Who, How, & Why

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.
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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!