O'Connor Family Acres

A Tiny Homestead

Today I'm talking with Tracy at O'Connor Family Acres.

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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 my friend Tracy at O'Connor Family Acres. Good morning Tracy, how are you? Good morning Mary. I'm doing well. Thanks. Thank you. How did you guys fare with all this crappy weather yesterday? Yeah, I stayed home.

00:28
We were supposed to go somewhere and I was like, nope, I'm going to stay in the house. Paul went to work though, so he had to venture out, but he did well. He just took it slow as we do in Minnesota. Yeah, no doubt. So this is yet another hyper local episode. Tracy lives like maybe five miles from me, maybe in Le Sueur. So I have to tell you, we're doing homesteadish stuff today.

00:58
Who? What are you doing? Well, I started that, that black garlic thing. That's the fermenting thing. And that's been going for three days. So my kitchen has smelled like garlic for three days. And it's got to go at least another couple before I can even open it to check it. And Kyle and Cameron are downstairs, um, basically heating up all the tomatoes that we froze to get ready to can them into sauce. So.

01:27
My house smells like an Italian restaurant right now. Oh my gosh, I love it. I love canning tomatoes was new for me last year was the first year I did it and absolutely love the smell. And I'm excited to hear how your black garlic turns out because that sounds super interesting. I was listening to your episode where you talked to the guy about black garlic and I was very intrigued. So yeah. Yeah, I will have to give you some so you can try it.

01:57
Awesome, I would love that. Yeah, I think there's 15 heads of garlic in that machine right now. So if it works, I'll have some to share. Nice, nice, nice. I will reciprocate with, you know, well, something. Goat milk in the spring would be awesome. Absolutely. That's a, well, that's a hopefully a for sure. We have a new buck this year. So.

02:22
And he's pretty young, so hopefully he did what he needed to do so we have babies in the spring. And that would be wonderful. And on that note, tell me about yourself and what you guys do at O'Connor Family Acres. Yeah, thank you so much. So we are, you know, a small homestead. We have about almost six acres. And we moved here to the homestead. This is going on four years now.

02:51
We started with ducks and we actually started with ducks in the city-ish. So city-ish. We were in Medina at the time on an acre and we started with maybe six ducks. And it was during COVID, of course, because we didn't have anything to do. And we're like, we had been talking about when we buy our forever home, getting

03:20
you know, some animals and really kind of not completely being independent, but controlling at least some of our food and how it's being, you know, handled, processed, what goes into it, all the things. And so we started with ducks. And then when we moved to where we are now, O'Connor Family Acres, those ducks multiplied greatly. And we also got goats.

03:49
And this year we added pigs. So we're kind of we're not really at a point where we're you know Consistently selling we'll sell something here or there But we're almost to the point I would say this next year if our buck did what he was supposed to do will be at kind of a tipping point where we can maybe start selling some stuff and the idea is to you know provide for us provide for our family and

04:18
you know, maybe offset some of the feed costs and, you know, the money that we're putting into it by selling some of the abundance, if you will. So. Awesome. I'm glad that that's the case because I don't, it's fine if you just have a homestead or a farm or whatever and you're just doing it to provide for yourself. But that never quite works that way because some years you will have an overabundance and you're like, what do I do with all this?

04:47
Oh, for sure. Absolutely. I mean, in the spring, because we do have so many ducks now, I'm literally trying to give eggs to people. I'm like, Oh, it is so nice to see you. Thank you for visiting. Would you like a dozen eggs? Yeah, we used to do that with the chicken eggs, because we just had so many we couldn't use them before they would go bad. Yeah, exactly. Duck eggs and zucchini. Zucchini is the other one I'm always having abundance of from the garden. We do have a garden too.

05:17
I'm always like, oh, would you like some zucchini? It was actually amazing to me this past summer when Kyle was selling at the farmer's market in Lesour that people bought zucchini. I was like, are you serious? You don't have neighbors who are just putting it in your car or in your porch? Well, and not everybody does, right? So that's kind of the beauty of it. And you guys have amazing vegetables. So I always love coming in and seeing the...

