May 18, 2025 by Mae Lynn

Not all learning happens in a classroom

I would argue that most learning happens outside of the classroom. Or in conjunction with what is learned in the classroom might be even better. Should we learn the science behind metamorphosis? Absolutely! Then we should go in nature and watch it happen.

Last week the younger 2 kids were invited to a horse camp at a friends’ property about a mile from our home. This is the second horse camp they have participated in and they actually were able to help more this time. It was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am to 3pm. So without them at home the older 2 and I were limited at home with school work. Many parts of our school day are done together as a family and I wanted to give the older two some “fun” times since the younger ones were having fun as well.
We are still transitioning our garden from winter to spring and one pasture was in desperate need of a cover crop. It was a beautiful week with cool morning temps and warm afternoons with a cool breeze. The older kids and I decided to spend the cool mornings working in the garden; weeding, spreading mulch and compost, feeding the chickens and goats with winter crops and planting spring crops. There is always something that needs to be done. We spent the warmer parts of the day for end of the year testing and of course, swimming.

The boys worked with Olympian Cody Miller at a swim clinic

We had monarch catterpillars on the Rue so we brought them inside to transform

April 21, 2025 by Mae Lynn

He is Risen!

Last night we celebrated the Resurrection with my parents and my in-laws. We spent the morning and early afternoon worshipping our Risen Savior with our church family. I worked in the garden the rest of the afternoon transplanting seedlings that I started on March 22nd. I also planted okra and Thai Roselle.

Adam tore down our old chain link fence and he used the poles to build a tomato trellis

We hope you had a beautiful Resurrection Day and enjoyed God’s beautiful creation!

March 19, 2025 by Mae Lynn

Triple the fun, triple the cuteness

We have been anxiously awaiting Caramel, our Nigerian Dwarf, to birth her kids. This was our first kidding with her so each time she showed symptoms we thought it was “go time.” Her due date was March 19th, but she had us fooled weeks prior with her silent screams and visible contractions. Sunday at church we checked the camera a few times and she seemed “off” to me. She was standing in odd positions and contorting her head in different directions. We arrived home around 2:30pm after church and our Community Group. Adam and I had planned to work in the garden, and I said, “Let me just go check on Caramel really quick.” I walked to pasture, and she was already pushing so I yelled for Adam to grab the kids; that it was time (Madelynn wasn’t home so we texted Lynette and she and MJ arrived shortly after Coco was born)! We got her into the stable and waited. She birthed Coco quite quickly and we were fairly certain she had at least two kids. Brownie shot out a little while later. She was a tiny little thing, and Caramel didn’t pay her very much attention. We waited for what seemed like an hour, thinking there might be another kid. We could see the placenta so we assumed she was all done. She began pushing and Zeb yelled “There’s a kid in that sac!” So out came Fudge, the only buck out of the three kids. Caramel also didn’t pay him any attention, so we had to clean him up for her. We were very thankful she gave birth during daylight hours, and we are SO thankful for two does. Unfortunately, Caramel still isn’t interested in the younger two kids, going so far as to be mean to them. It is quite common, so we are still working with her, putting the kids on her udders every two hours on the milk stand. We are hopeful that she will change her mind and pay attention to all of her kids, but in the meantime, they all receive attention all day from us and many visitors.

Nothing could be cuter!

October 1, 2024 by Mae Lynn

Fall is in the air

Most of our fall seeds are direct sow. We were able to start a few vegetable and herbs in pots.

I know I say this every time I write a post these days, but I really would like to be more consistent with updating this page. When I do have spare time (which isn’t often) I would rather be reading! My ultimate goal would be to pass this task on to one of the children as part of their school. Currently, they all have their head stuck in a book as well so we shall see.

As the days get shorter and the mornings and evenings get slightly cooler, we are slowly moving towards our sabbath time of year. We won’t fully rest from the land of course but we do look forward to a slower pace of life in the winter. We are fortunate to live in a climate that allows us to grow year round so we have cleaned out the greenhouse, mucked the stable and chicken coop for fertilizer for fall garden beds and started seeds. This coming weekend we will begin to direct sow for fall. Our peas are still going strong, we plan to harvest sweet potatoes soon and I am harvesting a gallon of hibiscus every few days. I went through the herb garden this weekend and collected seeds for saving, propagated herbs for overwintering and harvested most of the remaining herbs for herb salt. We have found this is the most economical way to store our herbs for winter. I do make herb-infused olive oil and I dehydrate some for seasoning. But herb salt is easy to make and easy to use in any recipe from dinners, to bread, to salad dressing. It’s quite versatile.

Herb salt with a variety of garden herbs

Don’t tell the other goats, but Reba is my favorite

That’s all I have for now so I will end with a random assortment of recent pictures. Enjoy!

