All posts by Laura Reed

Laura Reed

About Laura Reed

After 15 years in college athletics, the last seven as an assistant athletics director, I was burned out with 70-hour work weeks and extensive travel. I resigned my position and accepted a position in marketing at a small, vibrant college in my hometown of Unity, Maine. In the process I wanted to go back to my childhood where we raised polled Herefords, had a Christmas Tree Farm and spent many hours outside. I decided I wanted to build my own home on beautiful farmland that my family owns. With help from my Dad, the most talented person I’ve ever met, we are building my home together. I have decided to blog my experience – the ups and downs, the joys and frustrations. What was once an open field will one day be my home! The dream in my head is becoming reality. I can just see the lambs frolicking in the field, chickens in the barnyard and going running with my Alaskan Malamute!

Welcoming Millie

I have spent so much time caring for animals that I haven’t written in a while. We’ve also been able to get some work done on the house recently. Fortunately, there’s a lot to report, including the recent addition of a puppy! In early September, I welcomed an eight-week-old golden retriever puppy into my life. […]

Three times the fun!

If you read my last blog, you might remember that I decided not to breed my lambs that I got last year. At the end of November, I bought a ewe that we believed was pregnant. It’s been a long three and a half months waiting for the lambs. At one point, I thought she […]

Looking forward to little lambs

If you’ve been reading my blog, Laura’s House Journey, you will remember that I had a hard time deciding if I should breed my sheep last fall or not. Everyone that I talked to had a different opinion. My bottle lamb Maggie was too small to breed, so I would have had to separate her. […]

Loving my new pellet stove

Don’t get me wrong. I love my heat pump, but in the dead of winter in Maine, it just doesn’t seem to cut it. When we were building my house, we decided to go with the heat pump as my sole source of heat, knowing that at some point we’d have to supplement it with […]

Doors for the kitchen cabinets

For the first time since March, we made progress on the house this past week. My Dad has been working on making the kitchen cabinet doors. Thursday, on Thanksgiving Day, we decided to put some up. We got three up. He has several more doors that he has made that we need to put up. […]

Fall on the homestead

It’s been a busy fall on the homestead. I’ve spent much more time on the sheep than I have the house. As we spend less and less time outside as the temperature drops, we’ll probably have more time to spend working inside. I learned very quickly that doing chores in the dark is no fun […]

Sheep on the lam

As a shepherd, it has been an education and sobering weekend. I have gained a lot of knowledge but realized that I have a lot more to learn. I was excited to go to the Common Ground Fair this weekend as one of Maine’s leading experts in Katahdin sheep was giving several presentations. Since I […]

Enough of these thunderstorms

I have enjoyed nearly every aspect of my new house. It’s in a great location, there are some amazing neighbors, however they are not too close, and there is plenty of grass for my little lambs to eat. Despite not being finished, I love the house itself. There is one thing, however, that I vehemently […]