Shipshape Farm

Today I'm talking with Whitney at Shipshape Farm. You can also follow on Facebook.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Whitney at Shipshape Farm. How are you, Whitney? I'm doing really well. Loving this day. Good. Is it North Carolina? It's actually South Carolina, but we're super close to North Carolina, so it's all good.

00:28
Yeah, I've talked to a bunch of people in your area over the last couple of months and I always screw it up. If it's South Carolina, I say North Carolina and if it's North Carolina, I say South Carolina. I can't keep them straight, so. You're totally good. It's the Carolinas and I'm a North Carolina girl who now lives in South Carolina, so I'm good either way. Okay. Well, tell me about yourself and Shipshape farm.

00:54
Well, first off, the name, I know it's a little tricky, but it comes from when we first moved out here in 2020. My husband is former military, former Navy, and the land was in a lot of disarray because it had been a couple of years since it had been well tended. So the idea was that courtesy of the Navy with an anchor and getting things ship shaped and then also

01:21
kind of rescuing the land, that's where the name came from. But yeah, me, my husband, our four kids, and my parents all live here on the farm in the upstate of South Carolina. And I'm not exactly sure what you want to know about, so you'll have to ask me more detail. Okay. Well, how did you end up having a farm? Oh, I'm...

01:48
We had moved to the upstate after my husband got out of the military because it was near to all of our family and that was in 2017. And then in 2020, the world kind of went on fire for everybody. And we were living on a quarter acre in the city and it was just not the best spot if we needed to like, if food supply chains got shut down, we needed to have better, just

02:18
to take care of our family well. So we started hunting at the time. I was actually a real estate agent and was able to find this property that was only really 25 minutes from our existing home. And we were, the owner was lovely. We were able to meet and talk with her and then move onto the land. So initially we moved to the land for just.

02:45
our family thinking we didn't know what was going to happen in the world, but we wanted to be prepared. And then as we've lived here, thankfully the world has not imploded. So that's been marvelous. And we've gotten, that's a good thing. So we've gotten to learn a lot because we started out as like the very worst farmers ever. But we've learned. So here we are.

03:14
My mom is in charge of the garden. She does a fantastic job taking care of that. And really, from about April to November, we don't have a greenhouse yet, but from about April to November, we primarily eat all of our fresh produce is from her garden for all eight of us. And then we have chickens, and so we've got lots of eggs. And then we have goats who we milk. So they're dairy goats and then land clearing goats as well.

03:42
And so we're slowly working to the self-sustainable component. Yeah. Okay. You're not, you weren't the worst farmers ever. You were just beginning farmers. That's all. Oh, I don't know. We lost some livestock. The things that you think you're supposed to know, we just didn't, we just did so many things backwards. But the beauty of it was...

04:12
Our mistakes sent us hunting for the people who knew more. And so we've been able to build a phenomenal community here with people who are much more knowledgeable and very gracious in sharing their wisdom. So we've been able to learn a lot from them. It is so funny to me that so many people changed their lives during COVID. Yeah. And pretty much to either make sure they had food

04:41
or to get away from people because it was just so uncomfortable being surrounded by people but not being able to be around people. And the thing that's come out of it is this huge community or network of new people in our lives. Yes. And that's wonderful. It's this crazy circle that happened. It's been really grand. I would say my favorite part though is that...

05:11
getting to do life with multiple generations together. If you had told me that this is my life, would be my life, like 20 years ago when I got married, I would have said you were insane and that that was not me. It sounded like a terrible idea to especially live, share the land with my parents and I'm about a mile and a half away from all of my in-laws and...

05:40
But it is glorious. It's very much like a lot of people in a marriage. So there are times that it's tricky and challenging and conflict and confusion, but the good far outweighs the difficulty. So it's been really wonderful to build those deep relationships in a way that we could have never done with the military. Yeah, it must be a great way to hone your compromising skills. Yeah.

06:11
That is very true. So, we don't really have any, maybe laid back is a good word. I mean, I would say I'm probably the most laid back of everybody, but I'm still pretty hyper. And so getting us all to work together well with all of our very strong personalities has been entertaining, to say the least.

06:38
I bet. I bet it's been fun and frustrating at exactly the same time. Yes, yes. But that's most good things, right? Yes, it sure is. Every damn day. Pretty much. Yeah, you just... But that's, I think, I think with both the land and the relationships, it's it's such a constant in-your-face reminder that the good things in life take effort. They take work. They're not easy.

