Faith & Farm Life with Lyndsey of Crazy W8 Farms

Ever heard of a toddler wielding a toy lightsaber in a standoff with a skunk? That's just a taste of my conversation with Lyndsey Waite of Crazy W8 Farms. As we chat, you'll learn a little more about homesteading, Nubian goats, ducks and all about their latest venture - building a covered-wagon farmstead! Lyndsey's journey is one that will inspire you; as a mama of six she educates all of her children at home all while juggling farm chores, an online business, and a homestead. It all started with a leap of faith!

Navigating life's ups and downs with resolute faith can be challenging at times and Lyndsey's story is a testament to the product of that resilience. She shares with us how the strength of scripture, like standing on the promise of Joshua 1:9, encouraged her family's venture into the unknown in a new state where they got their first taste of farming and homeschooling. Within this episode, you'll find a heartfelt, supportive community, how to navigate the challenges of customizing education for each unique child, and the deep satisfaction found in the rhythms of homestead living.

Join us as we explore life lessons on and off the farm, stitched together with humor and wisdom, in a conversation that promises to leave you inspired and perhaps, contemplating your own leap into the heart of homesteading.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go"
- Joshua 1:9

Crazy W8 Country Store: https://crazyw8farm.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crazyw8farm
Featured in Homestead Magazine: https://thehillsidemarket.com/products/spring-edition-24
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CrazyW8Farm

Chapters

• 0:05 Homesteading and Self-Sustainability Journey
• 14:12 Journey of Faith and Homeschooling

Transcript

Cicily: 0:05

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Create a Mountain Mama podcast. I am joined by Lindsay Waite. Thank you so much for joining me, Lindsay.

Lyndsey: 0:15

Thanks for having me.

Cicily: 0:17

Anything new happen. That's kind of silly or funny.

Lyndsey: 0:22

You know we were just talking about funny stories today that have happened on the farm, and one took me way back when we first moved here. So much has changed. But one of my kiddos was only about two years old and we had just gotten kittens and I went out to look for something in the truck and it was dark and he followed me out with a lightsaber. I think he was trying to keep me safe and he was hitting something and saying bad kitty, bad kitty. So of course I popped my head up and he is hitting a skunk in the head. And we were just talking about how farm kids are completely feral. That's just how they are. It didn't keep him, it was just a skunk on the farm and he was going to hit it and protect mom with his lightsaber.

Cicily: 1:10

Oh, and the skunk

Lyndsey: 1:43

You know we were just talking about funny stories today that have happened on the farm, and one took me way back when we first moved here. So much has changed. But one of my kiddos was only about two years old and we had just gotten kittens and I went out to look for something in the truck and it was dark and he followed me out with a lightsaber. I think he was trying to keep me safe and he was hitting something and saying bad kitty, bad kitty. So of course I popped my head up and he is hitting a skunk in the head. And we were just talking about how farm kids are completely feral. That's just how they are.

Cicily: 2:24

It didn't keep him, it was just a skunk on the farm and he was going to hit it and protect mom with his lightsaber. Oh my goodness.

Lyndsey: 2:33

Was the lightsaber a flashlight? No, I mean it lit up. It was just a toy Walmart lightsaber that, yeah, he had lit up and it had sound effects the whole thing. And, yeah, he followed me out in the dark to keep me safe. Oh, and the skunk was a didn't like spray or anything it must have just sprayed, because it didn't do anything and I don't know how that works. But I think if they sprayed, they can't spray again. I don't know.

Cicily: 3:02

I could be without know. Our pediatrician, who's like a country doctor, said there's like civilized and there's feral, and you know you should stay somewhere in between, but how his family always erred on the feral side and I appreciated that coming from a doctor, appreciated that coming from a doctor. I love it so for the listeners. Lindsay talks about the three H's homesteading, homeschooling and homemaking. Can you tell me a little bit about the animals in your homestead?

Lyndsey: 3:36

Absolutely. Actually, right now I'm looking out my window at my two Nubians. They came up to say hello, they are milk goats. We use just two at a time and we try to keep one bread and one knot. And then we breed when we freshen is what they call it. We freshen one goat when the other one is about to dry up, which is about every two years having our fresh goat milk. And then we have chickens and, uh, pyrenees. We love our pyrenees. It's just a great big white, fluffy dog. And then, um, we have had lambs and pigs, but we don't have any of those right now. And we are about to get ducklings, because my kids always want to get the ducklings, so it's fun and are the ducklings usually a spring purchase, like chickens are?

