Moving and Starting Over

This is a blog that I have started so I can let you know what is going on with our small, start-up farm. My husband, teeneage daughter, young son and I moved to 35 acres a year ago and the learning curve has been steep! First, some background information on myself...

I grew up in Philadelpia for the first 11 years of my life. My parents had always lived in the city. We hardly ever saw grass or trees and were amazed if we saw a squirrel! When my parents decided to take the family out of the city, we moved to a small suburb outside of Philly. We had a front and back lawn, freedom to go out and play in the neighborhood and saw all kinds of animals at the farms in the area. My husband grew up in a rural area but not as rural as the area we live in now. We had raised our kids in the small PA town and it was a nice place to raise kids. However, the continuous food recalls made us think seriously about raising our own food on a larger scale than the vegetable garden we planted every year. We wanted to raise meat, vegies, fruit and even drink milk from our own source. We felt strongly as parents that living a simpler life with more family time would be a better life for our kids as well as us. My teeenage daughter does not agree, lol.

So, we looked for land and discovered that purchasing it was easier than we thought. We started literally building it ourselves. Steve's concrete and building experience helped us tremendously. I knew we wanted to raise beef cattle and had done some research. We needed hardy, easy to care for beefers that could spend most of their time outside. Highland cattle were the answer. (More on the breed later.) I saw an ad in a magazine for a Highland cattle herd that was owned by an older couple who was downsizing. They lived near our new property, so we stopped to look at the herd one weekend on the way to our place. I fell in love with these magnificent animals and decided to buy them right then and there. Well, we had to move then! We were on the fence about when the right time to move was and the cattle purchase decided that. Since then we have added goats, pigs, chickens, a dairy cow and lastly ducks. Taking care of the animals is a fulltime job for Steve. I teach at a local school district and work with animals after work, weekends and of course summertime. We really enjoy watching them and taking care of them. My son helps me with the chickens, who just started laying eggs, and he plays with the kittens in the barn.

We have butchered 2 pigs lately and it is the best pork I have tasted. We use no antibiotics or meds of any kind. The eggs are delicious, too.

This blog is getting long, but there is so much I want to share with you. I'll close for now and write again soon. I include pictures.
Take care,
Grow it yourself mom