The past several months have been a blur! I feel both equally honored, excited and obligated to start with the biggest and best update...
For those of you who follow along on my socials, you saw that we welcomed baby # 7 to the family 2 months ago; a precious little boy💙! We both are confident this babe is the caboose of our clan, so I pursued a home birth. Baby T came just a few days past his due date fast and furious! I went to bed one night and woke up around 230am a few hours later, and Baby T was here just an hour and fifteen minutes later. It wasn't the birth I had planned to have at home. It was fast and messy, but it was the most humbling, empowering and beautiful thing I've witnessed or been a part of. The peace and safety I felt being with my husband from waking to birthing to cradling was incredible. And I have to give MAJOR props to him because he went into autopilot midwife mode because we weren't sure she'd make it in time. He did everything quickly and reacted calmly and promptly. The Lord's hand was evident in every second, down to even keeping our older 6 kiddos asleep and tucked in until baby and I were tucked in bed and resting! We started our day with the excitement of new baby snuggles and homemade biscuits and gravy. A tremendous shout out to my midwife as well. She kept me level headed, full of healthy suggestions and directions throughout the pregnancy, and truly became a dear friend. I mean, honestly, how can you not see someone as a friend when they've walked with you closely for nearly 10 months and seen you at your most vulnerable states, and championed you the whole way??
But T isn't the only baby we've welcomed to our homestead this winter! We are currently raising 34 baby chicks to begin to establish an all organic food supply for our crew of 9. We ordered chicks shortly before the egg and chicken price spike these last couple weeks. I'm fully confident that was Holy Spirit leading us to commit now. And while we still have a ways to go before we are enjoying our bounty, we know the quality and care we are putting into these little gals is going to pay off big in light of recent events. These are the sweetest little chickies I've ever seen. We added 14 chicks to an original 18 that are roughly 2 weeks older. We were so encouraged to see the older hens immediately tap into mama mode and snuggle on and protect the younger ones. We are total novices when it comes to livestock. No experience, but tons of research. So we were nervous to integrate but because of space we needed to quickly. And while we had planned two separate flocks, I think we are finding ourselves pivoting to one larger flock. If they all lay according to their breed specifications we should see about 147 eggs a week. This feels excessive, but I'm really looking forward to showing up to random places with baskets of eggs to bless others with; especially with prices these days! Oi.
In addition to our rather large "beginner flock", we are bringing home a pair of milking cows and their calved soon. We've been so incredibly blessed to be able to access raw milk, various pasture raised meats and baked goods for the past year from a local farm. Not only are all their products and animals incredible and tended to with the utmost respect and love, but the farmers are truly gems in their community. They've spent so many spur of the moment hours, mid chores mind you, educating us and teaching us all the things. They have been good to our family and made us feel so welcomed. The only thing that makes me sad about getting our own cows, is not seeing them weekly anymore. (I am totally looking forward to having our Saturdays back after the morning milkings though.) But I know we're getting the best dexters possible because of not only breeding and care and history, but because of Mr. Rob and Mrs. Audrey. When I say they are a gem, I truly mean it! They helped so much with teaching and demonstrating closed loop regnerative farming to us. Mrs. Audrey even encouraged me to start baking sourdough because it would be cheaper than buying from her and something I could do with the kids. And while I would simply love to take credit for the masterpiece loaves that have since come from our kitchen, once the hubs saw the science and math involved he highjacked that hobby and is perfecting it. In fact, I simply put my bread order in on Saturdays and he bakes for me Sunday with the kids while I tend to the babe and settle weekly admin after church. This may or may not be what happened when he got me the espresso machine as well. But so far, they both have worked out beautifully for me.
We also expanded our garden this past month. Hubs was able to build incredible soil in our 1000sf in ground garden last year, but with adding the chickens and the cows, I also added to my grow requests. The kids have all taken a liking to gardening and growing their meals so we've all pitched in on dreaming and planning efforts for this spring. So we are experimenting with 12 boxes in the 1000sf addition, and in-ground planting on the original 1000sf grounds to see which method we prefer moving forward. We anticipate growing vertically out of the boxes to maximize yields and letting all our runners (like pumpkins and melons) fill the in-ground area with the fruit trees and corn (we will three sisters method the corn stalks). As far as produce goes we will have a hefty variation of peppers and tomatoes to be canned into salsa, pasta sauces and ketchup, as well as various squash, onions, eggplant, leafy greens, cucumbers, beans, peas, okra, potatos, corn, radish, melons, pumpkins and whatever fruits and berries we can manage off our trees and bushes. I did order a few "orchard ready" fruit trees, but we will see if they actually produce well this year or not.
All in all, things are moving at the speed of light on the property this year. We've drug our feet on anything "big" around the homestead until we sold our house up north. But it just hasn't sold yet. It currently is home to a tenant who is so precious. God has truly blessed us with amazing tenants while we wait to sell when the timing is right. So since we recognize His sovereign hand in everything, we decided to stop holding back because of "what if?" And have just leaped fully in. I mean, we went to pick out a milk cow WITH her calf this week, and wound up with two and their babies. If that isn't going all in I don't know what is. Our goal is abundance. We want so much growing and life where we put our hands that we HAVE to give it away. We have been so abundantly blessed. Even when it can feel lonely and like God's plans will never come to pass... or even when we have felt we totally missed it and maybe made the wrong choice at times; We literally only have to take a deep breath and look around at all the untapped potential. Then we remember that pioneering and changing a culture has to be organically done. It has to be done step by step. Season by season. You have to till and work the ground. Nourishing it and building it full of life as you go. You must tend to the small details, like cleaning little chickie bums from doo and cleaning up after everyone else's past influence in a place. You have to establish water sources. You have to create food supply to continue to nourish and provide. You can't just haphazardly show up and throw all the dreams, and plans, and seed around on the rocky soil and expect anything of significant value to root. You must put forth your hand and do the work. So that's what we are choosing to do. Both in the natural and in the spirit. And we are eagerly watching it all bloom as it unfolds here at our homestead, Cedar Myrtle Farms.
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