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Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry
Livestock Guardian Dogs
Holistic Wellness
- Traditional Foods
- Essential Oils
Shop Our Farm

About Our Farm
Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry
Livestock Guardian Dogs
Holistic Wellness
- Traditional Foods
- Essential Oils
Shop Our Farm

Home / Planning / Visiting the land

Posted on October 5, 2016November 15, 2020 by Sarah

Visiting the land

These photos were taken just after we officially became the owners of this land. It was a beautiful, sunny October day.

The Lane

Sarah & L by the lane

Peter & Jeep

The land

The view

Sunset by the cedar trees

Sunset by the cedar trees

Category: Planning

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About Our Family

Family photo 2020 — We are passionate about intentional living and wellness. Our family values include holistic wellness, nonviolent communication, self-directed education and gentle parenting. We strive to implement permaculture principles in all areas of our lifestyle.

We Love Thyme

Thyme and rustic scissors — We love thyme. With seemingly endless varieties of this aromatic, delicious, medicinal, flowering evergreen ground cover we thought it was a perfect namesake for our farm. We especially loved creating a play on words that reflects our values of hope, regeneration and abundance.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. -Lao Tzu

Our Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry

Ameraucana ~ Bresse ~ Cream Legbar ~ French Black Copper Marans ~ Lavender Orpington ~ Silkie ~ Silverudd’s Blue Isbar

Recent Reviews

Silkie Hatching Eggs
Rated 5 out of 5
by Denise Y.
Silkie Hatching Eggs (White)
Rated 5 out of 5
by Genevieve Robson
Silkie Hatching Eggs
Rated 5 out of 5
by auberryallison
Lavender Orpington Hatching Eggs
Rated 5 out of 5
by A Lauren Trapp
Silkie Hatching Eggs
Rated 5 out of 5
by A Lauren Trapp
Lavender Orpington Hatching Eggs
Rated 5 out of 5
by Shawn & Chellie

Hours & Info

Located in Shepherdstown, WV

Phone: (240) 805-3618

Email: send us an email

Hours: by appointment only

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betterwiththyme

The wind this evening blew away just enough of the

The wind this evening blew away just enough of the clouds for this beautiful view. So thankful for a weekend of connection with friends and family. One day sunny and warm and the next cool, overcast and a light rain most of the day. Perfect spring weather. ❤️🙏

#thankfulsunday #countryskies #westvirginia #westvirginiafarm #springshowers #greenpastures #permaculturefarm #homestead #homesteadmama

Stormy checking out the cleanup crew. Chicken feed

Stormy checking out the cleanup crew. Chicken feed on top of yesterday’s cow manure means the chickens get bonus nutrition (fermented green + insect larvae) and the pasture gets more evenly disbursed nutrient deposits.

Stormy is headed back to his farm soonish. We’re pretty confident Moonbeam is pregnant but still not sure about Mulberry. 🤞

#minijersey #minijerseybull #rotationalgrazing #pastureraised #freerangechickens #freerangeducks #freerangeturkeys #permaculturefarm #permaculture #homestead #homesteadinglife #homesteadmama

Future climbing tree! Spring equinox was well spen

Future climbing tree! Spring equinox was well spent here: we moved the pigs to prep more garden area, planted trees, spread wood chips and more.

Part of our daily rhythm includes each person getting to share something from the day that was their favorite. My favorite things were many yesterday. ❤️🌱

Did you have a favorite thing on this year’s spring equinox?

#homestead #homesteadinglife #homesteadmama #spring #treeplanting #simpleliving #simplicityparenting

What if I told you that the eggs from our chickens

What if I told you that the eggs from our chickens in pens are identical our free range eggs?

The first time we confined chickens (after the local foxes found us and before we had LGDs) I noticed that their eggs were becoming more pale, which meant their health was 👎. It seemed silly to raise chickens if their eggs weren’t going to be nutritious.

Fast forward to now: we have a mix of free range chickens and chickens in pasture pens, separated by breeding group.

Here’s the game plan for getting the best eggs if you can’t or don’t want to free range:

Move chickens to fresh ground often. They will gain fresh greens and move away from their waste, which you don’t want them ingesting. Ideally, they should be moved by the time they eat 30% of growth.

If you can’t move them a deep bedding system (think big compost pile to scratch and hunt for bugs) will also break down their manure, and you can bring in fresh greens.

