Wow, it's already been 2.5 months since our long road trip to California. What a trip it was. Hector had to stay home for work and to care for the animals so I took a road trip from Michigan to California with 8 children...BY. MYSELF... and we had just found out we were expecting another baby (Surprise!). So here we are taking a 40 hour road trip, without my husband, and dealing with morning sickness and exhaustion. I wasn't too worried about the trip there because I had the company of my two young adult children. Thankfully we had a fairly uneventful trip on the way there and back. We did have to beat a couple snow storms which was pretty tricky but we got through them and we made it to our destinations safely.
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We didn't take many pictures but there's just a quick few as we went through the states. It really was a beautiful drive. It was hard to leave Malaki and Zoe. This is the first time they've been away for this long. The trip home, without my husband was hard. I was missing my oldest two terribly, missing my husband, plus all the emotions of first trimester and morning/all day sickness on top of that, and not to mention my 6 children that were really tired of being in the van and we still had the 40 hour trip back home.  We persevered through it and made the best of it. We were able to stop and visit friends in Utah, Wyoming, and Iowa so that definitely helped split the trip up a bit. Our 4 year old daughter ended up getting motion sickness through the mountains and so we had to take a couple day break at a hotel for her to recover. 

Finally, after an 80 hour round trip that took 12 days, we made it HOME! A home that now seems a little emptier and quieter but we are happy for our children to have an opportunity to grow and mature and we are so very proud of them and have full confidence in their ability to thrive. We are entering in a new chapter. Many unknowns but endless opportunities for all of us as our family continues to grow, in more ways than one.

What a whirlwind it has been these last 6 weeks. On February 24th, 2021 our family received the devastating news that my husband's oldest daughter Naomi, had passed away just 6 days after her 27th birthday. My husband losing his firstborn and our children losing their oldest sister has changed our family forever. Our perspective on life has really changed to what is important. So many things don't even seem to matter anymore. Be intentional with your relationships. Fight for those you love and grow your relationships. Forgive and ask for forgiveness. Let go of the hurt and bitterness and open the door for healing and restoration. Naomi was sweet, compassionate, brave, and loyal. She is and will continue to be greatly missed. She has left a void that won't ever be filled, memories that will never be forgotten, a longing for one more day with her, and a hope that this isn't the end and we will see her one day again. Please continue to pray for our family as we grieve. 

One of my favorite past times is snowmobiling with my dad. He would take me with him up to Michigan and rent a cabin to stay in and we would go snowmobiling all weekend long. It was a lot of fun. Although we aren't taking weekend trips just yet, we are sharing some snowmobile adventures with our children and getting some fun quality time and building memories. Family really is our number one priority. Our children are our future and we can never go wrong by INVESTING our time with them on the DAILY and being intentional to spend one on one time as well as family time as a whole. Let your children know they are loved and a blessing. Spend an extra few moments with them before bedtime reading a book or a quick game of hide n seek. It's those moments they will cherish and remember.  We have two adult children now that are heading to California and one of my regrets really is not spending more time with them. It goes by so fast.

It's been a very cold week here on our homestead. Temps have been steady in the teens and windchills in the negatives so not much outside work has been getting done other than the normal care for our chickens, dogs, and calves. Egg production has gone from 22 eggs a day down to about 4-12 eggs a day. I guess it's too cold for the chickens too. We did have to kill one of our very aggressive roosters and that same day we also processed our meat chicken.

One BIG change to the homestead is our oldest two children, Malaki and Zoe are heading to California in March for an internship for 7 months. We are so excited for this opportunity they've been blessed with. It will be an extremely hard adjustment not having them home on the daily, but this new journey is what we've been preparing them for, for their whole life. I love seeing them grow and fulfill their purpose here on earth. I am thankful I am able to take the road trip with them, but the road trip back home will feel pretty empty wiithout them. Please keep them in your prayers.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased cocoa bombs from us to help with the fundraiser for Malaki and Zoe's tuition. We really appreciate it. Our goal was t sell 500 cocoa bombs. So far we have sold 97 cocoa bombs. The last day to order cocoa bombs is March 4th, 2021 that way we can make them and get them shipped out by March 8th, 2021 before we hit the road to California.

