our story

 In 2018, our family was presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity to start over. We had been living unknowingly in a moldy rental home, and we all felt the negative health affects, including our young children. This experience was one of the worst and best things that had ever happened to us. We got rid of over 90% of our belongings, put the rest in storage and then spent the next 6 months searching for a clean home to start over in. We weren’t looking for perfection, just a mold free home with the added detail of enough space for a couple of goats. Yes, goats. It sounds crazy, but it was just a little daydream that I clung too during our stressful transition. To be honest, I had felt very little satisfaction living in the suburbs. I wanted to get back to nature. Live with it, and raise my kids with the kind of admiration and respect for it that I had experienced as a child. I missed working with animals as an ex zookeeper and vet technician, and had spent the better part of a decade supporting my better half (emotionally, definitely not financially) while he worked towards his doctorate at University. 

We purchased our first home in Northern Florida on 2.4 acres of land. It felt like the most enormous amount of space at the time. Moving from postage stamp yards in busy, small college towns year after year. It was a big change. I noticed immediately, without the WiFi, and constant going, constant distractions, we were changing. We were slowing down. Even with all of the newfound work we were giving ourselves, it felt so different than the life we had been living before. And then came the animals. We got the goats, even without our fences ready, and even though I have worked with animals for most of my life, I’m not sure I was prepared for the sheer amount of joy and magic they have brought to our lives.

Of course there is also chaos, they are goats after all. Watching my kids in their presence is all it took, and not only did my children bond with them, the animals bonded back. I truly believe it has been the best therapy money could buy (and they eat a lot of money). We are now in our 6th year of homesteading with a small herd of goats and way too many chickens. I can confidently say, I wouldn’t change this life for anything. Except for maybe MORE of it. We already dream of more land, more space, more nature, and more goats, than what we currently have. Our family has experienced a rebirth. A life after the ashes, and this is how Phoenix Farm was born. We are still growing in our intentions,  while learning about  ourselves, and what it takes to live a life well loved.