Five (Sheep) from the Farm
This latest installment of Five from the Farm features 5 of the sheep living on our property.
Five from the Farm: Flowers and Some Basil
July 23, 2026 Welcome back – to you and to me! It’s been a long time, and I’m now returning after feeling inspired to pick up my camera and capture some of what’s been happening around here on the farm. Namely, some of the beautiful flowers and basil growing in my garden now. My intent…
Reviving the Blog with Updates from the Farm
Wow – I cannot believe it’s been a whole year since my last post. Talk about a hiatus! The truth is, I have missed writing about what’s been going on out here in the country, but I think I lost some momentum as I focused more on my YouTube channel. Still, I do enjoy having…
Expanding the Garden
A Brief History of My Gardening 2024 marks my second year of gardening. Read more about how it all started in this post. Once again, I’ve learned a lot and made a lot of mistakes but I have also continued to be motivated to keep going and try new things. In 2025 I will be…
Blog Update: Too Many Updates to List and a Surprise at the End!
Admittedly, I am sitting here wiping off a thick layer of dust and clearing out the blog’s cobwebs. It has been almost exactly 4 months since my last post, and while I could sit here and make excuses for my absence, the true explanation is that I got focused on creating content on YouTube and…
The First Egg from Our Hens
July 6, 2024, was a momentous day here at Varela’s Farm. Rosie, one of our hens, laid her first egg! It all started as a usual Saturday morning. Dennis and I decided to spend some time outside drinking our morning coffee while letting the chickens roam freely around the yard. This is one of my…
Spring Garden Update
It’s time for a Spring Garden Update! I can hardly believe it’s been almost two months since my Spring Garden Planning post because so much has happened since then. Thankfully, I’m happy to report that everything is going very well in my wildflower garden and in the greenhouse. The wildflower garden started coming to life…
Meet Our Backyard Chickens
As I am typing this, I’m sitting in our family room looking out into the backyard and watching our chickens hanging out in their chicken run. It’s a wonderful way to start the day! When we moved to the country, Dennis immediately started talking about all of the animals he wanted. Chickens, goats, llamas, emus….
Honoring Our Border Collie Lucy Valentina
Since starting this blog, I’ve done my best to publish a post every week. Last week was particularly difficult as we said goodbye to our dear sweet border collie, Lucy Valentina. It didn’t feel right to carry on with another post without taking some time to honor her very special presence in our lives. The…
Deer Diary Country Life Origin Story
In this post, I thought I’d do something a little different. I wanted to get more personal and write more about the blog’s origin story: Leaving life in a big city to live a country life. If you read the About page of this blog, you know the general story. After being born in San…