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Chasing Hope Farm, White Hall Road, White Hall, MD (2026)

05/08/2024

About a month ago I started making my family bread for their lunches. It’s a simple Mennonite recipe. It doesn’t last on the shelf for weeks, bread isn’t supposed to after all. Its made with just a couple ingredients. It’s something that has become very important to me. Maybe because of the health benefits, maybe because I save a tiny bit of money, maybe it’s because dad packs lunches and this is my contribution….maybe it’s because making bread is a labor of love. I really don’t know the why, but I know it fills my heart with joy and my family enjoys it.
So each Tuesday (or sometimes Sunday) I make 2 loaves of fresh bread.

05/08/2024

Baby bunny in the goat shed! That would explain why I’ve been seeing a bunny in the paddock!

05/08/2024

This popped up in the memories of my personal page, I wrote it four years ago. In May of 2003 my life forever changed. He was not only my second chance but he gave me hope. I truly owe him all I have today.

“I don’t remember the day I met him, except it was May of 2003, therefore I always remember him fondly in May. I don’t know what possessed me to get a horse. Perhaps it was the battle with what was potentially a terminal disease that lead to the “bucket list” decision. I had grande visions of developing my riding skills on a gentle giant and riding off into the sunset. I met Easter and fell in love with his puppy dog demeanor, two weeks later he was mine. Our first day was spent with me dodging kicks. The vet came out that first week and was horrified by his crippled legs. “Light” riding was okay; there would be no galloping off into the sunset though and he needed expensive orthopedic shoes. I was urged to return him to the “rescue”; this horse had no value, was likely older than I was told, would cost a fortune to maintain and had a slew of behavior issues. I was young and stubborn....and I had fallen in love. I renamed him Chance determined to give him a second chance at life. Turns out I got mine too. He taught me so much; how to hang on for dear life while he reared at the entrance to the trail, how to master an emergency dismount as he would drift off to sleep mid-ride (narcoleptic). He taught me that sometimes the relationship with our horse goes far beyond the saddle, which was especially valuable when he was “retired” 2 short years after I adopted him. He taught me how to proficiently groom and fight rain rot. He taught me to love riding ba****ck. He taught me what commitment means. There were times when I was scrapping together the money for his board, farrier and vet bills. When babies entered the equation I sure didn’t have the time for him. But what lies ahead for an ancient, crippled horse who costs as much as the electric bill to feed? Nothing good and I owed him everything....everything. I made sure he was boarded at facilities where he would be cared for as I would care for him if I could. At the end he taught me to look for the fighting spirit in my animals, not to give up on them yet know when it is time to let go. I only regret that I never made good on my promise to bring him home.
That fateful moment in May of 2003 I said “yes” to a rescued horse, I never imagined all that would unfold. Four months later my health was restored and my marriage pieced back together. All my happiness today I owe to him; My Handsome Boy. 💕”

05/07/2024

It’s the time of year that my husband loves the most. When all the “things” that belong outside move outside! All of my starts are hardening off on my screen porch, ready to go into the ground Sunday (☔️ or☀️). The 🐣 are all fully feathered and all 8 moved out into the grow out coop tonight! We add 4 more garden beds this weekend, get 6 berry bushes into the ground, move a huge pile of wood chips to give us a nice path around the new beds and as always sit back, say a 🙏 and hope our hard work and planning pays off. We are hoping to have enough produce to sell this year 🤞

As I try to get into a rhythm of making this way of life that I am calling modern homesteading work for us I am finding it best to focus my efforts from Spring - Fall on produce and preserving and Fall - Spring on writing, soap making and pet accessories….and maybe one day I’ll turn a profit and this will be more than just a hobby farm.

04/15/2024

Over the weekend I found myself deep in thought over economics, The American Dream, my children and their futures and my tiny farm. It’s been on my heart to combine Chading Hope Farm and Blissful Bella into one. This morning I posted the post below on my personal page and it got my wheels tuning. While I will be selling goods grown and made here to support my animals in the near future I am also going to share some of the tips to how we save money; as a family of 5 who also support animals who needed a second chance on the tiniest of farms. In the near future this page will phase out, Blissful Bella will get a new name and I will combine posts there. Until then look forward to the occasional posts as we continue Chasing Hope.

