Hi! I’m Rachel

I’M So GLAD YOU FOUND ME. I REALLY AM!

I’m excited to share this rural lifestyle with you!

I’ve been “living life rural” for all my life, but don’t let that scare you away. I grew up in Central Illinois, then moved to the high plains of Southeast Colorado when I met my husband back in 2006. He’s a fifth-generation farmer here and I wouldn’t want to raise our little boy any other way than out here on the farm.

Is this the easiest way of life? No, not by far. There is, however, just something about getting your hands in the dirt and putting in a hard day’s work that at the end of the day leaves you feeling more at peace and accomplished than anything else.

I want to share life with you. The tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way to make life easier. The challenges we’ve faced and the problems we’ve overcome. I want you to know that you can start a garden right where you are. You can pull a hot fresh loaf of homemade bread from the oven and have that same feeling of accomplishment where you are right now.

I want you all to feel how amazing it is to “live life rural” with me!

The “Why”

  • Picture of a Great Pyrenees dog laying in the goat pasture looking innocent

Learn – Do – Grow

What is the meaning behind “learn – do – grow”?

You may have noticed that I end every blog post with my signature and the tagline “learn – do – grow” and wondered exactly what it means. Let me explain:

LEARN: I hope that everyone who finds their way to this modern homestead blog walks away having learned something from being here. I want to foster a community that shares knowledge and is a safe place for those new to this lifestyle to ask questions and learn about the things they want to try out.

DO: After you ask the questions and learn about the things you want to do, I hope that you put it into action. Get out there and do the thing. (Totally borrowed that from my friend Sadie Smiley)

GROW: After you learn the stuff and put it into action, I hope you grow from it! Grow as a person, grow in knowledge, and learn from your experiences. It doesn’t matter if you tried to garden and it was a flop or a success. Grow from that experience, learn from it, and try again! Also… I want you to try growing things, lol. Gardening is great fun!

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing

Henry Ford

Some Fun tidbits….

We currently have 11 goats and depending on the time of year a handful of kids running around. Two of those are bucks, the rest are does. We don’t milk everyone all the time, and a couple of the does are retired girls who will just spend the rest of their days here with us.

We have 3 BLM burros that we adopted over 10 years ago. We actually only adopted 2 (a jenny and a gelding), but our jenny was pregnant. So, now we have three. They are hilarious and honestly I hope to always have burros or donkeys running around the farm.

We have…. some chickens? Lol. There are technically 17 out there, but I’m actually adding another rooster and just getting ready to set eggs in the incubator at the time I’m writing this, so… who knows!

We technically only have 5 head of cattle that we own, but our in-laws also have some. We manage about 20 head depending on the time of year. They are mainly beef (Angus and Corriente), with a Jersey and some Jersey crosses thrown in.

Last but not least, we have Lewis. He’s our LGD and is a Pyrenees, Akbash, Anatolian cross. He is amazing and keeps everyone safe from the coyotes!

There is a passel of barn cats running around down there as well. They keep the mice away for some fresh from the source milk.

I know I mention “gardens” in my posts, and that is because I actually have multiple gardens spread out across our property.

We started with one, but then of course I needed more space so added another. I’m in the process of adding another just for tomatoes as it is in a more protected area and our spring winds are HARD on new tomato plants.