Embracing the Simple Life: Hobby Farming

From city streets to the cattle pasture, Kierstyn's journey from the subdivision to a hobby farm in the lush countryside of Georgia is nothing short of inspiring, and she's here to share the ins and outs of her journey. With a mix of chickens, goats, donkeys, and that irresistibly adorable mini Highland cow, Kierstyn offers up a treasure trove of wisdom for those dreaming of cultivating their own slice of heaven on earth.  She guides listeners from the beginning as we go into how to pick out the ideal animals for your area, considerations for various goat breeds, best practices for keeping out predators, and practical guidance like getting ahead of the season by bringing seed to soil. We talk a lot about chickens too—from selecting the hardiest chicken breeds to braving the early days of a brooder full of peeping chicks.

As the sun sets over her Georgia homestead, she reflects about how their family wound up on the ideal cattle pasture anticipating a new company springing up in May. It's the ideal episode for anyone out there that has spring fever as we discuss garden dreams from seed to harvest, the upcoming launch at Peachwood Farm, and animal life with all the excitements of a new round of "kids" coming soon! In the spirit of the slow life in the country, we reflect on the deeper meanings of our pursuits, finding joy in the rhythms of the every day and our bedrock of faith. Kierstyn's journey is not merely one of leaving city life behind—it's a narrative of courage, peace, and igniting the light within, ready to be shared with all who yearn for a taste of the simple, yet profound, life of a hobby farmer.

Order baby chicks: https://tr.ee/NPplpKuJqi
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Website: https://peachwoodfarm.com/
About: https://peachwoodfarm.com/about-the-family
Animals Available: https://peachwoodfarm.com/available-babies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peachwoodfarmga/
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/peachwoodfarmga

Chapters

• 0:08 Homesteading and Hobby Farming Inspiration"
• 11:18 Starting a Hobby Farm
• 21:45 Launching New Venture With Faith

Transcript

Cicily: 0:08

Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of the Creative Mountain Mama podcast. I am super excited to be joined just in time for spring with Kirsten. She talks about homesteading, having a hobby farm, and she moved from the city to the country in Georgia. Thank you for joining me, Kirsten.

Kierstyn: 0:30

Thank you, I'm so excited.

Cicily: 0:33

I am too. Can you tell me a little bit about how you guys got started?

Kierstyn: 0:38

Yes, so this has actually always been my dream since I was a little girl. I'm from Philadelphia, my husband's from Brooklyn, new York, so we're very much city people, but I've always loved animals. I always have loved flowers and plants and growing things. This has always been a dream and we've worked really, really hard to get here. So, yeah, we now live on our little hobby farm.

Cicily: 1:05

And you say hobby farm. So I understand you guys work full time and you have farm animals.

Kierstyn: 1:13

Yes, yes, we don't really. We're not farming like farmers where we're benefiting from the land financially. I guess I call it a hobby farm more because it's like our passion raising the animals. I do have a really big garden now and that's super beneficial for us to grow our own food for me and the kids, but we're not like farmer farmers where we're making a profit off of it. This really is just beneficial for us.

Cicily: 1:42

Can you give me a rundown of the animals you have?

Kierstyn: 1:46

Yes, I have lost track of how many chickens we have. I think I have about 20 chickens free ranging out on the back pasture, which is about two and a half acres, and then I have a handful of chicks in the brooder in the garage. Right now I have six silky chickens in an incubator. They should hopefully hatch within like the next two weeks. And then we have a couple of mini Nubian goats. We actually have four new Nubian girls coming April 13th. We drive up to chat and you're going to pick them up, so that's exciting. And then I have mini donkeys and I have a mini Highland cow, a couple ducks and I have farm cats, but I'm hesitant to call them farm cats because they spend more time inside than out Busted. Yeah, yeah, lazy farm cats.

Cicily: 2:40

So what I love so much. I checked out your blog and you have a really good intro into chickens. Can you give me a quick rundown of that, just off the top of your head?

