The Rusty Truck Ranch is family-owned farm in Medical Lake, Washington. We open up our 40-acre Ranch to the public for seasonal events and tours. We are passionate about sharing our love of country living and animal husbandry with our community.
Nearly all of the animal you visit on the Ranch live with us hear year-round and are like family members to us. We know their personalities, their habits and their quirks. Many of the animals were born on the Ranch or grew up with here with our own children. We love to see families interact and have positive experiences with our farm critters! We offer a large and small animal petting zoo experience that allows you to get up close… or keep your distance! It is whatever you or your child are comfortable with!
Who are we?
A photo of our girls from our very first Pumpkin Patch back in 2020 with a bunny and kitty out very first litter of kittens born on the Ranch. We have since added a third daughter to our herd!
Meet the owners
Matt and Jamie Clark purchase the Rusty Truck Ranch in 2018. Farmer Matt has a background in industrial mechanics, equipment operating and construction which has come in handy in reviving a neglected farm. Building, and repairing, repairing, repairing is on Matt’s short list of regular jobs on the Ranch. He keeps all things operational. He breaks water troughs in winter, bucks all the hay, repairs broken equipment, and tells Jamie when her Pinterest project is a bad idea (despite her protesting).
Jamie is a Labor and Delivery Nurse and takes an active role in the animal care, medical treatment, and births on the farm. Need something castrated, injected, flushed, inseminated or lance on the Ranch? That’s Jamie job (but Matt will hold the supplies or the animal.) She is also the graphic designer, the social media manager, the booking liaison, the purchaser, and dreamer. She is the one that needs to be reined in but is always excited to do more (even when there isn’t time.)
The combinate of skills that Matt and Jamie bring to the management of the Ranch have served to develop the land and the Ranch as a business. They both understand that one would not be successful without the other due to the vast demands that management of the Ranch requires.
We also have an incredible group of Seasonal Workers, several of which have been with us since we opened in 2018. This is our 2023 crew picture. Year year we add a few more positions as the Ranch grows. We anticipate having a crew of 23 people. If you are interested in a Seasonal position, please reach out by text or email.
We offer several farm fresh products for sale. Among the many animals we care for, we also keep bees and offer a limited volume of packaged honey and honeycomb each Fall during the Pumpkin Patch. All of our honey is raw and local, and packaged in convenient ready to use pouches. These pouches help eliminate messy drips and waste when you are enjoying a piece of honey toast or when some added sweetness to your morning tea or coffee.
What do we produce?
We keep a small herd of Katahdin Hair Sheep at the Ranch and make our own Sheep’s Milk Soap from scratch. Each year as we wean our spring lambs, we hand-milk a few of our ewes and freeze the milk for soap making later in the Summer months.
All of the soap we offer is made with 100% essential oils, mica powders for color, olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil, sheep’s milk and water. That’s it! If you struggle with sensitive skin, sheep’s milk soap might be a great option for you. It is also beautiful and makes for a lovely handmade gift.
It is also hard to miss the numerous free-range chickens roaming around the Ranch when you visit. We have somewhere around 70-80 egg laying hens at any one time, so there is always an abundance of fresh eggs available for purchase. We also offer a seasonal egg delivery subscription during the Summer Months to our local Medical Lake Residents. Fresh eggs are hard to beat, especially when they get delivered straight from the farm!
Where are we heading?
We are always working to improve the lives of our animals and land that we care for. It will forever be a work in progress as there is something that we feel we can always improve on, but it is absolutely a labor of love for us.
We are also pushing to improve the experiences of our guests as they visit the Ranch. Our focus is to keep families in mind in everything that we do, and we are looking forward to offering more food and entertainment at the Ranch in the coming years!
