Good morning lovely mamas of IG! My name is Bri and my IG handle is ever so creative @artandbri . Art is my other half and my husband of 12 years. We have 5 children 11,8,6,4,2. We were right on schedule for every other year there for a bit! 4 years ago we bought a 100 year old farm. Not with the intention of farming but with the idea that we could do anything we wanted with 20 acres and 3 barns, even farm. And of course it all started when we got a few chickens! Isn’t that how it often begins? At every rental we lived in we had some kind of farm animal and a garden, but we always had to start over again when we moved. Homesteading wasn’t a passion yet but a fun hobby we could share with our young children and provide a little bit of food too. Once we landed at our own beautiful homestead though, that hobby turned into big time dreams. Dreams that we are still working for today and fulfilling a little bit more each year. I know a lot of folks homestead because you can’t beat the quality and flavor of the food you grow. For us the draw has more to do with the lifestyle of being outside, knowing the rhythms of the seasons, working closely with animals but mostly doing all of this together with our children. We love the food and the fruit of our labors too, but it’s all the little lessons we learn, the way we are tied to the land, the love for the animals. It’s really that which keeps us farming. How about you? Do you homestead? Are you like us and dipping your toes in a little at a time? What dreams do you have and which ones have you been able to accomplish? I would love to know!
I didn’t start out as a homesteader, or a farmer, or even the girl that had a garden. But there are whispers in my life little seeds planted along the way that led me to where I am now. My mom was a nurse and my dad was a surveyor. But my grandparents were agrarian. I could still visit my grandfather’s farm into my 20s. I can still drive past it, traveling down the same road I learned to drive on with my own kids in the back. Actually, I first learned to drive on his tractor. As a young adult though my dreams were of adventure. When I came to know Jesus, possibly of mission work or even becoming a nun but I had no dreams of marriage, children, or farming. Until I met Arthur. His family is the self-sufficient type. If something’s broke they fix it themselves. Keeping chickens and always having a garden. We actually started to notice one another as more than friends butchering hogs that he had raised. And then when we got married and we had a little house out in the country how could I not raise a garden and have a few chickens. But the actual desire to Homestead didn’t come until we bought a farm. A piece of land that hadn’t been farmed in or 45 years. We bought it thinking we could do anything we want here and maybe we will want to farm.
These pictures are the heart of our 20 acres. The other 15 acres provides us privacy, clean water, our own watershed, hiking, diversity, foraging opportunities, wild meat, secret places to run off to for quiet and much more!
I am not well traveled. I’ve never flown on a plane. I’ve never been north of Ohio or west of Texas.I’m not as well traveled as some may say one should be, but this piece of land has housed all of my fondest memories…
Do you ever worry that your kids will miss out because of this homesteading lifestyle choice? This fear crosses my mind time to time. I’m sure many, if not most of you, could agree that it can be extremely difficult to get extended time away from the homestead for more than a full day, especially in the busy summer months when daily chores demand our regular attention…
“In some Native languages the term for plants translates to ‘those who take care of us’ … the land knows you, even when you are lost.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass…
Babies, Business, and Bumper Crops: How I am Learning to Homestead with Babies in Tow
Have you ever had one of those days? You know the days when you are cleaning the baby’s diaper, milking the cow, scooping poop in the barn, wiping noses, and cleaning more poop off of kids’ shoes…
Hey there, Homesteading Mama’s!
I’m Rachel from @frontier_homesteading. My husband Ryan, three children and I have been homesteading for about 10 years now, first in Wyoming and now in Alaska.
We currently have milk goats, pack goats, sheep, a pig, a cow, chickens, rabbits, bees and a dog. Seasonally, we also have more pigs, meat chickens and turkeys….
Stained glass windows date back to the 7th century. With the earliest known reference dating
from 675 AD when workmen were imported from France to Britain to Glaze the windows of a
monastery…
Homesteading and growing food is not the easy way out of this life, i would say it is the hard way as there’s nothing convenient about it. It’s a lifestyle, a life change not a trend or hobby. Well, that’s my opinion any way…
Awakino Station is a child’s dream. There is the river to splash in, tussock covered hills to explore, animals to raise and a bustling kitchen with a baking tin full of something yummy to eat…
After a busy daycare week for our toddler, and the hectic joys of infant co-parenting + farming, weekend mornings are eagerly anticipated family time; the weekend promise of adventures great and small is so refreshing…
