Hatch Farm

We were awakened by the unmistakable sound of a chicken that is not a hen.

After some quick investigating (quick, because puberty for adolescent chickens is much like a switch being flipped that turns a docile hen into a noisy little jerk) we singled out the culprit: Ranch, our cream legbar that was way too pretty to be a she. 
One text to my friend Jenny and she was thrilled to take him. Cream legbars when bred with a Marans or Welsummer, produce F1 Olive Eggers (a highly sought after variety of chicks). Ranch will be a beautiful asset to her flock. I’m sad to not have the land to keep him around. Not sad to say goodbye to the constant crowing. He was super proud of his new trick.

We spent the golden hours touring our friends, John and Jennifer Hatch’s late 1800’s farm in Eureka Springs. The kids were in heaven with an abundance of puppies, kittens, piglets, goats, cows, donkeys, and chickens to hold and pet!  It was my dream day for sure and gave us life to be in such good company and dream about having goats and bees of our own to love and sweat over, someday. The bar for “perfect day” for my kids has been raised to now include “bowl full of puppies”.

Every detail of their farm life could be photographed for a magazine.


Jenny and John keep things so real. It’s my favorite thing about them. They’ll give you the honest good bad and ugly. They are non judgemental, unassuming, laugh with you and cry with you people and what you see is what you get. They’ve raised 7 wonderful children, lived through a total loss house fire, worked for corporate Walmart and suppliers and been self employed, they are multi talented musically, they make their own soap and candles, and ran a home goods mercantile shop in downtown Eureka Springs (where I sold handmade signs before the fire).  They have so much wisdom to share.  They left their beautiful home in a pristine and highly sought after neighborhood in north Bentonville to jump into farming with both feet and chase after the dream.  They are stewards of  over100 acres in the breathtaking Ozark mountains.  

They gave us “the nickel tour” if their property on a Polaris (I was again reminded that I am not very fun and 4-wheeling/razors/jeeps/thrill seeking of any kind are not my jam. I nearly peed my pants on the wild ride, but the kids sure LOVED it.) they showed us the old sistern and pump, the animals, the tractor, the woods and limestone bluffs with caves, the beehives, the orchard and gardens that the naughty goats and cows busted into, and the farmhouse they are renovating one corner at a time.  Farming is hard work, and involves a lot of trial and error. John and Jenny are beautifully courageous as they minister to their land and livestock. Just being with them on their property breather live back into my tired spirit and awakened my heart.

We were so impressed by the symbiotic relationship between all of the animals. The cows and goats and donkeys in the same field, the chickens scratching through the manure to turn it back into the soil and fertilize the new grass that will then feed the animals again.  The way one dog never leaves Jenny’s side, and how she barked an alarm when the donkeys got too close, and the herding dogs appeared and separated the donkeys from the children and herded them over to the end of the pasture. The chickens sneaking into the piglet corral to forage through their dinner scraps. Mama pig carefully not letting any strangers near her piglets, but again the dogs teaming up to chase two piglets who had slipped under the fence back into the pen. Cats that chase the mice out of the feed, and puppies and kittens to fill the arms of little girls. Everyone and everything has a job and a place and I breathed in the live application of “all things work[ing] together for good to those who love God.  







When we took Ranch to the the run to let him acclimate, Mopsy left her pups for awhile and parked herself next to the chicken run to stare Ranch down. I have no doubt he will be taught the order of operations and find his place at The Lovely Ambition Farm.