Sage Hearth Homestead

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January 30, 2026

New Feathered Friends: Our First Chickens at Sage Hearth There’s something quietly magical about the sound of chickens on a slow morning — the gentle clucks, the soft scratching in the dirt, the way they move through the sunlit patches of the yard. This weekend, Sage Hearth gained a small, feathered heartbeat of its own. We picked up five Sapphire Gem pullets — four black with a glimmering green sheen and one a soft lavender-grey — and brought them home to a little coop that’s seen better days but has a lot of potential. It’s nothing fancy, just a small, second-hand coop with character, waiting for a little TLC. But, as with so much here, that’s part of the charm. Slowly, steadily, we build, we fix, and we create a home that feels alive. A small, second-hand coop full of potential — our new hens’ first home at Sage Hearth. These girls are already settling in beautifully. There’s a rhythm to having chickens, a gentle structure to the day. Morning greetings, curiou...

Silage, Storms, and a New Old Cottage

January 23, 2026

Silage, Storms, and a New Old Cottage The past few weeks at Sage Hearth have felt full — not loud or dramatic, just quietly demanding. The kind of weeks where everything seems to hinge on one job being finished before the next can begin, where the weather dictates the pace, and where small moments of humour and comfort carry you through. The First Silage Cut This season marked our first ever silage cut here, and we only had one paddock to do — but it was a critical one. That paddock sits at the bend of the L-shape of our land, and until it was cut, a surprising amount of work was on hold. Anything that needed to happen out the back required us to pass straight through it. Shearing sheep. Moving stock. Dealing with fallen branches and trees. Beginning proper weed management in the back paddocks — poison hemlock, buttercup, stinging nettle — all of it had been waiting patiently for this one job to be done. Conventional hay bales might have been more practical for use,...

Painting Sage Hearth Cottage: Choosing the Colour and Seeing it Come to Life

January 11, 2026

After the exhausting prep work, it was finally time for the next stage: giving Sage Hearth Cottage a fresh coat of paint. Choosing a colour turned out to be a story in itself. From the start, Ben and I were in agreement: whatever we chose, it needed to feel light, bright, and in keeping with the cottage’s original spirit. During sanding, we made an interesting discovery — the cottage had once been a pale, creamy yellow. Ben’s immediate reaction? A firm, “No. It will look like a schoolhouse.” We went back and forth, weighing our options, until we eventually settled on a pale green. Bright, clean, and peaceful, it feels as though it has always been this way. The colour is a quiet trickster. In direct sunlight, it reads almost white. When the sky is overcast, it deepens to a gentle, earthy green. On blue-sky days, a hint of blue peeks through the green, giving the cottage a soft, playful charm that shifts with the light. It’s subtle, it’s calming, and it feels entirely at home here...

Sage Hearth Cottage: The Hard Work Behind a Fresh Exterior

January 09, 2026

In the last month or two, we’ve been working on one of the biggest — and most noticeable — tasks at Sage Hearth Cottage: preparing the exterior for a fresh lease on life. Ben and I spent long hours after work and on weekends carefully waterblasting, scraping, sanding, and patching. The summer heat pressed down on us, exhaustion was constant, and the work was tough. We knew from the start that everything could not — and would not — be perfect. Still, we did our best with what we had, setting the stage for the transformation the cottage so clearly deserved. There’s an old saying about things having to look worse before they can get better — and it’s true. Seeing Sage Hearth Cottage stripped, patchy, and raw after the waterblasting was genuinely shocking. The familiar walls suddenly looked tired, uneven, and far from the cozy image we carry in our minds. But beneath that stripped-back exterior was potential. Every scrape, every sanded edge, every careful repair laid the groundwo...

A Quiet Season, A Painted Promise

January 07, 2026

We hope a very merry Christmas and a joy-filled New Year was had by you all — full of good food, slow mornings, and the kind of moments that linger a little longer than the calendar allows. You may have noticed we’ve been a little quiet lately, both here on the blog and across social media. Not gone — just deeply tucked into a season of work that required our full attention, our patience, and a willingness to be guided by the weather rather than the calendar. Although we’ve only called Sage Hearth home since July, it didn’t take long to understand that some things ask to be done sooner rather than later. When you arrive somewhere new, you listen first — to the land, to the buildings, to the small signs of what needs care. And when the right window finally opens, you step into the work with both hands. So our days have been shaped by long hours, steady rhythms, and the quiet companionship of the cottage itself. This season wasn’t about rushing or perfection, but ...

