Our Black Barn

16/05/2026

And for our traditional “Littlest Sweat got a new rabbit” photo…

This boy has officially picked out the buck he wants to use for his very own breeding program.

16/05/2026

There’s a reason BetsyMayBell holds the title of best milk cow in the world.
Not because of the milk pail.
Not because of production.
Not even because she’s the most beautiful Jersey cow in the whole world.
It’s because this big gentle girl just stands there patient as can be while her favorite tiny barefooted farmhand turns her water pool into his own personal splash pad.
This is what our farm life looks like.
Feed chores.
Photo opps.
Mud on tiny feet.
And Boo elbow deep in BetsyMayBell’s water pool without a single care in the world.
Every… single… day… he makes his rounds right alongside us, and without fail, he ends up in the water.
And BetsyMayBell doesn’t mind one bit.
She just stands there quietly watching her little buddy splash and play. Just the sweetest kind of understanding between a little cowboy and his cow.
No fancy toys.
No screens.
No perfectly clean clothes.
Just dirt, water, animals, and a little barefooted farmhand growing up exactly the way little boys were meant to.
Capturing these moments makes my soul smile.
The messes.
The muddy footprints.
The fun during chores.
The cows that double as babysitters.
The kind of childhood memories that stick long after the muddy footprints are gone.

14/05/2026

Little Miss Wanda is officially one month old now ( we’re a few days late), and she is hitting all the milestones. She jumps, hops, and skips all over the place.
Loretta has turned out to be an absolutely fabulous mama. She’s patient, attentive, and keeps a very close eye on her baby girl. We’ve slowly started reintroducing them back into the herd, and thankfully she sticks close to mama when she’s “out in the wild.” We’re still not completely sure how gentle Johnny will be with her, but one thing we do know for certain is that Bernard has stayed incredibly protective and loving toward little Miss Wanda.
Loretta is a very skittish sheep and was most likely more of a field sheep before coming here, meaning there probably wasn’t a lot of human interaction. One of our biggest goals with the lambs is to break that cycle. We want them to feel comfortable around people, so we spend a lot of time doing hands-on interactions and helping Wanda learn that people can be safe, gentle, and loving too.
I think this weekend we may put her in a grazing pen with Jesse and Sundance so all the kids can play together.

13/05/2026

Cause I love it!

12/05/2026

So funny ha ha. When I first said I wanted to go to the auction and get an alpaca, I got quite a few “you don’t need no damn alpaca” comments.
Some people have husbands consistently telling them what animals they don’t need. I live on a family compound, and while my husband would not tell me no if his life depended on it, my oldest child is quite the opposite.
So I applied the same logic I would give anybody else:
I ignored him. He’s not the boss of me.
And that’s how we ended up with Beatrice.
Fast forward to today and now it’s:
“I didn’t want to like her, but lowkey she’s pretty cool.”
Or…
“She’s gonna like me the best.”
And honestly, in their defense… she IS a pretty chill alpaca.
We have had her for about two weeks. We’ve been letting her approach us on her terms, or approaching her slowly with treats, and she’s settled in surprisingly well. So far the only one she’s spit at is BetsyMayBell… and, it was justified. BetsyMayBell is in heat and was getting on Beatrice’s nerves.
But with that being said. We did decide to move her over to the other side of the farm into the pen with Geraldine and Gertrude. Those two are chill, laid back girls, and I definitely think their personalities are going to fit Beatrice much better than the absolute rambunctious behavior of the sheep. And the shenanigans of BetsyMayBell, and Bernard.
One of our big goals this weekend is getting Beatrice and Loretta sheared. My clippers came in Sunday and my cooling spray showed up yesterday, so I should finally have everything I need.
Now… are they going to look gorgeous when I’m done?
Nope.
This is my first time shearing , so we’re all just going to lower our expectations together.
I really want to be able to see Beatrice’s body condition better so I can accurately adjust her feed routine if needed. She was said to be heavily bred when we got her, although I’m not fully convinced. With that being said… I may go ahead and pull the trigger on buying some pregnancy test. It really wasn’t something I was planning to do until this fall, but we’ll see how it goes.

12/05/2026

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11/05/2026

I think social media and algorithms are a whole pain in the as***le.
And maybe that’s because I come from the era of social media when people just… wrote.
Back in high school I was in journalism. I was on newspaper staff. I liked writing stories. I liked taking everyday life and turning it into something people could read and laugh at or relate to. And that’s what I like now as an adult on social media.
I like sharing the shenanigans of our homestead. some of this s**t is hilarious. I like posting the funny moments, the animals, the projects, the gardens, the community events, the birthdays, the transport jobs, and the things we’re building out here.
But this new social media pressure to constantly “engage” and “interact” in order to please the algorithm gods is just not me.
I’m not a super conversational person. I’m not going to leave a fiftybillionelevin word comments on every post just to convince Facebook or Instagram that I’m active enough to deserve seeing the people I pushed a button to actually follow.
Sometimes my version of support is:
“Awesome video.”
“Girl, same.”
A like.
A share.
A quick laugh while I’m feeding animals or hauling hay.
That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate what people post.
And honestly, that’s why I never looked at social media as a means to monetize. I do want to connect with local people. I do want to share our homestead life. I do want to promote our community events, birthday experiences , transport services, and all the things we’re growing out here.
But I don’t want to spend my whole day chasing algorithms.
And also…..
My feed is absolutely bombarded with:
“Follow for follow.”
“Engagement for engagement.”
“Comment this word below.”
“Like, share, save, send this to everybody you’ve ever met.”
Real talk… it’s exhausting.
I follow homestead pages, apothecary pages, food forest pages, gardeners, and small farms because I genuinely WANT to see what they’re building. I want inspiration. I want to learn. I want the helpful tips, the beautiful gardens, the sourdough experiments, the “here’s what worked and what absolutely did not” kind of posts.
That’s the content I enjoy.
Instead, every other post feels like someone desperately trying to game an algorithm.
It’s taking the joy out of social media completely.
I miss the old social media.
I miss when your feed showed the people you actually followed.
I miss when people wrote blogs about their lives and you just… kept up with them.
I miss when social media felt social instead of feeling like everyone was fighting for visibility against creators you’ve never interacted with a day in your life.
At the very least, Facebook and Instagram need a button where you can switch over to ONLY the people you actually follow and care about seeing.
Because most times I don’t want “suggested content.”
I want Becky’s chickens.
I want Billy’s garden updates.
I want somebody showing me their sourdough fail.
I want real life again.

11/05/2026

Are special days becoming a little extra special around our homestead?
Last month, we were all pretty excited when Wanda (our baby doll lamb) decided Boo’s birthday was the perfect day to make her grand entrance into the world.
(Boo, formerly known as Squish, sounds just like Boo from Monsters, Inc. when he laughs and it’s my favorite thing ever)
Anywho… back to the whole “special days” thing…
Now on Mother’s Day, we walk out to a litter of eight kits.
Apparently the farm also enjoys commemorating holidays.

10/05/2026