I am always in need of more shelf space. I’m so thankful my husband enjoys building me more shelves and he gets creative with our small but cozy home.

My children had to wear shoes for the ropes course. They would have been much more comfortable in the air, barefoot!

May 21, 2024 by Mae Lynn

Spring brings new life

We had a beautiful Spring here in NWFL. I say “had” because I am pretty sure yesterday was the last of any kind of cool weather; summer has arrived in Florida. We had unusual, but glorious, cool mornings. We wore a sweater for our early morning garden strolls and we built a fire in the garden every evening. It was lovely. We had been anticipating a Spring kidding and Harriet did not disappoint. Just like humans, every goat labor is so different but with goats, they don’t communicate so we watched her closely. It was a Friday night and we had a camera set up in the stable so we could see her from the house. I checked the camera at 11:30pm and she seemed restless. I woke up at 2:30 and checked again and my Mama heart told me something was happening. I went out to the stable and she was in active labor and “screaming” silently. I ran back inside and woke up Adam and then I went back to the stable. I was only gone about 7 minutes and she had started pushing. I called Adam and asked him to wake up the kids and told him to hurry! The sleepy-eyed but excited children came out in time to encourage Harriet through labor and watch her deliver little Spot. Harriet was quiet engorged so while she did a great job cleaning him she wouldn’t let him nurse. I finally figured out why so we milked her to decrease the pressure. She gave us a beautiful jar of colostrum which I enjoyed in my coffee and smoothies for over a week. Spot is so playful and brings us so much joy. We have also had bunnies born, ducklings and chicks hatch and we are awaiting the arrival of a dual-purpose chicken (eggs in incubator) and quail and geese in another incubator!

This is where we spent our evenings in Spring; around the fire

April 15, 2024 by Mae Lynn

Starting fresh

Well, it has been a long year. A hard year. A sad year. But God is good and His mercies are new every morning. This land, this property, brings us so much joy. So this Spring we are spending our mornings, afternoons and evenings in the garden. Burying our burdens in the soil and watching new life sprout from our grief. While a tree falling on our shed might not seem like a tragedy to some and while we have dear friends who have experienced far more tragic situations, the limbs that crushed our shed changed our life in many ways. It was the iceberg that ripped open areas where we had been suffering through for many years. But as Romans 5:3-5 says “…but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
We recently finished reading How to Grow a Florida Food Forest (David the Good) and have been browsing Great Garden Companions (Sally Jean Cunningham). Not only are we growing food this year, we are sprinkling flowers throughout the vegetables and fruits for beauty and pest control. Adam added outdoor string lights and some dear friends gave us a very unique burn pit for the garden. The garden is our happy place; we sit and talk here; we eat our meals here; we start our mornings here around a fire; we observe the insects here; we love each other here.
We recently returned from the Keepers of the Old Ways Festival and brought home many unique plants for our growing food forest, thanks to David the Good, Blue Springs Forest Garden, Mayim Farm and Flomaton Famous. We added Cuban oregano, cassava, tobacco (for the goats of course), loose leaf tea, Chaya spinach, pineapple guava, pomegranate, mysore raspberry, galangal ginger, African blue basil, yams, spoon tomatoes, ranch elderberry, Goji berry, lacos spinach, sweet bay magnolia, shell apple and Katuk.

a chickadee who built a nest in one of our bird boxes

My new bookshelf. This is no longer the living room. It’s the living library

April 30, 2023 by Mae Lynn

April in pictures

April seems like a whirlwind. We began the month learning homestead skills as a family on a little getaway to Dothan AL and Zeb lost his first tooth. On Sunday April 2nd Adam and Mr. Hagan split one of our hives while I spent the day putting new foraging knowledge into practice. We began our week in our schooling playing Go Forage (similar to Go Fish) and then went foraging in our neighborhood. Tuesday, we began our morning like any other day. The kids woke up to their early morning alarms and went outside to take care of all of the animals. And that’s when the three limbs fell; before 7am on a typical Tuesday morning. There was no storm, no wind, nothing to warn us of the impending doom that was about to happen (Counting our Blessings).

Tuesday April 4th has changed our perspective on things. We hug our kids a little longer these days; we value our property and our house more (even though it looks like a disaster clean up area); we treasure the friendships and the love that has been shown us in so many different ways this month; and we wake up each day so thankful and yet so humbled that God is Sovereign and in control no matter what measure or precautions we put in place.

The girls wanted to repaint their bunkbed

We are so thankful for a friends heated pool so we can swim year round

We processed pigs 2 weekends in a row. It’s a lot of work but also fun when you get to fellowship and be with friends.

