2014
On August 30th, 2014 we found out the amazing news that we were pregnant with our first child. What a wonderful surprise! We had been trying for a little while and felt so blessed that God had given us such an incredible gift! There was much going on in our lives at the time, with the big move coming the next day and trying to get everything packed and ready to go. We immediately dropped everything and set up to take this picture;
which we then of course sent to our family to tell them the big news. I can still remember the thoughts and feelings that were going on in my mind. I was so ready to have a child and was so excited about the thought of being a momma!
Moved to Forest
On August 31, 2014, we made the big move to our new property in Forest, VA. We have actually moved several times since we got married, this being our 9th time! Let's just say it was quite an experience, and very different moving a whole farm rather than just our own household stuff. Matt's parents drove down from Pennsylvania to help us out. Bless their hearts! We kept them up late into the night with our multiple trips with one moving truck and one pickup truck. Although shortly after midnight we did force them to stay and go to sleep while we finished the last few trips. We ran into a few issues with the truck rental so we started a lot later than planned, but we only had the truck for 24 hours so we had to get it all in one day. Therefore, an all-nighter of back and forth one and a half hour each way trips was what we had to do!
When it came time to move the chicken pens, we realized they didn't fit in the truck as planned. After much head scratching and diagram drawing, we realized our only option was to cut the pens and smoosh them in there, all thanks to Matt's dad's problem solving skills!
Because we know that moving can a be a huge stress on animals, we planned to do the move in between chicken batches. We processed chickens the week before the move, and got a new batch of chicks as soon as we got to the new property. That worked out quite nicely! The only animals we had to move were our 50 laying hens, 8 turkeys, and 5 cows. Not bad at all! They all did pretty well, although our laying hens were at the age when they were just about ready to start laying, and we are now convinced that the move stressed them out enough to hold off their laying by about a month. Lesson learned.
All that being said, we hope it will be a long time before we have to move our whole farm again. What a day!
Built Brooder
One of the first things we had to do at the new property was get a brooder built for our chicks. We were able to get most of the materials for free from our land owner. It is a simple rectangular structure built with pallets and T-posts, with cattle panels arched over top and an ag tarp secured on them. We put large doors on either end, covered the whole thing with chicken wire for predator protection and wrapped the sides and ends with plastic for wind protection. It is a simple brooder, but worked well for what we needed it for (we have since made some improvements after using it for a year and a half, but the main structure is still pretty solid!).
Dog Attack
I think it is safe to say that one of the hardest things we had to deal with in 2014 was a very unfortunate dog attack on our chickens that happened in November. It was a Tuesday evening, the day before our last chicken processing day of the season. We had one last chicken pen with 69 chickens in it that were to be processed the following morning. We had just returned home from an appointment with our midwife. Matt went out to check on the birds and discovered two hound dogs standing in the pen attacking the birds. He quickly got them out and chased them as far as he could, hoping to find their home to notify their owners of what had happened. He lost them, but with the help of some neighbors we were able to contact the owner. I will spare you the nitty-gritty details of the whole ordeal, but overall, 24 chickens were dead, several more were barely alive, and at least every single chicken had a bite mark at the least. All 69 were un-sellable, although we were able to save bits a pieces here and there for our own consumption. We lost a large amount of money and possibly a bit of sanity by the time things had settled down. I will say with absolutely certainty that we both learned and grew from this unfortunate trial we went through. Since the event, we have added a few extra security measures to prevent something like this from happening again. First, we reinforced the chicken wire on our pens. The dogs had actually broken the chicken wire from the wood where it was stapled. Second, we put up electric fencing around the pens. It adds a little more work since we have to move it every few days as the pens move, but for now it is worth it for us as it adds an extra layer of protection for the few pens that we have. Third, we bought a guard dog. This is probably the best thing we have done for the protection of our animals. She is awesome and we did not lose a single animal to a predator in all of 2015! (Sorry, not posting pictures from this event)
Other Pictures from the End of 2014
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| Our amazing family (Rachel's side) who has supported and continues to support us through every step of our journey. We love you all so much! (Christmas 2014 in Florida) |
2015
Moving into 2015 was exciting for us. Although we had been farming on the new property for several months, this would be our first full season here. We were doing a lot of farm planning over the winter, we had just returned from a wonderful and refreshing trip to Florida, and we were ready to get going with preparing the land and animals for Spring. We were also trying to prepare for the arrival of our son who was due April 28th. Let's just say we had plenty to keep us busy and so much to look forward to!
Added Mandolin to Our Farm-ily
In January of 2015, upon returning home from our holiday travels, we purchased a Great Pyrenees puppy and brought her home to join our farm-ily as chicken guardian extraordinaire! As our current dog is named Banjo, we thought it appropriate to name our newest addition Mandolin, to continue growing our bluegrass band. She was such a cute little fluffball!
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| Mandolin fiercely guarding our laying hens. |
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| Sleeping on the job.... |
Started Our Pig Operation
Also in January, we started our pasture/forest raised pig operation. We had worked with pigs a LOT during our internship in 2013, so we were very familiar and comfortable with them. To be honest, one of the reasons we waited until our second year of production was because we wanted a little break from pigs :) We love them though! And it is so much more enjoyable when they are your own pigs. We purchased our first two, one barrow (castrated male) and one guilt (un-bred female). We bought some electric pig netting which is different from the netting we use for our chickens. The pig netting is shorter since they can't fly over it, and the bottom strand is several inches off the ground to prevent the pigs from piling dirt and grass on the fence when they root, which would cause the fence to ground out. We threw a couple pallets together and stapled a tarp to them to give them some protection from the sun and bad weather. And voila! A pig paradise. We only have to use the shelter when they are out in the pasture. When they move through the woods, the trees and shrubs give them enough natural shelter.After we processed these two and realized how quickly they were selling and how AMAZING the meat was, we purchased 6 more piggies. So we raised a total of 8 pigs for our first year of pork production. Not bad!
