Bluestem Acres is a family homestead in west-central Butler County near the town of Towanda, Kansas. We purchased the property in January 2017 with the dream of creating a place where we can share our love of Jesus, love of horses and be semi-self sufficient on our own homestead with gardening and home raised meat. The dream is growing to include raising/breeding quality dairy goats, specifically Nubians, and offering beginners riding lessons. The four of us, parents, Samantha (Sam) & Alex, and kids, Knox & Kathryn, each have little pieces of our dream that are most dear to us, and its exciting to see the dreams evolve with maturity and experience. We don't always have a clean and tidy home (find us some true homesteaders who have time for regular housecleaning and we'd like to pick their brains), but our doors are always open to visitors. We love the regular chats we have with our milk, cheese and egg customers, and look forward to expanding our customer base as our goat herd grows.
The property itself had seen decades of disrepair prior to our purchase. The acreage had been allowed to "return to it’s natural state" which really meant invasive tree species had filled in all the grassland. We are putting in hours of sweat equity and each season brings a new project. Things are changing and many people who visited in the beginning comment on all our accomplishments. When we're here working on a daily basis, we tend to miss the difference we've made, and are so grateful for the little reminders repeat visitors give us.
We started with building fences. Many of the fences we put up in 2017 have now been replaced again. As novice fence builders we've learned plenty about what makes a good fence in the last four years. We currently have a "dry-lot" where the horses spend the winter and three pastures for rotational grazing for the horses. "Hay huts" are installed to house their winter round bales and to allow us to put more hay out without having to enter the pasture with the tractor. Spring of 2019 brought fencing for goats and the goat shed. We have a doe pen, a buck pen, a kid pen and a larger "buck browse" pen for the goats. All of this fencing will get adjusted again soon. In the fall of 2021, a new garage and new goat barn were constructed, since Sam quickly grew her herd beyond the capacity of the original goat shed. We are working towards finishing half the goat barn into a kitchen, bathroom, milking room and retail room. Once that's completed we will look towards the next big thing of renovating or building a new equine barn.
In the summer of 2018, we began offering riding lessons to a small number of students. Over the next five years, the program grew to over 20 seasonal students and included 1/2 day summer camps. We offered the occasional guided trail ride and hosted a few birthda parties, as well. In 2024, Sam shut down the majority of the riding lessons and equine services in order to spend a few important years with the kids before they became too cool to be seen with her. We hope to open the equine side back up again one day, when the kids are out of the house and our schedules are more free.
Our offerings continue to grow as our dreams evolve. We sell raw goat milk, goat cheese and duck eggs from our homestead. The occasional vendor event finds Sam with handmade goat soap and lotion and a few other crafty things. We've also thrown in an occasional litter of farm-raised livestock guardian dogs and have puppies working in herds all over the Midwest. All things take time and planning, and we can't grow fast enough to fulfill all our dreams the minute we have them, but we're constantly working towards them.