Prior to owning our ten acres, we lived on 1 1/2 acres. I dreamed of having more property while we were raising our kids, but that is what God wanted us to have for that season. I graciously accepted what he gave us and made it work.
I truly loved our previous home. We semi-built that one. We had a customer builder but they allowed us to do alot of the work which saved us a bunch of money! Once we moved in, my husband and I built a 3-car garage with a guest house above it. Like, we built it from the ground up. We drew the plans out and pulled the permit with our county. This was back in 2008 and Bill & I had so much fun. Bill is a contractor so I guess we do have that going for us, but that was the first thing we ever built.
Ok, I promise you, this page is about farming LOL. I was determined to make our little parcel a mini-farm. What else were we going to do with such a big back yard?
The first thing I started with was raised garden beds. Bill then made me a clothes line. If you haven’t line dried your sheets, you are missing out ha ha.
Our kids joined 4-H and both raised chickens to sell at the fair. Bill built the coop and I decorated it all pretty and we loved collecting eggs. We loved it so much that when those fair chickens were gone, we bought more so we could have farm fresh eggs all the time.
As our kids got older, they wanted to do a bigger 4-H project. Guess what came next? Raising pigs lol. Yep, we had two pigs in our back yard. Bill, again, built a beautiful pen for them to live in. My kids loved raising them! They sold them the first year and then continued on until their 10th year in High School.
If you are wondering how you can raise something and then either sell it or butcher it, let me say this. It might be hard at first, but over time, you just get used to it. Knowing where your meat comes from makes such a huge difference. You can definitely tell when you taste farm raised meat as opposed to store bought meat.
So, what if you don’t have a big yard or your HOA won’t allow you to raise livestock. A lot of neighborhoods are allowing back yard chickens so check with them first. If you live in an apartment or condo, well, you can’t raise a pig lol, but you can get with a friend/family member and see if they would let you raise one on their property. You can also get with a local farmer. They may be willing to lease you a pen where you can come over daily and raise it. I’m the type of person that is always saying, “You never know until you ask. What’s the worst they could say? No?”
So, don’t give up hope on the whole homesteading thing. You can grow vegetables on a patio. Raised boxes, containers or beds are perfect for growing vegetables. They even make these hydroponic towers that are vertical, so they take up hardly any room. Get with friends and trade out things. I love swapping things I grow for something someone else has grown.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ~ Mathew 7:7
Let’s fast forward to today. We didn’t need to move from our previous home. We literally had all we needed. It was a neighborhood, but more of a relaxed neighborhood ha. A quick story…..
One day we felt God telling us to go look at property. We drove into town and kept coming back to the same parcel. Mind you, it was 30 minutes to town from our old home. We found our current land and went back three times. We bought 10acres back in 2015 and that began our building journey. We raise 6 mini-angus Aberdeen cows and we plan to add chickens, hopefully, later this year. I have a small garden but we also plan to build a garden house with our beds and incorporate the coop in to all of that. One thing at a time.
I hope this inspires you to grow or raise something! You can do it!
Wendy
