Rooted Ridge Homestead

01/31/2026

How is Baby Belle so big?? It seems like just yesterday she was bee-bopping around in a diaper in our house. 🥹 She'll be a year old on Valentine's Day. ♥️

01/27/2026

Get your tickets now for the 3rd Annual Mitten Homesteaders Conference, in Lake Odessa, May 29th and 30th, 2026! https://www.mittenhomesteaders.com/

This year, I'll be speaking on AI - and I'm not talking about artificial intelligence, either! I'm so excited for this year's conference - there are so many different speakers, demonstrations, and workshops that I can't wait to attend! Hope to see you there!

The wait is over!

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to bring in some of the best experts, growers, and makers from all over Michigan. There’s something for everyone, and you won’t want to miss it!

Head to our website to view the lineup of speakers, workshop leaders, and demonstrations. Small adjustments may be made as we finalize details.

You can subscribe to our newsletter on the website to get all of the latest updates!

May 29-30th can’t come soon enough🐓

01/27/2026

Little Girl is getting closer to calving! February 7th is her due date, and she's starting to bag up. I couldn't be any more excited to meet baby!! ☺️ She's bred to a highland bull.

01/10/2026

Louisa has been feeling brave lately—out and about, gaining confidence around the dogs—but she’s still very skittish about being picked up. And let me tell you… she is an expert at squirming right out of your arms.

So today I had a plan. I grabbed a bowl of Lil Gravies, scooped her up, and attempted to make it to the couch. She’s extremely food-motivated, so I figured if I could just get us seated, we’d be golden.

Spoiler alert: she won the squirm battle. Again.

Now I’m left holding a bowl of Lil Gravies while she retreats back to her safe hiding spot behind the printer cabinet. Feeling bad for scaring her, I offered the gravy anyway as a peace offering.

And then… she did the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Instead of licking the gravy from the bowl like my other cats, Louisa gently dipped her tiny little paw into it… and licked it off her paw. 🥹 I thought maybe it was a one-time thing. Nope. She kept doing it—over and over—like the most prim and proper little lady.

I didn’t have my phone on me, so I ran into the living room saying, “I NEED A PHONE!” Grabbed it, ran right back… and sure enough, she was still delicately dipping her paw and licking her little fingers. 🥰

My heart may never recover. This is the cutest thing ever.

01/08/2026

I spy with my little eye....an Oliver zonked in the dog toy bin. 🐱💤 What a life.

01/06/2026

Goodnight, Gus. See you tomorrow! 😂

01/06/2026

Lately, we’ve been thinning out roosters so they don’t beat up the hens too badly this spring. With about 110 hens, our goal is a roughly 10:1 hen-to-rooster ratio. We planned to keep 12 roosters — one extra because we have an old guy named Crabbe who’s basically a pet. He has no interest in the ladies, so he gets a free pass.

We butchered the final batch of roosters… and the next day, I did a headcount.

FIFTEEN roosters.

That was a problem.

There should have only been twelve.

One rooster with barely-there tail feathers must’ve been passing as a hen, so I made a note of him and two additional roosters to remove. That night, once everyone was settled in the coop, I went looking.

I found the little sneak hiding among the hens.
I found a gray rooster on my list.
But the third one? Gone.

This rooster had a very distinct look — white lacing on his chest, a black body, with golden/tan flecking on his wings and back. I only have one other rooster with similar coloring, and he was accounted for. Different body shape, no doubt about it.

I checked every single chicken in the coop.

No Gus.

So I grabbed a shop light and searched everywhere — trees, buildings, under vehicles, even the livestock trailer. Nothing.

Then I saw them.

A single set of chicken footprints heading toward the driveway.

They meandered past the garden beds, blended into tire tracks, and disappeared down our long, 750-foot driveway. About halfway down, the tracks reappeared in fresh snow… veering sharply onto my neighbor’s property.

I laughed and headed straight to my best friend and neighbor’s house.

When Olivia and Casey opened the door, I said,
“I think we’re sharing a rooster.”

When we checked her coop, sure enough, there he was — perched on a roost, staring back at me like he’d done absolutely nothing wrong.

“That’s him.”

We put a little red band on his leg and waited.

The very next morning, Gus was back in my run — eating feed and hanging out with my flock like he belonged there. Red band on his leg and all.

When I asked Olivia if she’d named him, she said, “Judas. Which is ironic, because he has betrayed his flock.”

And here’s where it all clicked.

Judas was originally hatched by Olivia from one of my eggs — but he’s roughly the same age as a group of chicks hatched from my eggs in local first-grade classrooms. Those classroom chicks came home after about a week… and somewhere along the way, Gus/Judas decided he preferred a shared custody arrangement.

I’ve heard of cats living double lives with multiple families — but this is the first rooster I’ve ever met who pulls it off.

For now, Gus/Judas gets to live. As long as he behaves himself, treats the ladies kindly, and doesn’t start teaching the rest of the flock how to commute between farms.

Excuse his wet rat appearance. Chickens and rain don't do well together!

12/31/2025

Squirrels usually get along great with our chickens. But this squirrel woke up and chose violence today. 😂 Even scared his little squirrel buddies away!

12/31/2025

Those EYELASHES. 😍 Loiny is stunning.

12/24/2025

Sisterly love. Louisa was never hesitant around our other cats, and they've all warmed up to her quite quickly. This was a Louisa head boop into a Nala kiss. 🥰

12/23/2025

Oooh. I see you, girl. ♥️ Meet Ermine. In all her cheeky, bearded gloriousness. 😍 She's enjoying the free range of my garden. Fun fact: Ermine is one of our chicks that were hatched out in the local 1st grade classrooms! Do you know a local (now) 2nd grader that hatched out chicks back in April/May? Ermine could have been one of those little puffball babies!

12/23/2025

You know that picture I posted of Maisy a few days ago? Well, she had a special photo shoot that morning to get the perfect picture - needed specially for ordering a custom leather wallet via Etsy for a Christmas present for my husband. I'm not a patient person, so it only made it a couple days before I ended up caving and giving him his Christmas present a bit early. I think it turned out fairly well. ♥️ Our Maisy girl is a special one, that's for sure.