Olde Skye Farms

Today I'm talking with Katy at Olde Skye Farms. You can follow them on Facebook as well.

00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. Today I'm talking with Katie at Old Sky Farms. Good morning, Katy. How are you? Good morning. I'm good. How are you? I'm great. Tell me about yourself and Old Sky Farms because I know you have a lot going on right now. We do have a lot going on, but I feel like we're just getting started and don't know where to start, but we're starting.

00:29
Yup. So we have, we moved from Florida almost two years ago to North Carolina. So we went from like 0.26 acres to 23. Nice. And it's been a lot of cleanup and fixing structures and getting things ready for livestock and animals and all of those sorts of things. But we're just now getting into agritourism. Yeah.

00:58
and figuring out how to make that work for us on the farm. We just had our first big event, which was an Easter egg hunt, and that turned out pretty good. We have currently nine Nigerian dwarf goats. Three of them are, well, they're kind of babies. They're almost like teenagers now. And about 30 something.

01:25
adult chickens and then of course it's chick season so we have probably like 20 chicks right now. And the next thing we're adding are Highland cows in May which we're really excited about. How many? Two babies so they're half siblings. Fun. Yeah we're really looking forward to that and the experiences that we could you know open up to people with them.

01:53
Sure. Agrotourism is basically using what you have at your farm to have people come in and see how the farm works or having events at the farm. Yes? Yes. Yeah, exactly. We're still new to it too, but I did join. North Carolina has something called the Agrotourism Networking Association.

02:21
So it's basically farms from all over the state that do all sorts of things like hay rides you pick or just come visit the farm for camp or field trips, things like that. The fun stuff. Yeah, the fun stuff. Okay. Yeah, and that's been a really good resource, especially just starting out. And they had their annual conference in February. And one of the main things learning was just like,

02:51
There can be so many farms, but a family can visit each farm a different weekend and see something like experience something different completely. And just that there's room enough for everybody to succeed. Yeah. Okay, so I know what you were doing this morning because you told me in messages and I saw on Facebook, but can you tell the listeners what you and your husband were up to this morning? Yeah. So we were working on.

03:19
converting what was cropland into pasture. So my husband spent all week using a chain drag in our UTV because we don't have a tractor yet to prep the soil. And this morning we were seeding it also with our UTV and then a hand spreader. So it's going to be a long day. Yeah, so what time were you guys up and at them to do this this morning? Well, I have a

03:46
almost two-year-old daughter. So once my mom came to watch her, we went out. So probably, I mean, we were up around six, but probably got out there around eight. Okay. The reason I ask is because farming and homesteading and ranching, whatever term you want to use, is real work. It's not just, oh, yay, we're having baby cows or we're getting baby cows or, oh, the chicks are cute.

04:12
It's a lot of work when you're doing it. It is a lot of work and yeah, I'm just very thankful for my husband too because it would just be a lot harder. So those that are doing it by themselves, I give them a lot of props. Yeah, I'm not doing it by myself. My husband and my 22-year-old son right this second are outside putting in the, I don't know what they're called. They're like pavers, but they're actually tall and they have an X in the top so that

04:42
put things in that X to make a foundation. Oh, okay, yeah. The wood goes into the Xs and they're beginning the build on our heated greenhouse. I'm so excited. That is exciting. I had listened to one of your previous ones and I heard that you got a grant, which we're also working to try and get a grant for a hoop house to do producing stuff.

05:05
Yep. And hoop houses are great, but I really, really, really wanted a solid greenhouse, if that makes sense. Because we've lost one hoop house to the wind and I was just like, I can't watch another one blow over. I will just cry. And so when I saw that there was a grant available and I told my husband about it, he was like, you should apply for that. Yeah, I think that's awesome. I said, okay, I'm going to apply for it. I didn't have a hope in hell.

05:33
of getting it. I didn't think that we were ready. And apparently they did think we were ready. So they're starting the build today and they were supposed to start it a month ago, but then we got snow. So my husband was like, we're going to be hitting the starting the greenhouse first thing in the morning. He was telling me this last night. That's awesome.

05:55
And I said, great. And I said, I'm going to be hitting the podcast with old sky farms at 10 o'clock in the morning. And he said, okay, well, we'll let the dog out with us and it'll be quiet. You can record and we're going to go build a greenhouse. I was like, yes. So very exciting things happening here too. And it is the, well, tomorrow's the last day of March. So we are all rolling into busy season. Yes. Yeah. But that's awesome about the greenhouse and that you're going to have it heated cause I'm sure it's pretty cold.

