Gardner’s California Homestead

GardnerHomestead

Loving the herd life
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Hello! I am an avid reader on this site but don’t comment much. I would love to become more involved and figured a journal would be a good way to start.

My husband and I have known each other since we were children, raised in the same small town, went to the same school and have been together 18 years this year. We both have day jobs and have three children and bought our miniature homestead in May 2018. We own 2 1/2 acres of semi flat paradise. Before this we lived in “town” on a tiny lot but managed to raise chickens, Flemish giants, and a small container garden. We always wanted to become more self sufficient and this property was our dream. When we moved here the property had been neglected for quite a few years. The previous owners had built the house 60 years ago and in the last 10-15 years hadn’t been able to keep up with the maintenance. His brother and nephew still own the adjacent acreage and have given us a lot of cool history on the property.

Now to the most important part: the animals. When we got here the house came with two chickens. We quickly realized the coop wasn’t predator proof but not before raccoons took off with our inherited birds. 🤦‍♀️ When we got the coop reinforced I ordered 15 Lavender Orpingtons. We have a farm mastiff (English mastiff) and a 6 month old lab puppy. Three (slacker) barn cats.

After alot of research and fencing and preparation we got our first three Nigerian dwarf doelings. Quickly followed by three adult does who’s owners were moving and needed a new home. Eventually we added two bucklings, sadly last fall a mountain lion took one boy. We currently have had 4 babies born this spring. Bringing our current total to 11 Talk about a crash course in goat ownership.

We are also about 4 weeks into our first meat bird venture. They are growing like weeds and we are very excited to be able to provide our family with fresh meat.

Anyway this has gotten really long lol. Here’s some random pictures that give a little glimpse into our crazy life.
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GardnerHomestead

Loving the herd life
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Northern California
Apparently you can only post 10 Pictures at a time lol
 

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Baymule

Herd Master
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Welcome to the forum from Texas! If you don't mind, would you add your general location to your avatar? It sure makes it easier when offering garden advice, what works in Texas won't work too well in Montanna or Maine or pretty much anywhere else. LOL LOL LOL

Love the pictures and congrats on the beautiful dream farm. I love, love, love the brindles mastiff! I love big dogs anyway. We have 2 Great Pyrenees, 1 Anatolian and 1 big black Great Dane/ Labrador farm dog that thinks he's a LGD. We have Katahdin sheep, 4 horses, 2 feeder pigs and 50 Cornish Cross chicks, oh and 20-ish chickens.

Welcome, you will like it here and we welcome more members that like to jump in and tell us all about their garden/farm!
 

GardnerHomestead

Loving the herd life
Joined
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Location
Northern California
Welcome to the forum from Texas! If you don't mind, would you add your general location to your avatar? It sure makes it easier when offering garden advice, what works in Texas won't work too well in Montanna or Maine or pretty much anywhere else. LOL LOL LOL

Love the pictures and congrats on the beautiful dream farm. I love, love, love the brindles mastiff! I love big dogs anyway. We have 2 Great Pyrenees, 1 Anatolian and 1 big black Great Dane/ Labrador farm dog that thinks he's a LGD. We have Katahdin sheep, 4 horses, 2 feeder pigs and 50 Cornish Cross chicks, oh and 20-ish chickens.

Welcome, you will like it here and we welcome more members that like to jump in and tell us all about their garden/farm!

Ok I think I did it, we are in Northern California. Our mastiff is named Titan, he’s about 7 and an old man, he loves all animals and people (besides other intact male dogs). I’ve heard so many good things about LGDs and with our mountain lion issues we have considered getting one when he passes. We have twenty Cornish cross. Due to butcher Easter weekend. Our neighbor is letting us borrow his plucker so I’m hoping that saves us a ton of time. Thank you for the warm welcome, love to be able to talk with like minded people.
 

GardnerHomestead

Loving the herd life
Joined
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Location
Northern California
Welcome thats a beautiful dog and you take awesome pictures. The girls look thrilled to be bottle raising those babies. I know my kids love to.

Hello! I’ve been following your journal for a little bit now and idk how you do all you do. I’ve been hand milking one of my goats for about 6 weeks now and I’m worn out lol. And thank you I love taking pictures of what we are doing. It’s nice to document our farm progression and I love sharing with other ppl. The kids love it, these are our first bottle babies and are the sweetest.
 

GardnerHomestead

Loving the herd life
Joined
Mar 6, 2020
Messages
154
Reaction score
604
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Location
Northern California
The smiles on your girls faces is what it's all about. :) I'm glad you decided to start posting and look forward to more.

They enjoy it so much and so do I. They are about 6 weeks old now so our time is limited with them. I would like to think they are learning a lot along side us on this farm journey.
 

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