December 20, 2025

Spring has well and truly arrived at Sage Hearth, and it hasn’t come quietly. The mix of warmth and rain has sent everything racing skyward — grasses stretching fast, weeds bolting almost overnight, green pressing in from every direction. The land doesn’t ease into spring; it surges, and suddenly there’s a lot to keep up with. The past few weeks have been spent answering that growth with steady, practical work. Ben has been out cutting paths through stubborn wireweed at the edge of the hay paddock, reclaiming the orchard tree by tree, and topping the goats’ paddock so the grass stays fresh, sweet, and good for them. It’s hard, dusty work — the kind that leaves arms aching and boots coated in green — but there’s deep satisfaction in watching order slowly return. It always amuses me how Ben seems to inherit the heaviest tasks. Entirely coincidental, of course. Spring has a way of revealing who’s needed where, and out here, everyone plays their part. This is the rhythm of the...

December 18, 2025

Little DIY Joys and Goat Acrobatics Another wee project ticked off… though every time Ben finishes one thing, I somehow add three more to his list 😅 This time, we crafted a couple of little goat seesaws from old tyres and pallet wood. The babies—Guinevere (Gwen) and Norbert (named by our lovely neighbour)—were equal parts curious and cautious, ready to put them to the ultimate test. All the pieces ready for assembly before heading out to the goat paddock. Ben carefully putting the components together, making sure the seesaws are safe and sturdy for the first test. Mum Ghana had to inspect the seesaw too, making sure it was suitable for her mischievous brood. Norbert cautiously sizing up his very first leap on the seesaw. Baby steps, but big excitement! The second seesaw, even thinner and tippier, proved to be a favourite of both goat kids. Approval granted! Both goat kids gave the ...

December 17, 2025

🐐 Escape Artists on Patrol 🐐 Sometimes, the smallest adventurers make the biggest mornings. Just when you think the homestead is fully goat-proofed… the tiny masterminds strike! 🙃🐐 Earlier this spring, our two miniature Houdinis discovered the one stretch of old wire that we haddnt gotten to in thier paddock. Off they trotted to the patio to deliver a very surprising hello to the cat—who, naturally, was less than thrilled. Into the soft spring drizzle stepped Ben, leather hat perched on his head, boots squelching in the wet grass, hands ready to tame the rebellious wires. The goats, of course, claimed their favorite viewing spot a few meters back, tails flicking, ears twitching, clearly judging every move. Ben wrestling with the corner, leather hat on, watched closely by our most critical audience. Tightening wires with precision—and goats approving from afar. Life on the homestead often feels like a playful, whimsical dance between plans and...

December 15, 2025

Making the Most of Tractor Day There are some days on the homestead that feel like magic simply because the right tool shows up at the right time. And when that tool is a tractor… well, you make absolutely the most of it before it heads home. 🚜✨ Before Dad took the tractor back, the three of us — Dad, Ben, and I — squeezed every last minute out of the sunny day, tackling all those little-but-important jobs that just need a bit of mechanical muscle. The kind of jobs that somehow seem endless until you have the right machinery on hand. We dug out hidden stumps lurking in the lawn (the mower will thank us later), levelled a stubborn dip in the front yard, smoothed and added soil to the orchard edges, and pulled a couple of stray fence posts that had been hanging around with no fence attached. Branches from recent trims found their way to the burn pile, and finally, we shifted a heavy concrete trough from the driveway entrance up to the future paddock — ready and waiting for when it’s ...

December 14, 2025

A Quiet Reminder Beneath the Trees Some moments on the homestead don’t announce themselves — they don’t arrive with newborn squeaks or a clatter at the gate or any kind of urgency. Instead, they slip in softly, usually when we’re rushing, and tap us lightly on the shoulder as if to say, slow down… look here. We were only meant to be moving the sheep. A simple job, one of those quick errands you tuck between bigger tasks, especially in late spring when the days stretch long and the to-do list somehow stretches even longer. But as we cut through the bush, the world changed pace around us. The light fell in warm, dappled patches — those golden pockets that only appear this time of year, when the sun sits just right and the undergrowth shakes off the last of winter’s heaviness. Moss draped from branches like soft green lace, the air smelled faintly sweet, and everything felt unhurried in a way I hadn’t realised I needed. And then — tucked low in the grass, quiet but impos...

December 12, 2025

A Double Dose of Tiny Hooves at Sage Hearth Spring always feels like a deep exhale here on the homestead—long light, soft air, and the sense that everything is waking up at once. But nothing marks the season quite like the arrival of new life in the paddocks. Early November brought that magic twice over, and now that the whirlwind of spring kidding has settled, we can finally share the newest little souls to join our herd. Guinevere was the first to make her appearance, bright-eyed and brimming with personality before she’d even mastered her balance. Small but absolutely certain of herself, she took to the world with a determined little skip, testing her springy legs and inspecting every corner as though she were conducting an official survey. There’s something endlessly entertaining about a kid who already behaves like she has important places to be. A few days later came Ghana’s wee boy, who arrived quickly one afternoon while we were busy paving the front entrance. As Ben and ...

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