My name is Alissa. My husband, Chris, and I, along with our son, Oliver, have a little slice of homesteading wonderland in Southwestern Minnesota.
Our family home was built in 1890 and purchased by Grandparents in the 1960's. We moved into the main house in 2010. It has presented many unique challenges working with such a old home over the years.
Our homesteading journey started by boarding 1 horse. We figured we had the land (17&1/2 acres) and nothing to put on it. Yep, that's how it started. One. Horse. Within two weeks, I had my own horse, Lady.
In the years since, we have slowly accumulated horses and we currently have four of our own; Lady, Blue, Danny Boy and Bud. Two miniature donkeys complete our own herd; Gracie and Molly. We continue to board horses and the amount here varies since we've had a few people move to and from the area.
It didn't take long to expand from horses being our sole livestock. A family member spotted a shed for sale on a Facebook site and we bought it, moved it home, and converted it to a chicken coop in the following few weeks. When we purchased it, we figured a 12x20 shed was overkill in size. How wrong we were! A laying flock resides in the coop year round and we raise meat birds during the summer months as well. I briefly had a couple different breeds of ducks, but we find them too messy to keep around on a regular basis.
Our most recent livestock adventure has been in beef cattle. Our herd is small, consisting of just 3 cows (Red, Black Betty and Vanna White) and 2 feeders (New York and Rib Eye) at the moment. The first calves ever born on the property to us were sent to butcher just last week and we should be getting back our meat shortly.
Our homestead garden has also evolved over the years. It was originally located in what is now the horse paddock and had to be relocated after the horses went right through the construction fence to walk through it. I believe I didn't have a garden for a year or two because of this. Once we decided on a new location, the new garden was 30x30. It didn't take long to have to expand the garden by another 20 feet. Chris would be the first to state that I have a black thumb of death when it comes to plants, but somehow I usually manage to grow a decent amount of things every year. (Automatic sprinklers really help!)
My homestead preservation experience started with water bath canning jam or jelly. I really had no idea what I was doing at that time, but I jumped in with both feet! My basement is now busting at the seams with jams, jellies, sauces, fruits, veggies, broths, meats, etc. Basically, if there is a way to can something, I will try it and put it up. I'm always experimenting with new preservation methods to keep our harvest.
I hope you will join us on our ever-evolving homestead journey. It seems as if we are always working on a project or two and I always have a photo or two to share from around the Homestead.
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