‘Just Another Day in Paradise’ Urban Homestead

Welcome back to another season of farm and homestead tours! I’m ready for more entries! 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, ‘Just Another Day in Paradise’ Urban Homestead!

Homesteading on one-third of an acre in the suburbs? Yes! Ruth, Bernie, and their seven children are doing just that. They’re raising hens, bees, fruit trees, and a garden — all in this small space. So inspiring!

Visit Ruth’s blog at Just Another Day in Paradise — lovely photos and you feel like you couldn’t possibly be in the city on 1/3 acre because of the overwhelming feeling of simple, country living.

What is your name and the names of your family members?
My name is Ruth, my husband’s name is Bernie. We have seven children, ages 6 to 24.

How long have you been farming/homesteading?
We have been homesteading for about five years.

Share a brief description of your farm/homestead.
We live in the suburbs and have 1/3 acre of land in a cul-de-sac. We have been blessed to have neighbors who don’t mind when our hens escape and end up on their front porch.

What are you raising, growing, and doing?
We have 17 hens, three bee hives, eight fruit trees, a small herb garden, and a variety of fruit and vegetables in seven raised beds.

How did you get into farming/homesteading?
Both of our parents had a garden, so we wanted to have our own some day. I grew up in Puerto Rico next door to my grandmother who had cows, pigs chickens and bees.

Any future plans?
We hope to sell our house someday and get a few acres of land. We would love to have a cow and some pigs.

Do you have any funny stories to share?
When we first moved into this house, two horses from a half mile away escaped and ended up on our front porch. The kids thought it was the funniest thing. They got some apples from the fridge and went outside and fed them. They guided the horses back to the main road and sent them on their way.

Let’s Tour Paradise Homestead!

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

These are some of our raised beds at the edge of our property.

Our hens keep getting out of the coop and end up in our front porch.

We have three bee hives in our back yard. We hope to split all three next year and double the size of our bees if they make it through the winter.

We have a variety of fruits and vegetables growing in our raised beds.

We also have lots of sunflowers for our bees and tomatoes for canning.

We have a very large blackberry patch in the back yard. last year we were able to can 24 quarts of jam.

Ruth, 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 the Ruth and her family a warm welcome in the comments! Be sure to visit her blog here.