Men are Shallow...or are they? Read this letter from a Civil War soldier and you tell me. Handling Criticism with Honesty and Grace Everyone dishes it out, but we can't all take it.