Hopewell Heights

Sometimes I run out of eggs, milk, or meat of my own and have to buy it at the store.

I usually buy “organic” - but guess what? It’s nowhere near comparable to what we raise and buy locally.

Even the $5/dozen “organic, free range” eggs have thin, pale yellow yolks. That tells me, those chickens probably never see the light of day or anything green or living.

You see - the yolks from truly free, naturally raised chickens should be deep, rich yellow...orange almost.

You can’t even get that at Whole Foods. So don’t think - just because something costs more and comes from a trendy health food store, it’s the best. 🙅🏻‍♀️

I get asked a lot - “are young living oils organic?”

Nope, they are not! And for the same reasons I will never label anything I raise on my farm “organic.”

The word has become so watered down and...well, contaminated with exceptions to the truly natural and pure - that it’s honestly pretty useless.

YL oils and products are far superior to being simply “organic.”

Yes, Whole Foods and other brands may label their oils “organic.”

But that leaves a lot of room for “acceptable levels of contamination”, dilution, re-distillation, improper/untimely harvesting, etc.

YL owns and partners with all of their farms. And they encourage all members to visit both farms and distilleries. Total transparency.

They even offer all expenses paid trips for qualifying leaders to visit farms around the world. I’ll be qualifying for the 2021 trip to the Lavender Farm in Utah this month & my goal is to help several of my leaders qualify over the next few months too! 🙌🏻

From the outside looking in, it can seem kind of crazy how anyone could be so passionate about an essential oil & wellness company.

BUT, when you think about it in terms of farming and quality...it’s a rare gift to be able to find a trusted source for things like meat, eggs, and dairy, and when you do - you’re generally loyal for life and place great value on the product you’re bringing into your home!

That’s what we have with YL for pretty much all household + wellness needs and why we are so passionate about sharing ☺️

Einkorn Peach Fritters with Bourbon Maple Glaze - Hopewell Heights

A twist on one of my faves from a little local bakery – peach fritters. Fresh peaches + einkorn + the glaze + vanilla ice cream = very good and a great way to get a head start on my winter bod! 🍑

Welcome to my kitchen - I hope you enjoy!

Pin for Later: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/217580225736238413/

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopewellheights/

hopewellheightsblog.com These einkorn peach fritters are so simple and quick to make, and go perfectly with a bowl of vanilla ice cream! The bourbon maple glaze is the perfect addi

Sunny & I had our own little photo shoot last Sunday before church 💕⠀
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May 31st - the last day of the month. We had a big breakfast, did morning chores, went to church, had lunch and went swimming at my parents, then went to a birthday party.⠀
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It was such a fun & full day ❤️⠀
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Also, through it all, in little 5 minute intervals - I’d hop on my phone to check in with my team because we were SO close to a big goal!⠀
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And we did it, we ranked Silver in May! 👏🏼🌿⠀
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Which means absolutely nothing to most of you 🤣 But to me, that is an extra $5,000+ added to our monthly income, and that we will be able to put toward debt! 🙏🏼 ⠀
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The average Silver income is more like $1,200/month - but we crushed it, AND ya girl knows how to structure and utilize a spouse account to grow 2 yl businesses at once, with one profiting off the other 💁🏻‍♀️😉⠀
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If you’re new here - hi! 👋🏼 I’ve been a young living member for over a year and totally detoxed our home + homestead with yl, but just started consistently sharing & building a few months ago. ⠀
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I now lead a team of 150 families who are learning better, more natural ways to stay healthy & love toxin free 🙌🏼⠀
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This has been an answer to my prayers for purposeful work where I can help people, and build a more flexible income at the same time! Because I know I’m not called to do night shifts at the bedside forever 😜 👩🏻‍⚕️ ⠀
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If you’re even the slightest bit curious, and can get down with natural wellness - just grab a starter kit which comes with a free affiliate link & get started! 💃🏻 You don’t have to know anything about the business or even oils. Ill teach you all that! ⠀
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Do you have WiFi, work ethic, and the will to grow & help people? - that’s all it takes! ⠀
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If something new is callin your name, swipe forward & check out what’s possible in the world of wellness & oils 💕🌿

Pigs & birds CAN get along! 🐖 🐓 🦆

I get asked a lot if we have problems with the pigs going after the chickens, ducks, and turkeys.

None yet! But these pigs were introduced to birds at a very young age. Most of the stories I hear about pigs eating birds happens when they’re introduced as adults. Not saying this is a hard and fast rule though. Just something I’ve noticed.

There are actually some major benefits to raising pigs with birds!

