WELCOME TO BEAR MOUNTAIN FARM!
Like so many other Americans, 2020 compelled us to quit dreaming about homesteading and start doing it. We sold off almost everything we owned in order to make the trans-Pacific journey from Hawaii, where we’d lived for 12 years, to the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. Through sheer determination, hard work, and the Lord’s blessing, Bear Mountain Farm was up and running by the end of 2021.
A friend recently commented to me, “You don’t seem to be the anxious sort!” If only she’d known me before we began this journey. It’s hard to hold onto that existential dread that everything is wrong in our society and that life is meaningless when you’re working towards self-sufficiency, connected to the land and stewarding nature as God intended.
When we first began our regenerative homestead, we looked for breeding stock animals that had both the traits we wanted and were raised the way we’d raise them, and found few to none. Our passion here at Bear Mountain Farm is to fill a niche that is lacking in our industrialized, cost-driven society. We offer like-minded homesteaders the opportunity to acquire their own reasonably priced, holistically raised breeding stock with outstanding genetics. Our specific focus is on slower growing yet more sustainable, hardy, and flavorful Heritage breeds suitable for “backyard” farmers.
Email us today for more information. We look forward to working with you!
- Bob and Lorelei
How did you find Pall Mall, TN?
The short answer: God led us here. Tennessee wasn’t even on our radar when we began our search for our new home, but at some point we ended up looking at a nearby property and fell in love with the people and the community. Since moving here, we’ve built a network of like-minded, regenerative-focused homesteaders in this area. Most of these homesteaders have also moved here within the last few years, and every one of them says the same thing: God led us here. God is at work with us and our community, and we feel blessed to be part of whatever he has in store for this region of Appalachia.
Why “Bear Mountain” Farm?
”BEAR” is an anagram of our children’s initials, so every family venture over the past 25 years has included the name “BEAR”. While we’ve never seen one on our property, bears are common here so it’s likely we have some around - if the dogs haven’t chased them off. Our farm is on the side of a mountain (or a big hill if you’re from the Rockies!), and thus the name: “Bear Mountain Farm”.
What’s your top tip for new homesteaders?
To borrow a popular phrase, just DO it. Yes, do your research first. But at some point you have to jump in with both feet and get that hands on experience, because there’s only so much to be learned from books, videos, or seminars. Don’t worry about creating the perfect plan before you begin, because I can promise you that you’ll end up throwing at least half those plans out the window once you start doing it yourself. Homesteading can be hard, and you will suffer setbacks, but you will also experience joy and satisfaction with each new day. Like everything else in life, we can come up with a million reasons (excuses) to wait. To borrow another popular phrase, the best time to start is yesterday, and the second best time is today. So get to it. It’s not as hard as you think.
So what is the hardest part of homesteading?
People always expect me to say, “Getting up at dawn to feed the animals”, especially those who know that I am not a morning person, but I’ll tell you a secret: the animals don’t care how early they’re fed, so long as they’re fed. And as for letting the chickens out, automatic chicken doors are worth the money, trust me. I think most homesteaders would say that the hardest part of homesteading is when an animal gets hurt, or worse, dies. Most of our losses have been chickens, but I feel each one keenly. We’ve had a stillborn calf, and lost a bottle calf, and a sow. The hardest loss, however, was when I gave in and gave our cats and dogs tick medicine because the ticks are so bad here and I could find no natural solution, and my favorite cat died from a bad reaction to the medication - something I knew was a possibility and why I’d tried to avoid such measures. “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.” When tragedy strikes, I do my best to hold onto the fact that the Lord has given to us abundantly, each and every day. “Blessed be the name of the Lord!”