Welcome to the Farm

Caleb and I purchased a home in Paradise, Texas in April of 2015. It was a very old mobile home that a family friend was selling and gave us an awesome deal on. We lived in that home for just over a year, then it burnt down in June of 2016. We were able to purchase the plot of land that the home sit on and put a new mobile home on it. We soon realized we were unhappy. The majority of my family live's by Possum Kingdom Lake, about an hour from where we were living. At the time most of Caleb's family was living in Chico. We felt really lonely out there by ourselves. We were young with 2 babies and no help close to us. Even though we had family willing to help us with the kiddos it was not always easy or convenient to get the kids to or from their homes. Caleb was working some really long hours and I often felt overwhelmed and alone. Not only that but, we were both small town kids who dreamed of having the farm life. The animals, the land, and the freedom for our kids to grow up outdoors and "free" you can say. So when Michael was about 6 months old we started throwing around the idea of moving. I liked the idea but the next challenge was where to move and how to make it happen. We continued to live in our house for another year not really sure were to go.

Around this same time my mother-in-law was in a car accident that left her without a lot of movement in her left arm. My youngest sister-in-laws were growing up and moving out of the house. My in-laws have a 3 bedroom 2 bath house on three acres right outside of the Chico city limits. There are 2 room additions on the house as well. It quickly became a lot of extra space and work for them to keep up without the kids. On their property they also have a little building that my father-in-law had renovated for one of my sister-in-laws to live in right out of high school. It was the perfect situation. Mom and Dad moved into the little house that was a good fit for them and my family moved into the big house. This allowed us to help with all the responsibility of the Farm and also help with anything else they may need as they get older and some things get harder. So we packed up our house, bought a RV, and moved to Chico.

At first there were a lot of reservations. There were a lot of moving parts and there could be some things they could get tricky really quickly but the transition went really smoothly and I could not be happier. We were so excited to finally get the opportunity to live our little farm dreams! The farm started off with 3 goats that my in-laws had purchased prior to our moving in. Our buck is Roscoe.

Then we have 2 mamas that are sisters. Sonata wears a purple collar and Embers wears a blue color.

When we first moved in we learned about the goats and how to care for them. Their feeding schedules and how to make sure they were getting enough exercise. The mamas were pregnant which had it own set of rules. We helped out with the goats but at this point we are still learning. The girls had their second set of kids in December which was a fun time on the farm. We had a buck and a doe born on the 26th and a doe born on the 27th (Bella's birthday) which Bella was thrilled about. Do you know what comes with babies on the farm. Milk (lots of it)! We began slowly milking and sharing the milk with both the human kids and the goat kids. We currently still have all of this set of kids on the farm. Our kids are have Noelle, Gloria, and Jesus. This left us with 4 does and 2 bucks but why stop there. Our most recent farm addition is Athena, a black Nubian, from a dairy farm here in Wise County. We had decided to breed our mamas again in June but to do that we had to put them in with Roscoe. A lot of mornings I have to milk by myself since Caleb and Dad are at work. Roscoe is so large and the girls are so stubborn that I did not feel comfortable trying to get them out on my own so we decided to dry up their milk. But, our human babies went on strike because they really love goat milk so we decided we needed a new doe in milk and that is where Athena comes in. She is a sweetie and has only been on the farm for about 2 weeks.

But who can stop at just goats. No farm is complete without chickens right? We got a wild hair and decided to get 9 laying hens and 1 rooster to add to the farm. Not long after we were at Tractor Supply and the baby chick were so cute so we added 5 baby chicks as well. Our chicks just transitioned from their own coop to the main chicken coop. Right now we have 14 laying hens and 1 rooster.

But that is not enough is it? We also added 2 mini potbelly pigs named Ray and Toot to the farm. We want to get some bigger pigs for meat at some point but right now we just have 2 bacon bits.

I almost forgot about the bees. On the back acre we have 3 beehives that give us fresh honey. There are way to many of them to name so you will just have to forgive us on that one :)

And how do we keep all these animals safe you may ask (que Ella)? Ella is our Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD). She is an Anatolian Shepard. She is as sweet as pie but can also keep her own against any other predator that might come on the farm.

On top of all of our farm animals we also have 4 inside dogs. A Begal named Dixie and 3 Chihuahuas name Dezzy, Ottie, and Titan. Also inside we have 2 bunnies named Superman and Black Diamond. They are both girls, you guys can guess who named who. But dogs and bunnies would not satisfy my animal lovers so we alsohave 4 fish tanks. In our room we have a 55 gallon tank filled with all kinds of fish. The kids each have their own tanks with a snail, pleco, and beta.

We are currently looking for sheep as the newest animals on our farm, which we will raise for meat. We also are looking at turkeys for eggs and meat. You can say that we are crazy, or we just love animals I,ll let you decide, but we love living on our little piece of heaven. Life may get messy on the farm but at least its never boring.