Farm Dreams

Hello, 

     My name is Tamara. I am 27 years old and would like to start a sheep and goat farm.  I am an artist by trade and aspiring farmer.  I received my bachelor’s degree in photography and sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD.  I have always been passionate about caring for animals and people.  It was during my time at MICA that the two became intertwined when a photography project led me to a family of urban farmers.  They had a couple of stables within blocks of my school and everyday from the moment we met you could find me at the stables.  It was an amazing experience where I learned to ride, care for horses and find my artistic voice.  I was hooked and obsessed with their way of life and connection with their animals and environment.  My journey has been a very unique one learning to ride bare back on a one eyed horse down the back alley streets of Baltimore.  I knew that…

I was fortunate enough as a child to grow up on a ranch, riding horses, running with goats, exploring the woods and whatever young kids can find to do in the great outdoors. At the age of 14 we moved to the city, it was an exciting change at first but as time went on I longed for the quietness in the fields, the fresh air all around and the memories I experienced as a child.

Twenty years later I still desire to have a homestead, a simple home on three to four acres. Enough room to garden, have an orchard, small vineyard, raise goats, chickens and our family. We are currently blessed with having a beautiful one acre lot just within the outskirts of town and we are turning our dream into reality.

While the one acre lot isn't the ideal it's a great start, we don't even own the property however our…

First of all we got a total of 2 inches of rain last week and this was after 3 inches of snow the previous week so the ground was saturated.  It allowed our lake to rise about 2 feet due to the run off, etc.  We were very thankful!

I got my first pair of farm boots - black and purple Muck boots.  They came in handy after that rain due to all the mud.  I used them when I cut down cedar trees all day last Friday and part of Saturday.  We have so many and I'm trying to get some ground cleared so we can reclaim some pasture.  It was too nice a day to stay inside, so out I went with my bow saw and lopping shears.  I saved the larger ones for the guys and the chain saw but I did what I could and thoroughly enjoyed my day outside.

Back on the inside we got the hot water tank vented and the sewer pipe fixed so this weekend we had hot water.  Now we are working on framing up my daughters bathroom so we can get the vanity, shower and toilet in place and finish the plumbing in…

The Happy Homesteader

It has been awhile since we have posted at The Happy Homesteader blog and I can personally say I have really missed being an active part of the Farm Dreams community. Our extended family has recently experienced an unexpected loss of a young member of the family and it has been a very difficult thing to deal with for many of us. Death of a loved one is never easy but the death of a young person in the prime of life with little explanation as to the cause of death is especially difficult. It can be so consuming to try to find the reason why so that it makes some kind of sense but in the end it just doesn't. Without getting overly spiritual or religious I must say that no matter what I believe or you believe is the ultimate purpose for this life or what happens to us when we leave this earth in death, I just hope that in some way all of the pain and…

My name is Steve and this story is about finding the farmer inside me. Some background about me is I was raised on a farm in the Midwest, moved to Texas as an adult, and now in my forties I have now moved back to the Midwest.

As a boy growing up on the farm in the Midwest we raised the typical livestock consisting of milk and beef cows, hogs, chickens, sheep, and I even had a pet rabbit! I was one of seven kids and we lived on a 200 acre farm and rented another 300 acres. We grew hay, corn, and soybeans. We were also fortunate enough to have an orchard that was planted when my father was a boy and some of my favorite memories were harvesting all the wonderful and diversified fruit. We also had a 3 acre garden for our vegetables which keep us kids busy hoeing and taking care of the garden. My brother and I also raised chickens for the eggs which we would eat and sell the surplus. I was told by my mother that I was self-sufficient by the time I was seven, and would often try…

This past spring & summer our grandson needed extensive dental work and the only dentist that I could find that would take our insurance wouldn't take his secondary insurance and because ours was the primary the secondary wouldn't reimberse for the co-pays so I was using part of my bill money to pay the dentist because they wouldn't make payment arrangements for the co-pays, so now with the holidays upon us I'm struggling to play catch up on bills and not enough money coming in to do that and eat too, it's been a very rough fall for us.

The whole thing started last summer after my sister saw a tote bag made from a grain bag and called me and asked if she brought some home from work if I thought I could make some and the boss said they would sell them for me. I made some and they sold out but then sales seemed to drop off for a long time. 2 weeks ago she called and said that someone had shown 1 of my bags to Poulin Grain and they wanted to commission 20 all…

The Practical Prepper

As I mentioned previously, my schedule has changed and I am unable to write new posts at this time. While I'm on hiatus, we're re-running the earlier posts from The Practical Prepper. Thank you for your patience and your continued readership!

Being self-reliant means being prepared for a reasonable range of disasters or emergency situations. But, that preparedness involves more than just taking care of yourself — it also means looking out for your family too. Of course, it's important to remember the furry members of your family in your planning. Below are some things that we've done for prepping for our dogs,…

The Practical Prepper

As I mentioned previously, my schedule has changed and I am unable to write new posts at this time. While I'm on hiatus, we're re-running the earlier posts from The Practical Prepper. Thank you for your patience and your continued readership!

A few weeks back, we talked about some basics of water storage. The response to that post was quite good, and many people had questions about collecting and purifying water.

So, let's cover some "natural" sources…