Our Homestead


We are committed to the restoration of this little patch of land and the proper care of all its many inhabitants.

For that reason, our homestead garden, orchard, and pastures are tended without the use of any chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

We use no antibiotics, steroids, hormones, or genetically modified grains.

We believe that these conveniences come with serious consequences.

They destroy not only our land and animals, but our own health as well.

What’s more, when we cooperate with the systems God has already put into place, we find that these harmful methods usually aren’t needed.

For us it’s organic, or bust…

So, naturally, sometimes it’s bust…

But we’re starting to get the hang of it.

Children working in homestead garden

 To the best of our ability we allow the animals on this homestead to live as intended by God.

Around here, pigs root for acorns and goats chew the bark off of trees.

Cows eat GRASS and chickens scratch for bugs.

Barn cats catch mice and even our trusty farm dog has a share in the bones from butchering day.

And EVERYBODY is out on the grass in the sunshine!

We don’t believe that God is pleased when His creatures are confined, debeaked (yes, that’s a thing), or in any other way mistreated simply for the ease and convenience of man.

These creatures are gifts to us from our Heavenly Father and we believe His design for them is perfect.

We believe that goats climb to the glory of God.

Ducks swim, flap, quack to the glory of God.

Roosters strut to the glory of God…

Just make sure you always keep an eye on him.  Ask me how I know.

We sincerely believe that all their quirky behaviors have a purpose within the Creator’s plan for this earth.

Meanwhile, all these barnyard friends of ours are busy fertilizing the pasture… s-l-o-w-l-y turning this hard-as-a-rock Indiana clay back into something like that precious top soil that was lost generations ago.

Well that’s our hope anyway.

And we get to stand back and watch God’s perfect plan in action.

It’s like a tiny window into what the world must have been before it fell all to pieces.  Everyday we find another reason to be in awe of our Creator.

Okay, just kidding.

We don’t exactly get to “stand back.”

But while we’re clipping hooves, carrying water buckets, cleaning out stalls, weeding the lettuce, and hunting for missing eggs in the hay loft, we’re getting glimpse after glimpse of the GLORY of God in the patterns He so perfectly designed.

Come along with us and we’ll share with you everything we’ve learned!

We want to encourage and equip you with the information and resources you need to establish a homestead of your very own.

 

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

6 comments on “Our Homestead

  1. Tonya on said:

    How perfectly imperfect. My heart’s excited to learn!

  2. Katie Blaise on said:

    Hi Ashley!

    You are living exactly the way I want my family to live. We just bought our forever home/farm/ranch last month and I am eager to start everything! Although, that takes time and money. We’ve already bought a milk cow and are preparing a place for her on our little slice of Heaven. We plan to raise an organic, chemical free garden as well as pasture raised animals. I want to use everything our Creator has provided so that I can feed and care for my family as He originally planned.

    I’m writing this as I sit in the hospital. I have Sjogrens, an auto-immune disease which has also attacked my kidneys, leaving me with stage three kidney disease as well. My potassium, sodium and carbon dioxide levels in my blood were in critical numbers so I’ve been here for a couple days while they try to get the numbers back up. I’ve been researching leaky-gut diets, Keto, etc. so that I can get back to that way of living. We are military and were living in Alaska for two years where any fresh fruits and veggies were almost impossible to get. Now that we are back in the lower 48, I’m almost desperate to get started. I know God can heal me but I also need to do my part in what I put in and on my body.

    Thank you for your blog and writing about your experience. I look forward to getting started, even though I know it’ll be brutal for awhile.

    God bless you and your family!

  3. Elli Mae on said:

    Do you ever get burned out? If so, how do you get past it?

    • Yes! I definitely do.
      Sometimes there is a genuine need to cut back.
      Our twins were born last February, so right now we are in a season of cutting back to the bare minimum. This year we didn’t weed the garden (at all!), harvested only what we could manage, and didn’t preserve or ferment anything. I also handed over all the milking of the goats to my 11 year old daughter, knowing that she’d probably collect less milk overall and choosing to be okay with that. In fact, between my husband and the kids, plus cutting back to the minimum on the garden, I’ve had zero outdoor chores this year, which is good because it has been a process just trying to figure out this whole adding twins to the family thing. In fact, it’s been such a long break that I’m actually starting to miss my barn chores.
      Sometimes though, I just have a general feeling of not wanting to do what needs to be done. In these cases I try to remind myself to focus only on “the next right thing”. Usually if I can just get moving in the right direction, just focus on the next thing, all the other things seem to fall into place. “An object in motion…” Plus, something about being outside seems to set everything right. I might have been feeling discouraged or grouchy before I left the house, but by the time I get back I’ve had quiet, fresh air, and plenty of time to remember what I have to be thankful for.