Lyndsey: 4:29

Yeah, we do a lot of them in the spring, and then what we do is we don't care for the eggs, they just have a different taste. They're great for baking and we will raise them up to be adult ducks and then we sell them for a higher price. So you can get a duckling for about $5, and then we'll raise them up and then we'll sell them for about $20 each. So that way we don't have to deal with ducks in the winter and then someone gets to enjoy their eggs.

Cicily: 4:59

Sure, how do you figure out where to sell or who's buying?

Lyndsey: 5:05

On Facebook there's a lot of different homesteading groups or you can do Craigslist. We've done Craigslist the most, so a lot of people turn to Craigslist for farm and garden type products and things like that.

Cicily: 5:19

So well, super accessible. Tell me a little bit about how long you've been homesteading and what your story was, what your background is.

Lyndsey: 5:28

Absolutely so. We started our homesteading journey in 2019 when we had moved from Pagosa Springs, colorado, where I'm from, and we moved to New Mexico and so it was a huge almost culture shock and a very different climate, very different terrain. I'm used to lots of green mountains and we moved to the high desert so I didn't know if we could grow anything here. But we can. We figured that out, we can grow plenty here and we love it. But we started off with chickens right before the pandemic and then we slowly moved into Nigerian goats and that's more of a meat and dairy goat, and that's when I decided I really want milk goats. So we went from Nigerian to milk goats and then we just tried to be self-sustainable and get pigs and lambs and sheep.

Cicily: 6:24

So we just kind of took off and yeah, Was your goal to be self-sustainable more fueled by the pandemic, or was that always a goal?

Lyndsey: 6:35

It was always the goal, I think. When the pandemic hit happened, it just flew us right into its tracks. We just really wanted to jumpstart. It was kind of like having a hobby farm at first, but we bought our chicks before the lockdown and then I said this is crazy, we need to stop relying on the government so much, we need to stop relying on anyone, and we did form a great community here that we can barter and we can trade things. And, um, I think that's really what opened our eyes was the lockdown, not being able to get into stores and um, yeah, having to rely on people for your food.

Cicily: 7:17

So can you go dig into that a little deeper, how? What's your food cycle Like? How do you harvest, how do you grow, how do you repeat that?

Lyndsey: 7:30

Okay, so gardening is huge. Um, before we could garden, we bartered. We bartered with our eggs, which was really neat, because everyone in our area um, we live in a very small town but everyone seems to have really good fruit trees and they have really good gardens here. So before we had our garden, we were constantly bartering to get peaches and fruit and all those things. Then you bring them home and you can, and then, when you can them, keep them for a really long time. And we haven't canned anything from our garden just yet.

Lyndsey: 8:03

We are in our second year of gardening. But what we did is we saved some seeds from last year's garden and we are able to reuse those seeds. We also just get seeds from the store I mean from our food from the store. So we had peppers back in February and my husband was taking all the seeds out of the peppers and planting them, and now we have all these little pepper seedlings. Was taking all the seeds out of the peppers and planting them, and now we have all these little pepper seedlings. And so in the spring we are in the sorry in the late winter we start our seeds, then we plant them in the ground in the spring, grow them all summer and then the fall is when you want to harvest the biggest bounty you can so that you can can them and then start that process over. You can eat from your summer garden all year long and you can can meat as well. So if you have animals, you can harvest your own animals and can their meat, and you can butter.

Cicily: 8:58

Okay, wait, canned meat. I didn't know that was a thing. Is that like a different level of canning technology, like do you have to do something different, or is it just like canning your vegetables?

Lyndsey: 9:12

You definitely want to have like a oh, what's it called? My sister has it, the one that's powerful. Oh, shoot, what's it called? I just have the water bath canner and she has the pressure canner. That's it. Oh, pressure, sure, sure. Yeah, those scare me, but my sister has those. Yeah, those scare me, but my sister has those. Um, and you definitely want that cause you don't want botulism, you don't want spoiled meat, anything like that.

Cicily: 9:36

Okay, so, and in the fridge? Or can you store it on the shelf in a cooler environment? Yep, okay, canning meat, canning vegetables, and then it's any. Anything on your homestead, um, harvestable. Do you harvest your animals at all?

Lyndsey: 9:56

We were going to harvest our pigs and we actually sent them off to a friend and they harvested them for me and then they got a pig. And we got a pig, so we raised two of them and then we just split it if they were to harvest it for us. So we got some meat out of that, um, but we would love to harvest our own chickens and then just split it if they were to harvest it for us. So we got some meat out of that, but we would love to harvest our own chickens and then, yeah, we just right now we don't have any meat animals, we just have them for the dairy.

Cicily: 10:20

Okay, so goats, Nubian goats for the dairy which is better? Milk, and then I heard they're also better around kids.