07:08
And we have this idea in our culture that easy is the best way to go. Easy is to like almost king. Comfort is king. But we miss so many beautiful things in our lives when we're not willing to put in the effort and the work. Absolutely. I couldn't have said it better myself. That is brilliant. Okay. So what do you guys do at Ship Shape Farm? Well.

07:35
As of this past semester, so in January, we opened up to be able to do classes here on the land. So, and you already heard, I said I'm not very phenomenal or I started out not very phenomenal. So it's kind of fun because we have preschool classes and we have homeschool classes that come, they come once a week. And it's been amazing because they cannot ask a dumb question that we have not already asked.

08:05
There's this level of, it's all good. Let's ask and learn together. So starting in February, we had a winter session. So that was six weeks long. People signed up to come for one class per week, either preschool or homeschool bracket. And we just explore the land. So the biggest perk I have found personally, and what's been mirrored back from the parents of the preschoolers is that

08:35
The goal is when you come onto our land, we leave hustle culture on the main road. It's not allowed on the driveway. So we come here and spend two hours reconnecting with the wonder of childhood in the world around us. And so we go at the preschoolers pace. We do not hustle them. We do not rush them.

09:00
So sometimes our little nature walk will take an hour and a half. It's not a long walk. But when you're counting every single acorn that you see, it takes a minute. So it's just that ability to be delighted in the smallest things. So that's one component with our preschoolers and then with our homeschoolers. It's really just enabling them and we have it catered for homeschoolers because that is...

09:29
during the school day, it's not taking up nights or weekends. But it's enabling them to have tech-free learning engagement. There's so many opportunities for homeschoolers now, but a lot of them do involve some sort of device. And so it's really grand for them to get outside. We build things together. We're painting farm buildings. We're learning about goat care. We're gathering eggs. We're digging in the garden, taking care of plants. So it's just that opportunity to.

09:59
really engage with your world and be where your feet are. So it's farm and nature school is what it is? Yes, yes. Okay. So they all get to taste our goat milk. They learn how to milk the goats. They learn, the older ones who have the hand strength learn how to trim the goat hooves. So they just, they love it. So we did a winter session, a spring session, and we're in a little.

10:26
short three-week session this May before the summer time. We're actually doing summer camps here on the land this summer. Okay, summer camp. Does that mean that they'll stay over or is it day camp? It's day camp. The lodging and liability for overnight, it was pretty daunting. So we're just doing day. Yeah, I just, I never know because when I was growing up in New England, there was a lot of go to camp and stay for a week or two.

10:56
Yes. So I thought I'd ask. That's a fair question. There's a lot of options in the area. There's not as... Let me back that up. There are many marvelous options in our area for camp. However, quite a few of them involve a lot of time inside.

11:20
And ours is gonna be totally outside. If it is raining, we're gonna be outside anyway. Like you don't melt in the rain. You're not the wicked witch of the west. So we're just gonna get messy and get dirty. In fact, I have a very clear warning when people sign their kids up, like they will get dirty. And just pack them a change of clothes for going home in because you're not gonna want them in your car. But I think...

11:44
I don't know. I think it'll be grand. They're based, all the camps are based off of classic children's books. So we're doing one based off of Treasure Island, one off of Peter Pan, and one based off of Charlotte's Web. That is amazing. I have a question. Were you a teacher in a former life by any chance? No, I'm just a mom that liked to be over the top. Okay.

12:11
really just doing the stuff that I did with my children when they were little. Um, we would, we would just create things and do fun stuff together all the time and we'd bring their friends in on it. And so now this summer I'm working with my kids, cause they were all teenagers, they're all old and having the opportunity to, to, to share that delight and joy and creativity with other people. That is phenomenal.

12:39
I'm in love with your plan. I think it's amazing. During COVID, my youngest kid was still living with us and he's actually still living with us. He's 22. All right. And we, I don't know, I think we both felt trapped because we couldn't really hang out with anybody because we didn't wanna get sick and we didn't want to get anybody sick by accident. And so we would go on hikes every morning about...