05:47
the garden and now the greenhouse and all the things. And of course seeing you guys too, but. Yeah, it's just the stuff. It's not. Kind of like when you have kids, right? And they're like, I come to see the kid. Well, also you too. But then when you have a homestead, it's like, I come to see all the animals in the garden. Oh, and you too. Yep, exactly.

06:12
So our garden this year, you know, did not do real well. We had some zucchini for a while and we had tomatoes after the third planting. And I'm very excited about the fact that we actually did get some tomatoes to make sauce out of and we're doing that today. But keep your fingers crossed that next summer's better because man, this was a very depressing year for the garden. Yeah, it was a rough, it was a really rough spring.

06:41
And I think our saving grace was that we had the raised beds, which can be a positive and a negative. It was nice that it wasn't white. I mean, we still had some stuff that struggled for sure, as we do every year. And part of that is just we're still learning too. I've always had at least containers. When I lived in the city, in the city, I had a little salsa garden with

07:08
containers of tomatoes and peppers. And then when we moved to Medina, we added some raised beds and now we're here. We have two, four, six, eight, about 12 raised beds plus some space. I plant pumpkins on the side. There's some asparagus, rhubarb, some of the things that you definitely put directly in the ground.

07:36
So long story longer, that was kind of our saving grace this year. It does limit you, I think, a little bit on the quantity because you leave space and there's only so much room. But for controlling drainage and things like that, it is definitely helpful. Yeah, my heart broke for you guys this spring for sure.

08:01
Yeah, ours too. It was very sad. Like we shed some tears over that four or five weeks of rain. Yeah. So I have a question about your asparagus, but I also want to ask you another one after that that has nothing to do with asparagus. Yeah. Was there asparagus there when you moved in or did you guys put in crowns? Yes and yes. Okay. So this was actually kind of funny. So Paul tilled the garden.

08:31
How did this go? He tilled the garden, said he had to buy a torch so he could burn the garden, tilled it again, and then I planted asparagus. And it's so funny because where I planted it is kind of, of course, on the edge of the garden because I know asparagus spreads like wildfire. Oh, yes. And just to the left of that was...

08:54
asparagus coming up that spring. I'm like, first of all, how did that survive our garden Armageddon? And then also, yay, I have extra asparagus. So that was kind of cool. And so that asparagus that was there, were you able to harvest some right away? I think not the first year. And I don't know if that's because we went crazy on the garden or if it was because...

09:20
Um, it was newer, like maybe the people before us just put it in. Um, but last, this last year was the first year we were able to really get some asparagus. So it took, it was the third year. Yeah. I keep hearing that it takes three years for it to get established. And I have the same experience. This is the first spring that we've been here that we've gotten more than like, you know, eight stems. So nice. Nice. It is though my, um,

09:49
Grandma's, my grandma's place, which is now my aunt's place, has an asparagus patch that's been there probably 50 years. I mean, I remember getting asparagus as a kid and my aunt still gives the family asparagus every spring. So it's a, I mean, once it's established, kind of like rhubarb, I know you had a really awesome rhubarb plant. It stays.

10:18
Yeah, we actually haven't gotten a whole lot of rhubarb from the stuff that we put in when we put it in the fall. We moved here for years ago, 2020. But the rhubarb plant that was here when we moved in, the one little rhubarb plant they'd put in, we got some this past spring from that. And it was pretty good. Cameron ate a bunch of it with the, you know, dip the stem in the sugar and bite it. Oh, yeah.

10:44
Oh yeah, that was one thing we planted too a couple years ago when we moved in was the rhubarb plant. And the first year it did not do well. The rhubarb plant was like, no thank you. But then I replanted a different one the next year and that one came back last year. And I'm hoping this year we'll get to harvest some stuff from it. So fingers crossed because I love rhubarb.

11:10
I do too and it's how I know string is actually here when there's enough rhubarb to cut and put with strawberries and boil with sugar and make a compote and have it either on toast or on ice cream. That's when I know string is officially for sure here. Oh yeah, so lovely. Yes, and we do it every spring. If I don't have rhubarb growing, I will buy rhubarb just to make it. Yeah, it is. Yes, yes, and all the yeses.

