A few weeks ago, I had a huge scare. Most people would think I was crazy to call it that, but to me, it was potentially devastating. But in order to understand the panic and relief, I have to give you a little background. Just a few short months after...

People say that if you don’t like the weather in Georgia, just wait five minutes and it will change. We started out the Holidays with rain. I thought ‘Five minutes, it’ll change.’  Here we are 2 weeks later and finally it stopped. This weekend, it cleared to the sunniest day I...

Winter is coming…even here in Georgia. Leaves are falling and so are the temperatures. We have had so much wind and freezing temps that I can’t help but think that there is snow in our future. So here on the Big Bear Homestead, we are taking a lot of measures to...

Walking through the property the other day, I noticed a bunch of feathers on the ground. First thought, “Great, we lost our chickens again.” Immediately I went into detective mode, looking for tracks and feces and maybe even a dead carcass if I was lucky. I went to look at...

Man, I thought my midnight snacks with Satan were bad. But not nearly as bad as pulling weeds and harvesting once the sun comes over the tree line in June. So, the girls and I started a routine of getting up early on the weekends to beat the sun. Usually...

Well if you follow us at all on social media, you know that it has been a rough couple of weeks here on the old homestead. Between all of this rain and high winds, and mail jeeps breaking down, it was almost enough to give a homesteader some extra gray hair....

Today was a week full of emotion. Ups and downs, lefts and rights and then the sudden stop. So come along with me as I tell you all about it. We started out with great momentum. Plants were being transplanted into the garden. Soil was being hoed and tilled for...

It has been raining here this last week like it is an Olympic sport and mother nature is going for the gold. There are good and bad points when it comes to getting all of this rain. On one hand, we don’t have to water our garden or soft fruit. Our rain water containers...

I have been saying for a few weeks that Spring is a time to grow. But it is also a time to plant. So here on the homestead, it has been quite busy. Our temperatures have been all over the place, so we waited till the end of the week to start putting things out...

You know when I was in the military there was always this urgency to be prepared and get ready. But then you would sit around and wait for everyone else to be ready. These days aren’t much different here on our homestead. We put in all the time and effort to...

Spring is a time for growth. It’s also a time for hard work. Sometimes it makes me think back to our lives before homesteading. You see, before we moved to our forever homestead, we lived in Augusta, Georgia.  You could always tell Spring was coming when the traffic got insane, the...

March 14….A day like any other day. Until it wasn’t. That day will forever be the day that we as a family and as a homestead had to decide whether to cower at the challenges ahead or face them head on and choose to grow. March 15th…a new day. Truck...

This life we live here on the farm never ceases to amaze me. Our weekend started by bottling 4 gallons of sweet scuppernong wine. It was quite a great science lesson to teach the children the process of making alcohol. And quite pleasing to know that if things were to...

This past week has been a reminder never to take anything for granted. For three years, we have been raising pigs and cows for meat and milk. Our breeding pair of Yorkshire pigs have been our pride and joy. Not only that, they have been a source of love, grief...

Well, our harvest season just keeps getting better. Yesterday Jason had a “funny feeling” that he should go check on Daisy, our dairy cow. So the kids all loaded up in the truck and drove over to the pasture where Daisy found her boyfriend. At first, Jason panicked because Daisy...

This last year has been a year of growth for us. Our youngest daughter is no longer the baby and our oldest is getting ready to drive. We moved to a new homestead and have had many new challenges managing 21 acres. We started our year off with 3 meat...