🐓🐖parasite control = healthier animals
🐖🦊 pigs deter predators
🐓🦆 saved space & better utilized pasture

I don’t know what our long term setup will be - but I hope to transition into raising KuneKunes on pasture and in that case, we will always run birds with our pigs! Even for now, this is working really well so we will stick with it 🐷

Have you heard lots of crazy stories about pigs eating chickens or that you can’t do it this way?

I do not understand how you feel but I love you and stand with you and for you against any and all who would justify evil in your name. ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿✊🏼✊🏻

**kgeorgesoros

Really ma?!? While I’m eating?? 🐐 ⠀
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Happy Meet my Goat Monday from my all time fave - my Sophie girl 💕⠀
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She’s currently about 2 months pregnant with Sylvester’s baby(ies)?!?⠀
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And I can’t wait to have some pretty little spotted Nubian babies on the farm later this summer! 😍⠀
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Just from my limited experience- I prefer milking a larger goat for sure 🐐 Their longer legs and t***s just make for easier milking - so looking forward to that too!⠀

Tagging some goat ladies to play along! 🐐
.freckled.herd how’s goat life today?!

Enjoy your week friends & make it a good one! ✨

Boys, I love you so much & am so grateful you cooperate with my Sunday morning family photos - but getting you to smile properly tho 🤷🏻‍♀️💕 ⠀
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Have a great Sunday friends! 🌿

The very last little sliver of a sd cinnamon roll, hot vanilla lemongrass tea steeping in my great grandmothers teacup, & little fingers creeping to ask for a bite 🌿 What magical mornings at home are made of 💕⠀
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Ive never been much of a tea person - and coffee will probably always be my numba one love ☕️ , but I’m really digging this tea too as I feel mornings aren’t complete without a cup of something warm! 🤷🏻‍♀️ Which are you?? Coffee or tea? 🍵

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Guess who is looooving all this rain and the mud ponds the pigs rooted up?! 🐥 🐷 ⠀
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The boys wanted to make videos of the animals with my phone this morning (which turned out precious & hilarious) and snapped quite the duckling gallery in the process. these sweet boys sure do love their animals 🥰

A lost tooth, a seventh birthday, and my baby learning to ride without training wheels....all within a weeks time 😭😍😢☺️⠀
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The emotional roller coaster called 🍃⠀
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My sister is over today with baby Coen & we’ve already strolled the farm, played with the goats, done chores, rounded the meat birds up after they decided to go back to their original pasture, and now drinking coffee, making breakfast for lunch, and scheming on how to take over the world... 😜⠀
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a.k.a. buy a thousand acre ranch in Wyoming, retire the guys, and move our entire family out there 🤠 ☕️ 🤣🐐 ⠀
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Lolz we have always been such dreamers and when we’re together go down rabbit trails with our wild ideas and plans. ⠀
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Both of our husbands are very practical and more “gotta see it to believe it” kinda guys. Which we agree is good, they keep us grounded and focused 🥰🙌🏻⠀
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It’s so good to have both in your life - someone to dream BIG with and share all the ideas...and then someone to keep you on track on the daily, focused on the task at hand 🙏🏼 So thankful for all my people ❤️

Well, I’m almost positive the girls didn’t take to AI 😢 🤷🏻‍♀️. ⠀
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So it’s looking like we may have spring mini jersey calves rather that fall by the time we get this thing figured out! 🐄 ⠀
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I didn’t really want to AI in the first place BUT it just wasn’t practical to keep a bull year round for two heifers. I think we will try to AI one more time with the straws we have left. ⠀
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In the meantime, anybody know of a handsome mini jersey bull looking for some new ladies? 😉

Sunny is 7 today 🌻 ⠀
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She started walking and talking when she was only 8 months old & had the sweetest, girliest little voice! It was so strange to see such a little thing walking all around and I’ll never forget how shocked people were when we’d be out, I’d put her down, and she’d take off!⠀
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I’ve always called her Tiny Princess 👸🏻 since then, mostly just Tiny, actually.⠀
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But the other day she told me she didn’t want me to call her Tiny Princess anymore 😭 I said - ok, Vivi.⠀
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But a few seconds later she said: “You can call me........ Sunshine Flower Girl” 💁🏻‍♀️⠀
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I said, well that’s pretty long - how about Sunny? ⠀
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She thought about it for a minute, and said: “ok, mom”...... then skipped away 🌻⠀
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There’s something different, something special - about animals born on your farm. These little guys are SUCH a joy 💕 ⠀
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They love us so much and make their way up to the house by slipping through the gate whenever they please 🤣⠀
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The plan is to find a new herd for each of them when they get a bit older BUT I really don’t want to let them go!! Have you experienced this with animals born on your farm?! 🐐

Guess what?!? 🥚 Fluffy IS a girl after all!! 😍

My little Silkie Fluffy is 1 year old and has never crowed or laid an egg so I didn’t really know what she was 🤷🏻‍♀️

BUT today I found her laying on the tiniest little pastel egg!! 👏🏼👏🏼 I was so excited and have definitely forgiven her for being mostly useless aside from providing a daily dose of cute ❤️

Anyone else have Silkie hens?? How often do yours lay?

