Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Wulf
Hi Kelsey, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I didn’t grow up in agriculture, but it was always something I aspired to be a part of. I dreamed of having a small farm someday, just for the fun of it.
When I went to college I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for a career, but I knew that I wanted to help people. It was overwhelming trying to decide where I should put my focus. There is so much need and so many directions I could go, I wasn’t sure how to decide.
It’s a very long story, but eventually I came to discover that food and agriculture are tied to pretty much every societal issue we face.
Water quality and environmental stewardship, health of people, animal welfare, worker’s rights and immigration, climate change. Agriculture touches and influences all of these things. I realized this dream of having a farm could be more than just for me, but a way I could help make the world better.
When I graduated from a four year college, I ended up finding a wonderful program for beginning farmers at a community college. It felt crazy to go right back to school for a diploma at a two year college after just having graduated with a bachelor’s degree but that’s what I did.
It was a wonderful program and I learned a ton of practical skills in sustainable agriculture.
The story gets long again here, the quick version being I worked at many different kinds of farms and ended up living near where I had gone to school for agriculture.
When my first daughter was born, I transitioned out of the workforce to being home with her and building up our little farm.
Finding myself in a position where I was making no income for the first time in my working life, I decided I wanted to create something else for myself beyond just being a mom.
I started my blog and YouTube channel, Rough and Tumble Farmhouse. It took a few years for it to start bringing in legitimate money for our family, but after almost five years it finally has.
On the blog I share resources and information for small farmers, homesteaders, homemakers, etc. I cover everything from cheesemaking and from-scratch recipes, to fermentation and gardening. I also talk about raising livestock and other small farming skills.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It seemed easier in the beginning, when I only had one child and she was napping twice a day. Now my life is much more complicated with three little ones (ages five, three, and one). Finding the time is always a challenge. I have had to continue building my little business in odd minutes I can scrape here or there.
The back end of blogging is a pain and I don’t enjoy it much. Search Engine Optimization, keyword research, etc. I much prefer to write about what I care about but that doesn’t always drive traffic, which in turn brings in more ad revenue. I’ve had to find a balance between talking about things I truly care about and the things people are googling the most.
It also has been challenging on a management standpoint. With a growing family, a husband who works long and odd hours, and the blog business, I have had to reduce the size of our homestead. I can only be stretched so far. I don’t want to keep animals or projects I can’t provide good care for so I have had to whittle things down.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
On my YouTube channel I always open with “Hi, I’m Kelsey, your best friend on the homestead.” That is really my goal, to create honest and straightforward videos and blog posts that feel like a conversation with your friend.
I’m not trying to be fancy or all about aesthetic. What you see is very much what you get, which is a busy mom trying to share helpful information.
I also put a lot of time and effort into what I am writing or talking about in my videos. I do a lot of research to make sure I’m sharing the best and most accurate information I possibly can.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I have had a lot of positive feedback that people appreciate how I am genuine. Like I said before, what you see is what you get.
I remember after I published a video that I had filmed in my kitchen, I realized there was a very messy dirty laundry basket clearly visible in the background and a cupboard door sitting open. The video was already out there for the world to see, oh well!
Back when I first made content I was really trying to emulate that sort of Magnolia farmhouse look. Lots of white, clean, pristine, subway tile kitchen type stuff. I would spend half an hour trying to make my house behind me in videos match that look. The fact is though my kitchen doesn’t look like that. It’s from the 1970s with wood stain cupboards and a fridge that is a giant cluttered mess of kids’ art and family photos.
I discovered though that people don’t care. In fact many people don’t even like the manicured look. They want to come hang out in your messy kitchen and have a conversation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.roughandtumblefarmhouse.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roughandtumblefarmhouse
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roughandtumblefarmhouse
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/roughandtumblefarmhouse