11:40
Okay, so my other question is, and I ask this almost of everybody, were you, like, I don't know your upbringing, I should, we've been friends for like, two years now, but were you brought up around farming or gardening or whatever? So we, I grew up in the suburbs, so directly no, like our family didn't, we didn't even really have a garden, honestly.

12:10
trying to think back, we grew up truly in the suburbs. Around, it was Hamline, so it was north suburbs and it was kind of a development that was built around farmland, if you will. So I've always been farm adjacent. And my grandparents on my dad's side were farmers. So we would go down to the farm.

12:36
you know, a few times a year, a couple holidays, and then sometimes we'd go and stay with them for a week in the summer. So I did have exposure to farming from that. And then when I started my container gardens and growing tomatoes, I got more and more interested in it. And so it was kind of always, I had a childhood dream to have a small farm.

13:03
at some point in my life and then, you know, life kind of does what it does and you know raised my child and then you know, I got married. Paul and I just celebrated our eight-year anniversary and then we moved to our forever home and that's really when it started to take place. We started to talk about it as we were, you know,

13:30
talking about getting married, it was like, where do you wanna live? What does our life look like? And I had really started to get into understanding more about where our food comes from, sustainable farming, and just really eating healthier and being healthier. And so that's really what drove it. Okay, did Paul have any background in it beforehand? No, ma'am. Okay.

13:57
He is from England, the northeast of England, so kind of a harbor area. And he played professional soccer from the age of 16. So he was very much playing and traveling and doing all the things and then coaching. He had small gardens as well too in his adult life, but nothing, no exposure to farming.

14:26
you know, as we know it. Okay. Yeah. Um, so I'm going to poke a little bit of fun at Paul just for a second. Paul would have been part of this interview, but Paul has the thickest British accent ever known to man. And when he's excited, he talks really fast and it's hard to understand him. So that's why he's not talking. He's also working right now, but yes, he has an extra. Yes. He does have a very thick.

14:56
British accent that he has kept for sure. And it's northeast, so it's not what people traditionally think of here in the U.S. when they think English accent, they think more south. South England, so more London area, the posh south, they would say. But no, he has very, very northern English accent for sure.

15:24
Yes, when we were talking about this the other day, I told you he sounded like he had an English accent mixed with a Scottish brogue. Yes. And his voice is fairly deep. So it's really easy to listen to him when he's talking slowly, but when he's excited, he just runs all his words together. I'm like, what? Yeah. Well, and we have a, I mean, we would probably run over if I gave you the full story, but

15:52
We met when we were kids. I mean, I was 17 and he was 19 and then had separate lives. And then through, you know, kismet, fate, whatever, reconnected probably about 10 years ago. And listening to him speak was, I've always just absolutely loved his accent, loved the, you know, tenor of his voice. So anyways. Yeah. Yeah. And he is

16:21
He is a really nice man. And I think that his accent is really sexy, but that doesn't help me if I can't understand what he's saying. Yeah, you don't have to understand. You just have to listen. Yes, and if I was in the market and he was single, I would probably listen closer. But since he's not single and neither am I, and I love you and I love my husband, I'm not playing that game. So.

16:49
Agreed and agreed. Love you and love my husband and love your husband. We're one, I mean, just really great people. It's always nice to connect with great people. Yeah. And I was so thankful to find you because when we moved here, it was during COVID. You guys, I don't think you guys were here in 2020. I think you moved to your place in 2021, right? I think that is correct. Yeah. I'd have to look back, but yeah, I think so. Yeah. And having moved from small town, Jordan,

17:17
you know, half an hour northeast of us. Yeah. In town, that quiet and not really seeing anybody was very welcome for the first year or so. Yeah. Yeah, I listened to the episode about community and it's so true. We have amazing neighbors, which is just super wonderful. You know, and then also to have...

17:41
Connected with you. I mean I consider you a neighbor even though we're you know five ish miles apart Yes, that's how you are in the country right my neighbor For my vegetable farmer neighbors is what I is when I do your full title what I said Yes, my friend Kathy who lives like two miles away calls me Csa Mary because that's how she's oh there you go. There's the full title, right?

