Simplicity

Welcome to our family farm. This year has been a wonderful and trying year for getting back into the farm lifestyle. A few years ago we had an up and going farm, several horses, goats, chickens, a donkey, a few dogs, some cats, and of course 7 children. Yes, you read it correctly. God called us into a different kind of life for awhile and now he has begun to move us into the simple farm life again. We currently have 3 acres of land and the beginnings of a dream coming true. This time around things are gonna be a little different, our farm will have more of a purpose. We have about 22 chickens, 2 turkeys, 4 dogs, 1 cat, 1/2 of a cow (will explain), 1 mini pot belly pig, 2 bee hives and 7 children. Our land is mostly hard, red dirt that has all the top soil removed because of our recent building. We put a home on the land that we acquired and then started praying for grass. To this day, we are still praying for grass. So, how do we have 1/2 a cow? We put a down payment on her and will get her later when we have the fencing up. She is a Jersey cow, about 3 years old and hopefully pregnant.

 

Little miss Rosemary will be our milking cow. We plan to use the knowledge we gained over the summer with the milk that we will get from her. On our kitchen blog you will see when Anna has begun to make buttermilk and cheese from some milk we have gotten. We are all excited to be able to learn how to milk her, and between all of us I'm sure that we will have no trouble milking her daily. Hopefully the calf will be a girl, if it is a boy then we are thinking about selling it. 

We just watched a film called Back To Eden ( http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/ ) that was really amazing. It shows how to use the land in the best ways and in the ways that God intended for us. We watched it Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon we were already trying it for ourselves. Here is what part of our front yard currently looks like, after watching the video it will make more sense to you. Along with the knowledge that we just learned about and the years we have had to grow in the 4-H gardening club we will be ready to have a great garden this year! 

 Our Backyard Garden Plot (before we watched the video and had already tilled it up)

 Me and Alyse about to roll the haybale out over the front yard.

 The lower side of the front yard with the first round of hay.

The upper part of the front yard with it's first layer of hay. 

After we rolled out the hay we spread it all out, sorry no pictured of that, and got it ready for the next step. We are very excited about the beginning of our farm! With all prayer and hard work then we will have a beautiful and established farm than can support us and maybe even fulfill another dream our family has. 

More to come later but let me leave with something a good friend told me, "The best life to live is a simple one." That seems perfect for our little farm. 

Gabby & The Venturinis