Life along the Countryside

Making cheese

2010-01-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

With my fresh goats milk, I have been making cheese. It it so delicious and surprisingly easy to make. Goats milk is widely available at most grocery stores and just about anyone can make it. Here is the recipe that I use:
* 1 gallon of goats milk
*1 qt of buttermilk
*rennet
*thermometer
You whisk the goats milk,buttermilk and rennet together. heat on medium until the temperature reaches 170 degrees. If you do not have a thermometer you could probably heat it until it separates from the whey. Once it has separated you will have huge curds floating in a liquid. I leave it sit over night or at let 12 hours. In the morning, I drain it in a strainer with very small holes. I stain it for about 15 minutes. Then I mix in salt. Then I put it in a plastic container. There is still a little liquid, but that gives it more flavor. We eat it with pita bread either cold or warmed. Both ways are equally very delicious!

I buy the rennet of of Etsy from this seller HERE. Here rennet is vegetable base and works very well. She sent me a sample of another culture that makes yogurt or cream cheese spread. It is good too! She has all kinds of cheese making supplies.

A Winter Wonderland

2009-12-27T15:17:00.001-08:00

The winter here has been very intense. Even though I grew up in rural Indiana, I spent my entire adult life in sunny Florida. This is our second year in the winter. I think it still takes some getting use to. This weekend, the temperatures are suppose to be 20 below. I hope my animals survive it. May Allah protect them and keep them warm. Here are some pictures of my farm. Notice the before and after of my barn.

Milking Goats

2009-12-27T14:59:00.001-08:00

Milking goats are alot of fun! We have four now, Alhamdolilah, Two of them are producing milk, and two of them are pregnant. My husband and son built this nice milking stand. The goat gets on the stand, and we lock the wood piece around her neck. She is eating corn out of the bucket and most of the time pretty happy while I get the milk out. When I first tried it, it was hard to do. You have to push the milk up and then pull it down to the pan. It definitely has an art to doing it right. The kind of goates we have are called Limocha. If you notice, they have these ity bity tiny ears. It looks like we chopped their ears off. However, this is how God created them. We chose these goats because they are known to be the most calm. I have been making cheese from their milk and it is very delicious. Once I take some pictures, I will show you my cheese making adventure.

Fasting on the Farm

2009-09-29T05:18:00.001-07:00

This is our second Ramadan on our farm. This year, our farm is more established with animals. when we are fasting, the animals can be quite bothersome. I usually like to go back to sleep for a short time after the Fajr. Roosters, chickens, guinea hens, ducks and geese are just waking up and making all kinds of rukus. We have a mini rooster and he has a high pitch crow that goes on and on. Each morning we would take him from the barn and put him in a cage so he could not come near the house. Also during Ramadan, our garden was growing fast and we did not have enough time to eat it all. Therefore, most of the zuccini and tomatoes are in my freezer. I made relish and pickles from my cucumbers. We should still be enjoying the garden veggies until spring again!

God Blesses Our Garden

2009-08-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

This was our first family experience with a garden. I think it was a blessed one too! We planted tomatoes, peppers, herbs, pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers and zucchini. We also planted Jews Mellows. In Arabic this is called Moolookheya. It is a green leafy plant that I can only describe it similar to spinach. You stew it with chicken or lamb. It is not ready to be picked yet. I am hoping that it is really good. A garden is a great hobby for a family. I recommend it for any family. It is great exercise also. When I would go pull weed each evening, I used muscles that I did not know I even had. After all the work, it is so rewarding to go and pick all the goodies. It is even better to cook all the good things up and eat them!

Barn Swallows

2009-08-20T05:56:00.001-07:00

Barn Swallows are just amazing creatures created by God. They usually start arriving in the spring. They build these amazing nests from mud and grass. They are all over our barns. After they build their nests, they have to put soft bedding down for their eggs. They collect chicken and duck feathers from all around the farm and carry them up into their nests. They lay about 4 eggs in each nest. It is hard to photograph them because their nests are so high up. Even if I can reach them, they are so close to the ceiling that I cannot get my camera in there. Well, feeling a little like a wildlife photographer, I climbed into semi-dangerous spots to photograph a couple of babies. My 11 year old daughter snapped a few of these too. Apart from being excellent builders, these birds are wonderful at flying. They glide and move like no other bird I have seen. Every time my cat goes out, they swoop down so fast and hit her that she does not even see them coming. Barn swallows are protected birds here in Nebraska. Their main diet is flies. Anything that eats pesky flies, I am all for protecting!

