Recap The Second Half 2024

Why Farmer Katy Has Been MIA

I feel with all homesteaders, sometimes we’re so busy on the homestead that we don’t have time for the digital world. It may seem as though we are missing in action but the action is actually happing too fast to write about! That being said, I’m going to bring you up to speed all of the amazing things we’ve completed at Healing Homestead from August to December of 2024. Don’t forget, as of January 23, 2025 @FarmerKaty is still posting daily videos!

Major Excavation Work

In August I felt God pushing me to complete some of the MANY open projects and my homestead dreams. One of which, was a real driveway and not the old logging road. A huge thank you to Daniel Kilpatrick of DMK Excavating and Farms. They signed up for a driveway and bulldozing pathways for fencing. I don’t think either of us realized how much I actually needed done.
It took a little over two months to complete my honey do list:

• Grading a 10 foot easement on each side of the driveway.
• Removed damaged trees from when the land was clear cut.
• Shifting the old driveway over so the driveway would drain properly.
• Installing four drainage tiles (culverts).
• Clearing the perimeter of the property line so we could run fences.
• Clearing additional pathways for fencing.
• Clearing pathways to drive our tractor throughout the property.
• Building a sheep pond.
• Building a large cow pond.
• Building a small cow pond.
• A swale to direct the rainwater to the lily pad pond.
• A massive French drains on the north side of the house to direct rain water.
• Changing grade near the house for water management.
• Excavating 40 loads of topsoil for final grade around the house.
• Excavating two loads of topsoil for the hoop house.
• Excavating a load of topsoil for the apple orchard.
• Burying the bottom have of the grain bin.
• Three loads of gravel around the barn and muddy areas.
• 20 loads of crush and run on the driveway.
• Prepared an area for additional apple trees.
• Prepared an area for nut trees.

The Cows Before The Fence

We got another batch of Pineywoods cattle from my breeder Jody Reyer of Reyer Farms! A baby calf takes a year and a half to two years before it’s big enough to process. We calculated our annual beef needs and realized that we would eat four Pineywoods steer per year. Pineywoods are much smaller than Angus. So of course I got my Pineywoods before we had another pasture fenced in. We’ve been working on fencing since November. We’re learning that in addition to the ground being very hard, there are also a lot of rocks. The rocks have sheared a metal T-post. but we moved the Pineywoods cows into the new pasture before Christmas!

Retaining Rainwater With Ponds

Ponds are a great way to capture rainwater. We learned the hard way that we do not like hoofing five gallon buckets of water to animals when they are too far away for the hose to reach. We had DMK Excavation & Farms build three new ponds for the animals. Two ponds are inside of the new Pineywoods cow pasture. One pond is for the dairy sheep. We still need to expand their fences to include their new pond. They also created a swale to redirect water to the lily pad pond and the ducks and geese love playing in it.

The Honey Do List Is Shrinking

It sure feels good to check some major projects off the homestead honey do list! Ever since I got the Pineywoods cows in 2022, I knew they would require a special squeeze chute to accommodate their horns. We built a custom corral and squeeze chute under the lean to portion of the barn.  I finally felt safe enough to start milking the Pineywoods. Pineywoods are a tri purpose heritage breed: milk, meat, and oxen. Learn more here: Pineywoods Cattle Registry & Breeders Association. The first week was terrifying but I now feel comfortable milking Daisy Rose and Magnolia. Heather kicks and I decided just to turn her out to pasture to have babies and look beautiful.
We also closed the loop with the water left over from sprouting the animal feed. We assembled four rain barrels for this “fertilizer” water. We ran a hose from the barrels into the hoop house. Right now it’s gravity fed but in the spring, I’ll hook up the water pump because there wasn’t really enough pressure to water the vegetable garden.

The Garden Is Producing

For some reason the garden is the most neglected when it comes to my time. I know it requires at least a half hour to an hour when I normally have five or ten minutes to spare. With that being said, I was thrilled to have such a bumper crop of tomatoes and cucumbers! It was just the motivation I needed to keep planting and weeding when I had a little spare time to plant the winter garden. Sara Miller of Small Wonders Garden Farm helped me plant four different types of lettuce, purple top turnips, kohlrabi, beets, cauliflower, and other cold hardy plants.

Homesteader’s Alliance Of Lawrence County, TN

I just LOVE the homesteading community that God gathered here in Lawrence County! It’s amazing how many people from across this Nation He’s brought together in southern, Middle Tennessee. Make sure to join our Facebook group: Homesteader’s Alliance Lawrence County TN.
Our August presenter was Kourtney Austin who former the Homesteader’s Alliance of Tennessee. She taught us the benefits of Fire Cider and we all made our custom blend. In September we had a wonderful talk with our State Representative, Kip Capley. We expressed what was and what wasn’t important to us as homesteaders. Nakeshia Thrash saved the day for October. She taught us so much about how to milk different animals and the differences in the milking equipment. We also made cheese out of Clabbered Milk.

November was the much anticipated class on how to make tincture bases. My Dad did an awesome job walking up through the process start to finish. We actually met up twice in November. My Mom had a great idea of opening up Healing Homestead to anyone that wanted to join us for a Thanksgiving potluck. We finished 2025 with a Christmas potluck and we made Sugar Scrub and Beard Balm to give as gifts.