06:23
It's very well, I don't know if you've heard me talk about this on the podcast, but this winter has not been terrible. We had a week in January where it was very, very cold, like minus teens, minus twenties, overnight. And it was only a week. And other than that, it's been an extended fall. Basically, we got maybe, I mean, this last snow probably brought us to a little over a foot of snow total for the winter.

06:54
So this winter has been lovely as far as winters go, but it still hasn't been warm enough to grow anything in the ground outside. So we're real excited to be able to get the babies into the greenhouse, you know, the seedlings that were started in the kitchen and then extend the growing season into November, December later this year. Yeah, that's gonna be great for you guys.

07:22
So it's really, really, really cool. And we're really excited and I should probably stop because I could talk about it for an hour. It's fine. That's awesome. It's good to have things you're excited about. Yeah. We want to, we, I got asked in an email from a person that is principal of a private, I think it's a religious school, like a church school, if we could supply them with leafy greens and carrots and stuff for sale.

07:52
during the school year and this was like a year ago, over a year ago now. And I was like, I am so honored that you asked, but we don't grow anything in the wintertime because it's Minnesota. And he was like, oh yeah, I said, if you want stuff in the summer, we could certainly do that. And so I think this year we probably are going to be providing some stuff for that school for a take-home program while they prepare our school.

08:21
I have to email him like Monday and confirm that. And I'm hoping that we do because that would be really fun. Yeah, that's awesome. And then hopefully this fall we'll be able to put in fall, you know, fall cold crop that they can use. But I had to ask him to make sure that he checked with the Ag Department here in the state because I said, I don't want to tell you we can do it.

08:51
the government saying you can't do that. Right. So he did and it's all good and I'm hoping that we're going to be able to do it because it'll be farm to school, not just farm to table. Yeah, that's great. That's one of the things I really want to work on here is getting the kids out here, especially the ones that don't get to see farm life every day, like that don't know eggs come from chickens or milk comes from cows. I think it's really important. Oh, me too. Yeah.

09:21
Me too. I didn't realize that there were people who didn't know the eggs came from chickens and came from cows. And when I heard about it, like probably 15, 20 years ago, I don't remember how I heard this story. But I had a moment of, are you kidding me? Right.

09:44
I know there are little golden books about chickens and cows that get read to kids when they're little. That's true, yeah. I don't know. Every time someone says something like that or I say it, I feel like I'm insulting people who don't know. Right, because I don't want to make them feel bad. Things happen, but I want maybe to be the segue for them to learn about them. Yeah, let's go with that.

10:13
And Lord knows I don't know everything about everything. There are every single day, every single day I learned something new that I'm like, Oh, huh, that's where that came from. So we have a big old brain in our heads. We only use about 10% of it consciously. There's 90% left that makes all these little connections in the back all the time and you go, Oh, that's where that came from. Right. Yeah. But anyway, uh, how did the planting go?

10:43
You guys are going to do it all day? Yeah, we're good. I thought we could only go so fast with the UTV just because, you know, he's using the crank seed spreader. So I can't go, you know, really fast. So it will probably be after we're done here. We got to go back out. Okay. So I saw that you have an event coming up in July. What's that event? The summer camp? I think so. Something about biologist Katie.

11:12
Yeah, which is so weird for me to say because I have a BS in biology, but I'm just not the type of person that likes to talk about myself like that. But I am a biologist, so part of that, what we were talking about introducing kids that don't know about the eggs come from chicken, milk comes from cows. But my love is ornithology and birds.

11:41
the natural things. So I really wanted to bring that to kids this year. I think it would be a really good camp. So that's what we're going to try to do. Okay. And how do people sign up for it on your website? Yeah. So I'm working, right, one of the things we're working on is finding a platform for tickets that doesn't charge a crazy amount for the consumer and also doesn't charge to take money from us as well.

12:10
Once I think I found a few that I'm working the kinks out, but it will be through our website which you can get to at oldskyfarms.com or also on Facebook. We have a link there as well. Okay. And is it a stay overnight camp or is it a day camp? No, it's a day camp. I'm actually due to give birth in June. Oh my. So

12:36
The newest one is a boy, so he'll be probably attached to me during these camps, but it'll be from 8 to 1 and then Monday through Friday. Okay, and are you comfortable telling how much it costs to be part of it? Sure. We're going to do $250 per kid or per child and a $100 sibling discount. So if they have multiple children coming, trying to help the parents out a little bit.

