About

Rob and Virginia Schwalen

Rob has a background in residential and commercial water treatment. He is also a talented tile setter and upholsterer. Not to mention he can fix just about anything and build just about anything.

Virginia taught elementary and middle school art, high school Biology, and Earth Science for Currituck County Public Schools for 29 years. She loves the science of agriculture and is looking forward to applying sustainable methods on the farm.

How it all began:

We began our homestead adventure in 2011 on our 5/8 of an acre suburban back yard in Currituck County North Carolina. We started with raising rabbits for meat because we had read it was very healthy meat and the rabbit poo was the best fertilizer in the world for a garden. We expanded from there to include laying chickens, meat chickens, turkeys, and quail. The garden kept expanding too, from two raised beds to six and a small grove of apple trees, black berry patch, and blueberry patch. Soon our backyard become our grocery store.

We continued to expand our urban homestead and grow a good bit of our food. Then we began to dream of a sustainable small farm and moving to a much simpler life. We kept looking near our home and we just could not find anything affordable or what we wanted.

Then 2020 happened. Our Son and his girlfriend fled New York City and moved in with us. They are chefs and their world had come crashing down . The six large raised beds were not enough. We dug up a very large portion of our backyard and quickly realized we had outgrown our suburban homestead.

Still thinking that things would return to normal in a few months , but also knowing that life is short, we fast tracked our pursuit of a small farm. We had visited our daughter in Pittsburgh a few times and loved the countryside surrounding the city. We found our farm after many 9 hour trips back and forth.

January 1st 2021 we moved in one of the worst ice storms anyone had seen in a while. With the help of our dear friend Roger we got there in one piece. Two cats, 13 chickens, 35 rabbits ,and 30 quail all made it. The cats were not happy.