homestead

I was planning on doing this post a week ago.

On the first, actually. You know, a nice long post at the very beginning of every month to assure you all that I’m still very much alive and that I haven’t hidden away and determined to communicate with people only via social media posts.

I have, but obviously I don’t want you thinking that.

Anyway, I meant to do a lovely long post on the first, but I realized that the most exciting moment of this month hadn’t quite happened yet. So I decided to wait.

So, here she is. The most exciting moment of March!

Meet Polly.

She’s so cute. I can hardly believe she’s ours.

Now that I’m back to myself and the weather is beginning to warm up, we’ve shifted focus back to our homestead, to starting new projects and continuing established ones. Our rabbits are off to a slow start, but we’re making adjustments and finding our rhythm with them. One of the things that I love—and hate—about homesteading is that things rarely work the way you want them to immediately. The first animal you buy dies or doesn’t produce the way you were expecting, or the setup that you thought was perfect needs serious renovations to be usable. There’s no plastic, one-size-fits-all, factory assembled options of homesteading, and animals are predictably unpredictable.

Which means, adapting. Improvising. Experimenting.

Homesteading is about mistakes and restarts and, most of all, time to get things right. It’s intensely frustrating, and, at the same time, one of the most intriguing, challenging processes. Because where’s the fun in having everything handed to you, wrapped in plastic and already perfect?

So, we are adapting to new challenges with our meat rabbits. Rest assured, I intend to get our system right and smooth out the lumps. In the meantime, we’ve introduced Polly to the barnyard and begun our foray into dairy farming.

I’m excited.

Now don’t laugh. But because my sister—and my parents—also have goats for their dairy needs, we have built up quite the little herd down at our barn.

Eight.

We have eight goats.

I’m not gonna lie, every time someone messages us and is like, hey, we have a goat for sale! We say yes.

Immediately.

We probably won’t stop at eight either.

Two of our lovely eight are due to have kids in the next week or so. Our goat—and the one we picked up with her—are both due to have kids in June.

And we have two more females that we’ll be breeding with our male in the next month or so.

Starting up a homestead of this size is a huge amount of work, and a sizable financial investment, but once things start rolling—goats, chickens, geese (surprise!), and rabbits—we’ll begin to see returns for all our hard work. My sister, who is endlessly organized, has everything written down to make sure we’re getting our money’s worth and not paying too much for a dud animal, feed, or upkeep.

As much as I love her tenacity, I’m less invested in the financial side of things. Sure, I would like a return. I’d like to see things pay off. But for me, knowing where our food is coming from, knowing that our system is sustainable and responsibly sourced, and that my kids will grow up knowing where their food is coming from and how to get it should things in town go south . . . that is its own reward.

Plus, just look at that face.

Adorable.

Any exciting moments on the way for you in March? Tell me about them in the comments!