Chasing The American Dream and today’s young people are often a conversation among those who are “on the other side” of just starting out, raising a family and commitments to their children.
I saw a variation of the pic below shared this morning and really thought it was propaganda, so I did my own research. I was disheartened by what I found. The pic below is part of an article found here: https://smartasset.com/data-studies/salary-needed-live-comfortably-2024 Well, that’s just one source’s data, right? Not according to Living Wage. In the following article https://livingwage.mit.edu/states/24 it is found that for two working adults with 3 children the living wage in Maryland is $142,188. That’s the living wage, not the living comfortably wage. Do you know what that number was in 2018? Specific to Harford County? $89,496 (based on a family of 4).
Hysterically, ZipRecruiter thinks $16/hour or $33,280 a year is a comfortable salary in Maryland. Not sure where they get their data from given the average rent is $1,400 - $1,800/mo in Maryland. Interestingly, the median home price in Maryland (based on a variety of sources) is just over $400,000. The average salary in Maryland (again based on several sources) is around $69,000. From there do the math. Home ownership for most young people is out of reach. And with it so is the American Dream. It’s not that they don’t want to chase what those that went before them did or that they are “lazy” or “unmotivated”, it’s simply that the numbers in 2024 don’t work. Young adults whom I talk to are working 2 and 3 jobs in the persuit of what just 6 short years ago could be accomplished with 1.
I have said over and over that I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know it is a real problem. I feel for the youth of today. Political agendas and affiliations aside our country should be run by those who know the cost of a gallon of milk, or a gallon of gas and how that number impacts a family’s budget. Not by those who are so far removed from the reality of those they are “serving”.
Okay, enough depressing numbers to start a Monday. Here’s to hopeful thoughts for a great week, and hoping in time things work themselves out in our country and the American Dream will once again be attainable.

11/09/2023

In 2018 I embarked on a journey of complete trust and faith, like I had never had before to chase a dream no one could see but me. Amazingly my family supported me in this adventure. We sold and gave away many of our belongings and put the rest in storage. We stepped back in time and moved into a rented historic home filled with history and that I felt a deep connection to. Life seemed magical. There is something unspoken and beautiful about having trust in what you feel is God’s plan for you, taking the leap and knowing He has caught you. LIving a story that seemed to be written for you; complete trust and surrender.
My dream focused around rescue, rehabilitation, training, providing sanctuary and education. The sanctuary was supposed to fund itself; never being a burden on my family. In 2019 we walked away, in having the opportunity to purchase the historic home we knew realistically we would have to choose between restoring a magnificent home that had been standing for 200 years and rescuing animals; we couldn’t do both. It’s been four years since we moved onto the tiniest of farmettes. It has been an incredibly hard journey and I have never felt as far away from what I set out to do as I do today. My sanctuary does not pay for itself, I have no opportunity to earn any income to cover its cost and the truth is it has been an incredible burden on my family which was never my intent.
Today it’s me who so desperately needs Hope, restored Faith and is praying I can see the path once again that I felt so strongly I was supposed to take to help these animals.
Here’s a small glimpse of my walk down memory lane this morning; just a snippet of the animals that have come through our home over the past 5 years. I know I am missing many. Some needed permanent sanctuary and stayed, some went on to new homes and some were simply given all the love I could pour into them for the short time they had left on this Earth.

08/02/2023

Zorro, the youngest in our pack, was being a bit “extra” on the trail this morning. “Put him in a down” Emma calmly instructed. We waited and each time he got up he sprung back into bad behavior, so back to a down he went. “How long are we going to stand here?” I asked Emma. “As long as it takes for him to relax” was her reply. This girl. How did I get so lucky to be her momma?

