I find it fitting that it's been almost a year to date since I've written a blog post. My goodness, there has been A LOT that has happened on the homestead in one year. To recap, the Husband and I are well. We will be celebrating six years together this December. The dogs and cats are great. We welcomed a sweet outdoor kitty to the homestead, named Norman, and he has done a fantastic job of keeping the critter population at bay. Plus, he's become quite fond of me. :)
As some of you may know, we sold off the last of our goat herd last year. After a lot of hardship, we decided it best to change course and take a break from small livestock. Not too long after, the farm felt empty. I did some research, got in touch with a great local livestock vet, and went animal shopping. We are now the proud farmer of a small herd of Katahdin sheep. I had read a lot about this breed of hair sheep and they've been a great fit for us. We have a strong young ram, four healthy ewes, and we will harvest four lambs this winter. The gratitude of growing and raising your own food is immeasurable. I've already seen some fall breeding going on which means early Spring lambs are coming our way! We had a hugely successful meat chicken harvest this summer with over 60 pounds of chicken in the freezer. After four years, I'd say we finally reached the point where we know what we are doing from chick to freezer. And yes, I'm crossing my fingers for next year's batch of chickens. Speaking of chickens, we downsized our laying flock to about a dozen hens and I've seen a huge increase in egg production since. They are happy girls with lots of space to roam.
Speaking of space... I'm over-the-moon excited to tell you that we are hoping to gain a bit of space for our homestead... WE ARE MOVING! We are moving just a few miles away to some family property with about 5 acres of property where we will continue doing exactly what we've done here. We 've finished up a few cosmetic projects around the house and we should be listing our house soon. I can't wait to show you the new property. I've already begun to dream about the possibilities there. More on that soon!
There were many more failures in the garden than successes. More failures than I anticipated, for sure. They were mostly due to the lack of time I had going into Spring. We purchased, renovated and opened Nomad Coffee, our mobile coffee trailer, and were quite busy getting all of that going and ready for the local farmer's market. Thankfully, I have been able to make great friendships with some local farmers and have had access to the most beautiful produce this summer. One crop that THRIVED this year was our garlic. We had a very successful garlic harvest, to be used as whole cloves and in my garden herb salt. Gardening is always about next year and you bet your booty, I'm already dreaming up the garden for next year. It will take some time to get the garden beds established in the new garden space, but the new property already has a greenhouse on it with plenty of space surrounding it for both raised and in ground garden beds.
Farm & Flower has grown immensely this year. I'm doing work I never dreamed of getting to do. We have begun booking for the 2023 Wedding Season and I'm excited to see what other ventures we take on next year with this business. If I'm learning anything, I'm learning to dream BIG. The new property has a building that I will turn into a flower studio. It's the perfect size for our business and I'm eager to ditch my dining room for a designated space to create.
For now, we are patiently (or not so patiently) walking through the process of buying/selling a home. Dylan and I have already agreed that we are never moving again after this. :) Thankfully, we are young and continue to remind ourselves that we will have plenty of time to make that house our own. But don't doubt for a second that I haven't walked through that house in my mind just under one hundred times. She's going to be gorgeous and cozy when I'm done with her. Until then, I'm going to pour another cup of coffee and be at peace in this current house.
Cheers friends!