18:07
Yep. Yep. She has three Marys who are friends of hers. So she's like, I have CSA Mary, I have whatever Mary, I have the other Mary. And I'm like, okay, I'll take CSA Mary. That's fine. That is awesome. And I think you call me my friend with goats, right? Most of the time. Yeah. But it was funny because I was on Facebook and stumbled across your page and I was like, Conner Family Acres. Okay. And then I...

18:34
you know, scrolled through the page and I was like, I need to meet this lady. I need to reach out and say hi. And I did. And here we are two years later. Yeah, I was so glad. It was really nice. It was nice to connect. And it's been nice because we're both, I think, you know, learning in our journey, which is awesome. So it's kind of like, Oh, did this work for you? This worked for me. What are you guys up to today? You know, what's new? And I know

19:02
Paul and Kyle connect a lot and talk about structures and farming and how's this going to work out. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's really nice for Kyle to have someone to talk to who is male and gets into that stuff because he talks to me about the wood burning furnace and I'm like, as long as it throws heat, I'm good. Exactly. Kind of like, why don't you give Kyle a call?

19:32
Talk shop with somebody who has the same parts as you do. It'll go better, I promise. Exactly. Yes. So anyway, a big mutual admiration society going on here. Sorry listeners, but this is what happens when friends have a podcast episode recording. So I was looking at the description on your Facebook page and it says Nubian slash Kiko

20:00
So does that mean that they're a crossbreed? Yes, we have. So we have some Nubian Sonins actually, and then we have a purebred Kiko. And so we have a little, kind of a little bit of both going on. Our buck had papers, but he passed this last summer. He was a purebred Nubian. And so his son is now our main breeder.

20:29
um, and is a Nubian, he'd be two thirds, no, two, three quarters Nubian and a quarter Saanen. I had to do the math there. It's not my strong point. It's okay. So what's, so what's a Kiko goat? Yeah, the Kiko are more meat goats. Um, and honestly looking at her, you probably wouldn't, I mean, she just kind of looks like the other goats.

20:57
I think we had her when you were over last. She's the all brown one with a little bit of black socks. Yep. And literally she looks just like the other goats, but she's more of a meat goat where the Nubian and the Saanens are more of our dairy goats. But we bred her this year, so I'm super interested to see how she does, with the birthing first of all, but then also what her offspring look like, and do we get...

21:26
some decent milk from her. I'm interested to see all the things, which is kind of fun. That's the fun side of homesteading is getting to kind of go, how does this work? Yeah, absolutely. Homesteaders are incredibly innovative. You're like, what would happen if we did this? Absolutely. And we're certainly obviously not the first people to crossbreed.

21:53
Nubians and Kiko by any means I think that's fairly common because you kind of Get you're supposed to get the best of both worlds, right? So you get dairy and you get meat And so it's kind of a good combo of goat But our Kiko Miss Mabel was a little bit of a runt and so I'm interested to see if her offspring are gonna be full-size

22:19
you know, will they give good milk, which that we won't know for a few years yet. But it's kind of fun. It's kind of fun to think it all through. And then Paul and I had conversations about do we breed her, do we not breed her, because she was kind of a runt. But she's a good size runt, if that makes sense. She's not like 100, I wouldn't say she's 100 percent, but. And from what I've read, because I do a lot of research online, you know.

22:46
Sometimes they can have full-sized babies and sometimes they produce other runts. So we'll see what happens. Well if you end up with a runt or two, maybe I can talk to Highland letting us buy them from you. Oh my gosh, that would be so fun. I don't think I can, but I would love to. Yeah. Okay, so I know you guys got piglets back.

23:12
last spring was it? This spring, yeah, absolutely. So that and that was kind of the cool part, the goats, we were finally at a place where I'm like, okay, I think we can sell some of these goats. And we had been talking about getting turkeys and pigs were the next things we wanted to add to the homestead. And I was talking with a lady online about what I was talking to a guy about turkeys. And I was talking to a lady about pigs.

