Our Beginning
My name is Clay Whaley and my wife is Jamie. We were both came from previous marriages and I already had 5 kids when I met Jamie. Some how that didn’t scare her off and with a little convincing she agreed to start dating me and 6 months later we were married. That was at the beginning of 2024. Jamie had told me she wanted goats and chickens someday and I was fine with that, but she didn’t explain what homesteading was until a few months into our marriage. At that time, I had no idea about anything homesteading related besides the little I had heard the phrase used to describe my grandparents. She started saying it’s possible to fead your family and even make some money without much land. It seemed crazy to me. For some reason, I just assumed it was too difficult and expensive to be able to grow your own food and that the yields wouldn’t be enough unless you had multiple acres. I didn’t even believe her at first. But I started researching it and found out she was right! I couldn’t believe there was a way to provide food for your family without having to buy it at the grocery store, all in your backyard.
At this time we were living in a lease house. In December of 2023 I had sold my small house in the city to prepare for marriage and a new life with Jamie. I moved in with my parents, with all 5 of my kids, and planned to find a place that would work for our new family. However, strategy struck in January 2024 when my parents house burned down and my younger sister died in the fire. Our lives were spun upside down and it was a struggle to regain our footing while dealing with the fall out of the fire. We were lucky enough to have someone we knew with a lease house avialable because it needed repairs and we stayed there until we could find something permanent. We got married in Febuary 2024 and stayed in the lease house until the end of July when we were finally able to find a mobile home on 1 acre of land that was 20 minutes from my work.
By this time I had done tons of research into homesteading. I had discovered Joel Salatin and Justin Rhodes, along with many others, and started ingesting all the educational content I could get my hands on. I took in so much information my mind would be racing at night thinking about all the plans I had. I was itching to get started. We finally closed on our house at the end of July after multiple properties falling through. Within the first week we started a compost pile and went and got ourselves 20 laying hens. A few weeks later we got 4 turkeys. Two weeks or so later I got the itch for some ducks and found someone on craigslist selling Muscovy ducks. I didn’t know a single thing about Muscovy but went ahead and told the local farmer, his name was Mike, that I’d like 10 please. He offered me 9 ducklings and a momma duck to go with it. I brought them home and was very excited because of the research I had done on the Muscovy before picking them up. They fit my personality and our property very well. We especially like that they are good mothers and can hatch and raise their own chicks without us needing to do much.
We had some struggles with our first fleet of birds. The main issue being our dogs and our neighbors dogs. Over the next two months we lost 7 of our laying hens. 6 of them were because of the dogs. We then lost all 4 of our Turkeys and 3 of our ducklings. Along with 2 ducklings our 10 year old son, Ranger, was raising on his own. This was pretty discouraging but we knew this was part of the process and part of learning. It’s very hard not to feel like a failure when your animals die and it’s your own fault, but one positive is the motivation you get to learn more to prevent it. So, I decided it was time to go ahead and order 50 meatbirds from McMurrays. Along with 10 more turkeys.
That’s where we stand at the time of this writing, September 28th 2024. Along with the birds we’re raising, we’re starting a garden this fall. We’ve made a few beds and started a few vegetables. I started a bunch of greens indoors but they died when I tried to transplant them. I think I waited too long and also it was still to hot outside with it being above 90 degrees in September here in north Texas. So I’ll try again when it gets cooler. I’m calling this fall garden a trial and error garden. I’m not expecting to harvest much I just want to learn the basics of gardening and get some systems set up so we can give it a real shot in the spring.
If everything goes according to plan we should have pasture raised chicken for ourselves, our friends, and maybe a few to sell by January 2025. Hopefully, everything will go well and we’ll be able to do another 50 meatbirds or maybe even more on our second run. We are so excited and grateful for this opportunity to follow our dreams. Even though it’s a dream I didn’t know I had until my wonderful wife shared the awesome world of homesteading with me. We are beyond motivated, we are determined. We hope you follow us along our journey.
– Clay