Farm Life

    I feel like this is one thing I promised to talk about that I haven't touched on yet, our little mini farm.  We have around 10 acres.  It's in the middle of the woods so it's a little different than most people think of. My whole life I've had horses but after having kids I found myself not having the time and energy to dedicate to them. I rehomed my last two this year (don't worry I found excellent homes for both!). It was really emotionally hard on me, not just letting my horses go but it felt like I was giving up part of my identity almost.  I really knew it was the best solution for all of us though. 

    When E our oldest was about 2 she became obsessed with chickens.  Every time we saw chickens at the county fair or the local zoo she was so excited.  My husband decided these might be great for us.  She loved them and they were an easy livestock starter animal.  Perfect!  Just one problem, I'll admit at the time I was terrified of birds and chickens were number 1 on the list for some reason.  When E was 3 we decided after some research to purchase our first chickens.  I did tons of research and learned everything about breeds, temperaments etc. This is what I do for everything we buy from chickens to toasters, my husband loves to make fun of me for it.  We landed on buying 6 the first time, which was the minimum at our local feed store.  We got 3 Buff Orphingtons and 3 Rhode Island Reds, a perfect little starter set up.  E wanted ducks so bad but our local store didn't have any.  On the way home from visiting friends my husband let her stop at Tractor Supply and low and behold they had ducks!  So we acquired 2 of them as well, and another 2 Buff Orphingtons that were very floppy and being pecked to death in a different tank.  This my friends is called chicken math, look it up I promise it's a thing.  It has continued every year we've had birds. 

    This year we got our first bantams, they're like miniature chickens that fit in your hand even when full grown. We also got our first roosters which has been a whole different adventure.  We've already discovered some will never be family birds no matter what you do raising them. We've got one that is definitely a keeper now.  He is E's favorite chicken and totally spoiled.  In return he allows her to carry him around like a purse puppy and he even looks up when you call his name.

This is our guy Denny, he's a Barred Rock. 

    Due to COVID and food shortages this year we decided since we have some space and most of the set up to try our hand at meat chickens.  We purchased 20 Cornish Cross chicks from Tractor Supply and raised them and butchered them ourselves. They averaged out to 5-6lbs each and the taste was so much better than store bought chicken.  I was really proud of us and we were hooked.  We wanted to be a little more self sustainable but we have no hope of totally going off the grid anytime soon.

     Following our success with the meat chickens and some more research we decided to get into meat rabbits as well. We bought 2 females and 1 male last summer and we're getting close to having our first full grown batch of babies now. I know this one isn't for everyone but we decided it was worth a try based on return for the amount of work and feed needed. 

    Lastly, I've gotten more into gardening this past summer.  As a birthday gift my husband built me beautiful raised beds and my in laws bought me soil to fill them.  I've tried gardening in the past but never had a successful garden.  This is the first year I feel I've gotten a decent return.  I can't wait to get started this year. 

    I'll get more into all these topics at a later date but I know some people have said they were interested in this part of my blog.  I know this isn't a huge farm for many, but it keeps us busy!