13:06
And it's a week? Yes. And we're going to have two weeks, but a week at a time. Yeah. OK. Awesome. That sounds like fun. Do you have other children? Yeah. So my daughter will be two in May. Oh, you are going to be a busy, busy mama in July. I'm a little nervous, but hopefully I can do it. Don't forget to get some sleep, because you want to be able to remember the time.

13:35
with your two-year-old and your newborn. Yes, I know. I'm going to try. Well, thankfully, Kyle's going to take off he works full time in Raleigh. And I'll probably have a helper with me as well because that'll be a lot. Yeah, your husband's name is Kyle? Yes, Kyle. Mine too. Oh, really? That's awesome. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, it's a family name. His grandparents on his mom's side is their last name.

14:04
Oh, that's neat. Yeah, he's the only Kyle first name out of all the kids. There's also a cousin named Kylie She's a girl. Oh, that's cute Yeah, technically Kyle's first name is Brendan after his dad, but there was a lot of confusion So he went by his middle name Kyle. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I understand. You have no idea how much I understand And then at the summer camp, he's also he's a carpenter. So we're gonna spend

14:33
a day doing building bluebird houses or some sort of wood project as well because I think that's super cool too. Nice. That's going to be fun for the kids. I hope so. Yeah. The reason I say I understand is because my name is Mary Evelyn, but I am actually known to my friends when I was younger and my family as Lynn because I was named after my both my grandmothers.

14:58
Okay. My mom really wanted me to be Mary and my dad really wanted me to be Evelyn. And so they settled on Mary Evelyn, but within weeks they were calling me Lynn. Oh, that's cute. That's funny. And I kind of miss Lynn because that's the name I grew up being called. But I had so many times where I had to sign paperwork and I had to sign Mary E. Yeah. I finally was just like, nevermind. I'll still buy Mary. So.

15:26
So one of these times I'm debating switching over to Lynn for personal stuff or like the podcast eventually. I don't know. It might be weird for people. But I totally get it. The whole name confusion thing. The name thing. Yeah. Yep. And there aren't very many people who are in that situation. So tell him I feel his pain about the nicknames and the other names.

15:51
I will because he's told me many times his dad used to get mail and then he would get frustrated because it was actually for Kyle, not the dad. And then Kyle was always like, well, you named me. So what did you expect? So is he a Kyle Jr.? No, he's not a Kyle Jr. Sorry. No. Yeah. So it's Brendan Kyle. Okay. No Jr.

16:14
I wander into the weirdest discussions with this podcast. Our names have nothing to do with homesteading, but here we are. Okay, so what else do you guys do? You said you have chickens and you're getting the Highlands, is that right? Yes, the Highland cows in May. So we have an egg stand out by the driveway that's self-serve. It's bright pink.

16:40
so that people will hopefully stop and buy eggs because we have a surplus, which I'm sure almost everybody with chickens probably does right now. Oh, yeah. And then we are working on doing bees. We just signed up to do a bee class in our county to my husband built an elevated stand for the hive so that hopefully their flight path goes over people's heads instead of like.

17:08
directly at them. That's helpful. Yeah, so that's one of the things and then we also want to do an apple orchard because around here you have to drive probably around an hour and a half to get to the closest you pick apple orchard. Yeah, so I think it would be really cool to have it'll be a high density apple orchard, so it's only going to be an acre, but a lot of trees. You can have a lot of trees on an acre. Yeah.

17:36
I don't have you done any research into this yet? Yes. Yeah. Okay. We're still in the, you know, research planning, getting everything together stages. So we have like the types we want and you know, what goes, what can cross pollinate all those sorts of things. It's just getting to the final steps. Okay. We got apple trees when we moved here three and a half years ago.

18:03
gave us six apple trees as a housewarming present. We've known him forever. And I had asked him if he had any babies for sale. And he was like, I've got Honey Golds and I've got Harrelson and I've got Regent. And I said, well, how much would you sell me some for to plant in our new place? And he was like, I'm not selling them to you. I'm giving them to you. That's really nice. I said, you don't have to do that. He was like, I want to.

