Today we’d like to introduce you to Kira King
Hi Kira, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My husband and I are both Savannah natives. We attended Catholic schools until college when we attended the University of Georgia. We both grew up playing sports, but I also rode horses off and on as a child. Through this, I developed a deep love of horses and always knew I wanted to live on a farm one day. After a brief riding hiatus, I jumped headfirst back into horses while in college when my mother told me I needed to look for a job. I found one at a local stable and worked my way up to Barn Manager. Arthur had never been around horses, but he’s always loved animals so it wasn’t a hard transition for him to start appreciating them too. Early in my senior year of college, my family bought a horse for me to train so that my younger siblings could also ride. They never did get into riding, but Willow, my draft cross mare, is still with us 12 years later. Shortly thereafter, Arthur bought a horse too, and a year later, he ended up proposing to me on that horse.
Arthur and I have been together since we were 14 years old. We’ve gone to school together since we were four, and our grandmothers were good friends. Savannah is a growing town, but it has a small-town feel, especially in the Catholic community. We always knew we wanted to own a little homestead/farm. It initially started as a place for our horses to be in our backyard, but it quickly grew to a diversity of plants and animals and now children. The lessons children learn on a homestead/farm are immeasurable. We see its fruits already in our 5-year-old daughter. If it was up to her, she’d never come inside. She has too much fun playing with our Livestock Guardian Dogs, Pearl and Opal, and our pet potbelly pig, Cora. She helped us with our goats while they birthed their first set of babies this year, and she was in heaven. She stayed up late into the night with us to witness the birth of four, healthy and strong Nubian kids, and now she helps us milk their mother. Besides love and responsibility, a homestead grounds you. It reminds you what’s important in this world. Taking a part in being a producer instead of always a consumer helps you be even more grateful for the many blessings in your life.
When Arthur and I were sophomores in college, we started an online cooking show called, Cookin’ For College. It had relative success on a up and coming platform called YouTube. It was featured in collegiate newspapers across the country, the Athens-Banner Herald, and Fox New’s Fox and Friends Morning Show. I had jumped from an Undecided to Graphic Design to an Art History major, but after this experience, I applied to UGA’s Grady College of Journalism. I graduated with a Public Relations degree. A year and a half out of college, I started my own social media marketing company which I happily operated for six years. It allowed me the flexibility to work with the animals whenever I wanted. I also started helping my dad with his business at the time and ran The Homestead Kings blog which eventually turned into a podcast. Arthur graduated from UGA with a Food Marketing and Administration degree. He got a job with a convenience store food broker and has been living his dream of working in the food world ever since.
We’re the quintessential jack of all trades but master of none type of couple. We have four rental properties, three of which we renovated ourselves on shoestring budgets. Two are vacation rentals that I’ve managed for eight years. One is in Athens, and one is in a little town south of us along the coast called Townsend. We love sharing our homes with travelers from all over. I love the hospitality side of managing. It speaks to my inner Southern heart I think.
In the past couple of years, Arthur and I started returning to our roots in our Catholic faith. We started a supper club called Farm to Jesus where young Catholic families and singles come to our home for a homecooked farm-to-table meal while we discuss God’s love and truth. It continues to grow and now has a “Be a Host” option for anyone who wants to open their homes up as a place of comfort and fellowship for others. It’s been a wonderful experience and led us to join our PreCana Marriage Prep Leadership Team for our parish. Then I began to speak to the seniors at our local Catholic all-girls high school (my alma mater) about the vocation of marriage and motherhood. I turned those talks into a book that was published May of this year. It’s called Veiled In Goodness, A Catholic Guide For Young Women Seeking Marriage and Motherhood. I never anticipated becoming an author, but the Lord had other plans. In addition to walking through Catholic teachings on marriage and motherhood, the main point of the book is to remind young women that they matter. Their lives mean something and have infinite worth. So many have forgotten that message, and it’s so important to remind them that God made them in His image and likeness for their own sakes. I started hosting Catholic Wives Workshops at home this past year to expound upon the book and dive deeper into the beauty that is God’s design.
