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VanDerhoff Homestead

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United States
Rutledge, TN
VanDerhoff Homestead

Ethically raised & respectfully treated animals are the focus on our small East Tennessee homestead

07/13/2024

Happy foggy morning on the homestead

It was a particularly peaceful morning walking around the homestead. The birds were singing as the fog was lifting, and the air was still cool on my face. There is always so much to be done that it can be hard to find the time to enjoy simple moments like these.

05/31/2024

Hard wood floors refinished!

With Skylar 7.5 months pregnant, we decided that it was the perfect time to rip up the carpet and refinish the hardwood floors in our three bedrooms.

Initially we were just planning on doing the room that will be the nursery, but quickly changed plans to do all of the rooms. This was mostly decided by the person who was not doing all of the work, though she did help pull hundreds of staples.

It was a long tedious job that was tough on this 33 year old body, but the result is well worth all of the effort. The floors look and feel great, and the air seems fresher. Next will be the living room, but not right now.

03/23/2024

Before this room can become a nursery 👩‍🍼 it’s going to be a nursery 🌻

I wasn’t watching my email and we received a surprise package last night. Our berry plants arrived and we weren’t quite ready for them yet. The room we are planing on fixing up for the baby is the sunniest room in the house so it makes sense to put the plants there. The crib was already on the bed waiting for us to clear out the room to get it set up. It now gets to serve as a place for the new plants to sit!

We picked out blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries(to arrive in a few weeks) with help from

Below is the link with information on cultivars that worked our our region. At the bottom there is a link for a google doc with info for different growers!

https://utia.tennessee.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/269/2023/10/W895B.pdf

01/27/2024

Caribbean Vacation

We had a great cruise with stops in Haiti and Jamaica! Although we were there for work related lectures, we had time to enjoy ourselves and get some much needed relaxation.

It was so nice to be in the Caribbean sun instead of the wintery Tennessee tundra that we left!

12/21/2023

We are excited to announce that our homestead will be getting a new addition in 2024!

This addition will take far more attention, work, and money than all of our other farming ventures combined, but one day (if we do it right) this addition will actually help with the farm work. At the same time we are elated and terrified. We are joyful and worried. There are so many unknowns on the horizon that are scary, but most of all, we are so excited for this next chapter of life.

Most of you have likely figured out what we have been eluding to by this point, but to eliminate any doubt… we are in fact pregnant and expecting a child in 2024! We are anxiously awaiting this blessing to our lives.

#2024

12/02/2023

Last blooms of the season

We have had several frosts already this season, but this rose bush has continued to flower. Everything else on the homestead has stopped growing and is ready for winter. The trees have dropped all of their leaves, the grass hasn't grown in several weeks, the chickens have dramatically decreased their egg production. But the rose bush has been determined to keep producing its colorful flowers. It must be close enough to the house that it's been protected from the cold so far.

As excited as we are for spring with all of the plans that we have, we are ready for the downtime that winter brings. There's always work to be done on the homestead, but winter brings a bit of rest from the farm work.

11/30/2023

Feeding Time

When the feeders are refilled everyone gathers around to get their share.

Chickens are always hungry, but when their feeders are nearly empty I don't even need to look in the feeder, the behavior of the chickens changes.

We have only had chickens for three years, but we have learned so much in this time. One of the things that I have learned is to monitor their behavior for any changes. In this case, when their feeders are running low they get much more clingy and run after us hoping that we will drop snacks. When they get like this I don't even look in the feeder, I just grab a bag of food to fill it up. Chickens teach you to be more present and observant, they make you slow down if only for a moment.

These King feeders from Premier One make keeping them well fed much easier. It really cuts down on our daily chore time.

11/22/2023

Homestead Fast Food

One of the things that we are trying to be better about is eating out less often. We love to cook at home and we almost always end up creating something more delicious and nutritious than we would get at a restaurant. However, it can be so time consuming to actually cook at home.

On busy days it can be so much easier to just run to a restaurant. You don't have to thaw anything out or do any dishes. You just order what you want and it's brought to you. It is a well deserved break that for us can easily become a habit.

These grilled chicken tenderloins are an attempt to help us get closer to achieving the goal of eating out less often. They are minimally seasoned so that they can be made into a different recipe, but they are seasoned enough to just eat plain. This week we used them to make chicken salad for our lunches, and it turned out great.

We vacuum sealed them into convenient sized packs and froze them for future use. So if we have a busy day, these can be thawed out quickly to make an easy meal. We look forward to doing more meal prep ideas in the future.

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Rutledge
Rutledge, TN
37861

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