A few more flowers on the farm

2009-07-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

Even though it is summer, the flowers are abundant here in the prairies. This first picture is of wild chamomile. It smells so good! I have picked a bunch of it, dried it out, and I am storing it for the winter. I think it makes a perfect winter drink! This other picture reminds me of green feathers.

Are you able to spot a bee or butterfly on any of these flowers?

Mirror Mirror on the wall

2009-07-10T19:11:00.001-07:00

We were installing an air conditioner into the kitchen window, and we had to remove part of the window. Well, I spotted my female guinea hen looking at her reflection. She was spending all her time grooming, preening and looking at her beautiful self. It is really quite ironic because if you have ever gotten real close to these birds they are not real pretty. They look very prehistoric and could pass for a dinosaur. They have a horn on their head, very pruney wrinkled skin and some kind of long hair. My children were so amused by her need to see her beauty that they eventually put a small mirror for her. Her and her husband spend a few hours a day in front of it admiring themselves.

A little gratefulness to GOD and a lot of MULBERRIES

2009-06-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

When we first bought our house, we found one lone mulberry tree on our property. Our property was very overgrown, and it was very difficult to see what we actually had. However, we were so excited by this single tree. There was not much left on it because it was the end of the season. My whole family praised God for this one tree. We began fertilizing it and taking extra special care of it. We could not wait for the next season of berries. After the long winter, the buds started to emerge from this wonderful blessed tree. We watched as the green berries also started to form. Were are still praising God for what berries we will get. Little did we know that not only did we have this wonderful little berry tree that Allah had blessed us with, but we also had 49 more of them. We have so many mulberry trees on the property that we cannot possibly pick and eat all of them. We have invited people from our masjid to come pick some this weekend. I hope they will share in our blessed berries. We have really been enjoying them. We eat them right from the tree or we pick a bunch and eat them. We place a blanket under the branches and shake them. This way we get alot at one time. I have made a few sweets with them. The first one pictured with the red on top is called Balooza. It is from Syria. First, you make a milk like pudding. I use a pint of 1/2 and 1/2 cream and a pint of whole milk. I boil it with three heaping spoons of starch. Once it boils, it will thicken, and I add rose water and sugar to my liking. I like it sweet! I then pour them into bowls. They look really pretty in clear glass. I let it cool just a little. I then use any kind of juice you like about 1 pint. I used Sunny D cherry and orange. You also boil it with starch. Once it thickens leave it sit for a bit to cool slightly and then pour it over your white milk mixture. You can then add berries, whipped cream or whatever looks nice to garnish it. Last, place in the fridge for a while to set. The other desert is just the white milk part of the first sweet. It is called Mahalabeeya. You can garnish it with fruit, nuts or whipped cream. I love how it looks almost as much as I love how it tastes. I guess the lesson I learned from my little tree was that my family and I where so grateful to God for this little tree. I believe that Allah sent us more trees filled with berries for our appreciation. I think that when we are grateful for the little things, God will send us BIG things! I also learned that mulberries stain everything! They stain the sink, the clothes and especially your hands. So do not pick mulberries in clothes that are too nice.

More Spring Flowers

2009-06-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

I really love to photograph nature. All of these beautiful flowers where photographed around my farm, my friend's farm and along the rodesides here in Nebraska.

Spring Babies

2009-06-03T05:47:00.001-07:00

Assalam alykom:

I am a little late with this post since it is around summer now. Here are a few babies that are around my farm. The rabbit my son is holding is a wild rabbit. It was so cute! We put it back where we found it. The little chick was hatched by my duck. She started to lay her eggs in the chicken coop. So, she laid on a few chicken eggs with her duck eggs and this little chick hatched. The nest of robin eggs was found in one of our barns. I just love the color of them.

Spring on the Farm

2009-05-25T05:47:00.001-07:00

I just love spring flowers. I try to take a picture of every flower there is on my farm. I discovered that I had lilacs, which is one of my favorites! I brought them in many time and filled my vases.