Beauty from ashes: these wood pieces and this mulch came from the tree that fell

My “farmacy” shelf in the kitchen. We have snotty kids so I made a pot of echinacea, mullein, elderflower and peppermint tea

Kathryn added flowers to several rooms in the house

I plan to make tinctures and healing drinks from these today

We harvested potatoes and peas on the last day of April (there is obviously more that what is pictured here!)

We finished the month celebrating Adam’s birthday. A dear friend makes the most delicious cheesecake with real ingredients. She topped it with borage and calendula. After dispatching the pig, the guys and boys went shooting and the ladies stayed behind to serve a delicious dinner of rabbit-pork burgers with homemade sourdough buns, deviled eggs with fresh eggs and homemade mayo, corn on the cob and other delicious food. I’m so thankful for a group of friends who value real food as much as we do!

April 8, 2023 by Mae Lynn

Counting our blessings

You should see our shed from the porch. This was all I could see after the third limb fell.

Tuesday, our week and our lives were turned upside down. The kids were outside early Tuesday morning to feed the animals and milk Reba. I was in the bathroom getting read to go on my morning walk. I heard a really loud crash and thought “Oh man. That was a big wreck on Highway 4.” A few seconds later I heard the door open and a kid running frantically through the house. I then thought, “That wreck must have been really bad for the kids to come tell me so quickly.” Graham was screaming as he got closer to the bathroom. He burst in (he was pale and shaking all over), “Mama, two limbs fell on the shed and I don’t know where the rest of the kids are.” Those seconds between me leaving the bathroom and rushing outside seemed so long. I remember whispering to God, “I trust you.” That was all I could get out. There was panic in my chest and I felt like I was moving in slow motion. By the time I arrived to the front porch, Graham, Madelynn and Zeb were there and Kathryn was walking out of the shed. We were all in shock. Kathryn was standing at the stable with the goats and she was staring at the roof (she was in the shed when the first limb fell) and Graham started screaming for her to move (Graham had been in the shed getting feed moments before the first two limbs fell). He could hear another limb cracking above her head. I yelled at her to open the stable door for the goats and run. She and the goats ran to the pasture as the third limb fell, crushing the stable where she and the goats were standing moments before. (Graham was amazing as the man of the house. He saved Kathryn’s life and I’m so proud of him). By this time two of my kids were screaming and crying and I was holding them trying to calm them down. I immediately called Adam and told him to come home “now.” I then called a friend who has helped us with many limbs on our property. Let me clarify: these “limbs” are the size of large oak trees. We were in the process of scheduling to have them cut down because they loomed way too close to the shed and house. Within 30 minutes, Adam arrived home with a co-worker and 4 more friends had arrived with their chainsaws and tools. It was all hands on deck with men sawing limbs and the rest of us moving debris out of their way. And yes, one of my friends and I were so excited to find a medicinal herb all through the branches of the trees so, of course, we harvested as we cleared debris!

We were amazed that not only were our children safe, all of the animals were accounted for and the limbs missed our family vehicle by inches. Our friends worked hard and I couldn’t believe how fast they cleared and cut the limbs. They were finished a little after lunch and this happened at 7am. Our pastor stopped by to hug and encourage us and we had friends coming and going all day bringing food and love and more tears.

We have a long way to go but again, we are so thankful that everyone is safe. God is good and we are praising Him for His mercy. We are all navigating many different emotions and severe mental and physical exhaustion. But we have so many people walking alongside us through this and we couldn’t be more thankful.

April 7, 2023 by Mae Lynn

Learning new skills

Last weekend we attended Keeper of the Old Ways; a two-day homestead festival. We went Friday just the two of us to explore and meet new people and my in-laws brought the kids to us on Saturday. We had many classes to attend so we divided up to learn more. Kathryn and I attended an emergency medicinal herb class while Adam and the other three kids attended a pork processing class. Kathryn and I explored for awhile and met up with some folks we knew because the pork class was two hours. We met up for an early lunch and to chat with some more friends. After lunch we walked around and the kids learned a new way to start a fire, blacksmith skills and the picked the brain of a guy who makes beautiful knives and other weapons out of rocks and minerals. Kathryn and I attended a goat milk lotion class followed by a goat cheese class. Adam and the other 3 learned how to graft fruit trees and how to manage livestock guardian dogs. We finished our day overwhelmed with new information and wiped out but thankful for time away as a family. Only 3 of us stayed awake for the 2 hour drive home while we listened to The Two Towers.

Adam and I stayed in a converted barn. We enjoyed being on a farm without any chores!

Sunday we spent the afternoon catching up on homestead projects after being gone for 48 hours.

I decided to add in foraging to our homeschool week. The kids usually get frustrated with me because I pull off the road often to forage all kinds of things. Well, I taught them Monday morning what we were looking for and once they spotted certain “weeds,” they got so excited to forage! All the herbs are dehydrating now to either make teas or tinctures.