Blueberry Acres Farm

Welcome back to another season of farm and homestead tours! I’m ready for more entries for 2013! Please read here for guidelines.

We’re heading down home… to your farms! Urban, suburban, or rural — whatever you’re growing and doing, we want to see it.

Welcome to the Down Home Farm Tours series. To see all the farms and homesteads featured in this series, click here. If you’d like to be featured, please read here for guidelines.

Welcome, Blueberry Acres Farm!

Today you get to visit Shellie and her family at their farm in Southwest Missouri. They have 15 acres — a combination of hills and pasture.. and rocks! They raise chickens, turkeys, and Belted Galloway cows. You can visit their blog here.

What is your name and the names of your family members?
It’s just me, Shellie, our daughter “The Blueberry” and my husband “Sheldon”… well and of course the 30ish heritage chickens and turkeys, Belted Galloway cows, the dogs, the cats and the dust bunnies.

How long have you been farming/homesteading?
We have been moving toward this life for a few years now, but God created an opportunity where my husband could transfer from a big city to a little city… as a result, we were able to make our dream a reality. We have been here on our little farm for about a year.

Share a brief description of your farm/homestead.
We have 15 acres with two wet weather ponds –a great mix of hill and pasture, although all of it is covered in rocks. Makes for some hard work tilling the land!

What are you raising, growing, and doing?
Our focus is on grass fed beef (Belted Galloways), chickens (Jersey Giants, White Rocks, Wyandottes), turkeys (Narragansett and Slate Blue) and organic produce/baked goods. We will be adding pigs this fall. All breeds are heritage!

How did you get into farming/homesteading?
Much like others, we wanted to be closer to a life that we believe God had intended for us. We wanted to teach our daughter the value of self sufficiency. The word bucolic always comes to mind, but anyone who homesteads knows that it’s only bucolic sometimes!

Any future plans?
Aren’t there always future plans?? Just continue to grow our herds and flocks and raise our Blueberry!

Do you have any funny stories to share?
There is always something goofy going on down on the farm. For me, it normally involves cattle. I remember one time early this year where I had two heifers on the loose — one going one way down the dirt road, the other going the other way, and me just shrieking in the middle for some help. All I could think was how in the world had a city girl with a great career gotten to this point of being a farm mom who yells at cattle?!? It wasn’t my finest farming moment, but I can look back now at how ridiculous I must have looked and just have a good laugh. 🙂

Do you have any sad stories to share?
Our first chickens that came to the farm — about a week after we moved in — were already two or so months old, so there wasn’t anything to raising those. But early this year we ordered a new batch from a hatchery. I remember one chick in particular who came in pretty sickly. That little fella died while I was holding it and trying to keep it warm. It just never had a chance, but having the opportunity to show kindness to an animal as it left this life was poignant and meaningful. Sure it was just a little chick, but it was a life made by God all the same. We said a little prayer as a family, then Sheldon “buried” it deep in the compost pile. And yes peeps — you can compost chicks.

Is there anything else you would like to share?
We would just love to connect more with other families going through this journey. There are lots of blogs/pages, etc out there… but building a meaningful connection doesn’t always happen. Homesteading in a part of the country where it’s not really embraced can be a lonely road. Drop us a line!

Let’s Blueberry Acres Farm!

(Wardee: In the captions below, you’re hearing from the Shellie, as she tells you what is in each picture.)

This is a view from the kitchen of our side pasture, new barn covered in beautiful freshly fallen snow.

Festus, our handsome guard donkey… who really only guards the treats.

Our daughter “The Blueberry” as she looked through a seed catalog planning her spring garden..that ultimately only grew weeds.

Some of our “workers” engaging in water cooler talk. White Rocks and Jersey Giants.

Our Belted Galloways; Pia, Max, Maureen and our newborn calf peeking at us through the fence in the back pasture.

Shellie, thank you for sharing with us! We hope you enjoy your free thank you video, our gift to you. Plus, feel free to display the following graphic on your site. (Right-click and save to your computer, then upload to your site and link to this farm tour post.)

Please give Shellie, Sheldon, and Blueberry a warm welcome in the comments! Be sure to visit their blog here.