Our New Kids

2009-04-06T05:42:00.001-07:00

Some of our goats finally kidded. The whole family witnessed the birth of one goat. She delivered three kids. For homeschooling, biology does not get any better. The kids where amazed at how a baby comes out. However, they where also disgusted when she starts to lick them clean. It was a big ordeal that day. It was 0 degrees outside, and we were so afraid they would freeze to death. We found the mother goat in labor. We decided to drag her across the property and bring her to our sun porch. After they were all delivered, we took them all to a cozy room in one of our barns. Later that day, the kids went to check on the other goats and another one had delivered four kids. One died shortly after being born. We also moved her to the same room. There is still another pregnant goat left. She was very upset to see her friends go. So, we put her in the room too! After a few days, we moved them all back to their big barn and pasture. Unfortunately, another kid died. He was very small at birth and just was not strong enough. He was my favorite and was the cutest one. As the week progressed, we noticed that one goat had a very hard udder and she looked in pain. The kids and I loaded her up in the back of the van and took her to the vet. He said she had an infection and needed medicine. He said she would need help feeding her babies. We have had to bottle feed some of them to help her out. They are so friendly because of this and the kids love to go in the pasture to play with them. It has been a month now and there is still a third goat to deliver. The goats are nice, but they are not dairy goats. Therefore, there is not enough for us to milk them. They are meat goats. We are not much for eating goats. We prefer sheep for eating. I suppose we will keep a few as pets and then sell the rest. It has been a wonderful experience raising these animals.

Chickens, Ducks, Geese and Their Eggs

2009-04-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

Some of our animals have really interesting behavior.My children are making so many observations and learning so much! Our geese are probably the most interesting in their behavior. When we first got them, the girl goose(also called a goose. The boy is called a gander)
laid an egg right in the middle of the barn. The kids found it and at first glance was not sure what it was because it was so large. Well, it was very cold weather, and she laid it in the middle of everything. So,we decided to eat it. It has a milder taste than the chicken egg, and the white part is very transparent. I was not to crazy about eating it, but my kids where very excited to try.

After eating a couple of the goose eggs, she started laying her eggs in the chicken nesting box. Well, the chickens do not like the geese because they are mean and always bite them. So, revenge is in order. They would peck her eggs open and eat them. Well, a week later, she decides to make a nest in my basement window. There are decorative rocks around the house there. She has pulled all the rocks in there and made a nest. We brought her some hay and she pulled it in there too. She also seems to be pulling her feathers out and using them. This is still not the safest place. She sometimes gets up in the early morning when it is dark and she eats. At this time, something is crawling in there and stealing an egg. So far, two have disappeared this way. Another time, I was organizing the basement, and I saw a chicken in the window instead of the goose. The chickens had got in there and where pecking an egg and eating it. They must still want their revenge. Finally, she seems to be settling in there. We have three eggs in the window, and she only gets off of them once in a day in the late afternoon. Before she started laying her eggs, the male goose was so aggressive. Now, he spends his days alone while she sits on her nest. He is very quite now and does not say much. However, if we go look at her she starts honking, and he comes running and hissing at us. There is a picture here of him, and he is so funny!

Another egg story we have is our attempt to hatch eggs in the incubator. We have goose, duck, and chicken eggs in the incubator. I am hopeful they will all hatch, but it is entirely experimental at this point. The other picture is the eggs in the nesting box. Everyone favors one box, and everyone is laying their eggs in it. There is both duck and chicken eggs. They seem to be laying good. but no one sits on them. So, they where ice cold. Well, I just collected them and took them inside for eating. We tried the duck egg too. The same as the goose egg. I was not thrilled about eating it and prefer chicken eggs only!