23:40
and she wanted to trade some of the baby goats for the baby pigs. And so I was like, perfect. I love, love when we don't have to come out of pocket cash for buying new livestock. Barter is fabulous. Exactly, barter is definitely the way to go. So we bartered some baby goats for some baby pigs and we now have Magna Lista pigs, two of them. One male that has been

24:09
no parts, and then we have a female. And so the plan is to keep the female for breeding and the male will be at some point processed. Food, he'll be food. Exactly, exactly. Okay, so how old were they when you got them? They were probably six to eight months. I'd have to look back at the dates, but they were about six to eight months and the goats were about the same age.

24:35
Basically, at the age where you can, you know, where they no longer need the mama. Yeah. Okay. So, they weren't little baby tiny piglets when you got them. No, they weren't newborns by any means. Yeah, it was kind of funny because when I said we were bringing home pig, you know, baby pigs, they're big. These are big pigs. They should get up to upwards around 300-ish pounds. And, I mean, that's not...

25:00
in the world of pigs, that's obviously not the biggest, but it's big for us on our little homestead. I'm like, oh, these guys are going to get huge. And we went to pick them up and we saw the mom, the mamas and the daddies. I was like, oh goodness, these are going to be, yeah, these are, these get big. Um, but they are so sweet. Like I have just been with the grand, we have a grand kid who is four and he was just in with them the other day, um, petting them and you know, kind of.

25:29
checking them out and they're still at a size where he can do that. They're probably about the size of a lab right now, like a really gigantic, chubby lab, but you know, lab body size or height, I should say maybe. So he was still able to do that, which was kind of fun. Cool. So the reason I asked how old they were when you got them.

25:54
is because it's really hard when it comes time to put down an animal for food. And if you need me to come and stand with you or hug you when it's done, I can do that because I know you're probably going to be sad. Thank you, Mary. That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely losing an animal, any animal, the ducks, the goats, it's not fun by any means,

26:24
you know, it's part of the circle of life. And, you know, I always, people always ask me if I'm getting, you know, like an ostrich or something. And ostriches have their place, but you know, everything on our farm is, maybe ostrich isn't a good example, like mini, mini, you know, mini horses or something. And I'm like, everything on our farm has a purpose, right? They're either guarding, de,

26:51
rodenting. The cats are little, you know, de-rodenters. They produce food or, you know, they have a job. Everybody has a job or a purpose on the homestead and that's why we're feeding them. So, but thank you. I would, I love that. It is hard to lose animals. It's especially hard when it's not planned and it's predators or something else that can be.

27:20
challenging and difficult, you know, and frustrating because you feel like, you know, you're setting everything up for success and then, you know, there's always mini setbacks which are, you know, just an opportunity to learn and change the way you're doing things. So we've definitely pivoted a few times on the farm. Yeah. And it's hard even when you don't feel a particular connection to the animal. Yeah. We had...

27:48
four or six, I can't remember, chickens at the old house years ago. And it was time for them to no longer be part of our yard. And we were going to eat them. We were going to call them and cook them, but they were not meat chickens, so they were not worth cooking. And we, I made myself go out when they were dispatched.

28:13
I made myself go out and watch the process because I was like, if I'm expecting my husband and my sons to do this, I should probably at least be here for it. And I didn't cry, but man, that first chicken, I teared up. And I had that big thing in your chest where you feel like you're going to really sob, but you don't. And I don't even like chickens, Tracy. They're not my favorite creature on earth. So it's just...

28:41
it's hard when you see something lose its life. It doesn't matter what it is. Yeah, no, I fully get it. The first few ducks that we dispatch are always a struggle and then you kind of get in the swing of it. But, you know, it is emotional and it's really hard when it's not planned. And you know, I think...

29:06
to your point, even when there's not a connection, you know that those animals are in your care and you're responsible for those animals. You know, kind of like we talk about barn cats a lot, right? Even though we know that the, you know, the success rate of a barn cat is probably not as high as some other animals, you still are sad when something happens because those, they're in your care, you know? So yeah, it's interesting.

