Start Here
Start Here
We’re building a collection of practical guides about raising livestock, gaining homesteading skills, and managing the realities of rural life all from our firsthand experience. These are guides we wish we’d had access to when starting out homesteading. Whether you’re researching your first chickens or looking for better ways to manage a homestead budget, here’s where to begin.
Choose what you’re interested in below.
Want to learn about chickens?
Chickens are the gateway drug for homesteading. They can be a great, easy way to dip your toes in owning livestock while also managing living creatures that provide you with delicious eggs.
Start with: Chicken Keeping for Beginners
Understanding Svarthöna
What makes the breed unusual and what it’s like to keep them.
Incubating Chicken Eggs
For people interested in hatching.
Explore more:
link to all chicken posts
Want to learn about goats?
Brief introduction.
Start with:
Fainting Goats: A Beginner’s Guide
Then perhaps:
- Feeding
- Fencing
- Hoof care
- Parasites
- Kidding
- Choosing goats
Eventually this becomes a nice progression from beginner → intermediate.
→ Goat Resources
Building a homestead?
Start with:
What Does Homesteading Actually Mean?
Then:
- Food preservation
- Sourdough
- Livestock
- Gardening
- Household skills
- Self-sufficiency
→ Homesteading Resources
Want to get better at the money side?
Start with: Homestead Budgeting for Beginners
Then:
- Grocery budgeting
- Planning for irregular expenses
- Cottage food finances
- Small-business finances
- Tracking farm expenses
Explore more:
link to all money posts
Just exploring?
Not sure where to start? Browse the latest guides or explore all of our resources here.
Latest Posts
Want to follow the farm itself?
We’re not just faceless blog posts on the internet…we’re real people working towards more self-sufficiency with our food and way of living.
Meet our goats.
Meet our chickens.
Meet our livestock guardian dogs (coming soon!)
See what’s in the shop.
Come join us over on Instagram or Facebook where we’re most active in sharing what’s going on in our day-to-day.
About Us
Happy to make your acquaintance!
“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” – Samwise Gamgee
Hi, I’m Jamie! I live with my family on a small farmstead in northwest Tennessee where we raise Svarthöna chickens, guinea fowl, fainting goats, and Maremma Sheepdogs.
What started as a love for homegrown food and a simpler life has grown into a bustling little homestead—and a blog where I share what we’re learning along the way.
Here you’ll find hatching eggs, farm-raised chicks, and goat kids for sale, plus blog posts on homesteading, homemaking, and budgeting tips. With a background in accounting and finance, I love helping others make both their homes and their budgets run a little smoother.
I’m so glad you’re here!
Our homestead is situated on acreage in Northwest Tennessee. We’re in USDA growing zone 7b.
On average our first fall frost occurs on October 25th. Our last spring frost is on April 13th.
We are members of the Maremma Sheepdog Club of America (MSCA).
We raise fainting (myotonic) goats, chickens, Maremma Sheepdogs for livestock protection, a couple cats, and we tend a garden to reduce our trips to the grocery store.
Contact
Feel free to drop us an email or a text. We’re lookin’ forward to hearing from you!
We respond to inquiries within 24 hours so if you haven’t heard from us, please reach out in a different way using the options below.
731-540-9220 ~ Jamie@ArdaAcres.com
Newsletter
Keep learning with us!
Learn practical homesteading skills and see what’s happening on the ‘stead in ONE helpful email each month.
Never Spammy, Sometimes Helpful, Always Entertaining