Our AirBNB Farm Stay Experience
The fellas and I just returned home from an incredible adventure. We indulged in a little AirBNB farm stay experience. It turned out to be a great way to get away from home and have one last trip before Mini Human starts kindergarten next week. When we decided that we wanted to live a homesteading lifestyle, we made that decision having never experienced it firsthand. This week we experienced it, and we absolutely loved it.
I wish that I could take credit for coming up with this idea. The idea however, came from one of my best friends, who suggested I try to find a farm where the guys and I could spend some time together. I started our pursuit with a simple Google search for farm stay rentals. I came across Farmstayus and realized that AirBNB offers similar "experiences". We decided on a farm that is less than an hour away from our apartment.
The Farm
The farm was located about 9 miles outside of a small rural town. The 11 acre farm was surrounded on two sides by massive fields of corn that towered over our heads. A creek anchored the third side, stagnant due to the recent lack of rain. Despite the noise from the busy street in the front of the property, our farm stay was peaceful. The separate fenced pastures are used to rotationally graze the animals as well as a portion used strictly to grow hay for use later in the year.
A 300 year old, traditional red barn housed majority of the animals on the farm. The sheep, alpacas and donkeys each had their own barn stalls with their outside yard space. The goats were housed in a separate structure close to the barn. The fenced in yards were organized in a way that allowed the animals to see and interact with each other.
The Animals
Nine different types of animals lived on the farm (not including the house pets of 3 dogs and a rabbit). There were:
Chickens
Ducks
Alpacas
Mini horses
Donkeys
Nigerian Dwarf Goats
Boer Goats
Suffolk Sheep
Cats
Our hosts use their alpaca fiber (hair) to make yarn for knitting projects including hats, scarves and blankets to later sell. We had the opportunity to card the fiber before trying our hand a using the spinning wheel to spin it into thread. To card the fiber we used two specialty brushes, pushed and pulled together to get all of the fiber strands unknotted and in the same direction. Spinning those strands into thin strings of thread with the spinning wheel definitely looked easier than it was. Mini Human and I enjoyed trying though.
The Experience
Our farm stay was peaceful despite the property being near a busy street. We stayed in a 2 bedroom, one bathroom cottage attached to a larger farmhouse occupied by our hosts. My favorite moments is when Mini Human and I learned how to milk goats. One of the Nigerian goats and one Boer goats were in milk. This was our first experience up close and personal with goats. I received the compliment that I did an excellent job for a first time milker! My ego was boosted a bit with that one.
This farm stay experience was beneficial to our family because we were able to ask questions, learn and participate. Learning someone's system for running their farm is not a guarantee for success on our own farm. It did however, give us a chance to have hands on experience with the types of animals that we would like to have in the future.
I am amazingly appreciative of my friend's suggestion to take this trip. If I knew there was something like this out there, we would have definitely done it sooner. The guys and I agree that we would love to go back again. While it is not always an ideal situation to have to pay someone to gain experience, it is worth it in the end when options are limited. Finding volunteer opportunities have proven less easy but with persistence I am sure we will find something.
Do you think you would be interested in a similar type of trip?