Blue Hollow Homestead

It's crazy to me that these little fluff butts can fill your freezer in just 8 weeks. They quickly grow from the fluffy, cute stage to the large, not cute at all stage very, very quickly. We built a large chicken tractor to be moved around the yard each day to give them fresh grass and feed them organic, gmo free food.  Here they were when we first got them: The chicken tractor: Processing chicken is harder and more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. I am an AVID animal lover who also loves meat, so I can't in good conscious eat meat that comes from a store (even the *organic* or *free-range* stuff- trust me there are many loopholes). I had to raise it myself, watch them scratch around for bugs, flap around, and get sunshine, ensure that they had a quick, humane death, and know that as much of their body is used as possible. I have a much greater respect for the meat that I eat and home grown meat doesn't even compare to store bought meat- it i...

Started framing the coop, added the door. Started to add some fresh white paint to the coop and figured out the angle of the roof Added some more paint, began to put up the plywood back wall, started roof framing. Took the tools out of the run so we could begin interior landscaping. The big black circles will be future high quality dust baths- so excited to have actual ones instead of the girls digging under the fence. Have quite a few interior run ideas that I am excited to show when they are completed. Quite a bit more progress has been made on the roof. The patio has been cleaned up and we have the seating out.  The roof framing is almost done! The roof is almost on! We also turned the greenhouse roofing on the coop into metal roofing. Beginners mistake- greenhouse roofing is WAY TOO HOT for a chicken coop! A tree fell onto some of our stuff out back in the woods. The benefit was th...

My mother is mainly in charge of the gardens. Sadly, I have a black thumb when it comes to plants. Thankfully, my mother is the gardening queen! We are up to our knees right now in fresh lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, asparagus, and rhubarb. I can't wait until the other plants come into season! The lovely pergola my father built. Everything is a bit of a mess right now but when it's cleaned out it is a great place to host people! The three tiered hill garden. Have a hill that is a pain to mow? Turn it into a beautiful garden instead! We added the third level this year, hence the newer looking wood. It is full of zucchini, squash, tomatoes, basil, and various perennials in the top part of the garden. Here is our little fire pit. Great for s'mores! The giant swing set, complete with swings, trapeze, hanging triangles, slide, and seesaw. A huge hit with all of the kids through many generations. Again, excuse all of the mess being mid chicken ...