18:30
He said, I'm very excited for you guys. I was like, thank you. So my husband and my sons ran up and got them and we put them in the first fall. We were here. So we moved in in August, planted apple trees in October of 2020. We got our first edible apples last spring. So a year ago. So, and he said that we might get apples from the honey gold the following year, but, but they really do need time.

18:58
activate to their new home and they need time to build up their reserves again. So I don't know if that holds true for all apple trees, but just keep in mind that you might not have apples for a couple of years. Oh yes, we know. Okay. Yeah, we've looked at it and we're going to have, I think he's calculated 210 apple trees and they're going to be the dwarf fruit apple trees. Good, yeah. But yeah, we know this.

19:28
a few years at least to actually bear fruit. Yeah. Yeah, we were very happy to see the honey golds this spring, this fall, this past fall. Yeah, I'd be really excited too. And the other thing is that I'm assuming you've done the research on how to take care of the baby apples as they grow so that they don't get bug eaten. Yes. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, we're trying to make sure we kind of have...

19:55
all of our bases covered, but I know once you start something, I'm sure something will come up that we didn't expect. Yeah, I rarely ever have advice for anyone I talk to on the podcast because you guys usually know more than I do, but having just gone through this over the last three years with these trees, and we're not growing an orchard, we just wanted apple trees. We've always wanted apple trees, so we've learned a couple things along the way.

20:19
Yeah, no, we're completely, you know, noobs pretty much. So if any advice, I will take it. Okay. And bugs love baby apples. Okay. Good to know. It does not matter what kind of apple you plant. The bugs are going to find them. And the thing that we realized is that we had to spray them with something. Yeah. And so we looked into it and we found out that neem oil is actually pretty good at repelling the bugs.

20:48
And neem oil is not a bad thing. I mean, I'd rather not put anything on them. But if we have to. Right, but sometimes you have to. And we've used the neem oil for, we have Japanese maple trees that got some bugs on them. So we use that for them too. Yeah, neem oil is a miracle thing. I didn't know about it until probably 10 years ago. And it seems to do the job on a lot of insects. Yeah.

21:18
But anyway, whatever, we could we'd talk about that all day too, but we're not going to. So an apple orchard sounds absolutely wonderful. You guys are going to have the most lovely agri-tourism spot ever. I hope so. I mean, that's what we're, this is our forever dream. So we're hoping to make it self, you know, somewhat self-sufficient and make a little extra because I'm staying home with the babies. So we'll need it.

21:46
That's amazing because not so many people have that. I don't want to use the word luxury, but I'm going to use it. I completely agree. I am privileged in that sense that I get to stay home. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of people choose this lifestyle because they can be with their kids. Right. Yeah. Like, I think everybody thinks their kids are probably the smartest kid in the world.

22:15
And I'm not saying my daughter is, but I feel like if I hadn't had this time with her, I don't think she'd be where she is now, intelligence-wise. And just curiosity, like learning about the bugs and the trees and the birds and everything outside. Absolutely. My mom was a stay-at-home mom until I was 15, I think. And I'm the oldest of three. So my brother was probably 12. Yeah. He's the youngest. And...

22:44
It was great because we left the house in the morning and she was home and we got home from school and she was home. We didn't end up doing that latchkey kid thing that people of my generation did. I'm 54 so you figured out 80. My mom was a single mom so I was often getting myself together on the bus and stuff. She's a nurse so it wasn't easy hours or anything.

23:12
really happy and she's happy for me that I get to stay with my daughter. I bet she is. I bet she's elated for you because yeah it's such a special time from the time that they're born until they're about three. There's so much learning that's happening and yeah she's just a little sponge. I was just gonna say they're little sponges and they they soak up everything. They do. They really do. So the good things and the bad things.

23:41
Oh yeah, of course. Of course. I remember the first time my daughter said a swear word. I think she was three, so that was pretty good. Yeah, you went longer than we have. Uh-huh. Because Teagan has already dropped some words. Yeah, I don't even remember what it was, but she said it and I looked at her. I was like, what? And she grinned at me and said it again. And I was like, let's not say that word. She said, but you say it. I was like, yes, I do. Okay.

24:09
Maybe I should not say that word in front of you anymore ever again. That's cool. But parenting is an honor. I think for me it's an honor. And my kids are grown and I still just smile inside when my kids call and say, mom or mama or hey you, I did this thing or I have a problem or whatever and they want to talk it through with me.