04/20/2023

And so begins the process of hardening off my veggie plants and flowers. Each day I assess what is ready to move out from my little indoor greenhouse. Tonight we’ll pot up some additional marigolds that I started and a Red Bud tree that my daughter brought home from school.
This is a long process and labor of love. It’s also been a tremendous learning experience. What worked at my old house, in my old garden doesn’t always work here. And sometimes what worked last year doesn’t work this year. It looks like I will need to purchase dill, mint and eggplant from a nursery but everything else is doing amazing!
Working in the garden, growing my own food, seeing quite literally the fruits of my labor is good for my soul. There’s nothing quite like sitting down to the dinner table and thinking “I grew all of this!”. Also, for those who may not know I have several autoimmune diseases. Eating healthy is such an important piece of the puzzle for my health.
I hope to share as much “real life homesteading” as I can. We have just under 5 acres, but much of that is wooded. Our property is pretty hilly. In addition to the animals who we care for, essentially in “sanctuary” (our horses, goats, dogs who were not placeable, and special needs cats) we also have a small flock of hens who provide eggs and we use our property to the best of our ability to provide food for our family.

04/09/2023

We’re going from last year’s 4 raised beds and 2 troughs to 6 raised beds and 3 troughs. My husband’s working by the light of headlights dancing across the yard tonight. If all continues to grow as it should I will have over 100 veggie plants and flowers to plant!

Veggies will include: 2 varieties of lettuce, 3 varieties of peppers, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, 4 varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, patty pan squash, butternut squash, pole beans and pumpkin.

Herbs will include: cilantro, peppermint, spearmint, parsley, basil and dill (for the pickles of course!).

With all of our hills here and without proper equipment it’s quite the task and labor of love to put these raised beds in. I’m a lucky girl! Our daughter has been an amazing help to her dad today.

We have a small 3 row greenhouse that we use indoors Hoping to add a second next year. Additional grow lights arrived today for the trays I had in front of the window. We are also putting a small fan inside the little greenhouse. The trays will move to a new location where the cats can’t disturb them!

The plan for next year is to add 3 gardens that sea half the width for berry bushes and one last full size for strawberries. Long term plan: greenhouse!

03/30/2023

2023 has been an interesting year. I hit my lowest low as we closed out 2022. It was a place I had never been before. The truth is no one around me knew I was there. There was no life preserver thrown in my direction by any human. There is something to be said about hitting rock bottom, there’s only one place to go. Well, perhaps there are two, I’m grateful I am here now, on the other side slowly remembering who I once was.
We started 2023 attending a new church. My faith is important to me. It had been years since we attended a church and I struggled with that. When I started questioning the values my children were learning it was time to leave. I believe in a God of kindness, compassion and grace. The new church has been an amazingly good fit.
There was a Sunday I sat in Church and thought “use me God”. Over the course of the day that thought worked it’s way into my head more times than I could count. That Tuesday I was texted about a puppy, she was a bit too much for the human who had purchased her. I offered to give her a try with my pack, it became evident she would likely never be content solo. She was adopted by a grieving family who had another dog. I so wanted to keep her, to me she was the definition of perfection, but along came an emergency rescue. A 6 week old puppy. I knew keeping her would mean I really would need to put a stop to fostering. I couldn’t keep them all.
That day God threw my a life preserver. A reminder that I am needed. That my gifts and talents can be put to good use.
I once had cloudy goals for Chasing Hope. I wasn’t sure how to execute them. And I had gotten so close to the big farm of my dreams and had to walk away (honestly I struggled with my faith at that juncture). I have reflected on how beautiful of a journey this has been for my family. How helping these animals has made each of us better; we’ve lived a life that mirrored the kindness, compassion and grace that I believe so strongly in.
My goals are becoming more solid and I hope that in the near future we will be be in a position where what was once only a dream can become a reality. A sanctuary to benefit the animals and humans; a life preserver. My why.

03/30/2023

I started my morning today laying my head on my sweet girl’s back as the warm sun danced on her silky hair. Charley has been such a wonderful addition to our family these past two years 💗

Chasing Hope Farm

05/08/2024

05/08/2024

05/08/2024

05/07/2024

04/15/2024

11/09/2023

08/02/2023

04/20/2023

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03/30/2023

03/30/2023

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