Freedom Ranch Homestead
Who We Are
Our dream of leaving city life behind and living off the land in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia became a reality in October 2020. We were fortunate to find a spectacular piece of property that exceeded what we had ever envisioned to create a working ranch, with animals living their best life.
What We Do
Beginning with no shelter, electricity or running water, we worked diligently over the last 4+ years to build our homestead.
We fell in love with the property for the spectacular views, open pasture land, and forested acreage, but knew it was going to be hard to create the dream we had envisioned for our family.
After building a yurt (for temporary living), our log home and the necessary infrastructure, we welcomed various animals to our family. Moving to the land with 2 German shepherds, we have since added 3 cats, 4 horses, 5 goats, 3 sheep (whom have had lambs), countless chickens, a herd of cattle that keeps growing, and huge hogs who provide precious piglets.
We started documenting the entire process for our family and friends on our YouTube channel, Freedom Ranch Homestead, which has grown to over 64,000 subscribers following us on our journey.
We are now also dedicating our efforts to our new nonprofit, The Refuge at Freedom Ranch, to provide at-risk youth with a fun, relaxed experience with animals on the farm and opportunities to learn and compete in reined cow horse competitions.
Our Charity
The vision for The Refuge at Freedom Ranch is to pair horses (and other farm animals) with at-risk youth from the surrounding counties of southwest Virginia in a therapeutic environment.
We believe the natural beauty at Freedom Ranch is an ideal setting for finding peace and restoration for those in need. Our desire is to cultivate an environment of healing through the profound bond between child and animal, as they learn to trust through the compassionate guidance of dedicated and trained mentors - all the while nurturing their faith in Jesus Christ.
Discover how we plan to utilize our incredible property in Floyd and Carroll Counties to empower children from drug-addicted families through horsemanship and ranch skills. Our long-term vision is to support the children in future horsemanship competitions, all the while teaching them tools and giving them the confidence to break the generational cycle of addiction.
Our Practices
We were recently awarded a land management grant to enhance forestry management and protect water resources by adding fencing and wells for animal use. We have several forested acres for our hogs to root and roam in, a large enclosed run for our chickens to safely peck around in, and added functional pasture for rotational grazing for our cattle to graze on.
We are raising our own meat for consumption to become more self-reliant, as well as to be certain we are getting the healthiest source of nutrition for our family. After seeing how the commercial meat industry treats the animals, injecting them with hormones and antibiotics (as well as cramped living conditions), we are taking responsibility to ethically raise our meat. If the animal is stressed and unhealthy, then it can't be healthy to eat. We love and appreciate our animals, giving them the best life possible and then giving thanks to them when they provide for us.
Make a donation
Your tax deductible donation is greatly appreciate! All donations go directly to the Refuge at Freedom Ranch to help at-risk youth in the SW mountains of Virginia.
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