Something I’ve always wanted to do is start a blog. The only reason I haven’t yet is because I honestly haven’t known what to write about. My life has always either been too big or too small to really put my thoughts into words. To make all of those thoughts make sense to others? Well, that’s a whole other challenge of its own. What I really needed is a reason, something to share, express, and enthuse over. Well, it looks like God gave me just that. Between my love for Him and all of His beautiful things, my family, our farm, herbalism, and all of the excitement that comes about around here, I think I’ve finally got the right bit of motivation. Do I know what on earth I’m doing? Not one bit. Quite frankly, I usually don’t, but what difference does that make when you’re brave and willing to try anything? So here I am, world. Writing like I’ve always wanted to.

Welcome to our farm.

If you haven’t gotten to know us yet from Life Below Next Generation, real life, or social media in general, I’d like to give you a formal introduction. We are the Brown family (Hi, I’m Samantha, the wife and mom) and we own a little 7-acre farm in the middle of nowhere Alaska. We got called to Alaska in 2021 when we figured we would look at houses up here just for fun. Little did we know, our joking inquiry would turn into God launching us into a life nobody could prepare us for. But we did so with open arms and a willingness to learn. We had done little to no farming aside from a large garden and chickens in Oregon. This farm came with all of the animals included down to the livestock guardian dog. There were 4 cows, 3 goats, 10 sheep, and a good handful of chickens, ducks, and geese. We had a learning curve unlike anything that we could have imagined. There is no way to prepare someone to go from zero to 100 as quickly as we did, but we regret nothing. There have been tragedies that could have been prevented if we had more knowledge, but all have been overshadowed by a myriad of success stories.

So many amazing things have been accomplished in the last few years, I can’t even begin to name them all. This year, we are the most settled in that we have ever been. We keep growing, expanding both our farm and our wisdom on what we are doing. My husband Nathan and I hope to see you all follow along on our journey as we navigate our still very new world of homesteading.

What’s happening now?

So, what’s happening on the farm right now? Birth season. The all-consuming time of year when I’m on baby watch pretty much 24/7. I’ve got a certain kind of rhythm going at the moment. One where you just kind of know which one is going to go next and within a range of days. It’s a pretty sweet thing to just have an idea of when something is going to be born. So far, I haven’t been far off and I’m ever so grateful for that because it is still very cold for a fresh, wet, newborn critter to learn how to be alive. What a beautiful experience it’s been to be there when so many sweet little ones come earthside.

Whatever baby fever I’ve had for the last however many years is definitely getting fulfilled with all of the cuteness mixed with meeting the demanding needs of 8 bottle babies out of the 9 born so far. Something of a complicated birthing season it’s been, to say the least! But oh, has it been a good one so far. Where we sit at the moment, I have two goat mamas left, ready to give birth in the next 2-3 weeks at most. They are the late breeders, but I don’t mind the break. All the while I have to try to find all of the others good homes, get use to milking two other goats twice a day, and bottle feed the ones that are earthside already.

This is also the year we reduce our flock a bit. It’s one of the more challenging tasks on the farm, emotionally anyway. We very much have grown attached to every member of our herd. Unfortunately, we can’t afford all of them… which is actually, in part, how this website was birthed. I would love to be able to just retire some of our older animals. Let them live out their days in peace and harmony, grazing in a pasture away from the breeding stock. That just isn’t tangible where we are, so, we are left trying for a bit more of a fresh start. I’m learning how to just be okay when things aren’t all that okay.

On the topic of grief and surrender.

Loss has been a somewhat frequent friend of mine since moving to Alaska. Between losing a handful of people that I’ve grown to love, and animals that stole my heart, I’ve come to see grief as kind of an awful friend. Every time it comes to visit, there’s an opportunity for growing in wisdom and understanding that I can’t explain. I can see things that I couldn’t see before, things I could have done differently, things I did well. Sometimes its a deeper understanding of what I’m here to accomplish, or to know. Its an interesting experience that has left me regretting nothing, just a far greater sense of gratitude for the lessons learned and the time spent loving something or someone so much that I get the opportunity to embrace that kind of pain. I wouldn’t want to chose that direction just to learn. But when it comes about, I’m willing to embrace it like a dear old friend.

If these last 3 seasons of my life have taught me anything, its that I am in control of absolutely nothing. The most control I have is just giving everything to God and accepting the things that I truly cannot change. He is the giver and the taker. If He wants something done, He is the factor that gives me the motivation, the drive, the energy to carry on no matter how difficult things are. I love that this place is in His hands. Nothing in my life has ever given me more security, esp. in a location where seemingly nothing is secure. I can trust that He didn’t just bring me up here to let me fall on my face and never get up again. Every time I stumble, He lifts me up, dusts me off, and helps me to keep going. One foot in front of the other. Just knowing how much He loves and cares for even the smallest living creature on this farm is amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better life or a better experience farming. He is in control and that is something I will gladly continue to relinquish into His hands. What a blessed life I get to participate in.

What comes next?

In the middle of all things kidding and lambing, we also have to start really diving into starting the garden. If you want to talk about overwhelm, I feel at this point that I am the queen. Nathan starts a new job this may and will not be participating in the garden this year. So it’s the kids and I in charge of everything growing from lamb to cabbage. He will, of course, have his own set of things to deal with on a daily basis when he isn’t working.

We have had a garden, great or small, every year since 2015. There has been much trial and error, and I would not quite yet call us master gardeners. What I will say, is we have definitely mastered an art when it comes to soil building and gardening is deeply a passion. I want to grow everything. This is the first year that I have been able to take the wheel when it comes to planning, seed starting, and garden layout. I don’t know if you know, but that is a HUGE deal to me. My husband has always had charge over planning the details of the garden. Even choosing which seed verities. This year, I have the opportunity to turn this garden into my master piece. The question is whether or not, with everything else that I’ve taken on, I will be capable of handling everything.

Later on in the season, I hope to do a lot of blogging about our garden experience. When we were on the show, I greatly hoped that we would have to opportunity to show off our beautiful green houses. Unfortunately, filming never happened when they were flourishing, only starting or after the season was over. Sharing the garden and telling people about every little detail that went into it, for some reason, gives me great joy. Maybe it’s the bragging rights? Or maybe it’s because the reality is, I have no idea what I’m doing, but God always seems to make things grow.

I hope that in the season to come, you will join Nathan and I and help us support our farming adventures. Maybe we will have just the right herbal supplement to help you along your way. Or just the right gardening information that you were missing that will help you flourish. Perhaps, it will be that one spruce grouse recipe that you desperately needed. Who’s to say? But I hope that you will subscribe and follow along! Can’t wait to see where the wind takes us.

Shalom

-Samantha