Raising 3:23 Homestead

02/22/2026

To say that we have had a tough lambing season would be an understatement. From lambs coming during the absolute coldest part of winter to a ewe being in complete distress during labor.
Today was the hardest day I've had as a Farmer. When we noticed a ewe having very clear signs of a struggle delivering her lamb, Justin was already heading up to the market... We had to call a dear friend to come help me because this wasn't a normal "pull a lamb" situation. By the time it was all said and done, we ended up losing twin lambs and the mom 😞 The younger boys were home with me, so they were huge helpers along with our friend and his niece. We pray we never encounter this situation again.
We were able to make it in time for the boys' basketball games and then finally celebrated Jagger's 13th birthday by going out to dinner and seeing a movie. We are truly blessed!!

02/12/2026

Jagger's new chore buddy. One of the benefits of a bottle lamb... especially a ewe lamb. It makes it so much easier to handle them when they need help when they are older.
Isn't this the sweetest thing??

02/12/2026

Come see us this Saturday!!

Valentine's Day is this Saturday, and our market has swoon-worthy plans! 💌

Stop by and write a Valentine's/letter of appreciation for our vendors, and while you're at it, take a photo at our photo booth!

See you there!

02/11/2026

We had a really bad start to our lambing season. I mean it was so sad. But, things are turning around! We have 8 healthy lambs (one of them being bottle fed).
Rosie had a set of twins overnight. She's laying down in the back on the left. Praying the rest of the moms do as well.

02/08/2026

While I was in the top of the barn, I heard a new lamb crying out, so I had a strong feeling it had been rejected.
Before heading out to the shelters, I thought I'd better check it out first. Sure enough, the mom rejected one of her twins. In an effort to get the lamb to get some of the moms milk, I tried to catch her. Well, I realized I'm definitely getting older and needed assistance. So, I called to the house and the younger boys came out to help. Between Ryker holding the lambs, Jagger blocking and tackling and then me with the final tackle, we got her! But the baby was not strong enough to latch on. So we are now bottle feeding her. Prayers for her to survive and be strong enough to go back out with the herd in the future are appreciated.
We needed to get straw out to the shelters this morning. I ended up getting the ranger stuck, so Jagger told me he would help. After a little push, he got me out. He ended up doing all of the driving the rest of the morning. Even backing up the snowy barn hill into the barn. He did great!
When I got in, I read my sister's messages about how she's enjoying the Florida weather... I sent her my "snow look" to compare to the "beach look". Lol I usually wouldn't share pictures of myself, but I thought it was hilarious!
Enjoy your Sunday!!

01/27/2026

We are making adjustments to our chore schedule this week. No one wants to come out to eat and drink before the sun comes up... And if I wait a bit, I have better chances of eggs being laid, but not frozen yet. It's all about timing!
Some of the quirks of the week include low water pressure.. so, washing dishes and doing laundry at the same time is not an option. We also have to be very quick with showers to allow more than one person to have warm water.
We are also in the final stages of our boys' bedroom remodel. LJ finally has his OWN space away from his little brothers... Unfortunately, with the wind, we are not able to burn all the boxes and trash from this project, so we are stuck with places to go with everything. But, we are still moving things forward each day.
We decided on an easy breakfast this morning. Compliments of Stacy Roudebush and Pleasant Ridge Dairy. Raw milk yogurt with our honey... And Ryker made coffee for everyone, too.
Now back to work.. we may have pictures of the younger boys' completed room soon.

01/27/2026

Our weekend has been very eventful due to the cold weather and rotten timing. We first had no water and had to get pretty creative on how we handled our animals and house chores Saturday morning.
Then, last night around 10 PM, Justin noticed the temperature in the house was dropping... After investigating (including sending LJ up on the roof to make sure the pipe wasn't frozen), they determined that the igniter was broken on the furnace. LJ took the igniter out of our oven, but unfortunately, it was not a match. So, we warmed up the house with a space heater until we were all ready for bed, then shut it down and used lots of blankets to sleep. Thankfully, Justin was able to find the part we needed in Decatur this morning.
Now... We have water trickling in the house and out at the barn to keep our pipes from freezing and we have the furnace up and running.. praying we are ready for the continually dropping temperatures coming up this week!
Praying for all of you, too. It's going to be a bit frigid!

01/25/2026

Well I tried to take a video of the animals while we were doing chores, but you can't hear much due to the wind.. and you can't see much because I decided to watch my footing and not where I was recording (this is important as we get a bit older 😉).
LJ and Jagger got extra hay to the sheep while Ryker tended to the pigs and I collected eggs.
Justin bought us these new water trickle attachments for our hose, so we can leave the hoses outside during this cold weather! I can't explain how awesome that is! Wrapping hoses up twice a day while freezing, just isn't fun at all.
We did have to break ice because the sheep water heater got unplugged. Other than that, watering all the animals was a breeze!
I'll attach a couple more short videos in comments.
Enjoy this beautiful Sunday 😊

01/25/2026

We have had quite a day! The cold weather already took a toll on us. We woke up to no water in the house and barn... So, while Justin and LJ were preparing for market, Ryker and I went to town to get diesel for our heater to warm the crawl space. Then all the outside adventures began for Jagger, Ryker and me. Between cracking ice, checking eggs (because they freeze fast in these temperatures), and dumping water out of our 5 gallon drinking containers to water the animals, we stayed busy... And cold! We were outside more than we were inside until it was time for the basketball games in Decatur.
In order for us to leave, grandma (Suzie) stayed at the house to monitor the heater pointing into the crawl space and then Jeff Minch came out and did more trouble shooting... And ended up getting water moving from the spigot on the well house..
After we were all home, we added another heater to help heat both the crawl space and well house at the same time. And about an hour later we had water to the animals and to our house!
Then, the guys made a lot of progress in the boys' new rooms. It was a very sad day to take down the loft beds that Justin and his dad, Jeff Landers built together for the boys. But, it was time...
Now, with church closed in the morning, we are sitting down to enjoy a family movie. It was a stressful and then beautiful day!
Stay warm!

01/22/2026

Out doing chores this morning. LJ unloading feed from the back of the truck while Ryker keeps the lid from falling... Jagger getting water to the back pasture... And the two escape pigs that destroyed feed bags and drug out feed buckets and anything else they could the their legs tangled around this morning.

01/17/2026

It has been so long since we've made any posts.. We had good intentions to post regularly and then life happened.
Today, we felt that it was a perfect time to share something Justin's aunt (and one of my best friends) shared in our local paper. She loves the Lord so much and has found a way to share Jesus on a weekly basis with our community. This week, she dedicated her article to our homestead. I can't explain how special this is to us.
Living on a homestead can be so difficult, and I'm not going to lie, just a few days ago I let the anxiety get to me and I started rethinking our life choices. Thankfully, I felt God nudging me to keep on with what we are doing.. And then, I read the article she wrote. It was perfect timing! I hope you enjoy her article. This is in the Berne Witness, if you'd like to read her other articles each week. Oh.. Side note.. Her name is Debi Pollard. They accidentally missed the "i" in her name.