A few new birds

2009-03-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

I have been so busy with homeschooling and my farm, that I have not been able to give time to my blogs. We have a few new additions to our farm. We bought a few more chickens, a pair a guinea hens and a pair of white geese, and one turkey. The chickens are laying lots of eggs, and we are enjoying eating them. The guinea hens are scared most of the time, but they make beautiful sounds. The geese are very aggressive and chase and hiss at everyone on the farm. The kids have to show them who is boss. My little girls are especially venerable. They are about the size of the geese and the geese feel comfortable running them down. I told the girls to flap your arms and run at them when they do that to you. This seems to work, but when the girls are not paying attention the geese sneak up to them. It is funny and the girls love to chase them back. There is a sad story about our turkey. He was staying in the big barn in the back behind some boards. He felt comfortable in there so we let him. One morning we went out to feed everyone, but we could not find the turkey. I found alot of his feathers, but not him. Later that morning, we found his body in the pasture with his chest and head gone. I asked my local vet because I was afraid it was coyotes. I would then fear for my children. He said coyotes would eat it if it was already dead in the pasture, but they would unlikely enter the barn and kill it. He said that a raccoon would do this though. Sure enough a few days later after I prayed Fajr, I saw the raccoon in the pasture. It looked about 35-40 pounds. He is now on our hit list. I do not want it to kill any of my other birds. Our goats have finally kidded. So stay tuned for me to load up the cute pictures.

The Newest Member to our Farm

2009-01-23T06:50:00.000-08:00

Assalam alykom:

We now have a male sheep for our little farm. We have 1 white female hair sheep and 1 female wool sheep. We just got this little guy who is a hair sheep. We are going to slaughter the wool sheep for meat and keep our herd all hair sheep. They will be much easier to take care of in the summer because you do not have to clip the wool. Our goats still have not had their kids. We will be so excited when they do. Every day we go and feed them and think that they had them. I will be posting the pictures as soon as they arrive.

My Pita Bread

2009-01-23T06:31:00.001-08:00

Assalam alykom:

Well, Pita bread is an essential staple to an Arabic household, and since the nearest Arabic store is 2 hours away, I needed to learn how to make my own. I have a bread machine and this makes it a little quicker and a lot easier. Here is the recipe I use. I got it off the Internet.

*3 1/2 cups of white bread flour. I also made brown pita bread. I made it with half brown flour and half white bread flour.

*1 1/2 cups of warm water

* 1 teaspoon of salt

*1 teaspoon of sugar

*1 teaspoon of olive oil

*2 1/4 teaspoon of yeast

I put all of the ingredients in my bread machine on the dough cycle. This cycle mixes it, kneads it and rises it one time. Once it is finished, I take it out on a floured surface. I then divide it into 8 small balls. I let these balls rise for about a half an hour. They will rise a little and then I will roll each one out. The oven must be very hot. I put it on about 500 to 525. I have an iron skillet inside the oven getting hot. I place each bread one at time to cook. It only takes about 1 minute or two. You have to watch it. The puff right up and look real nice. I let them coll and they taste really wonderful. Because I do not add any preservatives like in the stores, they are fresh for about a day or two at most. I tried making a whole bunch and freezing them, but they where not so fresh. Now, I just make a batch every other day and we always have fresh bread.

Yougart Balls

2009-01-22T07:07:00.001-08:00

Assalam alykom:

Well, with the closest Arabic market being two hours away, you need to either stock up or make your own. At first, I stocked up. The stock is gone and now I need to make my own. I make my own yogurt and I can do many things with it. This is how I make my own yogurt:

1. You bring milk or cream or half/half to a boil. If you use cream, it will be very rich and tasty.

2. Let the boil milk come to room temperature. I do this by sticking my finger in it and counting to ten. If I can tolerate the heat up to ten it is good.

3. Once it is room temperature, add store bought plain yogurt. I use Dannon or Stoney farms. For a small pot , I use 1/2 the tub of yogurt. Stir in the yogurt, put a lid on it and wrap it in a towel. Keep it covered for at least 24 hours. You can keep it covered for up to three days. The longer you leave it the more sour it becomes.

4. Once the yogurt has set and finished, I start my balls. I drain the yogurt in a cloth or paper towels for at least 2 days.

5. Once it is drained and of clay consistency, I roll them into balls and set them on paper towels. I leave them for another day.

6. Once they are dried a little, I put them in a jar of olive oil.

It takes a while to make, but they are worth it. They are very tasty for breakfast with a hot cup of tea and pita bread. I just started making my own pita bread too. When I have a chance I will load up the pictures.

Our Snow Man

2009-01-02T07:47:00.001-08:00

Assalam alykom:

Here is our first snowman! The kids had a bunch of fun making him

Did you know this?