Built Egg Mobile
As we approached Spring of 2015, we wanted to begin constructing a mobile chicken coop, or "Eggmobile" as some call them, for our laying hens. The 45 hens we had at the time had spent the winter in the brooder to keep warm as well as to make it easier for our friend to take care of them while we were in Florida. Before winter we had them in one of our broiler pens and would let them out of the pen during the day to free range. We wanted to build a mobile structure on wheels for two reasons; 1) it would make moving them around the farm ten times easier, and 2) we were growing our flock and needed something that could house a lot more chickens. After posting an ad on Craigslist for a trailer frame that we could build a chicken coop on, we received an email from a guy who said he had an old camper that he thought might make a good chicken coop. So we thought, why not? A camper would be perfect! It already has walls and a roof, and it's on a trailer frame that can be pulled around with a truck or ATV. So we bought it for a hundred bucks, brought it to the farm and began the transformation. Here are some pictures:
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| Ripping out the walls and floor |
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| Taking out the kitchen :) |
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| Putting in a mesh floor for manure to fall through |
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| Matt having a blast |
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| Adding roosts to take advantage of vertical space |
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| The finished product. The "Winneb-EGG-o" |
Jackson Was Born
On May 5, 2015, exactly one week after our due date, the moment we had been waiting for for a long time finally arrived. Our son, Jackson Thomas, was born at 7;00AM weighing 7lbs 2oz, coming out at a whopping 23.5" long and with bright red hair! We were blessed to be able to have him at home, with the assistance of our wonderful midwife, in our quaint little barn apartment on the farm. And I'll tell you what, this boy was meant to be a farm boy. Born in a barn, and JUST in time for morning chores. I mean on the dot! Daddy was able to enjoy our first precious moments together, run outside to take care of the animals, and return just in time to cut the umbilical cord :). Again, I'll spare you the details, although I am happy to talk about our home birth experience with anyone interested. It was wonderful!
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| The very spot where Jackson was born |
First Farm Tour
We had the privilege of showing a few Liberty University students and employees around the farm for our first official "Farm Tour". Liberty has started a sort of "mini farm" for students to learn about sustainable farming and get their hands dirty with a campus garden and livestock! We all had a great time and afterwards they blessed us with an abundance of wonderful vegetables from their garden. It was such a nice treat!
A few other exciting things from early-mid 2015
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| We bought 150 new laying chicks to grow our flock |
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| Mandolin and Banjo became the best of friends |
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| Matt shot his first 3 deer |
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| God blessed us with extra work for Matt (He got a lot of experience clearing land!) |
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| We started our garden |
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| We built a "Poultry Patio" for our chicken processing area |
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| We put together an awesome processing area |
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| Mandolin got run over by our egg mobile and had to have surgery to fix her hip :'( ...she's ok now! |
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We adopted two barn kitties to help with rodent control |
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| We FINALLY bought a livestock trailer! |
Family and friends visit and help on the farm...
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| Rachel's grandparents helping at the market |
First Calving
A big first for us in 2015 was calving. We are blessed to be able to care for our landlord's herd in exchange for a rent reduction, and starting in September of 2015 we got to experience the beauty of calving. We had worked with cow/calf operations before but this was the first time that we were pretty much overseeing the process on a daily basis. It was amazing with a tad bit of stress. The stressful part is that you never know when a calf is about to drop so you constantly want to check on them in the rare case that you need to assist in the birth. Thankfully, we did not have to assist any heifers, they all handled it like a bunch of boss's! And then there is the ear tagging part and making sure the calf gets up and starts nursing soon after the birth. But, the amazing part is getting to witness the miracle of life. What a beautiful process! There is something so special about watching a new calf take its first steps, figure out how to eat, bond with its mother, and run through fields playing with other calves!
Moved to a House
Possibly one of the biggest blessings of 2015, aside from our son being born, was that we were able to move out of our barn apartment and into a house! Not only is it a house, but it is on the farm! We thought we were going to be staying in the apartment for a while, right through Jackson learning to crawl and walk and get into everything. And just when we accepted that fact and started to figure out how to make it work, God brought a huge surprise blessing to us in the form of a house just a few hundred yards away from the apartment! The reason it was a surprise was that the people who had been living in it for several years suddenly decided to move, giving our landlord a one month notice. And just in time for winter, too! Although we were extremely thankful for our apartment, it was a wee bit chilly during winter :). So we moved into the house on October first, when Jackson was 5 months old. We are in awe that the Lord continues to bless us every step of our journey, and that His timing is perfect in every way. |
| Moving out of our apartment |
That about sums up our biggest events of the last year and a half. It has been amazing to see God's hand through all of the good and bad times, all of the ups and downs, all the difficult decisions, the confusing trials, the days when we feel on top of the world and the days when it feels the world is on top of us. He never fails us and always provides. What a wonderful journey this has been so far, and it only gets better as we continue toward our goals. We hope you enjoy seeing our progress as we build a farm business from the ground up, and thank you all for your continued support and prayers!
We'll close with some more pictures of 2015!
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| Our Chri |
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| The cows getting curious as Rachel goes into labor |
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| Thanksgiving Turkeys |
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| Jackson calculating our market totals |
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| The barn Jackson was born in |
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| Christmas 2015 |
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