13:09
five miles from where we lived. And one of the funniest things is we started doing it in like end of April 1st, part of May of 2020. And this hiking area was state land in Minnesota. And it had this hillside that you would basically like S curve down to get down to an old building that people used to live in. And you couldn't go in the building, but it was a really cool old mansiony kind of building was really pretty.

13:37
And the hillside was right in the sun in the morning when we would go and come to find out garter snake baby season in Minnesota is May. So the first time we were walking down the hill, there were all these little snakes crawling across the warm tar. And I'm not afraid of snakes. Garter snakes are harmless. They stink if you hold them too long, but they're fine. And he's a fanatic. He loves amphibians, snakes, whatever. So

14:05
To our pleasure and surprise, there were all these little snakes. I was holding snakes, he was holding snakes. There were no cell phones or tablets or anything. We were literally just in the moment of discovering baby garter snake season in Minnesota. It was so fun because he was 17, I think, at the time. That's awesome. Just watching him be five again was amazing. So

14:34
I am a big fan of getting outside, getting in a nature and just seeing what is presented to you and taking that moment to drink it in because it might not come again. Yes. And so how old are the kids? How young is the youngest kid who signs up for camp and how old is the oldest kid? We have two age groupings. So it's ages four to seven and then eight to 11.

15:01
We have a couple sibling groups where they're like slightly on the edge of one or the other. And so we've worked with the families to enable their kids to come. So we're talking kids. We're not talking teenagers. No, not yet. I'm working on that. I'd really love to have a program in the future where we can have older kids come out and learn.

15:26
really just comfort with various tools and the ability to like mend fences or just have some actual skills that come from manual labor because they're really beneficial. And you can learn a lot about yourself doing hard things. Yeah. The reason I asked about the kids' ages is because those ages are perfection for discovering the world. Yes.

15:51
You must have such a good time watching these kids discover things they had no idea existed. It is so fun. I think what I love the most is watching the parents remember. Because our preschool class is not a drop-off class, so the parents come with. And watching the parents see their children's curiosity gets...

16:19
barked again is so beautiful. With our homeschoolers, some people drop off, some people stay, we're good either way, whatever makes you happy. Our homeschool kiddos, they, COVID was extremely life altering for them. So if you think of like a child who's seven now, I mean, they were three when COVID happened. And...

16:47
that amount of isolation and just fear. Like everyone was kind of bathed in fear there for a bit. And our kids bear the marks of it much clearer, I think, or it's much more obvious than the adults. We all have kind of learned ways to like hide our crazy, I feel like, but kids don't have that and it's a wonderful gift. So it's been fun to kind of show them like, no, you can get dirty and that's not bad.

17:16
And you can actually be a little bored because then you might ask a question to learn something. Like, let's learn about the world around us. Let's be curious. And that's the thing I've noticed more than I would have thought. With our kids who were toddlers in COVID, they're very wary of curiosity and questions. They're much more fearful.

17:45
than what I remember my kids being, I guess. Huh. Yeah. I haven't really been around any small kids since before COVID hit, so I would never have known that that was a thing. Well, it's been fascinating to observe. So my oldest, who is almost 19, she is also a dance teacher. And both of us have... And then my...

18:11
16 year old, my almost 15 year old, they babysit kiddos. And it's something they've noticed that they're like, we have to kind of teach these kids that the world itself is actually not scary. Like you can take a step off of a ledge, you know, like take the step off the deck or whatever, and you're gonna be okay. Like jumping on the trampoline is not the end of the world. Like it's, what I would think of is just like regular.

18:38
childhood type things, there's just a lot more fear. And so that impacts how we talk in our house, how we interact with other people, because we as humans don't do best when we're constantly surrounded in fear. We need to focus on the good, focus on the joy. It's always there, it's just sometimes you have to hunt harder. Yeah, huh. I hadn't even thought about that impact on small kids with COVID, because I just, I wasn't around any. Yeah.

19:08
then. All my kids are adults. They're all grown. So yeah, I wouldn't have had any experience with that. I, hmm, that's kind of terrible. I'm really glad that you're doing what you're doing to maybe bring them back to being able to be kids. That's great. It's so fun. And I don't want to leave out my youngest. My youngest is 13. He's the only boy. So we've got three girls and then dude.

19:32
And they're actually already out of school for the summertime. And so they've been helping me teach farm school this, this may. And it has been so much fun. I, my wish is for every parent to have the opportunity to work side by side with their kids in an area they excel in, that their kid excels in. And then you can, you can learn from them.