2008-12-23T18:46:00.001-08:00

Assalam alykom:

My family and I are learning so much about animals and the outdoors. Do you know what this picture is? Will it looks like the feet of a strange creature. Well, we discovered that it is wild rabbit tracks. The two in the front are the rabbits front paws. The one spot in the back is his back feet. They look like one foot because the rabbit keeps his two back feet together when he hops. Did you know that ducks have no nerves in their feet. When we see our ducks swimming in a bucket of water and it is freezing cold, we are not feeling sorry for them anymore. Allah equips them in this manner so they can endure cold water. They also have very thick feathers so they do not even feel the water touch them. We learned this when researching some of the animals we have on our farm.

Did you know that it is good that an animal is shivering when it is cold? Well, I was feeling really sorry for my sheep and goats when I saw them shivering on those below zero days. However, I discovered that if the animal does not shiver that means it is suffering from hypothermia. The shivering is a way the body reacts to the cold and keeps the animal warm.

Did you know that a rooster can get frost bite? Well, I would have never thought of this especially since my chickens and roosters do not even leave the barn because of the cold. However, my rooster does have frost bite. It does not seem to bother him because he is not lethargic. However, the kids still feel sorry for him and he has spent a few nights in my basement. We have made their roosting room as warm as possible, but he is very large and has a huge comb on his head. It was reading that the larger birds are more prone to it. Keep reading my blog and you might learn more right along with us.

Organic Eid

2008-12-23T18:36:00.001-08:00

Assalam alykom:

I have been very excited about having more organic meat, eggs and vegetables in our diet. We slaughtered one of our sheep for the Eid. She was 100% organic. She was fed only corn, alfalfa and grass. The meat looked so different. It was very red when I was organizing it to put in my freezer. I cooked some of it with rice this week. Sometimes, sheep can have a strong smell when you cook it. This one did not and it was the best tasting meat that I have ever had. When we lived in Florida, it was a hassle to slaughter for the Eid. It was always very crowded and one sheep was over $200.00. This year was very easy. We just took her from our pasture and that was it. We have three pregnant goats pictured here. Once they deliver, I will be experimenting with getting their milk and making yogurts and cheese. It will be a learning curve I am sure, but I am looking forward to it.

Snow on the farm

2008-12-19T18:55:00.001-08:00

Assalam alykom:

After living in Florida for over 20 years and all of my adult life, I think even a little snow can be overwhelming. However, we have about a foot of snow and huge drifts. This is my driveway and from where I am taking the picture is my big barn and this is where my van is parked(TRAPPED). I started to shovel my way to the road, which is way passed the shed you see in the picture, but I grew tired after three hours. I decided to try again the next day. Well, the next day had shown all of my shoveling efforts to be gone. There was a great deal of wind overnight, and my driveway was once again totally buried. Our friends came with their four wheeled drive, and with a great deal of of shoveling, pushing and a chain that pulled us, we were finally able to get my van to the end of the driveway. I think it will be my parking spot for most of the winter. Later that evening, a neighbor came by with a huge plow and offered to plow the entire driveway. Al hamdolilah! The rest of the pictures, I took during the snowfall. My daughter made the comment when we went outside that she felt like she was inside a giant snow globe. The flakes were so big and she felt that someone had just shook up the globe and she was on the inside looking out. I thought that was such a neat description of what she was feeling. Well, I hope the winter is easy for us former Floridians.