Maybe this is obvious, but maybe not: I don’t think chicken feed is ideal for chickens. They are omnivores, and if you give them the option they will go for meat/bugs first. Providing just chicken feed doesn’t make for healthy birds. It’s also not sustainable in my opinion - it’s just outsourcing monocrop farming elsewhere. One of our goals is to have fewer chickens and produce more of their food ourselves.

We do give our chickens some organic, whole grain chicken feed that does not include soy or corn. Chickens fed soy will pass on extra estrogen in their egg yolks which causes health issues in humans. Corn provides calories but very little nutrition. We gave our chickens corn one time (for warmth at night in winter). Their manure smelled so horrible the next morning that we composted the rest of the corn.

We only feed about half of our chicken’s diet with feed and the rest we supplement with:

* Garden and kitchen scraps, especially colorful produce and leftover meat
* Dried black soldier fly larvae (grubs) another goal to grow them fresh
* Black oil sunflower seeds
* A variety of herbs
* Skimmed milk from our grass-fed cow
* Eggshells + oyster shells
* Grit
* Fresh water, apple cider vinegar and essential oils

Please share your thoughts!👇

I’ve gone way too long without posting because I

Simplifying Part 2: I’m going to continue sharin

Simplifying Part 2: I’m going to continue sharing the steps we took to simplify based on the book Simplicity Parenting in the order that we chose, but as the author mentions in the book you can start with whichever part feels right to you.

So, as I mentioned we started with backing away from processed and sweetened foods and went back to a Whole30 diet, which gave everyone’s taste buds a reset, and eliminated struggles around mealtimes as well as improving everyones overall mood as blood sugar became more stable throughout the day.

When I was ready to start this, I didn’t tell the kids we would stop having sweets but I did commit in my mind to making sure to have meals ready on time (or early) every day so that no one ever got too hungry.

I started making sure to always have broth made again, because everything tastes better cooked in broth and it nourishes and fills us up better. I also went heavier on the herbs, salt and healthy condiments early on to make sure there were lots of interesting flavors. Then I slowly backed off of those too.

Our meals consist of meat, fish or eggs with herbs, vegetables and carbohydrates (e.g. squash and sweet potatoes).

To start to add an element of rhythm, I am working on repeating different meals weekly, for example Friday night fish, Sunday chicken dinner, Monday steak, Sunday morning pancakes, etc.

I am working on making a collection of recipes for each day of the week. For example, Wednesday night is ground beef and the recipes will include meatballs, meatloaf, burgers and chili.

I truly believe sugar is addictive and prefer not to have it in the house, though we go through phases where we do buy it until I start to notice it creeping in to a daily desire and then I let it run out again.

Check out my highlights for lots more specific info:

- “Simple Food” includes a template that I make for breakfast every day
- “Paleo Pancakes” do not have any sugar, grains or dairy
- “Broth” includes step by step video instructions
- “Beef” includes info about buying in bulk as well as recipes and techniques

Part 1: I’m going to dive in to the background o

Part 1: I’m going to dive in to the background of our family rhythm, meal plan and daily checklists that I shared in my stories recently and explain the why and how. I hope to help you apply it in a way that works for your family.

Before our first child was born, we read the book Simplicity Parenting and learned why a simple, intentional life benefits families, including children that are:

- Calmer and happier
- Do better socially and emotionally
- Are more focused
- Become less picky eaters

The book is well organized and filled with concrete advice on how to achieve this in your family.

For the first 5 years as a family, we benefitted greatly from implementing these ideas. But if you’ve been following here for any length of time, you know that when our oldest was 5 we decided to uproot ourselves from our home and mini food forest we had created outside of NYC and instead plant ourselves in a tiny off-grid RV in the middle of an empty field in WV.

Over the first three years we managed turn the field into a farm and build a farmhouse, while also welcoming our third child and having Peter telecommute to his NY job. But during that time we completely lost our simplicity.

We were determined to re-simplify when we moved into our house. We struggled for several months until we reread the book and started the task of returning to simplicity. The major areas to simplify are:

- Environment
- Rhythm
- Schedules
- Filtering Out the Adult World

One of the components of Rhythm is Simplifying Tastes. We can do this by simplifying the number of food options and taste of the ingredients and backing away from processed and sweetened foods. We decided to start there because despite our overall focus on nutritious food, one of our children was struggling with making good food choices when other things like potato chips and chocolate were available. That child would refuse to eat meals, and wait for an opportunity to eat snacks.

So I let those types of foods run out and didn’t replace them, but in the mean time I started implementing a meal plan that helped ensure no one would miss those foods by the time they were gone. It was a small but powerful starting point.

