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This ranch has been home for nearly a decade. One hundred and sixty acres of meadow, mountain, and sky in British Columbia, homesteaded in the early 1920s by the sons of neighbouring farmers who had been working this land since 1906. When we bought it, we knew it was old. We didn’t fully understand yet how much of that history was still here, waiting to be discovered.
We have an accepted offer on the ranch and are deep in a chain sale, and if you’ve ever navigated one of those, you know it is its own particular kind of limbo. Dates are still moving. But this week I picked up the camera and walked every one of my favourite places here, and I wanted to bring you along.
These are the corners of Little Mountain Ranch I love most. The ones I’ll carry with me. Click the image below and come along with me.
The Old Tool Shed: Where the 1920s Are Still Right Here
This might seem like a strange place to start a tour, but this old outbuilding might be my single favourite spot on the entire property.
When the original homesteaders left, they left everything where it was. Old leather horse brushes on the hooks. A handwritten April 1969 tally ledger resting on the ledge, listing the head count: 26 head, 10 steer yearlings, 9 heifer yearlings, scrawled in pencil. Old pine tar. An antique lantern. Heavy old ceramic jugs. A hand-sharpening stone.
The people who owned this property before us never moved any of it either. And so when Dan and I bought this ranch, we made the same decision: leave it all exactly as it is.
We are leaving it that way for the new owners. I have already told them the story, and I know they love history. My hope is they’ll keep it just as it is, too.
Tip: If you are ever buying an older property, ask specifically about what is being left behind in outbuildings and storage areas. Living history like this cannot be replaced, and it is often sitting in spots that get cleaned out before a sale.
The Old Barn: Logs From the Land, Clay From the Lowlands
The barn was built around 1920. Every log in it was harvested from this property and every gap between those logs was chinked with clay, carried up from the lowland areas of the farm by the bucketful, pressed in by hand.
Every time I put my hand on that wall, I think about what it took to build this. People constructing something to last, without power tools or modern equipment, using only what the land gave them and the effort they were willing to put into it.
Inside the barn, there is an old wooden ladder that goes to nowhere. It once led to a small loft that was removed when a new floor was added. They just left the ladder there. I am so glad they did. Every time I walk past it, I think about the people who climbed it.
The roof and overhang on the barn were added in the 1980s. Dan made and added the latch on the original door. Over the decades, each owner has left something. Each of us who has stewarded this land has added to what was here. I love that about a property with this kind of history.
The East Meadow: The View I Only See Twice a Year
Most of my time on this ranch is spent on the north side of the property, up in the garden and the farmyard. I only come down to the east meadow a couple of times a year, usually during hay season.
But every single time I do, I stop and look.
From down here you can see the entire farmyard laid out above you: the barn on one side, the high tunnel, the garden, the shop, the house. Hawks hunt over the fields. Meadowlarks sing in the grasses. When you come out here in the early morning or evening, there are birds everywhere.
Standing here and looking back at the place you live from a distance is something else entirely. It’s a view I wish I had taken in more often.
Tip: If you have a spot on your property you rarely visit, give yourself a reason to go there. I waited too long to stand in this meadow as often as I should have.
The Front Deck: The Sunrise Spot You Know
The view from our front deck is the place I hear about most from you, our community. Since we shared that we’re selling the ranch, it is the thing that has come up most in comments and messages: the sunrises.
That mug you’ve probably noticed in the frame when I post sunrises on Instagram is where I prop my phone to film. I built that habit without even really thinking about it, and now it’s one of the things I’m going to genuinely grieve when we leave.
My husband Dan built this deck, and we put up a gazebo so we would actually have somewhere to sit and enjoy the view. It faces west, so it stays shaded until the afternoon, which is beautiful and also means the mosquitoes are very enthusiastic about this particular spot. That is one thing I will not miss.
The quiet and the freedom combined with this view are probably the things I am the saddest to leave.
The Garden: A Third of an Acre, Thousands of Pounds of Food
We garden on roughly a third of an acre here, in Zone 3b, with short seasons and cool nights. It has made me a far better gardener than I would have been anywhere else. When the margin for error is this narrow, you learn fast.
This little patch has produced thousands and thousands of pounds of food for our family over the years. I have grown, failed, adjusted, and grown again here in ways I could not have predicted when we planted our first seeds on this property.
If there is one thing I wish I could take with me from this ranch, it is the soil. A decade of building it up, layer by layer. I am genuinely excited for the new owners to benefit from that work because I know they are avid gardeners themselves.
And I am equally excited, if I am being honest, to start a new garden somewhere and put everything I’ve learned here to work in fresh ground.
The High Tunnel: Where the First Cosmo of the Season Just Bloomed
We are in our fifth or sixth season growing in this high tunnel, and it took a couple of years to really get it dialled in. Greenhouse growing in Zone 3 is its own education, and I have learned so much in this space.
I planted flowers in here early this year, specifically because I wanted to have something blooming before we leave. This week, the first cosmo opened. Dark purple around the edges. I spotted it mid-sentence while I was filming and had to stop and show it to the camera.
The dahlias are coming along. The green stock is beautiful. These blooms feel like a small parting gift from the season.
We will be setting up new greenhouses at our next property, and I cannot wait to take everything I have learned here into a new growing space.
A Printable Checklist: What to Document Before You Leave a Property You Love
Before you move from a place that matters to you, consider capturing:
- Every outbuilding, even the ones you use for storage
- Small things that tell the story: latches, ladders, old ledgers
- The view from each window and door, at different times of day
- Your garden in every stage of the season
- Things that were already there when you arrived
- Spots you only visit a couple of times a year
- Your morning routine: where you stand, what you look at, what you hear
Come Join Us
If this kind of homesteading life resonates with you, we would love to have you in the Little Mountain Ranch Community. It is where I share more of what is happening behind the scenes, gardening deep-dives, preservation guides, and what’s coming next as we move into this new chapter.
Join us here.