Our Story
Established in 2019, TLR Homestead has come a long way since then. When we first decided to take on this homestead journey, little did we know the obstacles that were yet to come.
In the spring 2018 my father decided it was time to sell his home and build an off-grid home where he would spend the rest of his life and retire. He always talked about wanting to make the whole property a small park. He wanted to raise his own animals again, and have a garden. Unfortunately, in December of 2018 my father was diagnosed with end stage pancreatic cancer, and in February of 2019 he got his wings. All of that on top of working an awful 9-5 and trying to keep my sanity I decided to quit my job and move my fiancé and I out to the county and into the home my father had begun building. Immediately I knew we had two things to do; finish the house and be self-sufficient.
At the end of 2019, after deciding to homestead we found some cheap rabbits and used those rabbits to breed for meat. Though they were not the best "meat rabbits" they served their purpose for a short time. We decided to get some better rabbits and found a wonderful heard of New Zealand's and Californians. We started a rabbitry and began breeding. For months I was trying to figure out what I was going to name the rabbitry. My father always used to say, "This place will be The Last Resort." Then it came to me, The Last Resort Rabbitry was born!
Spring of 2021 we decided to get 4 ducks. These ducks ended up being Rouen and Khaki Campbell. 4 ducks eventually grew into a whole flock of about 30 birds. We suspected these birds to be Marans, Mystic Onyx and Australorp. We knew we didn't need all 30 birds, so we picked our favorites and butchered the rest! Now we were able to provide our own rabbit meat, chicken meat, and eggs! This was a huge accomplishment for us, and I thought we were really on a good path.
Shortly into year three we ran into our first tragedy, a fox come in an took out our entire chicken flock except for a pair of Mystic Onyx that managed to find shelter in a cat carrier in the back of the barn. We did end up replacing most of them, but it was still a huge loss. We started a small garden. We had a couple tomato plants, and a few pepper plants. We did an onion bed and garlic bed, however after planting them I soon realized I had planted them at the wrong time of year, needless to say out yield was not verry good.
We got our first dairy goats and started a breeding program. The rabbitry grew bigger, and the small "chicken coop" became much larger once we welcomed our turkeys and quail. The garden has produced higher yields than ever!
Now we are onto year four, and I realized that this was no longer just a rabbitry, this has become a whole homestead. I still wanted to honor my father with his "resort" and decided to just abbreviate the name into TLR Homestead. We honor my father every single day, and we know he would love every bit of what we have made of this property. We are extremely grateful for him and everyone who has helped. The best is yet to come!
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