beginners

We are excited to bring you along for the journey. On this blog you will find a ton of posts about goats, gardening and homesteading. We wanted to let other people know that you don’t have to have hundreds of acres, tons of livestock or even generations of knowledge. We wanted our blog to be different. So welcome to the homestead!

Welcome To The Homestead

Both Jared and I grew up as city kids. The hustle and bustle something that we never really wanted. As time went on and we got older, we realized that city life is not what we wanted. It is not what we want for our boys. So we decided to do something about it. We were breaking our back trying to save as much money as possible to get our homestead. Since we are both paramedics and after working 36-60 hour straight shifts for two years, we finally did it. We purchased our homestead.

Shortly after buying the homestead, we got our first chickens.  They are pretty cool little critters and really, what homestead is complete without a couple chickens. We started with 15 and lost a couple. Now we are in the ballpark of 50. But I wanted something a little different. So I started looking into other critters that would be low maintenance while also being semi profitable.

Enter the goats

I’m not going to lie, I didn’t want goats. I had heard the horror stories. They are escape artists, they die easily, they can’t actually eat everything, and so on. They are pretty much everything BUT low maintenance and semi profitable. But Jared wanted goats, so we got the goats. Man, I was so wrong! I love those critters! They are seriously the best. Bella is a challenge and I am going to make her love me. But Champ? The girl below? She is the best girl. She is actually going to be giving us babies soon!

After adding our first couple goats, we wanted even more. So we added more goats, then some goats had babies and now we are at 12. We are hoping to have a few more and that will allow us to start milking regularly. That milk will then help us reduce our dependence on the grocery store.

Since owning goats for several years now, we have decided to, temporarily, move away from registered lines and start working on building a resistant herd with great milk lines. We have also learned to deal with the question of what to do with boys.

Sending bucks to processing has been a hard choice but definitely one that needed to be made. Unfortunately, when you breed animals, you have to face the hard reality of what to do with them if you can sell them. Livestock are not companion animals, although there are some exceptions, and treating them like pets will only break your heart.

We have also created a Goat Crash Course for those that were in our same position. Brand new and with no mentor.

On To The Ducks

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved ducks. They are such cool creatures. Jared finally okayed a few ducks and meat ducks. While they are messy and their pool stinks to high heaven, no matter how often we drain it, I love those guys. We also gained our neighbors guinea. Apparently she was unhappy living with them.

Since owning the chickens and the ducks, we have come to realized a couple things. One, chickens get into EVERYTHING when they are not contained in some fashion. So free ranging chickens isn’t really a great idea. Two, ducks free range beautifully and don’t get into as much trouble as the chickens.

While I am not a huge fan of duck eggs, their antics and meat keep them around the homestead.

The Garden

We have also been working hard on our gardens and general clean up of the property. Our property was not set up for homesteading before we bought it. So we have been slowly but surely working through the property and clearing out old debris, trash, and other things. We are hoping to have it safe enough soon to let the goats roam bigger areas to keep the brush in line.

The garden has been a huge pain in the backside as well. Between not being able to get all my seedlings started and then the ducks eating what I managed to plant, the garden is finally in. I was also able to harvest our first cucumbers!

We are gearing up to start our fall garden and I am ridiculously excited! Our summer harvest has been good, considering it’s our first garden here, but I’m hoping the fall garden will be even better. Our second garden was a bit better but not at all what we thought it was going to be. We have learned a ton about gardening in this area.

One of the biggest things I learned about the garden is protecting the soil! I never really put much thought into the soil and how to build it. I just thought you put things in the ground and they grew. I didn’t realize that building healthy soil, naturally, helped to bring in better harvests. Who knew!?

Our garden this year (2024) is set to be our best yet!

Building A Greenhouse

Last year, the major project was building a greenhouse. Jared absolutely nailed it and I love my greenhouse. It has become my sanctuary when things get hard. Jared poured so much love into that greenhouse and I can feel it every time I walk into it.

Not everyone can build a greenhouse, or really need one. But I do highly recommend at least entertaining the subject if it is possible for you.

Welcome To The Homestead

We will be adding to our homestead as this blog progresses and we want you to be along for the ride. So share and follow us on social media and welcome to the Homestead!

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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