When we purchased our farm it was quite run-down. The woman we purchased it from, God bless her, was 97 at the time of sale and still living here all by herself, so needless to say she wasn't out mowing the grass, let alone pruning the blueberries and climbing in the peach trees to thin them out. We sure had our work cut out for us and have spent the past years repairing, pruning, building, rebuilding, mowing, fencing, and learning. And we're doing all this while raising four kids, each with their own needs, desires, personalities, problems, & accomplishments.
We have added & subtracted as we've grown & learned. We started with three children and a cat. Over the years we've raised honey bees, sheep, goats, pigs, steers, lots and lots of chickens, a donkey, too many cats to keep track, oh yeah we added one more kid awhile back (we've kept all 4 them so far). The pigs were short lived, the pork was yummy but the muck and the loading was not super fun. The sheep have stuck around & one pet goat who grew on us. We still raise a steer or two to fill the freezer every couple years. Hubby enjoys making the hay for my wooly flock almost as much as they enjoy eating it. God has been good.
Each season brings new experiences and knowledge about the abundance that God provides. We try and we fail, then we try and we fail again and then one day we try and we succeed. Its a constant learning process and we are excited to share our growing knowledge and the bounty we are blessed with, with our children, our community, and anyone interested in our eccentric hobbies and the adventures we have.
In September, along with the multitude of pumpkins and gourds that are growing, the apples are heavy on the trees so we are eating a lot of apple pie, apple dumplings, apple crisp, and of course hubby loves pressing fresh apple cider and has been making his own apple cider vinegar for the past few years.