#durhamfarming

Hello there,  

So nice to have you stop by our homestead blog.

Have you ever dreamed about leaving the city and moving to the country to live a more self-sustaining lifestyle? Are you interested in growing your own produce and raising your own animals? If so, we have some things in common and we should be cyber friends.

My name is Geraldine and five years ago, after having our first son, my husband, Bob, and I decided that it was time to get away from the hustle and bustle of city living and find ourselves a little place in the country.

Here's a picture of our little family, from left to right, that's my husband Bob, our sons Conner and Callum, and me, Geraldine.  

We had always wanted to escape the crowded city streets and their constant noise in order to live a healthier and more self-reliant lifestyle. After much searching (and list making) we decided to settle amongst the beautiful landscape of Port Perry, Ontario, Canada. We purchased a beautiful home that originates back to 1904 and is situated on five rolling acres.

Below is a picture of our two boys taking a cruise around the property in their John Deere. To make our century home warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, we added vinyl siding over the existing wood structure, all new windows (that's 38 to be precise), and a new lifetime metal roof. Since the renovations we've really noticed a difference in our gas heating and cooling bills and we're hoping to shrink them even more by switching to alternative energy sources.

Bob and I weren’t raised on farms and we weren’t really familiar with gardening, so for us becoming self-sustaining meant research, research, and more research. We knew that we wanted a garden of our own and after much research on the subject, we found the easiest instructions for beginners at The Old Farmer’s Almanac website. The site is a great tool because it tells you how to plan your garden, when to plant, how to position your plants, and so much more. For newbies, like my husband and I, it was a great resource to get us started.

Below is a peek at our garden from last summer. We were so pleased when we were able to pick our first crop of kale and cabbage - they are favorites in our house. We try to plant enough produce to keep us fed throughout the summer and winter months. Right now, in our freezer, we have five large bags full of kale that I grab from when I'm cooking stews or pastas. Freezing what we can't use immediately saves us from buying allot of expensive produce from the market.  

The Farmer’s Almanac also provided us with great information on raising chickens. Having our own chickens means that we get to skip relying on the grocery store for eggs because we are able to produce our own.

Here's a cute picture of Callum feeding our first group of chickens. We're working on his technique.

We’ve shared some of what’s been happening at our farm but we still have a long list of things to do to make us a more self-sustaining homestead, it includes: getting a dairy cow so we can produce our own milk and make our own cheese, and also to make fertilizer (yep, that’s poop), installing solar panels so that we are able to generate our own power and not rely on the utilities company, determining the best ways to capture and use rain water, and so much more. What kind of projects are you working on at your home? Do you want to share any cool projects that made your homestead more sustainable?  

If you’re interested in learning how to make your home more self-sustainable, or you just really like to see cute farm animals in action, follow our blog here on Tumblr or find me on Twitter at @fancyfarmgirlg. We would love to learn about your farm life and what you have done to be more self-sustainable.

If you have any great pictures of your animals or farm that you want to share, we love those too!  Let’s talk about all things sustainability!!

That’s all for now farm friends. We look forward to getting to know you all. Geraldine, Bob and the boys.