Lyndsey: 10:29

Yeah, they're super friendly. It's very docile. They come up they're running around right now with my kids and you can scratch their little ears and they play around like dogs. It's pretty fun.

Cicily: 10:42

Is there anything that you do to sell what you make, or is it all just for your family?

Lyndsey: 10:49

So last year we didn't think we would have as much of a crop as we did and we were like we need to figure out what we can do with all this extra. We were just giving it to our animals, but we want to make our land work for us. If we're going to sustain this lifestyle, we need to somehow make money. So we are opening up a farm stand this year. My husband has built it to look like a little covered wagon. It's really cute, yeah. So we're going to open that up, hopefully soon. It's still so windy, but we will be putting our produce out there and hopefully some other homemade goods like breads and jams and whipped honey and things like that.

Cicily: 11:31

Awesome. What are your hours that you're planning? Oh?

Lyndsey: 11:34

we don't know yet, because we don't really live in an area that is easy, accessible and also where, um, I don't know if I should say trustworthy, but uh, people that can just come by and do the honor system. I don't know if we can do that here. So probably like a Saturday or so when my kids aren't doing rodeo, if we're home and we're just out working, just set our stuff out there, well, we can be down there and watch the stand, and then I can want to do the lemonade stands and all that, so they can be down there at the same time.

Cicily: 12:09

I was going to say set up a lemonade stand, do the finance 101 and make it a family ordeal. Oh yeah, how many acres are you guys on? We're on five. Okay, five acres. You're making it work. That's one more acre than we have, and we have basically nothing going on. So that's really impressive.

Lyndsey: 12:30

Well, we just jumped in and it seemed like in one year we weren't doing anything with ours either. So I'm sure you'll get there.

Cicily: 12:36

Oh, wow. So one year from nothing to what you have now, or what did it look like a year ago?

Lyndsey: 12:45

Um, so we had a what we called the farm yard and it's where we literally kept all of our animals because we were just trying to contain them and let the kids just have free range over the rest of the land. And then last year we kind of worked our way down out back, which it was very green and more of like just this flat beautiful land that we used as just my kids' playground. But then we're like, why are we not using this land? And my husband just built this beautiful garden, just went out there and just started designing it and we had this huge beautiful garden and now we're expanding. So now we have two gardens out back and we've put the chicken coop back there, We've moved the goats back there and he just built a shed. He uses everything for free out of pallets and old wood that he finds, and so we don't have the farm yard anymore, we have an actual little setup. So it's looking good, it's going to work, I think.

Cicily: 13:45

And he must have that kind of mind that can just visualize and build with a little else.

Lyndsey: 13:53

Yeah, I found something on Pinterest and he can just go do his own thing and I'm like I want your brain for a day. He's very good at it.

Cicily: 14:03

The pallet would might be free, but you'll have to search ladies for a guy like that. Is there any thing on your hard days, any Bible verses that you turn to or anything that keeps you going?

Lyndsey: 14:20

So as we were moving out here, it was scary and I knew what we wanted. I knew we wanted a farm. I even told my husband because we had prayed about coming here and I did not want to. I cried when I got our answer because I knew the Lord wanted us here and I just bawled. I didn't want to come. But now that we're here I am so grateful that we are. But it was a very scary journey over here. We didn't have a home, we lived in a barn and it was scary. So one of the Bible verses that I always stood by was John, not John, joshua, one nine, and it's um. Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, for the Lord, thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. So I knew that wherever we would be, the Lord would be with us. It didn't matter if we ended up here, where we are now, or somewhere else in the same part of this, this state. I knew the Lord would be with us.

Cicily: 15:18

And you went from where you grew up, where your family is, to where his family is a big leap of faith.

Lyndsey: 15:26

Oh yeah, yeah, it was terrifying, yeah.

Cicily: 15:31

Is there anything about the community you have now, like the rodeo or something else that you've been plugged into, that has just made this move worthwhile something?

Lyndsey: 15:43

else that you've been plugged into that has just made this move worthwhile. I'd have to say it's Jake's family. We live far away enough that we miss them, even though they're only like 30 minutes away. But every time we even think about moving somewhere else, I said no, there's no way we could leave your family and then our own little church family here in our community. It feels like our own family. I mean, everyone lives on little farms or little areas, just right here. We're just a very close-knit community and if you need something, there are five people you can call that will be here in a second, and I, just my kids, have the most wonderful friends. We have wonderful friends and my daughter always says she has a million grandmas here. So it's, it's really fun.

Cicily: 16:32

It must feel like it too, because you have it sounds like a lot of family support plus community, which when you have neighbors, they get really invested in the little ones. Yes, so tell me about homeschooling. How did you start and what was that decision-making process like?