Kierstyn: 2:52

Yeah, the chickens we got very early on so I really like my pet chicken because they have a huge variety. I do have a link on my website to help order and I love answering people's questions about like breeds and, depending on what they're looking for or the climate that they're in, you want chickens that are like hardy for your area, so I love talking to people about that. So if anyone ever messages me and asks about chicken breeds or anything, I'm very happy to help. But we order ours so they come in the mail. Super exciting because the post office calls and they say your baby chicks are here and you get to go pick them up and everybody in the post office hears their little chirps from the box and it's super exciting. But yeah, so we bring them home. I usually have their brooder set up for them already.

Kierstyn: 3:42

I did it differently this time and I have a fun little reel that I posted about a chicken brooder set up. It's like a little. It's called a hen pen. It's like a little chicken playpen. Super easy and convenient. This time I have used the more traditional like water troughs. In the past they're the big, you know, like the big silver things you see out on the farm. They're usually used for feed or water, and so that's what we're using it for now, and I want to empty it and bring it back into the garage. So I found this one. It's like literally a chicken playpen it pops right up and open. It's super convenient, super lightweight, so you can just jump it out and clean it really easily. But your baby chicks will be in there for eight weeks. They need food, water. Yeah, and I cover a lot of stuff like this on my Instagram. I tried to do like short educational reels kind of explaining this process.

Cicily: 4:36

And there are considerations like do you want them for eggs, do you want them for meat, do you want them to be friendly to your toddler Things that I've never thought of. Is there anything you've come across that's unforeseen, that you wish you knew when you started?

Kierstyn: 4:55

No, I think the biggest thing for anyone is considering your zone and your climate, because some chickens will not do well in really cold climates. We're very lucky because I'm in Georgia we do have a, we're in North Georgia, so we do get a winter, but I say that it's very mild compared to most areas. So, yeah, I think the biggest thing is just making sure you get breeds that are well for your climate, because that's where you kind of run into issues.

Cicily: 5:25

So climate maybe as a first consideration and then go from there.

Kierstyn: 5:31

Yes, yes, climate should be first. A lot of us like to buy eggs for the egg color, which is very fun, but, yes, if you're mostly this comes down to, if you're in a really cold climate, you want to look at specific chickens that are going to do well throughout the winter, because not all breeds will. So a little bit about that. Chickens have a comb on the top of their head, that's like the little floppy thing up there. Some of them are really big and elaborate and they're prone to frostbite. So if you get breeds like that and you're up in Canada and it's really cold and heavy snow, they can actually get frostbite on that and it can be like life threatening for them. So it's just, yes, I would say climate is probably the biggest thing you want to take into consideration.

Cicily: 6:20

And I know you mentioned my pet chicken, and your blog is a great place to start. I know they have a chicken quiz as well, if you're just starting out and you need some direction. Yes, and you said you have baby goats coming. Can you tell me a little bit about the newbie in goats?

Kierstyn: 6:38

Yes, so they are actually a cross between a more common goat, the Nigerian dwarf goat, but it's mixed with a newbie and to get the mini newbie and it's just a newbie and goat they have the floppy ears, but now just a little bit smaller because they crossed it with the Nigerian dwarf. They tend, in my experience, to be a little more relaxed and calm, whereas Nigerian dwarf goats are really fun and energetic. They're known to escape a lot too, which I didn't want to have to worry about because we do have like a big road out here. Both in the front and the back of our property is a pretty big road. So even though we're far and we're fenced off, I didn't want any little babies escaping and something happening to them.

Kierstyn: 7:22

The mini newbians tend to be much more calm. It's good with the kids too. I mean, the Nigerian dwarf is fun. They're very fun and a playful breed still can be great with kids. But if you are wanting something a little, a little more calm, I would definitely recommend the mini newbians. They're just gentle, they're just more gentle, very affectionate.

