In March of 2017, my husband Ryan and I tied the knot at our family church in West Michigan. We stood in front of all of our friends and vowed to love each other over and over again. We symbolized this promise to each other by taking the time to plant a tree together during our wedding ceremony to remind ourselves of the commitment this marriage is to us. 

To remind ourselves of our commitment to each other we choose a tree to plant on our property every year. We now have two trees together representing our two years together as husband and wife. Our first year we chose to plant a peach tree to celebrate a fantastic year together full of plenty of surprises both good and bad. This year we chose a plum tree to commemorate our second year together, this year was a giant leap of faith for us. We had no plans to buy this house, we had no plans to have the jobs we do, and we did not plan on even staying in this state. But God had different plans, so now we are here in a little town living out our farmhouse dreams that we never really knew we had. We laugh a lot at what we have accomplished this year and how different our lives would have been but we are so incredibly blessed to have our farm, a thriving marriage, and supportive friends and family so close to home. 

I hear this question every time someone asks us to explain our growing farm, "you have what?" Guinea Hens, we have 5 guinea hens that joined the family in the spring of 2019. They are essential ugly, skinny, chickens that can fly and are natural born ADT alarm systems. Any time if something goes wrong or they get scared you can hear them crow from around the block... it's both awesome and annoying. But, the main reason we chose guinea hens was because of their unique pest control abilities. 

Their appetite thrives around mice, small snakes, and ticks that they kick up in the lawn. All five of them just moved over to their big chick coop this past week, as they are finally old enough to start being more on their own. They also can be great egg layers which are an added bonus!

At this age, they provide great entertainment and herding practice for magnum while we wait for them to grow. Soon they will be big enough to free reign on our two acres working their magic keeping the place pest free!

Hello all & welcome to the start of our crazy journey!
​I am taking a little time to dive into who we are, how we got here, and why on earth are we starting a hobby farm...

We are Jessica and Ryan Hulst, we met in high school back in 2011 and we started dating on my 16th birthday (everyone say "awwww"). We attended different colleges and I studied design at an art school while he studied Biology and Geology at a local college. In 2017 we said our vows at my family's church and celebrated at a beautifully renovated horse barn which my parents owned and operated. We have been together a total of 8 years now and we are just starting to get ahold of this whole relationship/marriage thing. 

Now we are through all the mushy stuff lets fast forward a bit... We impulsively bought and fell in love with this cute little brick home built around the 1900's located on 2 acres surrounded by farm land, literally surrounded, we are the only people on our block. There are also 2 beautiful barns on the property, a large garage, and an old milking parlor that was one of the first in the state. We spent a whole year and a half working with it and piecing it back together with lots of help from family and friends. We did a full gut and renovation completely changing the layout of the home by adding in beams and adding in bathrooms (when we first bought it there was 1 bathroom for 5 bedrooms, now we stand at 2 full bathrooms, 1 1/2 bath, and 4 bedrooms, praise the Lord). We have recently added a 2 year old rescue old English sheep dog named Magnum to our family along with 5 guinea hens and 2 barn cats.

We always talked about living on a farm but it was always just an idea, we never took any steps forward to pursue it. That was until we found this unique farmhouse on a whim skimming through Zillow, everything seemed to make sense and our dreams became a tangible reality to us. So we jumped in with both feet with little to no plan or savings and we took a leap of Faith that this is where we were supposed to be. It has been a struggle if I can be honest, its been strenuous on our new marriage, its been a huge, gigantic, lesson in patience (especially for myself), and its been a test of trust in God that everything was going to work out. So yes, we have little no clue what we are doing but all we know is we are supposed to be here doing this right now, and that is good enough for us.
​
Through all of the mess of homeownership and our crazy little farm so far, we are able to say we are so blessed to start this homestead journey and we are ecstatic to have you come along for the ride!