Lyndsey: 16:48

It was the same thing with the pandemic. They were sent home and we were sitting at tables all day, at the kitchen table all day, on Zooms, just hopping on, hopping off. Tears were shed, there was just piles of homework and I said this is not a childhood, this is not fun for them, this is frustrating. And I know I was not doing a very good job because I said, well, you're supposed to get on your Zoom, go listen to your teacher. And I kind of just blocked it out. And then it wasn't that they were teaching anything. That I didn't agree with.

Lyndsey: 17:24

I just was wondering why some of the things were being taught and why other things weren't being taught, and so I kind of just started to flirt with the idea of of homeschooling. And, um, one day we just decided to talk to them about it and they begged us. It was just my two older ones were in elementary school and then my third oldest was in preschool at the time and he has special needs, and so I knew he was just going to get lost. He was just going to be another number and I wanted to help him. So I'd already thought about homeschooling him and we talked to the older two and they just begged please, please, please. And they have great friends and they loved their teachers.

Lyndsey: 18:09

I love their teachers still, but they wanted to be home and I saw another mom I think it was on her blog or maybe her Instagram but she said you wouldn't just give your keys to someone or your social security number, so why are you giving your children to someone to when they're the most impressionable? And I could not let that go. I was like that is so true. I need to be teaching them what I think is important, and of course that's. There's a saying going around of I'd rather my kids go to heaven than Harvard, and that's another one that stuck with me is I want them just to be good people and follow Christ and not the way of the world. So we're kind of going backwards and so far we love it, my kids really love it, and I love it. It's hard but it's good.

Cicily: 19:03

Sure, what does the day in the life look like? What's your schedule?

Lyndsey: 19:09

So each kid has their own schedule. So my older two are a little bit on the same schedules. They have Mondays and Wednesdays in the morning from eight to noon they do their schoolwork and most of it they can do about 90% on their own, and then when Tuesdays and Thursdays they have different things. I have two kids in therapy so we use those as school days for them and that's on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well. But when they're home and we're all schooling, I school the older kids first and then I school the two younger ones, and then the toddler she's almost three really wants to be in school.

Lyndsey: 19:51

So she has her own little time with mom where she thinks she's in school and she pretty much is. And then we have the baby that just kind of hangs out with everybody, but someday he is, he's the lesson where he's just kind of being an animal and I say you know what the baby is our lesson for right now? So if we try to get done by noon by by lunchtime, because I think the rest of the day they can learn life skills or they can just help out on the farm or in the kitchen and work on a new skill. My oldest is learning piano and wood carving. My second oldest. She's already running her own business and she's 10. So we do a lot but it's good.

Cicily: 20:41

It sounds like you just get more than you could possibly plan for in a curriculum. That being said, is there a curriculum that you like to use, or do you use several?

Lyndsey: 20:52

We use several. When I was pregnant with my six, I knew I was going to need a little help, so we switched to an online school called Mia Academy for the older two. But I really love the good and the beautiful and I know that's a very popular curriculum. Um, and then we also just supplement. If I find something online um, especially freebies I love freebies I just go and print it out and we'll take it outside or we'll do book reports together. Um, I'll make up my own units. Sometimes the kids loved in the fall we did like a Harry Potter unit and we made the butter beer and we did the Hogwarts letter and they got accepted to school. You know things like that.

Lyndsey: 21:36

Yeah, so we'll do things like that, but for the most part it's Mia Academy and the Good and Beautiful.

Cicily: 21:45

And Hogwarts, which is every kid's dream, so I'm glad you got to make that their reality.

Lyndsey: 21:50

It was really fun.

Cicily: 21:51

I don't know if I enjoyed it more or they did Is there anything that you want to mention to listeners on how to find you or any website that they can check out?

Lyndsey: 22:04

Yeah, so I am on Instagram and on TikTok is my biggest platform, but I'm kind of leaning away from that. I feel like I've found more of my community on Instagram. I'm at crazy weight farm and weight is W8. So that's kind of our little logo. But I also have a online store. If you want to check it out, it's crazy weight country storecom and that's where you can find me. I'm trying to get YouTube up and going, but it's been. It's been a process. We'll get there.

Cicily: 22:36

You have six curriculums that you're jungling, curriculums that you're jungling and I will say she does have a beautiful online store. One of my favorite shirts she carries that I keep thinking about is Raising Readers and it has a nice little floral design. Check it out and get something to support this awesome mama. Thank you so much, lindsay. I appreciate your time.

Lyndsey: 23:01

Thank you so much.