Well it's been a couple months since my last post so it's time for an update. We have added some more animals to our homestead. We are so excited to introduce our two Irish Dexter calves that were born in November 2020.  The brown calf is named Remy and the black calf is named Oakley.  We are raising these two boys for beef.  We can't wait to learn more about raising our own grassfed beef.  Hopefully we won't get too attached.

We also added 47 chicks to our flock. I purchased several different breeds and we are hoping to eventually hatch out our own chicks and sell them to help with some of our expenses on the homestead.  We added some Speckled Sussex, Welsummers, Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, Buff Brahmas,  Black Copper Marans, Light Brahmas and a  few more Lavender Orpingtons. 

We are currently in the process of remodeling the animal barn. We are replacing all of the walls, building chick brooders, adding another coop, installing some fencing and much more. We will update soon with some progress pictures. I will say it's not as fun doing these projects in the freezing temperatures but we are getting it done anyway. Thanks for stopping by!

We have now been on our homestead for  three months. Oh the list of things we have to do and WANT to do is never ending, but one thing at a time. One of the first big projects we have already started on is our shop. It was old looking, dirty and not very safe to work in. We tore out several shelves that were on the wall. We rented a concrete grinder from Home Depot to grind down the floor and prep it for painting. We bought some floor paint and paint for outside of the shop. We also put up some walls. The shop is a work in progress but it is now much more functional, efficient, and CLEAN! It is now a safer place to work in. We have caution tape down, fire extinguisher, and running water.  Soon we will have MSDS {Material Safety Data Sheets} and an eye wash station. Keep checking back for updates on our shop renovation as we continue to improve our operation. This was a very budget friendly reno and made a huge difference in a short amount of time. We ALL love hanging out in the shop together now. Enjoy the before and after pictures below.

One part of the shop is for my husand's studio for videoing. He does How To videos for small engine repair. His side of the shop isn't just a studio though. It is also where he works on equipment. He loves a clean organized shop. When your shop is clean and organized you can work safely and more efficiently because your tools are in order and less time is wasted from looking for certain tools. We have some exciting news coming up for other plans we have for our shop.

The other half of the shop is for woodworking projects and forging projects that my boys love doing. So far they've helped with building a chicken coop, gates for the chicken run, a spice rack for their Aunt, child safety gate for our steps inside the house and so many more. They also have made some amazing knives out of railroad spikes using the forge. I will post some pics of those projects in the near future. Thanks for reading! 

Hi! I'm Reese. My family and I just finished a five year journey of full time RV'ing around the country. We started our RV'ing adventure in Michigan and here we are five years later growing roots and starting our new adventure of homesteading. We are a family of 10. I grew up in the country in Ohio so this is not a new adventure for me. My husband grew up in the city in New Jersey and our children are city slickers too so it is new for our family as a whole. I giggle a little inside just thinking of all the fun we'll get to experience together here in our new home town. We have waited for this for a very long time. We are starting off slow so we don't get in over our heads. So far we have already acquired 33 chickens. We were hoping to have all hens but we have ended up with a few (too many) roosters. We have a total of seven roosters and 26 hens. Eventually we will find new homes for our roosters or dinner on our table...they will be one or the other. Only time will tell! Our chickens are still young. I have some pictures below from when we first got them in July up until now. We have some that are 11 weeks old, 9 weeks, 8 weeks and a few that are 7 weeks. I am hoping to post at least weekly with new updates and pictures of all of our projects and new animals as we get them along the way. Little by little you will also be introduced to my family. The last picture is my handsome husband with our chicken named Trisha. I hope you enjoy following along with us on our growing homestead.