New Year, New Beginning. Introducing Red Dirt Ranchette

Hey Y'all!

     I've got some big news! So I've taken a big leap forward with a dream I've been dreaming about for a VERY long time. I've always wanted a "Ranch", ever since I was a little girl I've dreamed of owning A Garden, some Goats, Chickens, Cows... I mean EVERYTHING. I was not blessed enough to have that growing up, My Mamaw and Papaw had owned Livestock of all kinds for many years before I was born but when my Papaw passed away my Mamaw was left to raise a big family on her own so she had sold just about everything to keep up with bills. I begged my parents for years to get me horse and the answer was always NO. I asked to show pigs in high school and they also said no. My Pinterest board in high school was full of ideas and crafts that revolved around this crazy dream of mine. 

     I met my husband when i was 16 years old and when we were dating  he always thought I was crazy, I don't really blame him though. I grew up in a small town surrounded by cotton field and other much smaller towns. The closest city was either an hour north or an hour south and my husband had just moved to town from the city to live with his dad a few years prior to meeting him and he never thought about owning things like chickens and goats. Besides having grandparents that farmed when we were either super young or not even thought of yet we both had no real experience. in 2016 we got so close to buying a few acres outside of town from a family member of Ryan's (My husband) but unfortunately that failed. Where I live land is almost never for sale, we've been searching for YEARS and either your born into a family with land/ inherit it or you got some $$$ and connections. We have neither. We also like our small town, I was raised here and we still have many family members who live just minutes away from us, we've thought of moving and even looked at a few properties but we love where we are at and we love that our son ( 3yrs old) can see his most of his aunts, uncles and grandparents with a 5 minute drive. 

       So without being able to find land we did the next best thing. In late spring of  2017 we bought a house that we LOVE, right inside town next to the biggest park that also holds many of the towns festivals and it was on around 1.40 acres. We don't have much land to work with but we bought chickens almost immediately, I mean the very next spring we had a coop, built a run and bought our first flock of chicks from Our local Gebo's. Let me tell you I was so excited! I learned pretty fast about the circle of life. We lost so many to predators, we've had to start over more times then I'd like to admit. Our biggest issue has been stray dogs breaking into our Run, We also have some issues with stray cats and our trail cameras have captured photos of skunks and fox but nothing has done constant damage like the stray dogs in our neighborhood. 

       After the last flock I had was taken out by stray dogs I was heart broken. Every loss was tragic to me because we loved these chickens like pets. I decided to take a break and focus on my son who had just turned 2. I had a lot going on, I had just started my Jewelry business, Let Her Roam and my dad had just started getting some extreme health problems that had us all very stressed and emotionally drained. I was actually leaving my house to go check on my dad when I saw the 2 dogs still stuck in my run with Every last chicken deceased next to them. So i took a step back from owning chickens. 

         Around 6 months later a friend of mine texted and said she bought some chicks at our local Tractor Supply. My husband and I kept talking about how we missed having fresh eggs and how we missed having chickens so it didn't take much convincing before we decided to try again, this time we tore down our old run that the dogs kept breaking into and we invested in a heavy duty run with and added extra security measures. Now we currently have 11 Hens and 1 Rooster, Last year I also focused on gardening and I had successfully grown my first crops EVER!

        After putting this little dream on the back burner year after year I decided there is no better time than the present. I looked at our old name and logo that we drew up in 2017 and I felt like it wasn't me. After looking for motivation and trying to find a name for this new adventure I thought of the PERFECT name (ok I'm bias) RED DIRT RANCHETTE!! Red Dirt because, well here in West Texas our dirt is literally red and Ranchette because I had read somewhere that realtor companies use "Ranchette" as a real estate marketing term for a small-scale property, usually on the outskirts of a metropolitan area or city, where the owner may live and also raise some animals as a hobby or for extra income. I mean is this not the PERFECT word for what we are trying to do! 

          Red Dirt Ranchette is a life long dream becoming a reality. It's not really a business adventure its more of a hobby where if i could make extra income that would be great but I'm doing it because this is something I have a passion for and that I've longed to do. I decided to blog it to for a keepsake and to share what I've learned and experienced for those of you who are interested in the same things. I have big dreams ahead that I plan on bringing to life. We're going to grow our flock, expand our garden and we are still looking for land! We're starting from the ground up and I hope our journey will motivate you and show you that it can be done. I hope you enjoy following our journey and that the things we share can also help you!

                                                                                                   -XOXO Shelby 

                                                                                                      Let Her Roam

                                                                                                Red Dirt Ranchette