From Productive Rabbits, To Large Family Milk Cows, Starting Your Own Hobby Farm Will Satisfy Your Desire To Homestead!

We feel that agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry should be a part of family life. Plus these are really fun things to practice. 

We have always had a hobby farm. We have been raising Angora rabbits for over 10 years. We have had a few sheep to support the fiber that we receive from the rabbits. In the past we had a sweet jersey cow but in recent years we have downgraded to 10 Nigerian dwarf goats.

The newest member to our hobby far is our KuneKune pig. Even the family dog and cats have their place on the hobby farm. Animals have been a big part of our life.

Pets not only teach responsibility but they also teach generosity and instill an appreciation for God's creation. Other animals that we have cared for at the Industrious Family Hobby Farm include, honey bees, goldfish and chickens.

Interested in starting your own hobby farm? Read all about our pets and how we care for them below...

Have You Ever Wanted To Be A Homestead Family? Transform Your Hobby Farm Into A One Acre Homestead!

Family Milk Cow: There's a lot more to owning a family milk cow than having fresh milk. That’s not all your moo can do. Learn about numerous fresh dairy products plus the joys and how tos of owning a cow.

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Angora Rabbits: Fluffy, irresistibly soft, and great pets...we love angoras. They have personality plus and give us skeins of luxurious yarn to make gorgeous gifts. Consider welcoming one these fluff balls into your household.

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Backyard Hive: Besides being interesting specimens, other benefits of backyard beekeeping include delicious honey, wax, and having pollinators fly about your flower and vegetable gardens.

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Raw Wool: Do you have raw wool just waiting to be cleaned but you just don’t know how to do it? Here is a step by step guide on how to clean a fleece!

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Angora Fiber: Shearing and spinning Angora fiber is something anyone can learn to do on the hobby farm. Adults and teens alike can enjoy harvesting wool in a humane and enjoyable way.

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Fiber Art: Learning fiber art handicrafts is a skill the entire family can enjoy and take pride in. Caring for wool producing animals, spinning wool, and crocheting all has its place on the hobby farm.

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Loom: Weaving on a loom is fun and rewarding. Discover how to use one and experience a sense of accomplishment when making a handmade item for your home or to give as a gift.

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Raising Angoras: Once you get hooked on shearing and spinning Angora wool, you'll need to dive into raising angoras so you can produce enough wool for your fiber art projects.

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Family Gardening: Enjoy this productive pastime: family gardening. Watching things grow and getting food from your backyard is reward enough. Learn the basics here.

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Flower Arranging: Get stunning results when you learn how to arrange flowers with these 5 tips and techniques. Save money decorating for parties and gifting lovely fresh flower arrangements to your friends and neighbors.

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Crochet Supplies: Taking the guess work out of crochet supplies and patterns, this crochet guide shares resources along with fun, easy project ideas. Get your dose of crochet inspiration here.

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Detail A Car: Is the hobby farm transportation vehicle a sour-smelling minivan? Like, pets, cars need attention too. This step by step detail a car guide will lead you through the gratifying process of detailing your car with the help of your kiddos. Save money, build character and enjoy a job well done!

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House Pets: We really enjoy our dog and cats. 

Our dog's name is "Ninja" and he is a chocolate lab. He is a huge dog and has become very dear to us. We really enjoy him. He is gentle with the kids and makes us feel safe. 

Toddler-Fah and him are best friends. I think toddlers and dogs have a very special relationship. She feeds him from her highchair and he lets her crawl all over him, and treats her very gently. I love hearing her scold him. It is so funny!

Our cats also bring us a good deal of pleasure. "Thomas" is a tabby and he is very friendly. He loves to sit on laps and lets the little ones pet him. "Johnathan" is much less friendly, but we do enjoy watching him and "Thomas" play. They are so entertaining. The cats also help us as they are very serious mousers. When we moved into our rural home, there was a lot of evidence of mice. Now all we see are dead mice that the cats give as peace offerings to the dog.

Bird Watching: Okay while wild birds aren't really family pets, it is fun to feed them and observe all the wonderfully entertaining things they do.

We loved watching the little bird above take a bath in our bird bath. It was a very cold winter day. Everything was frozen and there was snow on the ground. This girl bathed and bathed herself in the fresh water.

Some of our usual visitors are hummingbirds, red wing black birds, western blue birds, collared Eurasian doves, house finches, and juncos to name a few.

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The Family Aquarium: One of the easiest and most entertaining pets to keep are goldfish. These low maintenance fish are cheap and fun to watch. A small aquarium actually adds to the decor of a room. I love watching them swim around in a clean tank. Fish tanks give a lovely ambience to a library or informal living room.

It is very easy to clean a fishtank. If it sounds like quite a chore to keep an aquarium, you'll discover it is not when you follow these easy cleaning steps:

1. Mark a line on your fish tank with a permanent marker. This line should be marked where your fish tank would be 2/3rds of the way full. Remember to consider the area of water. Make a rough estimate keeping in mind the water starts where the rocks end and at the waterline when your tank is full.
2. Using a small rag, scrub the inside walls of the tank. Then gently stir up the rocks scrubbing the walls by the rocks. Next gently wipe the accessories.
   
3. Now that you have made your tank filthy, remove the water with a pitcher to the line that you marked. You will remove 1/4th to 1/3rd of the water depending on how much has evaporated since your last cleaning. Leaving a lot of "dirty" water is important for the health of the fish. They are used to the composition of that water and mixing it with fresh water of the same temperature is very important.
   
4. Now take the filter out and gently clean it in your kitchen sink with plain water.
   
5. Put the filter back and fill the tank back up with water that is about room temperature. After about 24 hours, you will be surprised how beautifully clean and crystal clear your tank is. We clean our tank about twice a month.