Homestead Highlight: Sheryl

My greatest inspiration in my own backyard farming adventure has been to hear the experiences of others. I invite you to read along here as Homesteaders share their adventures and experiences from their own farms, backyards, and homes.

Want to be featured as a Homestead Highlight? I would love to hear about your experience. For more information follow the link to the information page and share your own homestead here at the Backyard Farming Connection! 

 

With the start of the New Year, I am looking for a few new homesteads for the coming week, so please let me know if you are interested in sharing your story here! 
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Today I welcome Sheryl to this space

We are Sheryl & Denny Sicard, along with our daughter, we live in south Louisiana on a 10 acre piece of land we call Cypress Hill Farm. We are going into our third year of homesteading. You can read more about them at their blog: Cypress Hill Farm.

Seven years ago after going through a divorce and Nursing School, I met my husband and we were married. We shared the same dreams of someday living on a farm. We decided to fill this 10 acres with animals and a garden that can contribute to our food supply. My husband has always wanted to raise cattle, so our first purchase was a few heifers, then came a few chickens. I got into researching Heritage breeds after purchasing a Belted Galloway heifer. We then located some St. Croix hair sheep, which is a heritage breed, and ventured into those. 

My greatest “Love” on the farm is my garden, I love watching things grow and the reward of bringing it to the table for the family’s enjoyment. I also love canning our surplus of vegtables. Here in south Louisiana we are lucky we have an extended growing season, i pretty much can grow year round. My goal is to always have something growing in the garden. I’m now no longer employed as a staff nurse, my days are filled with the homestead chores and I could not be any happier. 

My goal is to help educate people on the importance of healthy wholesome foods to improve their health. As a staff nurse it was heartbreaking to watch someone’s health go downhill because they would refuse to make changes in their lifestyle. I truly believe that what we put in our bodies is a reflection of what we are and how we feel.  

Our biggest success was watching our first calf being born on our farm, and watching it grow to have her own calf. It was hard at first to not get too attached to these animals, I was wanting to name everything on this farm.  We are now raising the cows for commercial sales and knowing that, makes it easier to not get attached.  We had the opportunity to have one of our own brought to the butcher this past fall.  It has provided this family with the best tasting meat, which makes us proud.  Knowing we are eating something that has no antibiotics are growth hormones, and that was totally grass-fed is rewarding.  

We did have a few setbacks over the course, like all farms do.  In the beginning i lost chickens to our own dog, which was so hard for us. This year we lost a calf during birth, which was hard to accept.  We have learned a lot along the way and we still have so much more to learn.  I would not trade my lifestyle for any other way.  Our goal is to one day sell this property and relocate to a larger piece of land with a smaller home.  It’s our dream to run a larger herd of cows and be somewhere further north. Living a self-sufficient lifestyle by growing and raising most of our own food has been assuring to us, knowing the state of our economy. 

I hope you stop by our blog to read about happenings on the farm. http://www.cypresshillfarm.blogspot.com/       

   Live simple………………Sheryl

I shared this at Wildcrafting Wednesday,  Small Footprint Fridays

5 thoughts on “Homestead Highlight: Sheryl”

  1. I couldn't agree more that "what we put in our bodies is a direct reflection of what we are and how we feel". My wife has overcome psoriatic arthritis (at the age of 30) by giving up meat and dairy, something the doctors said could never happen. We try to eat only organic, non processed foods and it has made such a huge difference in our lives. I am also amazed at the people who refuse to even try to eat healthier to try to alleviate illness, there is nothing to lose in trying. Our goals are also to grow our own food, at the moment we live on a small property so it is doable, but difficult. We are looking for a larger piece of property to start a small organic farm, and I dream of the day that I can work my land to feed my family and earn a living!
    Thanks for sharing!
    ~Rob

  2. I really enjoyed reading about life on Cypress Hill Farms. Sounds like they've really found a great way of life and are able to live their dream. Thanks for sharing this. 🙂

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