Welcome to the Farm
A large garden and orchard, chickens, lambs, and a huge Do-It-Yourself farmhouse build keep our hands busy, our tummies filled, and our hearts humbled. Life on our hobby farm is wonderfully messy.
I grew up in Southern Indiana and loved spending my summers picking sweet sun-ripened strawberries straight from our home garden, playing in the creek, and collecting fresh still-warm eggs. My mama taught me how to can, make bread, and to enjoy the simple pleasure that country life brings. Now that I’m married with 5 little ones of my own, we’ve chosen a country life so that we could give our children similar experiences. Bless this Mess is not just about food, we are also a hobby farm blog, we love to share life on our hobby farm and the joys of growing our own food!
Building our own farmhouse, with our own two hands
Farmhouse Building Posts
Our biggest farm project has been building our dream farmhouse with our own hands for the last 16 months! We hope to move into our home at the end of 2017 (after 2 full years of DIY building). You guys, we are building our own house! Not just organizing the labor, but spending every moment we can putting our dreams into action one day at a time. It’s been the hardest most rewarding thing we’ve ever set out to do.
January 2016 we broke ground.
And April 2017 we have part of a house!
Cheer us on as we race to the finish and try to move in my Christmas 2017. You can see all of my house building updates here:
Drywall, Drinking Fountain Drama, and More: House Updated (June 2017)
Have you ever wondered how to build a farmhouse? This is how we are building our own farmhouse in beautiful...
DIY House Up Date + a Video (April 2017)
It’s time for a house update and spoiler alert: there’s a video to go with it! My brother made this...
House Building Update: Energy Efficient Windows + Mud (January 2017)
An update on our house build, our plans for a more “green” house, and our energy efficient windows. And lots...
House update: Framing (October 2016)
It’s been way too long since I updated you on the house. This project – oh, this project. We are...
Bless this Mess Builds: House Update (July 2016)
In February I shared a little update on finally starting to build our house! When I say “we are building...
The time I got teary-eyed picking up trash…
Yesterday was one of those days that just felt good. The weather was nice, the kids spent the morning watching Princess Sophia...
Gardening and Animal Posts
10 Things I Wish I Would have Known Before Getting Chicks
Spring has sprung and like me, many of you are thinking about or already investing in CHICKS!!! This is my...
Prepping the Chickens for Winter + a video
We spent the bulk of a Saturday in the garden preparing the chickens for winter. We normally move their coop and run...
Farm, Chicken, and Garden Tour: September
The last time I showed you my garden it was so very young. I can’t believe how quickly it all...
I figured it was high time to get a little garden update going for you! The garden is growing like...
That one time we hatched our own chicks…
I’ve mentioned a few times that I was incubating eggs from some of my hens, well folk, this weekend was...
10 Ways to Make Spring Magical for Kids
Spring break vacation pictures of families at the beach or at Disneyland were really getting me down this week. We...
Preserving the Harvest
How to Make Homemade Cherry Juice with a Steam Juicer
Quick and easy tutorial on how to make homemade cherry juice with a steam juicer. We love homemade cherry juice...
How to Save Fresh Herbs: Herb Bombs
You are going to love this simple handy trick that will teach you the best and easiest way to preserve...
Welcome to day two of Handmade Holiday 2015. Cassie from Wholefully and I are sharing simple handmade gifts all week long...
8 Ways To Use and Store Melons
Melon season is just around the corner and I’m sharing 8 Ways To Use and Store Melons. Melons come in all...
Spring has sprung in lots of locations and if you are like me, you are thinking about all the delicious...
How to Test the Freshness of an Egg
Eggs are a really interesting topic to me right now and I thought I would share some egg tips and...