“I know right now you don't believe in yourself.

“I know right now you don't believe in yourself. I believe in you, who and what you are, in your dreams and goals. Let my belief in you carry you through until you can believe in you as much as I do. Then pass it on." - Gary Young

For many years I’ve been passionate about wellness and intentional living. I’ve found little ways here and there to pass on what I’ve learned, but never dreamed that I could build a business helping empower others, while continuing to stay home with my children. Then Young Living entered my life.

The way Young Living entered our family, was that we had really been struggling with emotions during 2020. Even with years of therapy, books and more we kept finding past traumas would reappear and cause out of control feelings, yelling, etc. When we were stressed like this our brains couldn’t access the information we had learned about how to handle it better. Adding essential oils to our toolkit gave us a nearly instantaneous shift in these moments. Anytime anyone in the family starts getting close to the edge of their brain being emotionally hijacked, someone else in the family appears with an oil to help.

Soon after we underwent this transformation, we realized that not only were these the most amazing products from a truly trustworthy company, but they also offered a generous compensation plan for anyone who wants to share their excitement. This fit in perfectly with our family vision of a intentional life that we design. We designed everything from our site and house to our daily family rhythm. I love that we stepped in to a purposeful company that shares our vision: sustainable farming, purpose and relationships. We have already been able to help numerous other people in the last 6 months.

I can’t even imagine not being here to be part of my children’s daily lives and now this business is moving toward both Peter and I being home and present in our family. If you have been in that place where you thought nothing could help, or wanted to stay home or have a purposeful career but you didn’t think it was possible, I would love to link arms with you and be the one who carries you through until you believe in yourself.

#whyILoveYL

It’s a mess outside between way more snow than w

It’s a mess outside between way more snow than we’ve ever seen in one winter (at least on this property!) plus multiple freeze-thaws, freezing rain and now rain last night.

But the daily egg count keeps climbing and I believe it has more to do with the hours of daylight than weather.

I’m sharing some indoor decluttering and organizing tips on my stories today (and saving to an organizing highlight) if you’re stuck inside these days and want to get a jump start on spring cleaning!

And yes I am still going outside barefoot in the snow every day. 😍

We’re collecting about 2 dozen eggs per day righ

We’re collecting about 2 dozen eggs per day right now, but expect to have up to nine dozen per day once all our 2020 pullets start laying age the rest of our older hens resume laying.

We often hatch in the late summer and fall. We also have very dark winters, with negligible artificial light around us so those pullets delay beginning to lay until they’re 8-9 months old.

I had learned that this allows the hen to lay larger and better eggs the rest of her life. I’m not super meticulous with tracking these things like I was when we first started keeping chickens, but it seems to work for us!

What do you prefer: spring chicks or fall chicks? Or both?? 🤣

I have a confession to make. There was a long stre

I have a confession to make. There was a long stretch of my life that I thought of self-care as a dirty word. 😬 But this month as I have noticed so many friends having a renewed interest in taking special care of themselves I’m excited for them and I’m here for it too!

While there have been many ways I’ve made sure to take care of my family, over the years I had let many of the things that were special just for me individually fade from my life, including my yoga practice. It will be a long road back to where I once was after a two month retreat that included a daily 90-minute practice... but I’m enjoying the process. 🧘‍♀️

I noticed the change in myself beginning last year as the spark of joy for doing special things for myself caught and has been burning stronger and stronger. I was lifted up by the women who came before me in Young Living, full of life and ready to pour into me and enrich my life.

Using essential oils every day has set an emotional tone for the day and helped root me in the present. My oils are also a new set of tools that have allowed me to feel more awake and alive than I ever remember feeling.

Whatever emotions come up from the past, I have a powerful toolbox to help me process them differently than any of the other tools I have used before.

Now my day begins with excitement for all the things I get to do and for getting to have my turn to pour into others and lift them up.

This month’s theme at Young Living is “Empower” and there are two limited time collections to jump start your self-care that include a special white Aria diffuser. So beautiful! 😍 Head on over to my stories or send me a message if you’re ready for me to pour into you!

Our Witch Hazel began blooming this week. I love w

Our Witch Hazel began blooming this week. I love when it snows while it’s blooming; it makes the beautiful flowers stand out so much!

If you don’t have a Witch Hazel, I definitely recommend planting one. This cultivar is called “Jalena.”

You can keep it pruned as a shrub or let it grow to a small tree.

It’s one of my most cherished plants. ☺️

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