Whoa! It’s been a rush. With it being Spring, things are growing and changing all over the homestead. This update might be a bit much to read in one setting, but with this being our journal to our children for the future, I’ll leave it all there. If you want a quick snapshot, the title headings give an idea of what is happening in our lives with a few more details for any sections of interest. (I am dividing it into two posts, the first with things that are happening, and the second dealing primarily, though not only, with some of the systems that we are working on developing to help taking care of the homestead not consume all of our time and money.)
Just tonight (2025/03/30) we had our first cows make a break for it and disappear into the night. More on that later.
So what’s new?
Prayers for Alex
In past updates we have mentioned or referred to our friend Alex. For, so much of our homestead we have him to thank. He brought chickens when he knew we weren’t ready (but needed to get a jump). He gave us goats to help us get started. God had him show up at just the right times when I was really hoping I had another strong hand available. He has been teaching our boys their various instruments. He has been challenging and encouraging us in the faith, and so much more. He and his wife have been a tremendous blessing.
While I don’t think of him as older, with his spunk and activity, he is in his 70s. During the winter he fell, and while he can now stand up and walk for a little while, he still can hardly leave his house. His spirits are up as he learns so much more about living by God’s strength.
Any prayers for Alex are appreciated.
At the same time, much wonderful good has come from this. God has been teaching him so much through it. (I already thought of him as about the closest reflection of Jesus that I knew even before the fall.) Also, he saw the value of the homestead lifestyle when he was older and his children were gone. They live in the city. While we live close and were taking care of his animals for a while, his children and grandchildren have started coming out and learning what to do. Also, another man at church has been taking Alex’s teaching spot in the rotation for leading the Wednesday Bible Study. It is great to see this opportunity for growth of the church.
Cows! Welcome to your new home!
As mentioned above, we now have a cow and calf pair, Bonnie (who is bred back, aka: pregnant) and her calf, Red. They came to join us on March 1, 2025 and have been a blessing. Both are very calm and came from a very nice family who had more cows than they needed. (God’s system gives ample provision through multiplication!) Bonnie is an A2/A2 Dexter.
Both of those will need another post to explain. Basically, A2/A2 is a genetic quality that is better for human digestion. Most cows on the big dairy lots are A1/A1. And a Dexter is a smaller cow (still quite large in our eyes) that doesn’t give as much milk, but is tough against the elements, good at foraging, disease resistant, births easily, has a rich nutrient dense milk, and was the family homestead cow for many generations. (Most big dairy cows are Jersey cows, which produce more milk than our family could use, and aren’t as resilient.)
The cows also brought our introduction to electric fence, which seems to work great and they don’t get near it… more on tonight’s escape below.
Goats: 2 more does, 1 buck and 3 new kids
God provided a great deal for three more goats (two bred does and our first buck). Just this week one gave birth on Wednesday, and the other gave birth to twins on Thursday. One of our original two females gave birth in January. That brings us to four adult females, four kids, and one buck.
We are working on milking the moms.
Rabbits and Bunnies: One new doe and likely some bunnies coming soon
Our momma rabbit who gave birth to eight bunnies during the winter is likely going to be giving birth again soon. She is pulling hair to get her nest ready for the babies.
We also bought another breeding age rabbit a few weeks ago. We saw the signs of a successful breeding, so believe she is pregnant (with our buck), but aren’t sure.
Bee traps: In the tree and ready for new tenants
We also set up one of our honey bee traps about 13 feet up in one of our trees, and still need to place one on a friend’s property. While called “traps”, a term often associated with killing wasps, mice, and other unwanted critters, these traps simply offer a swarm of bees a nice place to live. Once they move in, we will move them to an even more spacious hive, where they can build their colony to grow and thrive, hopefully for years to come. (Until they outgrow it, swarm again, and half of them follow a new queen to move into another home… possibly in a new trap or hive that we have waiting.)