29:36
the joy of baby kittens and baby goats and baby ducklings and hopefully one day baby piglets. It'll be a few years, but I'm kind of excited for that too. Well, you know, it definitely overshadows the trials and tribulations. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like living in Minnesota. We live it. We suffer the winters to enjoy the spring, summer and fall. I think it's the same kind of perspective.

30:03
100%. Yeah, sweet. Yeah. Well, and there are, I mean, there are people who absolutely love the winter time in Minnesota for sure. But I am on your perspective there with I tolerate the winter because spring, summer and fall are great. Although Paul got me a pair of snow shoes two years ago, which was kind of not perfect timing because last year we had no snow and this year we're struggling a bit.

30:32
Yeah, still waiting to get those snowshoes out there. Yeah, absolutely. So we're at 30 minutes, but I wanted to share a thing that I did yesterday for listeners. I made a designated website for the podcast yesterday. I love that. I'm so excited. Congratulations. I'm going to have to go check it out. Yeah, it's a tiny Very original.

31:00
But I'm going to be doing blog posts about every episode. And that way people can get a little bit more background on the people, you know. And if there's stuff that gets mentioned like the Kiko Goats, I can do a little aside in the blog post about what a Kiko Goat is or whatever. So it just gives me a little leeway to play and to get back into writing a little bit. So if you guys wanna check it out, it's atin And it's got the whole list of episodes on the...

31:30
the episode page, like it's all there. So you can just click and listen. Awesome. I'm so excited to go check it out. Thank you, Mary, for sharing. It's super cool. The particular website platform that I found is so user friendly. Oh, nice. I think it's Webador is the name of it. And I opened it up and looked at it and went, oh my god, this is easier than any other one I've ever used. I'm so excited to dig into this. Nice. I'll have to check it out because we do have

32:00
I did a little of that with Paul's coaching to set up a website because he's an independent contractor and the one we used was also very user-friendly but had some limitations and so I'll definitely check out the Webador. That's very cool. Yeah, I'd never heard of it before. I think it's actually Weebly, W-E-E-B-L-Y, but it's Webador is the thing that shows up when you actually sign up for it. Okay.

32:28
But I'm very much in love with the way it worked. And it only took me like an hour to get it set up. Nice, well congratulations, that's awesome. Yep, and I'm gonna be screwing around with Instagram over the next week to start promoting the podcast on Instagram because I'm bad at Instagram. I don't quite understand how to use it, but my daughter loves it. So I'm gonna hit her up for a couple hours this week and be like, can you show me how to do this?

32:56
Yeah, I wish I could help you with that one, but I too am bad on the Insta. And I know, I know it's extremely popular and I know it's really good for your business. Um, and I, I need to, I need to get into it both for my jobby job and for my, my farm life. Yeah. I just, I don't know how people do all the fun things I see. And I'm like, how did they do that? I don't even know where to find how to do that. So.

33:21
My daughter does all kinds of stuff with Instagram, so I'm just gonna be like, hey Sandra, I need your help. Can you help your old mommy with some new technology? Kids are the best. And once she shares with you, then I'll pick your brain. I do know, I do know there's a way to kind of tie some platforms together. So when you post on one, it posts on multiple, which is really nice. It's helpful, it sure is.

33:49
Alright Tracy, I want to talk to you again this fall after the summer. Yeah. And oh yeah, we're going to be making the duck that you gave us next weekend. Good, good. Oh good, I hope you love it. It's yeah, it should be good. Let me know. Keep me posted and I would love to talk to you again and we can update how our respective gardening season was. Yes, and we can talk about the dispatching. No, we're not going to be dispatching the pigs for a while.

34:18
The mail will be this coming fall. So yeah, if we talk again in the fall, it's about 18 months. And so we would have had them about 18 months. So I'll give you an update on whether that has happened or not happened. Yeah, exactly. I think that would be really good for people to learn about because it's a process. For sure. Thank you so much for your time, Tracy. I really appreciate it.

34:46
Thanks for having me, Mary. It was great to talk to you. Have a great weekend. You too. All right, bye. Bye.