Little John left early this morning to go to work with him for the day, riding along in the big truck - He’s such a good daddy 💕

Watching him with them is seeing answers to prayers and dreams of many moons past 🌙

I’m off work for TEN days straight so you can find me sleeping in late and baking and eating all day every day....with periodical tending to children & garden & farm of course🍃⠀
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First up.... 😍😋 Whatcha cookin this week??⠀
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2 posts in one day no shame 💁🏻‍♀️ Did you know radishes make GREAT row markers for slower to germinate seeds like carrots & lettuce?! 🥕🥬 ⠀
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I’ve got two double rows of carrot & lettuce marked with radish running along the edge of my raised potato beds and to the north of my onion patch! 🌱

The ducks are getting YUGE! Especially Precious (the lone survivor of the sink incident 🥴😭)⠀
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All the younger ducks think she is their mom and follow her around everywhere, it’s so cute! Maybe I was a bit impulsive with my spring fluff orders but I love having having these ducks around ❤️ Joy. Sparked. ✅

I usually sit right by her while she milks, to move the bucket if Pixie kicks.

But today I knew it was time to let her spill the milk. I didn’t tell her that though. I just said I was going to go fill the chicks waterers and she could milk by herself until I got back.

When I came back, I found her standing by the bucket, milk spilled from Pixie kicking. She wasn’t fast enough to move it.

I told her: “that’s part of learning, you’ll get faster. Now let’s try again”

It’s so much easier with kids and with anyone we’re leading to just do the thing for them sometimes. And I do believe in showing them once or twice how to do the task at hand!!

But I always ask myself.... big picture - am I empowering or enabling by continuing to do it for them?

If the answer is enabling, I know it’s my time to back out and let them spill the milk 😉

That’s the best way to learn

Is there anything that sparks joy quite like a speckled egg?! ✨🥚 Collecting eggs of all colors, shapes, and sizes will forever be my favorite homesteading chore!

We may have been fifteen minutes late for church yesterday but I got my Mother’s Day wish - a family pic!

I discovered this past week that the boy who made me a mother now wears men’s size shoes. His little brother is tough as nails and raises hell daily, but still crawls into bed with me faithfully every morning around three. And their sister, well - I just asked her if she’d like me to braid her hair for the day. She said yes, so I told her to brush her hair first, which was met with a sigh and an “ok, mom”

It seems as thought they were just babies, and then toddlers, and now - I am a mother of kids ❤️

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all of the mothers in all of the seasons!

It’s sunny and 75, where else would we be today? 🌿

The creek is on the west side of the farm and these two never fail to run along and lay along the banks as the kids play, truly the best!

Good morning ☕️ ⠀
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It’s rainy and crisp here this morning and everything outside is turning greener and fuller by the day. ⠀
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The warmer days make for faster fermenting and on my counter sits doughs rising, a new batch of sauerkraut, day old spice rolls, and fresh goats milk. ⠀
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After morning chores, lessons take place throughout the day, and lately the kids have been on a marine biology kick, learning about sea creatures of fact and fiction. They can’t get enough.⠀
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After dinner, we all go outside and play ball in the back yard by the garden. I usually have my apron and boots on still. My John - he sends the ball flying over the fence into the pasture nearly every time he’s up to bat. Me heart feels something like I imagined it would when I dreamed of having a son.⠀
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We sit on the porch and watch the sunset or the evening storms roll in, it’s beautiful.⠀
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I learned to start my days with gratitude a few years ago because it can change everything! What are you grateful for today?

I sure miss this big guy. My old rooster Larry. 🐓 Do you guys remember him? ⠀
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He was such a funny character and only liked me. He would chase big John and his dad all over the farm and it was hilarious 🤣⠀
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Larry died one night protecting the hens from an intruding predator and I haven’t had a rooster since. But I’m really hoping at least one of my hatchery chicks turns out to be a boy (even when you order them sexed female, there’s always a roo or two in the mix)⠀
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My favorite things about having a rooster are:⠀
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• keeps the hens in line & prevents fighting⠀
• extra predator protection for free rangers⠀
• fertile eggs for hatching ⠀
• roos are just pretty to look at, imo ⠀
• and they’re so funny! I love their personalities⠀
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Do you keep a rooster with your hens?

