Are you feeling the pull towards homesteading and raising your own livestock? Already starting to tumble down the rabbit hole, and you've escalated from a few laying hens to wanting to raise your own meat? Or, maybe you want to know what to do (and not to do) from someone who has been around the block a few times?
If any of these questions hold true for you, you have come to the right place!
Hi, I’m Kate, and in the summer of 2016 I truly jumped into the world of homesteading face first when we bought our neglected 1790’s farm. At that point I grew a garden and raised laying hens. Well, that has since escalated to:
- Breeding dairy goats for raw milk
- Breeding via AI heritage cross pigs for the most phenomenal pork and feeder pigs
- Breeding Icelandic sheep for wool, tanning hides, and grass fed lamb
- Raising pastured meat chickens to improve our soil, pasture grasses, and for our consumption
- ALL the wool and fiber crafts
- About a million other random valuable skills I have learned along the way
I have helped my animals come into this world as well as leave, and everything in between. It’s been quite the ride, and quite the learning experience. The best part? I grew up doing NONE OF THIS. Yes, that’s right. I don’t have generations of experience to pull from, and I haven’t been “doing it since I was in diapers”. But, you better believe that I have been making up for lost time, and it truly is never too late to start.
I am forever a student and am thirsty for knowledge. I want to know about as much as I can, and I am largely self taught. I figured out how to successful artificially inseminate my pigs, perform my own fecal tests on my herd of goats and sheep, and brain tan sheepskins. Sure, I made some mistakes. But, I’m wiser because of them. I use this blog in addition to my Instagram account to not only document the million different directions I seem to pull myself, but the successes and failures I have along the way.
It is my hope that this blog can become a source of inspiration and information for those feeling the pull towards a simpler way of life.
Maybe I can shed some light on what you should know before you bring your first goats home, or how much it costs to raise a pig for your own consumption. Maybe you’re just looking for a solid recipe for yogurt or are curious about the incredible world of lard. If this sounds like your cup of tea, I invite you to pull up a chair and take a look around.
Happy Homesteading,