Cicily: 7:46

My mom had goats growing up and they would terrorize the kids and literally keep them on the barn roof and they couldn't leave. Or oh, did they have horns? Yeah, exactly.

Kierstyn: 8:00

Yeah, yeah, it depends too if you keep the horns on them or not, but yeah.

Cicily: 8:05

Okay, so yeah, and his name was horny Many Anubians.

Kierstyn: 8:09

Let's start that, yes yes, if you want peaceful goats, yes.

Cicily: 8:15

Do you guys sell the babies, or is everything?

Kierstyn: 8:18

We will. We actually have our first pregnant goat on the farm right now, which is really exciting. She's got a little bit of a ways to go, but these will be our first babies born on the farm.

Cicily: 8:33

And then you mentioned you have a mini Highland cow. How does that come?

Kierstyn: 8:37

about. We do. Okay, mini Highland cows are super trendy right now. Everybody wants them. They'll be totally honest with you pros and cons. They're gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous animals. But even being miniature, she's still very big.

Kierstyn: 8:53

So we used to have her out on a shared pasture with other animals and we actually had to move her. So when we had our new mini donkeys, they were babies, maybe, I want to say like three or four months old. Merida is our cow because she's red and I have daughters. So the brave, the Merida princess, the Scottish princess this is where we're going with this. We named her Merida because she's a Scottish cow.

Kierstyn: 9:19

But so when we had the little baby donkey, she likes to cows, like to headbutt each other and normally that's totally fine because they're both big animals and they can do that. Well, she tried headbutt and with one of the little baby donkeys and, like, launched her into the water bucket. Everybody was fine. But I'm like, if we weren't home or if we didn't see this, like it could have been bad. And she doesn't, she doesn't mean it, she's just big. They're still big animals even though they're miniature. So, yes, she's been a lot of fun. We got her at a month old and her mama wasn't feeding her, so we got to bottle feed her. So it was a really great experience. The kids loved it. We used to go out two times a day, morning and night, and we would give her her bottle. She absolutely loves us because we've raised her since she was, you know, basically a newborn and yeah, she's been a lot of fun for us.

Cicily: 10:13

So to get an idea, how much does she weigh?

Kierstyn: 10:18

Oh my gosh, she's probably at least now and she's maybe just reaching full grown. She's probably close to 500 pounds still. Oh my goodness, a bull-side cow can be like double triple that I mean they can be. Yeah, she's still really big and she's so friendly because we hand raised her that she just thinks she's like this little puppy and she wants to nudge you with her head. This is what she would do with other cows or with her mama. So she doesn't mean anything by it, but they are still very big animals. So I think when people are considering adding them to their life, definitely think about the logistics of it, because she's big, she's a big animal to have around, so you need to be careful, especially with little ones. And it's not even that she means it, it's just she doesn't realize how big she is.

Cicily: 11:08

Sure keep a keen eye. And what's feeding like? Is that just a giant cost or are you guys able to supplement?

Kierstyn: 11:16

No, we actually. I talk about this a lot on my Instagram because I think it makes a huge difference for people starting out. If you have not bought land yet and this is something that you want to venture into the best thing you can do for yourself is to buy a piece of property that has really good pasture grass already. So when we moved out here, this was all 20 acres of cattle pasture. It was a cattle farm. They used it for cattle, so super lush pasture grass from the day we moved in.

Kierstyn: 11:50

Whereas if you are buying a piece of land that is heavily wooded, let's say, and you have to clear a whole bunch to make room for your animals, you're looking at probably a couple of years before you even have healthy grass growing in that area.

