Happy New Year! After a much needed unplugging, we’re back online. It’s been a busy couple of months, but we’re happy to report we finally found our new homestead and moved this fall.
Finding the balance between our list of wants and needs and the right location was tough, but after looking far and wide we found a house in the perfect location of our area. We almost bought far out in the country which probably would have been great, but it was such a relief to find somewhere with a country feel but close to some of the great spots in our area. We couldn’t be happier! 🙂
Our new neighbors.
It is a great little 2/3 acre plot with lots of potential. After doing all of our homesteading projects on under a half acre so far, we are excited about this extra space and what we can do with it. The house is great and just what we were looking for. It’s a 1940 farmhouse that now has a bungalow/cottage feel and also has tons of potential. After looking at some major fixer 
uppers we were pleased to find something move in ready, but with some room for upgrades. Thankfully, we had plenty of time to transition to the new house with all of the animals and things to get ready. We built a chicken coop and some temporary goat houses. It was a blank slate so we’re working to get things as we want them and make it comfy for all of our critters. 
In other news, to prepare for the big move we did some downsizing on the farm. We butchered all of the ducks and rabbits, and about seven chickens. Our freezers are getting stocked for the winter and we’ll plan on getting more in the spring. It is so quiet without ducks around. We have one extra goat around now, because our little Georgia had a baby! We got Georgia not knowing she was pregnant at the time. Over time it became apparent that she was pregnant and one day we came home to her in labor. 
She ended up having to have a c-section and thankfully we lived next to a wonderful local vet who performed the surgery and was such a big help. We’re so grateful momma and baby were okay. We named the little one Savannah and she is the cutest, sweetest thing ever and has brought so much joy to our lives. Baby goats are the best!
Also, one of our chickens has become the best momma. 
We put a few eggs under her and two little chicks ended up hatching. We decided to see how she would do with them and they are the cutest little family.
We are slowly getting settled on the new homestead. We’re working on plans for the garden and moving the goats to the yard, making space for pigs, and thinking of making a little pond for the ducks to come. We’ve joined a local produce group who will deliver fresh NC produce to us weekly while we figure out our garden plans. And we get to explore this new part of town where we’ve settled.
So many good things happened last year, we are so excited to see what this year will bring. The New Year is always such a fun time of new beginnings. We are wishing you the best for 2016!
Happy homesteading!
We rescued a little goat and he has brought us lots of joy. Michael found him wandering on a very busy road near our house. We took care of him a couple of days while trying to locate the owner. We finally found some notices for him and found out this poor lady adopted him but they couldn’t 
have him in their neighborhood. She gave him to some people and he got out of their lot, but they weren’t keen on trying to find him. She wanted to find him to make sure he was okay, so Michael talked to her and she came by to see how Geoffrey was doing and was happy we found him. So little Geoffrey has a new happy home. He is getting on well with the chickens, ducks, and rabbits, but we’d like to find him a friend soon.
Michael also found 8 baby broiler chicks for free on Craigslist which we also adopted. They were a second grade class project on life-cycles and needed a home once they hatched. We are going to try our hand at raising them strictly for meat, no names. When the time comes, we will have eight freezer chickens which will be great for the fall.
at NCSU, and she needed a last-minute speaker from the restaurant industry to talk about food and sustainability. 
what we do with these high school kids and that they were very interested and engaged. We’re so happy to share our lifestyle and encourage others to leave a smaller footprint and connect with their food, and to do this with passionate high schoolers is even more rewarding.
Well, our pigs are now pork. On April 27 we took the day off of work and with the help of some friends we killed and butchered our two pigs. It was a sad and difficult task to have to kill them, this was something neither of us had ever done before, but after a few tears we all got through it.
It looks very promising, providing a detailed plan, journal, and to-do list, but definitely takes a long while to set up with your seeds and desired plan. I at least got all of the seeds we have in our collection in our virtual garden plan and began thinking about how we will plant things; and perhaps, soon we can organize our seed collection. It has gotten a little haphazard.
For our veggies, so far, we have lots of lettuce and kale sprouted and our beets and peas have shot right up. We also started some of our Summer goodies like corn and tomatoes. We will do squash and a few others next week. Getting those seedlings in the ground will be so satisfying!
previous owners did not feel up to caring for them any longer, so we thought we’d take them under our wing. They may have another good year of egg laying, we will see, but we are already super happy to have them around.
Thank you for visiting! What began as an attempt at a small container garden outside of our old, tiny (500 square foot) apartment has grown over the past few of years into a small backyard farm on a half-acre.
