What We're All About
What is Joyful Harvest Homestead all about, you may ask? It’s a good question but it’s a complicated
answer. I suppose I could sum it up by saying we are about living life as close to nature as possible; it’s
about taking care of our animals and our environment as best we can because we depend on the health
of both those things for our own personal health. But it’s also about an idea that was planted in my
head years and years ago when I was a young girl growing up in a big city. I always thought it would be
so wonderful to live in the country and have animals and never put my bare foot on hot pavement
again.
Our farm is the biggest and best classroom I’ve ever been in and my teachers are the animals and the
wonderful fellow homesteaders around me. My goal is to provide all the critters in my care a healthy
and safe environment in which to thrive. If I can do that then I’m not only helping them but also all the
folks that purchase the eggs I gather each day and the chicks and turkey poults that I hatch and sell. It’s
a responsibility that I take seriously. I endeavor to provide the healthiest eggs and poultry that I can
because I understand that these products will one day make it onto your table and that is my singular
focus.
ABOUT LIL 'OLE ME...
It all started with chickens…
Isn’t it funny how we don’t like talking about ourselves? Someone can ask me about my family, my animals or my farm and soon they’ll regret it because I don’t know when to stop! However, as soon as they ask about me, I get all awkward! But for you, I’ll give it a try…
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I grew up in a big city, born and bred. Looking back on it I can say I was happy but not content. I was always looking for something. Something to DO, something to BUY, something to SEE, something to GET. Life took some very unscheduled detours and long story short, we packed up our lives and relocated to my husband’s family’s farm in the beautiful Alberta Badlands. Oh, what a place. I have never looked back. All this space, everywhere I look there is beauty. One day I looked at my husband and said, “Can we get chickens?”. Aaaaaaand we’re OFF! That was the spring of 2018. 2 weeks later I had 6 Isa Brown hens on order and I had rallied the troops to revamp an old grain bin on the farm into a chicken coop.
Almost three years later we have quite an animal family now. 36 chickens, 10 turkeys, 3 horses and 3 mini donkeys (and another little one on the way this spring). Every day, even the hard ones, I wake up with peace and joy in my heart.
I finally found it. You know that thing I was always searching for. I found it in the middle of the Alberta prairie in the heart of the badlands, the eyes of my husband and the lay of the land. Home.