Life … and Death (and a chance to learn)
While we have had a lot of new life on the homestead, we have also had some very sad deaths. Last year, all of Mother Hen’s chicks thrived (until the raccoon incident). This year, eight chicks hatched after surviving a -18F winter. We learned about keeping them warm(ish) with setting up a heat lamp, putting wind blocks on the coop, etc. Unfortunately, after being born (with nice weather) all eight chicks died within a few days. There were several different ways they died, including getting stepped on by mother hen, but one by one they all died over a few days. This was sad, and as we were looking forward to refreshing our hens. We’re also looking to learn what else would can do to prevent this in the future. Every failure gives an opportunity to learn (so we have lots of opportunities to learn!). With all that is happening, life goes on and we nearly forgot about this loss until looking back to write this update.
Ducks and Geese (the great battle!)
As well as the death of the chicks, we have also been having an issue with our ducks. I should say, an issue with Canadian Geese. The geese think the pond is all theirs, and geese are known to be territorial. They attack our ducks to keep them off the water, and even fly into their coop at night and attack them. (The electric fence can protect them from coons, foxes, etc.) Unfortunately Canadian Geese are federally protected as migratory birds, so there’s not much we can do right now. We are looking to beef up their night time living area, since they free range during the day and have been going further up the creek instead of in the pond.
Wind
There is wind, and then there is wind. A few weeks ago, we experienced the latter. It was so strong that it blew a round hay bale that is up to my shoulders about 10 feet UP a slight incline. It also blew over our two playgrounds that were not tied to a tree and made our shingles look like keys on an automatic player piano, which meant that I was up on the roof gluing them down where the tar strips were letting loose. (Elyse was concerned that I would blow right off the roof, but I knew that it was strong enough that I would gently glide to the ground on a gust of wind. I learned that years ago from Mary Poppins.:-) ) Strangely, instead of becoming a kite, a mobile shelter I built with a tarp over a curved cattle panel just sat there and bent down with the wind. A barn near us seems to have lost its roof (not ours, though ours was flapping). There were tornados around, but not near us (more up in Saint Louis). According to the neighbors, for as long as they can remember the tornadoes come our way then always break to the north or south (or both). They don’t know why but think that there is some land formation that keeps us from getting hit.
Several Ohio friends saw about the tornadoes in the news and wrote to ask how we are doing. It was great to hear from you!
Clearing Fence Lines
We’ve previously mentioned that the property was pretty much abandoned for around 20 years. With wanting this to be a place for people to come and have time with Christ through his creation, we are working on cleaning it up. Recently we cleared a long stretch of fence line that was buried in thorns, and ground covered with rocks and sticks. While the thorns were painful, it was a joy working with the boys and throwing it all into a large fire we built nearby. We also found some old half buried barbed wire fence that we’re glad we got out before anyone got hurt. Things are looking much better and are much safer.
Hide and Go Seek for the Creek Drain (before our land bridge washes away)
We have a spring fed pond and the creek from that spring runs right across our property. There is a land bridge across that creek with a pipe running from the creek above down about 4 feet to the pond. Unfortunately the intake of the pipe is blocked and covered. We know it is there, but can’t find it. One of my sons and I have been working on finding it to unclog it before the land bridge washes away. We’re getting some clues, from listening on the other end for if we hit the pipe by driving a pole into the ground, but haven’t found the intake just yet.
Redbuds & Ants (Yum, Yum, Yuck!)
The boys enjoyed “helping” our neighbors pick the flowers from their redbud trees. She uses them to make cookies, etc. (… a possible motivation for the excitement to go help pick?!?). They came back with about two 5 gallon buckets of flowers for us to use for baking pancakes, etc. Unfortunately, we didn’t know it at the time, but they also apparently had ants. The pancakes and other goodies have been delicious… the piles of ants were not so fun… but seem to have dissipated quickly after we moved the redbuds.
Fruit Trees… now to wait three years…
This month we added two peach trees, two cherry trees and two plum trees to the mix. At the same time our previous apple and pear trees, and various berries, are really starting to grow. Just today we picked some of the flowers off of our pear trees. (We need to keep them from fruiting for three years so they can focus on root development.) Our fig trees aren’t yet showing signs of life, but it may just not be warm enough yet… or maybe we killed them. We’ll find out soon.
Gardens
Our tower gardens are loaded with Kale and Chard and should be ready to start eating soon. One of our in-ground gardens is now loaded with cold hardy crops such as onions, potatoes, etc. and a focus now is planting the other garden.
… This post continues in Part 2 …
3rd Culture Living 
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