Backstory

Howdy folks!
My name is Sam and welcome to the farm. We are hobby farm in central Mississippi and this is our journey.

My wife, Delisa, and I have a small farm that we have lived on for about four years now. She bought it as her dream place right about the time we started dating. Having grown up on a farm myself, I was happy to help establish and get to growing the place. We started with a blank slate except for the barn. Even the two acre pond was virtually empty of life, including fish and vegetation.

In the four years we have been here we have slowly been adding life and establishing systems to help turn this old worn out pasture land into a productive regenerative farm/homestead.

We started with our farm dog, Daisy, who we adopted from a shelter. She had a rough life before landing with us. With enough love and attention she soon bloomed into a wonderful playful loving farm pup who is capable of herding and protecting the animals.

Shortly after our engagement, we started our chicken flock with eight chicks that we raised in a playpen in our living room until they were old enough to live outside and I got around to building them a coop. Since then, our flock has grown to over twenty birds and the coop has gone through a couple of remodels and upgrades.

Delisa’s horse, Peewee moved in shortly after we did and has been a staple for farm entertainment and enjoyment. He is a wonderful trail horse and loves a good brushing. Currently, we are fostering and training a Keiger Mustang named Diesel for the Mississippi Horse Rescue Team. He needs lots of love and training and we have done our best to have him better than we got him over the last ninety days with him. He returns to the rescue team on May 1, 2021 to be evaluated for adoption or further training as needed.

Due to a pond remodel, a neighbor gifted us a Chinese goose and seven mallard ducks. They were all full grown and took right to the pond on our farm. They are pretty self sufficient and keep to themselves. Great pond decorations though and Gandalf the White, our goose, is a great guard goose alerting the farm to any intruders including us.

When we moved in, the pond had been recently drained, seined and expanded. There was very little if any wildlife in its waters and less aquatic vegetation. Having access to a pond at my parents farm and a few fishing poles started us on the right road to rebuilding the ponds ecosystem. We caught a few bluegill and small largemouth bass to release into our pond. This worked beautifully and three years later we are seeing the fruits of this endeavor. Feeding the fish most evenings is confirmation as the amount of fish we see feeding seems to grow every month. The aquatic vegetation has responded as well. There are cattails growing in a few places around the pond as well as an abundance of willow trees. Lilly pads are plentiful and giving fish shade and places to hide from predators.

That is the state of our farm today but there are plans and dreams for its future that I hope you will follow along with as we pursue! Thanks for dropping by to check in and have a sunflowery day.