{Homespun Holiday} End of the year Christmas Letter

Season's Greetings.

I thought I might share our end of the year letter sent out with our Christmas cards this year.

What will you and I give for Christmas this year? Let us in our lives give to our Lord and Savior the gift of gratitude by living His teachings and following in His footsteps.

-Thomas S. Monson

Christmas greetings to you and yours.

I hope the season brings merriment and bright days to you this holiday season. As I sit listening to Christmas carols, I am blessed to look back on the year. While not much changed in 2015, there are still good things to share with you. I even tried to keep this to half a page, both sides, but there was more than I anticipated to share.

In January I attended the Nevada Small Farms Conference in hopes to gain some inspiration. And inspiration I did find. I was fortunate enough to hear from a group of urban farmers serving the Reno area. I learned that as a 25 year old female farmer, I would be entering into one of the most in demand areas of agriculture. I am now pursuing the path of urban farming. I am taking on the task of breathing new life into the Flying VS Farm.  While I know it will not happen overnight, ‘tis a process I will gladly take on. The spring of 2016 will begin a new chapter. I have decided not only to pursue the urban farming, but have chosen to include homesteading. It is the art of learning old fashioned skills. I have a desire to do it all in a way that promotes living history and preservation of the past. Much of this inspired by my mother, who included us in reenacting as kids. (Thanks Mom!)

With that, here is an update on how the farm is doing.  The tenants of the coop continue to be a source of entertainment for us all. Earlier in the summer, we lost a handful of our girls to a coyote. I purchased chicks in July, to replace the ones we lost and they are growing daily. This year, I wanted to experiment with a new breed. Phoenix, Cricket and Hawk are my three beautiful Ameraucanas. While the older girls have finished their molt and are beginning to lay again, we watch with anticipation to see what color eggs our 3 easter eggers will lay. In other coop news, we were given 4 fryer chicks at the same time I purchased the layers. We butchered the fryers late in the fall. I send out hugs and a great thank you to Betty Bianchi who willingly stepped in to help this budding farmer butcher her first chickens… It was a day full of laughter and reminiscing. In the future, we plan to purchase fryers intentionally.

On to the canine variety. Linus is as sassy as ever, He is absolutely loving the snow we have had. While I have had some characters in the past, I have never had a dog which will actually talk back. (And occasionally he sasses his mother a bit too much…)  He is so keen on everything going on that if you even utter the word “girls” in an audible voice, his ears perk up and he is ready to go. (He helps put the chickens to bed at night and they are his girls.) Woody is Woody. He has such a bright personality. (He was the guard dog today in the barn, freaking out over a feed bag the wind had picked up.)  I cannot imagine what my life would be without them.

I have been taking classes at WNC.  At this point I am not seeking any particular degree. I am also looking into applying for and completing the master gardener program through the Cooperative Extension service here in Carson. I have also been working with Intervarsity (an inter-denominational campus ministry) at UNR  to start a bible study on the campus. It has been a wonderful experience. 

I have also been working on bettering my blog and YouTube channel, Life on the Flying VS Farm. My desire is for it to be an outlet to be creative as well as sharing my journey with family and friends alike. It has been gaining followers who also want to share in the journey. I have begun working on launching a children’s channel to go along with it. Kids play an important role in preserving history and understanding what has happened in the past in order to preserve our future. It will be interesting to see where it goes with the new direction for the farm and my life in general.

I send prayers for a blessed New Year. May 2016 be filled with love and joy


Love Always, 
        Miss B and the crew at the Flying VS Farm. 

{Farm} The Legacy Behind the Farm and its Heritage

I wanted to take some time to share the farms beginnings with you. The Flying VS Farm has not only become a passion and career goal for me, but it has become a tribute to my parents. My mom and dad grew up doing things like FFA and 4-H  And as time went on they also had various animals that I grew up with. Through this, they kept the tradition going and also instilled the desire for Agriculture in my life... and through the various pets and gardens, encouraged and nurtured it. The legacy they created has followed in line with the heritage our family has.

My parents were the ones who had the original idea of what is now know as the Flying VS Farm. 30+ years ago when my parents were first married, they had pigeons in the back of the barn. (the very same barn that I will be sprucing up to use for my birds.) Between the pigeons and the sheep, the Flying VS Ranch was born. At that time they called it a ranch, but personally when I think of ranch I think cattle and wide open spaces in Texas. If I don't get the visual of a small and quaint little urban farm- no one else will. I knew that the VS was because of our last name- Van Sickle. When I asked my mom about the Flying part, I was surprised to hear that it had to do with pigeons- even though I knew they'd had them. To me, it was appropriate to take on the name since my first "livestock" has been chickens.  A love of birds seem to run in our family...

My paternal grandfather spent years building trailers for local ranchers in Northern Nevada. He was the reason my dad spent so many years working on ranches. I'd like to think that he'd be proud of what I am doing now. There are days that I wish he could see me all grown up and following (sort of) in his footsteps. Especially since I am a 3rd generation Nevadan and still here. (What do you think Grandma?)


The idea of legacy and heritage continues on since the current location for the Flying VS Farm happens to be on property that my G'ma (my maternal grandmother) owns. We lived in this particular house when my parents were building the one we sold last year.  I have fond memories of the goats that roamed the corrals and the love of that life. Mikey was this HUGE male goat that loved to rub up against the chain link fence. You can still see the "bulge" in the fence from him doing it. My Grandpa Bob (my maternal grandfather) would have been impressed too, since he was the gardener in the family. I definitely inherited it from him. (My G'ma would even tell you that...)

My hope is to continue the legacy. There are many people who have influenced my life, more than I could list here. I know that my parents played a big part in it and I want to do that for the kids in my life. My G'ma has pushed and encouraged me in the past year as well.  I would like to have more animals to add the the heritage of the farm and the legacy it is leaving behind. I would also like to find a way for the farm to help people in my community. For now, some of it is just dreams waiting to become reality and some of it is reality waiting for expansion. Regardless, it is a legacy.

What do you consider to be your heritage/legacy?

Do you have family stories like this?

Love Always,

Rebecca