Our first day of grazing was June 2nd.

This has always been a hard topic for me, the last day. Even-though I believe that cattle and sheep were created for us to eat, there is something very sad about that lingering date on my calendar, the date a life ends to give us health and well-being.

How we’re renovating our sheep pastures - from overgrown to lush and nutritious

Hello GREEN! Wow, I didn’t realize how much I needed to see green this year, I’m sure you can relate.

This is a really simple question for us to answer.

In the beginning I struggled with wanting to do ‘all’ the livestock. I wanted a diverse farm that would allow for multiple revenue streams and offer a more diverse lineup of meats to my customers.

One of the things Matt and I love about landscape architecture is how shaping the land defines space and accents unique topography. This summer we had an excavator in to shape a lot of land at the homestead and we're thrilled with the results.

... the 'big boys', AKA anyone over 300 pounds, is out on pasture! Sure we've been working tirelessly since March on getting critters out on the green grass (no it wasn't green in March but we were anticipating the green-up!) but it always seems that when you look back on the work, you forget how much work it really was.

When we bought this farm it hadn't seen livestock for at least 30 years, old pastures had grown in with woody and invasive species and were definitely in need of some major maintenance. In March we put our personal basement remodel on hold to get back to the farm projects.

I learned a LOT this lambing season. I had never witnessed a lamb birth, or a birth of any animal for that matter, prior to welcoming these babies home.

Well, the day finally came! Erma welcomed two healthy lambs yesterday evening. Meet Cain, the firstborn son at Homestead, and Eva his sweet little sister.

There are a lot of new experiences when you bring new animals to the farm. Today was our first experience with shearing and I can't help but laugh at how funny the girls look without their winter jackets.

I was approached by Alyssa with Alyssa Bloechl Photography to write a guest post on her blog. Alyssa captures farmers and farm life through her camera lens and I was thrilled to be apart of her series of guest blogs.