Promise Acre: Our Journey

promiseacres

Herd Master
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
4,796
Reaction score
9,711
Points
563
Location
NW Indiana
State/province/country are you in and what is your climate like? NW Indiana, very rural community, we love it!
2. How many people are in your family? Marital status? Married in 2001 to my HS sweetheart after dating for 4 years, blessed with a 4 yr old son and a 8 mo old daughter
3. How would you define your farm? A hobby desiring to become more self sufficient
4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed? camping, spending "down" time with family, working with my mini horses, riding, travel
5. Have you ever built a house, barn , or other types of building? Do you want to? We (by that I mean I assist my DH) took a large room off of our old house and put it back on, we did ALOT of stall building too. At our new place we have 1 small shed and 2 garages, so nothing for the critters and are currently building a 12 x 16 coop/feed shed. Next will be more shelters for mini horses and donkeys, maybe sheep?
6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet? nope, leave that to the DH
7. Who or what inspired you to be a farmer/rancher, hobby farmer? I guess my Mom's half baked dreams, the one thing she allowed us to participate in was 4H. We showed every livestock except llamas and cattle. We raised sheep for a while, then got into horses and trail riding. I went to college got a BS in Ag Science. It's a part of me, this farming thing.
8 Is it a hobby or an occupation? hobby/something else for me to take care of b/c I'm a SAHM
9. In what areas are you knowledgeable and in what areas would you like to learn more? I LOVE learning especially about critters. We're really excited to be able to produce our own veggies and hopefully our own meat in the future. I know way too much about horses, raisied and showed rabbits outside of 4H (we didn't eat them). I am in the process of getting some hair sheep, so very excited about that.
10. In what types of farming will you never choose to do? Gardening, raising chickens for meat and eggs, raising horned hair sheep and hoping to get some bunnies too.
11. Are you interested in providing more of your own food supply? absolutly
12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world? Read, Bible study, hiking, just being outside
13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi? I've driven tractors before
14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these? I have a sewing machine and enjoy sewing, have made Christmas stockings among other things.
15. Can you legally have all forms of livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds? Yes, Well we currently have 3 mini donkeys, 3 mini horses, 9 chickens, 1 rooster
16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood? nope
17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing? I love melons and pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant
18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives? not recently, bait
19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City farm? Country? we own 4 acres 7 miles from town
20. Are you a Novice, Technician, degreed? not sure what this means but I have a BS in Ag Science
21. What is your farm specialty? Or what one would you like to learn? it was mini horses, but looking to raise something we can eat if we can't sell it....;)

25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be? this is good for me now.
26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking? heating
27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be?
28. Are your family or friends also interested in animals? my son likes riding, DH likes idea of our own meat
29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs? I do now that i have the time, yes, no, yes
30. What was your best animal experience? Worst? best was probably riding my horse Kay for the first time, worst was losing a foal due to dystocia
31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs? my DH wants to hunt
32. What skills do you have that help you be more a self sufficient farm? I have taught myself to can and freeze veggies, experienced around lots of different critters
33. Do you process your own meat? Can or preserve? no
34. Do you use alternative energy sources on your farm? Would you like to? no, yes
35 What is on your to do list? travel
36. Have you ever lived completely off what you produce? Would you like to? no, maybe
37. In what do you trust? God, my husband and myself
38. Do you make and fix things yourself to save money? yes
39. Has the experience with animals changed your attitude or habits? Animals react because they are animals, unlike humans who will react because of who they are sometims not in a good way.
 

promiseacres

Herd Master
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
4,796
Reaction score
9,711
Points
563
Location
NW Indiana
So unless something crazy happens we are getting our hair sheep! A 4 horn ram and 3 ewes. They've been running together and the owner thinks they'll lamb come February or Jan or Dec! Yikes may make for some sleepless nights! Can't wait to get them home, maybe this weekend probably the next.

I still have some tomatoes from the garden so made some BLT's and french fries from our potatoes we finally dug. I can't wait til we can have our own meat we raised to go along with our veggies! Even though we've had a freeze or two the chickens are still enjoying watermelons (never did ripen) and green tomatoes every day.

Almost had a casualty to my favorite little hen, Hopper a Californian Leghorn. She came in to be put up then went back outside and I heard a commotion. When I went out she had blood near her comb :( All I can figure is one of the cats decided to attack her? We put her away from the other chickens overnight and she gave me a nice white egg this am. She's my only one laying so far, has given us 7-8 very yummy eggs! So DH did not get the walls quite finished on the coop because he had to help me set up a cage for Hopper. Sometime I'll post a picture of our chickens still in their watertank...for some reason they grew WAY quicker than the coops gotten finished. But hopefully in the next week they'll get to move in.

Thanks for reading and all of the welcomes. I can't believe I've not found this site before!
 

Pearce Pastures

Barn Babe
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
5,315
Reaction score
1,065
Points
383
Location
Hanna, IN
Yay for sheep! Our melons are going to the chickens too--we had about 20 or more really get big but they never went ripe either.
 

Latest posts

Top