Chicks, Meal Worms, & The Farmhouse

Hey y'all!

Seems like forever since I last wrote a blog post....So, here's an update!

Steve and I decided right before Christmas last year to buy a new house with a bunch of land! It was a very big risk since the house is so old and somewhat falling apart, but so far we love it!

The move took us a little further up North than we were and we are surrounded by other farmhouses and lots of land! The views are incredible both in the front of the house and the backyard!

One of the many beautiful sunsets we see!

The absence of my soap shenanigans has partly been due to some unfortunate family circumstances that came up a few months ago. My step dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer and it has sent my family into a funk trying to get through it all together and enjoy our precious time with him while he fights this battle. It's been a time of reflection for me and I've never been more thankful in my life for the health and family that I have been blessed with. Life changes so quickly in the blink of an eye and there really shouldn't be time for nonsense and chaos. When I go to complain, I'm reminded that my problems are nothing compared to what others may be going through. Life is messy but I'm happy to be able to go through the ups and downs with such a strong, tight-knit family.

I've also haven't unpacked my soap supplies yet and am working on getting my new soap room figured out. My new soap room features 1980's style wood paneling and a double-pane window with an orange door and matching trim. It's delightfully.......ugly haha! So, we've got our work set out for us for my soap room but there's bigger fish to fry in this old farmhouse. The toilets leaked when we first moved in which then lead to us finding more leaks within the bathrooms. We had to tear out all the carpet and have it replaced throughout the house before we could even move in. Every room needs some type of tlc or remodeling done so time will only tell when that happens. We were prepared for that while in the middle of purchasing the home though so it's no surprise. Steve and I joke that we don't get to decide which things we get to fix, the house decides for us!

In the meanwhile, we sold our ducks (turns out Steve is allergic to their eggs) and we just recently bought ten chicks! They will provide eggs for us and eventually we'll buy broiler chicks which we'll butcher and eat. We've really enjoyed seeing how different chickens are from ducks. We miss our ducks though, but ultimately the chickens will work out better for us. Steve has even started to build our mobile chicken coop for us that we can wheel around to different areas in our pastures. Our future goal is to have the chickens follow behind cows (that we'll eventually get) that way they can pick through the cow's 'mudpies'. We want to have a symbiotic relationship with our land and treat it the way it was intended to promote healthy growth and replenish the soil. Pigs are also on the agenda again seeing as we absolutely LOVED having pigs. They are by far my favorite farm animal.... although, I have one special Blue Langshan chick that is growing on me, so we'll see.

The Chicksaw!

The mobile chicken coop is called a Chicksaw! Steve got the plans for it from another resourceful and helpful homesteader that designed it. It'll have bike tires on it when it is completed and we'll be able to pull it along to whatever spot needed. I can't wait to see this baby in action once it's done! We picked up a gallon of paint that is a somewhat girly color from the hardware store because it was clearance and we are really, really, really cheap when it comes to stuff like this haha. But to be fair, why buy new wood when the wood we got for this was free?! I called up a local wood working business and they said whatever wood they threw away we could have for free. What's not to love about that!! So ultimately, all we've had to pay for is the screws, reinforcements, hardware cloth, brackets and such for it. I'm antsy to paint the dang thing but it's been raining so much this spring which has resulted in delays in getting it finished. Our poor pastures are flooded with standing water which I suppose is a good thing since at this current moment we don't have a feasible way of watering them but that's another story for another day.

One exciting endeavor that Steve and I are thinking of doing is creating a podcast for those that are interested in what our day to day adventures look like and all the trouble we can get ourselves into lol. We're hashing out details for that so it's still in the making but it is one idea that I was quick to say yes to. We'd like to able to convey to our audience how normal it can be to pursue homesteading as a hobby or even for business use. I feel the need for closing the gap on the sometimes unintentional ignorance people have when it comes to getting meat/eggs/produce on their plate.

The last new hobby we have partaken in is meal worms. We bought enough to fill a big plastic tote with and created an environment in which they can grow and eat. Chickens love meal worms so it was almost second nature to want to have something we could take care of that in return gives the chickens a sweet treat. Meal worms are creepy and crawly but they don't bite and the adults turn into beetles which cannot fly so I was more than happy to give em a try. The best part to me is they'll eat the kitchen scraps that I'd end up throwing away or giving to the chickens. It's a win win for everyone!

So there's a quick update for y'all about our crazy adventures of buying a farmhouse, chicks, building a chicksaw, and all the in betweens.

Happy Spring!

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  “The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.” ~Abraham Lincoln