Together my husband Dan and I have 160 acres of land three miles off of the Pembina River in Brazeau County, Alberta, Canada. We live one mile down the gravel road, around the bends and tucked in behind a lovely tree line. The closest town, Drayton Valley, is a twenty minute drive and the big city of Edmonton is East of us by an hour and half. Our home is a one story ranch bungalow that Dan purchased and that we have spent the last five years turning into our own little humble abode.
We have sixteen acres of fenced pasture land, which includes the house and yard. We have a large vegetable garden, a little fruit tree orchard in the making and a couple rows of berries starting our own little berry patch. Our newly installed greenhouse sits beside all of this facing our little apiary of three hives, with another two hives hiding across the yard. Dan put a lot of hard work and planning into our lovely fire pit and seating area and it makes for a great outdoor space for entertaining.
Our hope is to one day fill the pasture with all sorts of creatures and build ourselves a lovely little barn to house them. All in good time. For now, we raise chickens for eggs and entertainment, love on our three little pigs, spend time with the donkey boys and alpacas out back and take leisurely walks through the goat pen. We raise our own meat hogs and chickens over the Summer months for Fall butcher and keep honeybees. We also shear our two alpaca each Spring and have the fiber spun into our very own yarn.
We have spent a lot of time on our land, clearing cut lines and creating new trails through the bush. We have come across several old trails used for logging years and years ago.Dan dug a water hole out by one of our clearings in the bush and it has really helped to bring in all sorts of wildlife. We have trail cameras at three locations on our land and I always love to see what kind of animals have wandered into our backyard. We have been fortunate enough to see many deer, a resident bull moose that has taken up living in our marshy clearing, a cow elk, a cougar, the odd coyote and a lynx. I love what mother nature has to offer and how we live as one with nature right in our very own backyard.