24:39
Yeah, that's amazing. I don't want to say I can't wait, but I am looking for, I'm just happy I get to be her mom and this other little one's mom. Yeah. Yep. How are you doing with having to do all the chores on the farm and being this close to do? Because I'm sure that you're feeling it. I am. Things are starting to get pretty sore now.

25:06
I get I'm tired but you know most days when she goes down for a nap I end up napping too because that's just the only way I'm gonna get through the day. Good. Yeah. No, I'm doing okay. I'm good. Thank you. Yeah, you got to take care of yourself before you can take care of the other things. Yeah, that is that's a hard lesson to learn. You cannot do it all all the time. Right. Yeah. So. I think as women especially though we want to try.

25:36
and just make everything happen, but it's not possible. There are only so many hours in the day and there are only so many energy reserves in your body. And if you add that up, you have to find a balance somewhere. Yeah, that's true. So been through it, been through three pregnancies, I remember. And I wasn't running a farm. I was growing a human and that was enough. That's enough.

26:04
Yep, and I don't even say pregnant anymore. I say growing a human because when you put it in the terms of growing a human, the weight and the gravity of that... ..situation. ..feet is huge. It is, yes. Yeah. But anyway, okay, so what's the goal for the farm? I mean, I assume that you guys are trying to make it so that you live there forever and you raise your kids and you grow the farm while you grow your kids. Yeah.

26:33
pretty much it. That's our ultimate goal just to be successful in creating enough income that hopefully Kyle can stay home and run the farm full time and not have to drive an hour to work every day and then come home and also do chores. So yeah, just to be successful and raise the kids here and learn about nature and farming and everything.

27:01
I'm sure that you don't want this to run too long, so I've got one more big question for you and then we'll probably be good. How did you guys decide to do this? Because I didn't hear that when I asked you at the beginning. I probably didn't answer it. I don't know if I asked actually. No, I think you did. You told me how to start, but I probably went off in some random direction. That's okay. We always knew kind of that North Carolina was going to be our end state.

27:30
because I'm originally from Southern Maryland. Kyle's originally from Prince Edward Island, Canada, and we lived in Florida for 13 years. So we definitely wanted to come North, but he wasn't willing to go all the way back North to PEI. And then North Carolina is only about three hours from where I'm from in Maryland. So that's how this ended up being.

27:58
like the location we chose. As for like the farm, we knew we wanted acreage because in Florida, you're just where we were, you're just on top of each other and we wanted room to breathe and raise our children. And once we sold that house, we were able to purchase this with the land. So that's kind of how we had no idea where Wilson was or like what is here.

28:26
But so far everybody's been very nice and welcoming. And our property, I mean, I think it's beautiful. It's something we just wanna keep working at. So is the entire area where you are really pretty? I think so. It's still a very large producer of tobacco. And we're in a rural part, but we're still like only an hour away from Raleigh, which is like the bigger,

28:56
somewhat of a bigger city. But not everybody has the amount of land and I know we're very thankful to have what we have. Yeah. I've talked to a lot of people in North Carolina and South Carolina on this podcast because apparently that's where everybody goes to Homestead, who knows? Really? But it sounds like it's really beautiful. It sounds like the weather is pretty temperate, but winters aren't extremely cold, clearly.

29:26
So one of the main things that we liked here was, excuse me, you can go, it kind of has everything. It has the farmland, it has a city, it has the coast, and then it also has the mountains. So if we wanted to do a weekend trip to any of those, we could do so in the same state. So I thought that was really cool. Yeah. I grew up in Maine and I was half an hour from the ocean and half an hour from the White

29:56
That's awesome. So once I got a driver's license, I was like, I need to go see these places because that wasn't a thing we really, really did as a family because it costs money and everybody was doing different things when I was growing up. And now I live in Minnesota and the most exciting hill I know of doesn't exist in Minnesota. I haven't found it yet.

30:22
And the biggest body of water is Lake Superior. And I think I've been there once and it's like looking out over the ocean, but it's not the ocean. So, so I kind of shifted from, from hilly ocean and mountains to flatlands and corn and alfalfa and I don't know, tree lines, I guess, cause there's not, where I live, there's not a whole lot of forest.

30:51
as it were, its tree lines are on the farms. Okay. But anyway, Katy, I really appreciate you taking time out to talk with me and I know you got to get back to planting your field. So I'm going to let you go. Thanks so much. Thank you for having us. Yeah, have a great day. Thanks you too. Bye.