Patience is a Virtue!

Doing our early morning rounds in our PJs.

     When we made the decision to start homesteading, if you can even call how this all happened a conscious decision, one of the major driving forces was our three young children. The bottom line was that we wanted to know what was in the food we were feeding our growing children and feel good about it at the end of the day. 

Patiently waiting to hold baby bunnies.

     We started raising chicks and expanding our garden before Miss E was even a year old and it quickly became evident that this lifestyle would have many more benefits than we had ever imagined! Mr. J planted, watered, weeded, and harvested with her right by his side and as a result she LOVED our fresh picked produce! She LOVED playing in the dirt and being outside. We raised our chicks from 2 days old and she LOVED them too; giggling with glee at the sigh of their tiny, fuzzy bodies. She squeezed them, and loved them to pieces (almost literally!) When they finally started laying eggs, she had so much fun helping us collect them, wash them, and in turn eat them! It was truly amazing to see how she was growing up with this as her norm. Eggs didn't come from the supermarket, they came from the "Bock Bocks!" How brilliant! She was automatically learning what had taken me a good 20 years to wrap my brain around. I loved it. In fact, we all loved it. Our simple life was just what the doctor ordered. 

Miss D and Aspen

Meadow Sweet, our first Doe due TODAY!!!

     Fast forward five years and add Miss D and Mr T to the brood, and we now have the makings of a full-blown farm on our hands! We still have a HUGE garden and our egg layers, but we have also added ducks for eggs, meat birds, pigs, goats, rabbits, and plan to add turkeys this spring. We also make a lot of our food from scratch. By utilizing our pantry and the two deep freezers and root cellar in our basement, we have been able to greatly reduce our grocery bill (I only shop every 3-4 weeks,) and eliminate many processed foods from our home. This probably would have sounded like a lot of work to me a mere 5 years ago, back when I was buying everything all natural and organic from the store, but I bet I never would have imagined that I would be able to spend LESS on groceries with a family of five than I did when we first got married nine years ago! 

Helping Daddy move the Rabbit Hutches.

     But for me, right now, the savings aren't even the biggest pay off. I simply LOVE being in my kitchen. I LOVE making healthy food for and with my children, and I LOVE that they enjoy it too. We have special cooking/baking days on a regular basis in our home and I LOVE that I can teach my children the skills of survival all while having a fun time! The teacher in me also loves all of the teachable moments we have. Counting, reading, fractions, and the list goes on, and on, and on... Overall, I think that our simple lifestyle is going to give my children the edge they will need to grow in to strong, capable, cooperative members of society no matter what they choose to do with their lives. The benefits are just too many to count! They are learning to love and appreciate the people and things we have in our lives, to take responsibility, to have respect for life as well as for our environment. They also understand where our food comes from. Green beans grow in the garden. When we eat meat, an animal must die. And on, and on, and on...
     I too, am learning more than I ever thought possible; from simple cooking skills, to animal anatomy :). Recently, I have begun to learn a little bit about having patience...

Miss E watching over Ivy's kits while I clean the cage.

     Awaiting the arrival of our first two litters of Satin rabbits was almost more than I could handle! As their due dates got closer the anticipation was so distracting that I found myself almost unable to do anything else but check on them all day. It was really rather childish and I was quite frustrated with myself. I obviously had not had much practice at exercising patience thus far.   
     And the thing is, it got even worse as our first goat's due date came and went. I spent almost an entire week checking on Meadow 6-8 times per day before Mr. J realized that he had miscalculated her due date which is actually today! I even put a baby monitor out in the barn so I wouldn't miss anything at night while Mr. J was at work. Well, the good news is that now I know I was worrying for nothing. 

Miss E and Prince Eric

Miss D and Ariel

     I also know that this WILL get easier for me. We have three goats that will kid this spring, and I fully intend to continue breeding the rabbits, so it's not like this whole "waiting for spring babies to arrive" ordeal will be a one time gig. I'm certain that this will get easier the more we do it. I have already begun to start directing my nervous energy in a positive way. I have begun "nesting," or what most people would call Spring Cleaning, in anticipation of the new, furry kids' arrival because I know that once those cute, little jumling beans arrive I will want to spend as much time with them as possible! We have already moved the rabbitry to it's new location and I have grand plans to deep clean the house from top to bottom. 

      So, maybe this is also a lesson in preparedness. That being said, I still hope we have pictures and the story of our first goat kidding experience to share sooner rather than later...
                                                

The new location of the rabbitry. It's kind of a hodge podge right now but we have big plans for many more cages like the ones Mr. J built in the front hung back to back under a large aluminum sided roof.

Patiently yours, Mrs. J :)