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Our family

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

Our Heritage Breed Chickens

Ameraucana (Blue, Black, Splash)
Bresse
Cream Legbar
Isbar
Lavender Orpington
Silkie (Blue, Black, Splash, White, Porcelain and Mixed)
“Olive Egger” (Blue Ameraucana x French Black Copper Marans)
“Easter Egger” (Barnyard mix of many heritage breeds)

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P.O. Box 3105
Shepherdstown, WV

917-727-2039

By appointment only

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- Adult Birds
- Started Pullets
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Instagram

betterwiththyme

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Happy birthday to our Bella! For her birthday Bella got a beautiful, blustery day, kisses from her babies and extra love and treats from her family.
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#bellaofbetterwiththyme #livestockguardiandog #akcgreatpyrenees

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If the earth was an egg. I think this might be the coolest egg I’ve ever found.
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#artbyanimals #pastureraisedeggs #organic #cornfree #soyfree #heritagebreed

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Beau and Blossom. I love when the big dogs adjust their play to let the puppies “win.”
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#beauofbetterwiththyme #blossomofbetterwiththyme #livestockguardiandog #greatpyrenees #akcgreatpyrenees #greatpyreneespuppy

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Adelaide is #17monthsold and has taken the leap from saying a handful of words to trying to say every word she hears. Now it’s just a matter of understanding her.
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This is the phase that I’m so glad we did the work to teach her to sign to help distinguish words that sound very similar or aren’t quite clear yet.
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Swipe to the end to see what most of the photos from these sessions *really* look like. 😋
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#adelaidemaemonthlyphoto

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A #tbt where it all started for the #modernhomesteadchallenge. The point of departure from suburban “edible garden” to beginning our homestead journey was three little Rhode Island Red chicks. We kept them illegally in our backyard for about a year. Then we found land, hatched more chicks, bought an RV and took off, with the chickens in a cardboard box in the RV shower. We lived in the RV for over two years, most of the time without running water or electricity. (We did rent a house for the winter during my third pregnancy until after Adelaide was born.) It felt like a really slow start since there was no infrastructure, home etc. but I still think I would do it all again. (Especially if we could go back and give ourselves some advice lol!)

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Somebody is excited for the @homesteadersofamerica #seedexchange
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Little Peter is making paper seed envelopes and packing up milkweed seeds he gathered from our pasture and sunflower seeds he grew himself this year.
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#farmkids

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💕 Bria and Blossom 💕 Can you tell them apart?
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#briaofbetterwiththyme #blossomofbetterwiththyme #livestockguardiandog #akcgreatpyrenees #greatpyreneespuppy

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I was very happy to be invited to join the #modernhomesteadchallenge for the month of October (thank you @hideawayacresfarm!) but knew I didn’t have time right now. I’ve been enjoying following everyone else’s posts (and finding many new accounts to follow). I hoped to jump in occasionally, so here I go:
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Today I’ll add my two cents on #sustainability. It seems that homesteading is deeply intertwined with sustainability and there are so many ways to be sustainable. We’ve come a long way with many aspects of how we live and this is my thought for today.
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The family cow seems to be the ultimate in sustainability. She requires very little besides grass and she can provide milk for the family as well as numerous other animals, and even income or meat through her offspring.
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Instead of mowing and losing carbon to the atmosphere as the clippings break down on the surface of the land, she processes it with the help of bacteria and sends it back out in a way that enriches the soil (and even feeds the chickens more-digestible-to-them greens and insects in the process).
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She also provides companionship (check out how she was snuggling with me today in the second and third photos) and is a joy to care for and watch - homegrown entertainment - no need to drive away from the homestead for fun.
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The last photo is another small example of sustainability. We needed a new collar for Moonbeam since she outgrew her previous one (and we hope to transition away from the halter). So we found someone who makes handmade leather collars on Etsy. I love how Etsy connects us to a world of hand produced items.
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#moonbeamofbetterwiththyme #minijersey #familycow #permaculture

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I haven’t posted in a few days because I haven’t been sure which photo to share or what to say. I’ve tried to use this Instagram account as a journal of sorts about our homesteading/small farm journey. This past weekend was a big step for us, but it didn’t come with ease.
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We processed chickens ourselves (with help) for the first time. The whole day and days leading up to it felt like an emotional roller coaster and the day of was harder for me than I expected. This was not a case of raising a group of 30 or 50 meat birds for a couple of months. This was where we have ended up on our journey, facing the reality that lies four years into “chicken math.”
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Our flock expanded for four years, minus only the handful of birds lost to predators or 4-5 roosters that we took to another farmer for processing from time to time.
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We knew we needed to relieve ourselves of the stress of caring for and feeding so many groups of different breeds of chickens, and we also knew we couldn’t just set them all loose without them badly injuring or killing each other.
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After many conversations, including the kids, we decided on 5 mature roosters to keep. (Four of the five quickly figured out their new pecking order, but we ended up needing to separate two of them who neither would submit to the other, even after Mint broke it up once and we broke it up a second time.) We also decided to process some of our oldest laying hens and our hens that were egg eaters.
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We now have a freezer more than half full with chickens for soup and broth, and a handful of younger chickens.
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Seeing all the empty pastured pens the next morning was pretty sad for us. Ultimately we are meat eaters and it felt important for us to participate in the whole process. It also seemed really low stress for the chickens to go from the only home they’ve ever known to dead in a few seconds. No travel, no strange people, places, smells and sounds. It was actually a very quiet, calm process and it felt good to give that to them after such a long time being with us.
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Some of them I will really miss and I thank them with all of my being for their sacrifice.
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#homesteadingreality #chickenprocessingday

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Father-son snuggles for nap time today.
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#beauofbetterwiththyme #livestockguardiandog #akcgreatpyrenees #greatpyreneespuppy

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They’re here! Who wants one? One is already promised to someone but there are 4 more. Should I figure out how to do a giveaway?
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#permaculture #permies @_paulwheaton

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Unlike my hesitation with goats, I’ve been looking forward to adding Babydoll sheep to our farm for a long time.
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I’m so glad we waited until the right time. One of the farmers we had contacted a couple of years ago reached out to let us know she is retiring and moving out of the country so she was willing to sell this beautiful 3 year old ram, who has already bonded with us and is very interested in Bella. Our long term plan for Bella has always been for her to guard livestock since she hasn’t bonded with the chickens to the extent that Beau has, so we’re making progress toward that.
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We also got a buddy (wether) for our ram and we will be getting ewe lambs and a second ram lamb from a different flock in the spring.
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I used to think gardening took a lot of patience. Now I realize building up animal stock and breeding programs takes even more patience.
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This is another step toward self-sufficiency as the sheep will eventually provide offspring and meat for us!
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#babydollsheep #ram

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