Kierstyn: 12:06

So that's gonna either dilate your farm plans or, if you do bring the animals onto the pasture when there's not enough grass to sustain them, you're going to have a higher feed bill. So that's why we're able to keep our feed costs down and that's across the board. With all the animals. Like, we free range the chickens on two and a half acres, which is way plenty for the 20 chickens that we have out there. So it keeps our feed costs down significantly versus if you have I mean, even in Florida, you'll see, like goats or donkeys on a dry lot like sand or dirt, your feed bills gonna be their feed bills gonna be a lot higher than mine because I have all this grass to sustain them. So I do try to tell people if you've not bought the land yet and you know that you wanna have animals on it someday, the best thing you can do for yourself and your money is to find a piece of land that's pretty cleared and has pasture grass already.

Cicily: 13:06

And is that something you guys were able to consider when you looked for this property?

Kierstyn: 13:11

We just got really lucky. I mean I did a lot. I say lucky, we didn't get lucky. I did a lot of research and we took a lot of time before we decided. So we were actually living in Nashville when we bought this land out here in Georgia and it's because the real estate market in Nashville was we're talking like pandemic times and stuff. Things were just crazy. Everybody was moving in, leaving states and coming to especially the middle Tennessee area. A lot of people were coming in at that time so it was very hard to find good land. So we just kind of branched out.

Kierstyn: 13:50

I stumbled on this builder here in North Georgia so it's really only four hours drive from Nashville where we are and we came out to the property and it was just, it was perfect. And we had looked at so many other things. We looked at Florida and then, yeah, so when this came along, we came out here and we stood on the property. There was nothing here, no home or anything and we saw the most beautiful sunset. So we're really blessed.

Kierstyn: 14:18

In the front of my property there's nothing. I'm looking out the window now because that's like one of my favorite views, but there's nothing across from us, it just tree line. You could see like the Georgia mountain lines and the way out in the distance, but it makes for the most beautiful sunset. So when we came to look at the property it was like 6.30 in the evening and I didn't even realize. But I turned around and I'm like. I looked at my husband and I was like we're gonna live here, Like this is the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen and now I get to see it every day.

Cicily: 14:52

Wow, God ordained very idyllic. Is there anything that you have to prepare for predators or protect?

Kierstyn: 15:02

Yes, yes. So we have really good fencing. I would say your fencing is going to be a huge factor in predator control. So we have corral board fencing. It's like four slats across. But then there is gosh. My husband's gonna laugh at me when he listens to this. I don't remember what the stuff is called in between, but it's like chicken wire but very heavy duty Can't remember what it's called right now but that reinforces all the fence lines. So it's very small squares. Nothing can get in or out of it. We do get like bobcats, we get coyotes and we have a lot of hawks. So we do several things to kind of keep those in check. But it starts with really good fencing. You can keep a lot of things out and in with really good fencing. So I always recommend that, first things first, invest in that upfront, because it's gonna save you a lot in the long run.

Cicily: 16:03

Absolutely as far as your garden goes. Is there anything you're super excited blooming soon?

Kierstyn: 16:12

So I started seedlings for the first time and I'm not an expert in this, this is very new to us and I've not had a garden before. I've always planted flowers like every home we've had, even in just like pots on the porch, wherever I could. I've always loved having a lot of flowers around, so I've gotten that down. But I've never grown food before, so this is new. We started last year and we had just finished the garden the whole like renovation, and the garden beds my husband built for me. We finished that in July of last year so I didn't get a huge return because it was kind of late in the season for things. But we grew peppers, we grew tomatoes what else did we grow my sunflowers. I did a whole bed of sunflowers just for fun. They were so beautiful, like they just took off. They must do really well in this area because they just I put the little seeds in and they just I mean huge like over my head.

Kierstyn: 17:12

But this year I started seedlings for the first time. They're on my kitchen table and they're doing great. The only thing that didn't take was strawberries, which I'm bummed about because that's probably our favorite thing, but I do have. I'm going to try some more out in the garden beds, just because the seeds didn't take. We'll try another option out there, but I'm hoping that we have a really big garden season this year. I started early and we're actually after this we're going to head to Home Depot to order some topsoil so we can fill up the garden beds, and I'll probably start putting my seedlings out there and getting that going. But this is all new. This is a new thing for us, so by no means do I have all the information for this. We are doing the best we can.