19:55
and they can teach you how to do better. And it's just, it's a beautiful thing. So this is, I think, gonna be my favorite summer of like my entire life. Well, good. It's always good to have something to aspire to. That's a beautiful thing to aspire to. I have not worked side by side with my three oldest because I had one later in life when I was 32.

20:21
And so I was very busy still in the trenches of diapers and then body training and then trying to get him to eat food, which actually wasn't that hard. I shouldn't say that he was the most adventurous eater of the four. But the youngest actually is living with us and helping us on our homestead. And I was watching him and his dad work together on building the heated greenhouse that is almost done. We're within days of it being finished.

20:50
And watching those two work together was just the most entertaining thing two weekends ago. I was like, they're exactly like each other and yet they are so different. So I understand the working with and I get to work with them when we're cooking together. So that's fine. It's kind of really, I shouldn't say it's kind of really, it really is very satisfying and makes me really proud.

21:20
of this kid and I'm proud of the other three too, but this is more working together as adults than working together as teenagers. That's awesome. Well, I'll have to get pointers from you on the greenhouse because that's the next big project on the land for us to do. I don't have any pointers except that you can find plans for greenhouses online that

21:48
that will give you an idea of what you want, how big you want it, whether you want it completely open on the inside with the rafters exposed, that kind of stuff. And then basically you're building a frame out of wood. And then the backside is like the corrugated metal sheeting for the back wall and the back roof part. And the rest of it is that polycarbonate plastic stuff so that light can get in.

22:18
So you're basically making a box. And I didn't have a hand in any of this. The only thing I did was I wrote the grant application to get the funds to be able to build it. That was my contribution to the greenhouse. I wrote the thing. Which is a solid contribution. That's beneficial. Yeah, I wrote the thing. They said, yes, here's the money. And they said, you must spend all of it by the end of April on your...

22:45
supplies to build your greenhouse and I was like I am more than happy to do that. So really, I don't know, do you have somebody in your family who is good at building things? Yes. So my primary role is not building. I'm normally the feeder of all the people. So I handle that. But my husband's very mechanically minded and he and my mom and dad work really, really well together.

23:13
So they typically are the ones that handle the different building things. So mom and dad built our chicken tractors and they've been throwing ideas around for what they want to do for the greenhouse. But mom is the gardener, so she's like the final say on exactly how it looks and what she needs. So they just have to work together. Yeah. Yep. It's genuinely not.

23:41
that hard to build a greenhouse. The hard part is the up and down the ladder to get the roofing pieces on. That makes sense. And neither my husband nor my son are very good with heights, so they really had to knuckle down and just do it. And they trade it off because my son does not like heights and my husband doesn't like the wobble of the ladder under his feet. And so basically he would do some.

24:08
And then my son would do some and then he would do them. My husband would start again helping out. They would trade off on being up and down the ladder. And both of them at the end of the day, they were like, I can't face that ladder again tomorrow. So they did the side parts and then the following weekend they did the roofing. They finished the roofing so they didn't have to do ladder climbing two days in a row. Well that makes sense. That sounds reasonable. Yup.

24:35
their thing and I don't blame them. They're not my thing either. And the greenhouse is only about 20 feet tall. It's not like it's, you know, 10 stories or anything. But they figured it out and it's looking great. And I think it's going to be finished at the end of the day, Monday, Memorial Day, I think. Oh, that's exciting. That's very exciting. Yeah, but I certainly could, I could have my husband.

25:02
scan the drawing that he did and I could message it to you if your husband wants to look at it. Oh, that would be amazing. They're always on the hunt for what we need to do next. So we were fortunate when we bought this property, there were quite a few different structures on the land. We just have had to repair and replace roofs and that kind of stuff. Sometimes the tricky part when you inherit...

25:27
different buildings is that they're not actually what you need. And so you have to figure out, do I want to repurpose it? Is it worth saving? Is it worth taking completely apart and then using those materials in a better way? So we just had to go from one building to the next to try and figure out what we wanted to do. Yeah, I understand. We have a one car garage to the

25:56
It's got to be at least 50 years old. I bet it's 60 years old, the one car garage, because it's just wood with a rolling door that goes up into the ceiling. And it's not big enough for a car. I suspect it was probably for a carriage at one point. And then they redid it for a car. And cars were small back in the 80s. A lot of car models were very small, so it fit.