By divine providence, our homestead has become the heart of ministry, bringing people together in fellowship and communion. In a world plagued with loneliness and despair, we are beyond blessed to be a vessel for Christ. Some people have labeled us “go-getters” because we’re always willing to take a risk and try something new. We prefer to label ourselves as Spirit-led. We’ve led an interesting life and we have even bigger plans for its future, but we live in the present moment and take one joyous step at a time.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I would say career-wise, it was difficult to lose clients during the Covid pandemic. It was for various reasons, but my little business came out of Covid with zero clients. I chose to go ahead and close up shop instead of continuing because it seemed like a beautiful time to transition to being home with my children. Homestead-wise, it’s been pretty smooth. You have the days when a tree falls on the fence, the chickens eat your whole veggie garden, or the goats escape. You have the days when animals get sick or old and pass away which is never easy, but most of the days are beautiful chaos. It’s an incredibly fulfilling life.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Besides mothering and wife-ing, my latest work is as a speaker and author. It’s something that was never on my radar. I was a self-proclaimed terrified public speaker. We have a homestead podcast, but that’s completely different from speaking in front of people face to face. I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered it, but practice has helped tremendously and I’m no longer afraid. Writing a book was life-altering. It feels like a piece of my heart and soul has been put into black and white for others to see and pass judgment on. Ultimately, my only hope for the book is for it to help someone. I hope it helps someone find purpose and meaning.
Our homestead is more of a hobby although our daughter just started selling flower arrangements made from the flowers in our garden to save up money for a dairy cow. (She isn’t a fan of the goat’s milk!) We also sell the occasional carton of eggs.
I have no idea what I’m known for. I think I’m known for being that crazy lady who lives in Savannah Georgia with all those animals. We ask people to drop off their trash pumpkins in the Fall for our pigs. We get hundreds of pumpkins so I quickly became known as the “pig-lady.” I didn’t mind the nickname. Mama Jane and her piglets, Diggory, Tallulah, and Belinda happily feasted on pumpkins for weeks. Arthur’s known as the homestead lady’s husband, but he plays a much bigger role on the homestead than that. His commitment to his family and our home is indescribable. The homestead simply wouldn’t run smoothly at all without him. He can be found milking the goat every morning, fixing what needs fixing, slinging 50 lb feed bags, dropping a hay rounder with the tractor, picking blueberries while on conference calls, and more, all while drinking kombucha beer (well not during the work call part).
We try to avoid being proud, but we’d be lying if we didn’t say that we were very content and happy with our life. It’s so full of peace, even when chaos happens like when two goats escape the perimeter and three police cars show up to try and catch them. (I had to put the baby in the stroller, walk hand in hand with the five year old and go bring them home with some dog leashes!). It’s full of excitement, but it’s noble.
I don’t know what sets us apart from others. I hope everyone finds some sort of true peace and joy in their lives. I hope it’s not something that sets us apart. It seems like people constantly chase happiness, but happiness is so fleeting. It’s like a wisp of air that floats with the wind. True joy is everlasting, even amidst chaos or suffering. Our life isn’t perfect, but it’s ours. We appreciate every moment of it.
I specialize in nothing. There are things that I’m relatively gifted at, but I wouldn’t say I specialize in it. The homestead keeps you humble and reminds you that you’re never in a place where you can stop learning. Funnily enough, faith does that too.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I learned we need each other more than we ever realized. Mother Teresa was quoted to say that America was the poorest country in the world. When questioned how one of the most wealthy countries in the world could possibly be poor, she answered that America suffered from a poverty of loneliness. I heard that story during the pandemic. Farm to Jesus was born out of that quote. We are a communal people who need each other’s love and fellowship. We need God. Arthur and I are cradle Catholics, but we were largely non-practicing before the pandemic. It didn’t take long for us to realize the grave mistake we had made by taking our faith for granted. We all need God. He is the reason we are here. He is our purpose.
Covid made many people feel empty and unknown. So many felt alone in this world with nowhere to turn. The turmoil, the chaos, the fear, the hate- it was all from a lack of love, trust, and surrender. People think that a good God wouldn’t allow suffering. He permits suffering. He does not create it. He permits suffering for the ultimate greater good, a good we may never see in person here on earth. I learned this through the pandemic. It has transformed our entire lives, and I am grateful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kiragking.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farmtojesus
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehomesteadkings
