We are a blended family from East Tennessee with a passion for learning how to turn our 26 acre farm into a self sustaining homestead. We have 6 kids between the two of us. Only my two younger daughters still live at home.
My husband Dominic is from West Tennessee and grew up on a 14 acre hog farm. Him and his siblings also had mules to help with the farming. He has been in the retail business since college and is looking forward to getting back to his roots.
I spent the majority of my childhood in Northwest Ohio, then moved to Washington State shortly after I turned 12. I started out raising rabbits and dairy goats for 4-H, then also started showing horses after I purchased my first horse at 13 years of age.
When we met, I had a small chicken farm started on about 1 acre of land. I free ranged my chickens. I also had 5 horses that I was keeping at my parents barn. Not to mention the pet cats, rabbit and the many tanks of fish. I also had 4 raised garden beds that I had built and successfully harvested some good vegetable crops. All he had was a dog!
After we bought the 26 acres, we built a bigger coop and bought more chickens. We also fenced in some acreage and brought the horses over to our land. We tried to do a big traditional garden the first year we had the farm, but we didn’t have much luck. We built several more raised beds to complement what I had already built and have been very blessed with produce. Our next plan of action is to plant fruit trees and berry bushes. Then we would also like to get back into dairy goats and pigs.
Together we are trying to raise our kids to learn the value of hard work and appreciate what a job done well means. We are both still in the real world working jobs to help us prepare for self sustaining living. But we love every minute that we can spend here on our farm. There are good days and bad days, highs and lows, but we are proud of what we are doing and are hopeful that we can accomplish our goals and help our community as we go.