26:23
And so it's become the wood shed because it's still fairly dry in there and water doesn't pull in front of it. So that's our wood shed. It's not a garage. That's awesome. Yeah. When I first saw it, I was like, oh, this would make a great writing studio. Cause I write sometimes and I thought that I would be doing that, not podcasting. And it just, it was so beat up that my husband was like, I

26:51
we're going to have to redo the whole thing if you want this to be an actual writing studio. And it's going to cost about $10,000. And I was like, no, no, no, wood can go in there. That'll make an excellent woodshed. I'm good. Yes, that works both. And so instead I do a podcast and I sit at a prefab desk with my five-year-old computer and my brand new monitor. The monitor died, so I had to get a monitor. And I talked to people about what they're doing instead.

27:21
it's really fun. Well, that's really cool. That's hopefully in the future, I will be able to write. That's always been a dream. I've just always been running around a bit too much to write. Yeah. And I'm going to say it again. I've said it a couple of times on other episodes. Writing is, it's like wonderful once you've done it. The actual writing part, I could live without the pen to paper or the fingers to the keyboard.

27:51
I could, I just skip that. That would be fine. And you can't actually write anything without those things happening. Writing is painful. I know there are people who don't think it's painful, but for me, it's painful. When I'm in the zone and I know what I'm trying to write and the words are coming, it's amazing. But that blank screen or that blank piece of paper that you start with is the most frightening thing ever. Yeah, I would agree with you on that.

28:20
But with the podcast, I just say, hi, how are you? What do you do? And people talk to me and it's like, this is great. I love this. Well, that's good. Then you found the right spot. Exactly. And I get to learn so much from everybody I talk to. I have gotten so many secrets and tips about things that I have been doing my whole life that make the things I've been doing my whole life easier. Oh, that's awesome. It's amazing.

28:49
I love, love, love your farm school idea. I talked with a lady a couple weeks ago. Her Facebook page is Independence Gardens. And her organization that she started, they go to schools and they put in gardens for the schools so that the kids can learn about gardening and if there's enough produce, they can use it in their school lunches.

29:18
Oh, that's so cool. And so the reason I bring it up is because you are feeding the kids souls with what you're teaching them. And her program feeds their souls, but also feeds their bodies. It's really neat. That's awesome. That's really cool. I love how many different people have had ideas and been able to share things with others. That's been really cool. I have enjoyed.

29:47
having people taste goat milk and like it. That's like my favorite part regarding the tasting things at the farm because a lot of people have had like farm fresh veggies and farm fresh eggs and that kind of a thing. But I would put our goat milk up against anybody's and people actually like it. So it's a good deal. Yeah. I love goat milk cream. The cream from their goat milk is amazing. Yes. I agree. I agree.

30:16
We're experimenting with ice cream, which is really good. Even the first iteration, which was not amazing, was very good, so we're on a good track. Do you have one of the old fashioned ice cream makers, by any chance? Well, no. It's a plug-in one. So my great uncle had one of those old ones, but a cousin got it, not me, so.

30:45
You should keep your eyes open and see if anybody's looking to get rid of one or if you can get one for cheap because that would be a super fun thing to do with the kids. Yeah, with the goat milk. Yes. Oh, that would be so... I can remember making fresh strawberry ice cream at a family reunion that we went to when I was like 10. And the guy...

31:12
that set it up, he'd been making it forever. And one of the old fashioned ice cream makers with the rock salt and everything. And his brilliant idea for the reunion every year was to have all the kids take a turn turning the thing. Oh, that's a good idea. So that we all had a hand in making the ice cream. And I can remember doing that and just being like, I can't believe we made ice cream out of milk and sugar.

31:38
It's a really cool feeling. That's a great idea to find one. I'll have to go hunting. Yeah, the kids would probably love it. And then you've got their snack all made and they made it. And we're good to go. Yeah. All right. Well, Whitney, this went really fast. We're already at 31 minutes. Wow. Okay. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me and good luck with your camp.

32:03
Oh, thank you. And thanks for reaching out. It's always fun to talk about things you are thrilled about, you know. That's much easier to talk about than the wretched stuff. So this was a lovely time to talk. You're welcome. Thank you again. Have a great day. All right, you too. Bye.