Long Fermented Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls - Hopewell Heights

One of my favorite recipes converted to sourdough on the blog today!

🍯 Full Recipe: https://hopewellheightsblog.com/sourdough-cinnamon-rolls/

📌 Pin for Later - https://pin.it/dheNORF

🍳 Cast Iron & Homestead Kitchen Supplies on Hopewell Heights Amazon Shop - https://www.amazon.com/shop/hopewellheights?ref=inf_pub_hopewellheights

hopewellheightsblog.com These long fermented sourdough cinnamon rolls make for a delicious, more easily digestible version of a classic comfort food!

What is it about baking that’s so therapeutic? Taking a few simple ingredients and crafting them into something delicious - it never gets old. ⠀
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I didn’t start baking with sourdough. In fact, many of the recipes on my blog were originally made with isolated yeast. But over time I’ve been converting them over.⠀
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Now I don’t know if this is right, but it’s the way I do it. I know that one cup of starter is equal to one packet, or 2 1/4 t of yeast. So when converting one of my recipes over to sourdough, I just figure out how much starter I need. Then work with the knowledge that I’m adding about equal ratios of water and flour to the recipe. So I subtract those amounts from the existing liquid and flour it calls for.⠀
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Then I try it out and see how it goes. That’s what I did for these cinnamon rolls, modified from the old recipe on my blog. And they’re sooo good.

Same with my Amish bread. Now you know my secrets 😉

Ugghhhh well I wasn’t going to post this.

Mainly because I have a habit of handling disappointment by acting like it didn’t happen and moving on never to revisit it again. But also because this just makes me look really bad.

But the more I thought about, the more it seemed like maybe I should.

When I got home from work Sunday morning I went to sleep after breakfast and Big John took the kids outside to work on the farm. Well, one of the kids thought the ducks would want to swim in the sink so without John or I noticing they filled it up and put them in there.

Hours later, and only 1 of them survived 😭😭😭. I think the water got too cold and they got tired of swimming and couldn’t get out 😭😭😭.

I feel TERRIBLE. I feel like a failure. I want to do what I always do when something goes wrong and pretend it didn’t happen.

But honestly, I think it’s something that needs to be discussed about homesteading. Accidents happen. And sometimes they’re preventable which does make you feel just awful. But you learn. The kids learn. You are more careful, you know what to tell others to look out for. And so this is me, telling you something I didn’t think of. Now there’s no use in ruminating so I’m going to move on.

I ordered more ducks and they will be in around the 28th.

Sometimes this homesteading things breaks your heart and tests your will. But it’s still worth it.

Good morning from the newest residents! 🐷 Two of our pigs are tagged this year for 4H, it will be Johns first year showing in the fair and he’s so excited!

The other two will be going in our freezer 🥓

These chunks will have the best life - getting lots of sunshine, fresh air, clean water, and fresh pasture to root around for critters.

I get a lot of questions asking if it’s hard to butcher livestock we raise. To be honest, the answer is - not really.

We give our animals an amazing life and a humane death. I feel great about that!

Plus, being able to fill a freezer with quality meat you got to see all the way through is priceless.

I’ve got a few more ideas for these pretty, edible blossoms this week! 🌸
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But first, I have to make myself get some sleep today. I’ve always had to force myself to sleep before and after night shifts and it’s not easy. There’s just something in me that wants to be up and about when I know it’s light out.⠀
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But...I’m seeing a (small) light at the end of the tunnel with working nights & weekends! 🙌🏻⠀
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It feels soooo good to imagine restful weekends of normal person sleep and maybe even a date night here and there in the not so distant future 😴😍

I was having a rough day yesterday just feeling a bit overwhelmed with my work schedule and everything else going on behind the scenes around here - I told big John: something has to give I’m whooped!
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So naturally I took a trip to the feed store, bought 4 turkeys and 10 freedom rangers for meat and what do you know I felt good as new! 🤣 🐥 ⠀

Just like with the ducks, I’ll figure it out as we go but I can say I plan on having all my poultry be at least somewhat free ranged.
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P.S. Howie & Ranger have taken quite well to the array of new poultry babies on the farm - these dogs were made for this!

Redbud jelly on buttered sourdough toast is what’s for breakfast! 🌸 (well, and 🥓 + 🍳 of course)⠀
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Making this pretty floral tea & jelly was such a fun project and will be a new spring tradition for sure since we have redbud trees all over the farm - the recipe & canning instructions are up on the blog too!
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Are redbuds common where you live?