Today I'm talking with Ashley at H&H Homestead. You can also follow on Facebook.

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00:00
I'm listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Ashley at H &H Homestead in Texas. Good morning, Ashley. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. I haven't actually recorded an episode for A Tiny Homestead in over a week because people have been busy. Oh, it is that time, especially down here. And we're planting everything.

00:28
We've had some stuff going for weeks, so I can imagine everybody's kind of really getting into it right now. Yeah, it's that time of year and I go through the same thing in the fall when everybody's harvesting and I go through the same thing at Christmas and New Year's because everybody's busy with family. Oh, for sure. So I'm very happy you had time to talk with me today. Yeah, absolutely. How is the weather in Texas this morning?

00:53
It is so sunny and nice. I went out and watered everything as early as I possibly could because I know we're supposed to get to 100 today. So I wanted to make sure, you know, I was out there before it got super hot. Oh, I was cringing at the fact that we're supposed to have like 84 for a high on Friday. 100 would kill me right now. See, you're in Minnesota, right? Yes. Yeah, I just I feel you just you just acclimate to where you are because I used to.

01:20
I mean, I've been to Minnesota several times. I used to live in Alaska and I am such a warm weather person now. I just, I really don't like being cold. So it's like, you just get used to where you're at and then, you know, go to somewhere opposite and it really throws you. Uh-huh. I would rather, this is going to sound really stupid because I do not enjoy deep winter, but I would rather deal with cold because I can throw on more layers of clothes. If it's hot, I can't get any more naked than naked.

01:50
Just extra fans, extra fans. I have her, like not even just the cold. I have not had to shovel snow in years and I love that. Yep. One of the things I used to do when I was a kid, cause I grew up in Maine and Maine is very, very, very humid in July and August. And I would get, I would get headaches when it was hot. And so I would, I would literally come in the house, go on the bathroom, strip down, get in a cold, cold, cold shower. Yeah. So that my hair was wet.

02:19
And then I would dry my hair just enough so that it wasn't dripping. And that cold hair on my neck would keep me cooler. Yeah. Yeah, that's smart. But I just, hate being hot. Hot is my least favorite state of being. Well, see, there has to be, you know, opposites in people. Otherwise we'd all be in Minnesota or we'd all be in Texas. So it's a good thing that there's a mix. It would be a very boring world if everybody was the same. Yes. And my podcast would put people to sleep.

02:49
So, all right, so why is it H and H Homestead? Well, so our last name is Huff. so there's two of us, me my husband, but then our boys names are also both start with H. So either way you look at it, there's just H's all around. So we went with H and H. Oh, I love it. That's amazing. That's great. And like way to be original, mom. Well, you know, I had to keep with the, you know, I don't know, R being our last name.

03:18
Hough or, you know, Hank and Hogan Hough. And then they have the same middle initial as well. So everyone's got the same, you know, just that way everything stays the same. You don't get one thing personalized. Technically it goes for everybody, you know. Fabulous. That's really great. So what do you do at H &H Homestead? A little bit of everything. So we're kind of new to this. So

03:40
And I blame my oldest son for getting us started in this because he brought home the chickens from his first grade class. And this is kind of what started the whole thing is, um, his first grade class hatched these chickens for, you know, studying the, life cycle of animals. Right. And they had these seven adorable little chickens and then summer rolled around and nobody necessarily wanted to take them. So of course I volunteered. So we started with chickens and then from there.

04:08
I was like, well, my chickens need some neighbors out there. They look a little, they look a little sad. then, then we got quail and then I did a greenhouse and now I have dozens of raised garden beds and now we have bunnies and we just got chukkers. And so I'll probably like everyone else's. Um, you're just always adding something and always doing the next thing on your homestead. Yeah. It's one of the best things about it. I don't know what a chukker is. They're a little, little game birds. They're called chukker partridge. They're a little bit bigger than a quail. Um,

04:37
brown, they've got a little black ring around their neck. My husband used to hunt them um growing up and now we're just going have an easier way to do that because we'll just walk out to the backyard. Don't have to hunt, just have to acquire. Exactly. So chicken math quickly led to homosteading math is what you're telling me. Yes it did. With of course a side of sourdough because that has to come with it too. Yeah I wasn't going to talk about sourdough today but you brought it up.

05:06
I have sourdough starter in my fridge. It's been in my fridge for a month because I made it and it was doing great and I was like, I'm not going to make bread right now. So I stocked the jar in my fridge and I really haven't looked at it since. And because you said it, now when I go downstairs, I'm going to have to take it out and make sure it's not dead. I have never put mine in the fridge. I know people do that. I've just never... I've always been afraid that that's going to kill it.

05:36
So I probably, you know, I make as many discard recipes that I do actual bread, just because I'm like, I gotta do something to keep it going. Yeah. My husband, part of the reason I got stuck in the fridge is because my husband makes yeast breads and he's really good at it. Yeah. And therefore three or four weekends in a row, he had made four loaves of yeast bread every weekend. So we had bread that was already made in the freezer and I was like, eh.

06:03
I'm not even going to attempt to make the third loaf of my life of sourdough right now. So I put it in the fridge and I guess as long as it doesn't have orange or pink mold on it, it's still viable. think so. I think it just gets that layer of stuff on top and you pour it off and then... Yep. And just add some more stuff to it. So I got to check that today and I honestly don't want to because that means that... I didn't mean to just add to your to-do list.

06:31
My to-do list today is basically the podcast recording with you, but I really should check. really should. uh So do you have land or are you an urban homesteader? We have about an acre, just a little over an acre. And I mean, technically we're within city limits, here we're very, I mean, we could walk and we're outside of it. We're so close to the edge. So like we don't have a ton of space, but eh I feel like really maximize.

07:00
the area that we have. have everything kind of right next to each other, not super spread out. Definitely still have room for more animals. I've been telling my husband I want goats or I want pigs or I want something else. And so far he is not super on board yet. Doesn't seem to have a problem if I add any type of birds that I want. But as soon as it has four legs, then it's more of a discussion. Is it because he's afraid he'll get more invested in a four-legged critter because they don't have feathers?

07:28
Maybe I mean, he grew up with this kind of stuff, right? He, you know, showed pigs he had all this kind of stuff. So it's not as new to him as it is to me and the boys. So I think he's just, you know, maybe not as excited about doing it again, per se. He did say that about the bunnies when we first got the bunnies, because we were given the...