The dark side of a farm

2008-12-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

The bright side of farm life is the fact that it is full of life. There are chickens, ducks and animals. There are eggs being laid and baby animals being born. There are wild berry trees, fruit trees and nuts. There are gardens and flowers being planted. With all of this life, the dark side is death. It is inevitable that death will occur on a farm. It can be quite emotional. This emotions are very great when your attached to some of this life. When we first came to our farm, my friend gave us a chick. She was very sweet and so friendly. She was getting quite big and her cage was to messy to keep her in the house. She had a very large cage and we decided to put it outside right next to our back door. It was during Ramadan, and I was up preparing the food in the morning. I checked on the chick, and she was fine. As we were eating, I heard her cry. It was too late. There was a feral cat that had grabbed her through the cage. This was our first death. The kids were all crying, but it was soon healed with a little time and twelve new chickens. Our next story is about a young sheep. We got our first new sheep. There were four, andthey were all young sheep. Three of them were around 4 to 6 months. One was a baby who had been orphaned. His mother had died from a bug bite. He was doing great when we first got him. However, we think that he had ate more than he was used to and became sick. He was our second death. The kids were sad, but better than the chicken. The most recent death was my friends' horse. My friends had brought one of their large horses to my pasture. The horse had been nursing her baby and the baby was ready to be weaned. The mother horse had become very thin from the nursing and she was also older. While she was in my pasture she did not seem to gain weight. Last week, she must have felt ill and sat on the ground. It was very cold and she was unable to get up after that. After spending the entire day with the vet trying to get her better, she died. This is all what can happen with life on the farm. I think that I do not want to have too many animals as pets. The attachment to them is really hard when something happens to them.

Our Ducks

2008-11-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

My friend has so many ducks. When we visited them, my husband cornered a male and female. Now they are the new residnets on our farm. Well, they are kind of camera shy. They just would not turn around for the picture. They are really cute! Be sure to see my other blog for a great craft about ducks!

Our Goats

2008-10-31T07:05:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:

We now are venturing into goats. I do not really like them for their meat. I prefer sheep. However, I do love the milk for cheese and yogurt. I really know nothing about goat milking. I am sure it will be a big learning process for the whole family. All three goats are pregnant and we might be starting our milking adventure soon. Goats have more personality and are much smarter than sheep. we have had them less than a week and they have been out of the fencing three times already. They went right to where we store their corn, took the lid off the can, and they were feasting. They are pretty tame, and the kids love them. The white one with the beard lets us pet her the most. I cannot wait till they have their babies. They must be so cute!

More chickens

2008-10-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Well, we added more chickens. We now have ten hens and two roosters. I thought I would get more eggs now. Well, I have had them for two weeks and no eggs. Someone told me they do not lay eggs as much when it is cold. When we got the new chickens we got these little tiny chickens. One is the rooster and the black one is a hen. SubhannaAllah, how Allah makes creatures of different sizes!

I Love the View

2008-10-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom

I love the rolling hills that I can see from my front porch. I captured this picture of the moon as it was rising just after the sun set. The other picture is the same view, but it was in the morning as the sun was rising.

Borrowed Mowers

2008-10-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom

When we purchased our home, it had been left unkept and over grown for a long time. We have quite alot of overgrown pasture. Our few little sheep could never clear it out. Therefore, our friends thought that they would bring three of their horses over to help out a little. Two of them are ponies and the kids and I are really enjoying petting them everyday!

Our Chickens

2008-10-10T21:12:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom

We got our chickens, Alhamdolilah! Our frinds brought them over as a gift. I love the rooster! He is so big and beautiful. We had 4 hens, but I think a chicken hawk swooped down and got one. We are down to three. I just love the fresh eggs. they lay about one per day. I think if we got a few more hens, it would be better and I would get more eggs faster. My kids have already checked books out at the library on the chickens. They want to know how to raise and care for them.

Animals, Birds, and Bugs

2008-09-19T08:42:00.002-07:00

Assalam alykom:

Here is our small flock of "Organic" sheep. There are three young sheep and one baby who was an orphan. The kids were bottle feeding him at first, but now he can eat all by himself.

Some creatures I do not like. Take these creepy spiders.

My son brought this one in to show me. Wow, it is so beautiful, but I had the shivers at the thought of holding it. It is a garden spider and good to keep on the outside of the house.

These are little barn swallow babies that I found in the barn. They are sooooo adorable!

This is our new kitten. Her name is Sweety or Sicarah in Arabic. She is so good with the kids and they just adore her.

Life along the Countryside

2008-09-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Welcome to my new blog. We just purchased a very old farm house out in the countryside in Nebraska. The house is on a little over six acres and has a few barns. For so long I have wanted a property like this. I have been longing for a more organic life. I really want to grow my own vegetables, raise my own chickens for eggs, have a small heard of sheep for meat and enough room for my kids to run and play. Well, Allah has richly blessed my family and I with a homestead to fulfill these dreams. Al-Hamdolilah!