Cicily: 18:00

Well, my aunt calls me from Texas and she said we have tomatoes. I said what? From last year? She said no, it's our first harvest. What is your guys' growing season there?

Kierstyn: 18:13

So we actually, because it's a little bit of a warmer climate, I can start my seeds indoors in February. I started around Valentine's Day. Some things can be put out before last frost. I think we hit last frost actually on spring. The first day of spring I woke up and it was like 29 degrees here. I'm like what is going on? But I think we all across the board had a cold snap, yeah, yeah. So I'm getting to the point now where I can put things out and then I actually have a pretty good garden season because it's a little bit warmer here. We're in the south I can have things growing like well into the fall here.

Cicily: 18:54

You're making an idyllic picture more idyllic for the mama that is also interested in leaving the city, finding a piece of land, getting her cute chickens and the cutest Highland cow. Is there a few things that you would recommend or a few places to look to just start that journey?

Kierstyn: 19:17

I think the biggest thing I like to tell people and that I hope people take from my situation and us kind of sharing our journey, is that anyone can do this Like you really can. Yeah, I mean people. When we first told, like our neighbors when we lived in the subdivision, all these plans, I mean they looked at us like we were crazy. But you can do it. Like, don't let people make you think that you cannot. Don't let anyone or any situation make you think that you can't do this. You can. We're all capable of learning new things, doing hard things, working hard for things, growing our own food, raising animals Like we can do it.

Kierstyn: 20:00

I mean my husband and I are like as city as it gets and we're out here and we're doing it. And it's not about perfection. You learn as you go and you find what brings you joy. That's the biggest thing and that's why I tend to call this a hobby farm, because it's about our joy, like our quality of life here is so much different and we just feel so much more fulfilled. I think, yeah, caring for animals, it just gives you like purpose and meaning in your days and I have so much to look forward to every day. I love seeing the excitement that all of this brings my kids. Yeah, I just would really like to encourage people. It doesn't matter if you do not come from a farming lifestyle. It doesn't matter if this is like day one for you and you don't know anything. Just do it. Just start learn. You can do it.

Cicily: 20:52

I love that. Thank you so much, and I know you have something kind of exciting coming up. Do you want to do a little preview?

Kierstyn: 21:01

I do, I do so I am launching a new company. I'm super, super excited, but also I've never been so nervous because I'm doing everything myself. I'm like if this doesn't go well, it's all on me. I mean, I'm making the product, I'm doing the logo, the designs, all the marketing. I'm doing the whole website myself, product photography All of this is on me. So it's very nerve-wracking, but I'm super excited. I'm like pouring so much love into this that I hope people love it as much as I do, and I will definitely be sharing more information about it, probably next week, very, very soon. I'm almost ready. And then the company itself is set to launch on May 1st.

Cicily: 21:50

May 1st just in time for summer at Peachwood Farm, ga. Stay Tuned. I am super excited and I just want to speak faith and encouragement. It is so worth it to start your own business and, yes, daunting, but very, very satisfying, just like owning a garden and seeing that first flower come back up from last year. That being said, are there any Bible verses that you like to lean on or that you'd like to share that are encouraging to you?

Kierstyn: 22:24

I actually have a verse quoted on my website for the new company, and it's about when Jesus comes into your life, it lights a candle in your soul. It lights a flame in your soul. I think that's a good one. I think living out here on the farm has really lit a flame in our soul as well and we feel a lot more connected just to our everyday, to the world, the peace out here. It's been a much needed change in our life.

Cicily: 23:01

And a light on a hill should not be hidden. Thank you so much for joining me, kirsten. I really appreciate your time and I look forward to your new effort.

Kierstyn: 23:13

Thank you so much for having me.