Come see us folks! Email: angelamilliken@yahoo.com or text 870-577-3095.
Hi! We are Angela Grace and Dean Milliken.
Welcome to our FarmStay Family's Business and Lifestyle Blog
Our family advocates for the proven benefits of sharing our lifetime of experiences with each other.
We envision a community of like-minded people who believe that the secret to making the world a better place lies in us all being hospitable, as we are all part of something greater than ourselves.
Angela Grace
Traditional Skills-The Heart and Soul of Homesteading
As homesteaders, we are digging deep into a self-sufficient lifestyle. We are growing a family business to give us "literally" a digestive way to improve our family's health and wealth as we prepare for our golden years. The 7 FarmStay Hacks listing in a blog post are 100% what we are using to build our homestead business. They are a great way for you to start and the information is free.
We call our small farm, Prominence Homestead of the Ozarks (PHOTO). It is a 10-acre Self-sufficient farm-stay with currently one short-term rental and one RV pad (currently for family and friends only) with electric and water hook-ups and a separate dump station. This is our base camp and they are featured throughout this site.
We are documenting our progress with blog posts as we continue to "hack" our small farm. By using our homemaking, homesteading, and hospitality skills everyone can benefit, including you. If you have some extra time, we often show our guests our set up whether it's the canning kitchen or farm animals like these babychicks.
FarmStay Family - Your Go-To Homestead
Our Purpose
"Demonstrate homesteading, homemaking, and hospitality skills"
My husband Dean and I are making major lifestyle changes and at times they are mentally and physically challenging.
So, as we are getting closer to our golden years, we are learning to use our time more wisely. We are creating a lifestyle that will help us have a better quality of life and a closer relationship with God.
While we are preparing for our golden years that are rapidly approaching, we are also being mindful of the times we're living in.
Not only are we sharing our experiences with our farmstay guests that we host on our farm, we are now sharing our life with others through this blog.
Follow us here on our blog and at our very own short term vacation rental and RV site on location at Prominence Homestead of the Ozarks, just outside of Harrison Arkansas.
Our Mission
"Demonstrate how to improve self-sufficiency for a better quality of life."
Dean and I have been married for over 34 years and for many years we have been growing a self-sufficient homestead.
We also have 29 combined years in the hospitality industry, 13 years in the mental health field, 6 years in the US Army, and much more life experiences.
In 2022, during Covid shutdowns, we started building a "Farm-stay Business" on our tiny family farm, Prominence Homestead of the Ozarks (PHOTO). This allowed us to make money but more importantly it provided a way for people to vacation in the fresh air of the Ozark Mountains.
Even though our world seems turned upside down right now, we are committed to enjoying life, appreciate the people in our life, and share our combined knowledge with you.
We are not "business experts or know it all's", but we do know what we are good at:
GROWING A SELF-SUFFICIENT HOMESTEAD AND BUILDING A PROFITABLE FARM-STAY BUSINESS.
But what exactly is a self-sufficient farmstay business you ask?
Farm definition- According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “A farm is defined as any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the year.” It does allow for years when the smaller farms experience lower sales in a particular year due to bad weather, etc.
Farm-stay definition- creating unique spaces and experiences for paying guests in the country.
Farm-stay hacks-ways to generate multiple streams of income on one's farm-stay property using services, products, and produce.
When we opened our FarmStay vacation rental in 2022, we earned an additional income averaging approximately $1200 per month and that is with just one unit, the upstairs master's suite of our home. We converted it into an apartment.
We were going through some really hard times financially at that time and had to make some major lifestyle changes quickly. So, we opened our brand new farm-stay business as least expensively as possible.
To our surprise when we opened we made money immediately!
Six months later we bought our domains and started building this website and "FarmStay Family" was hatched.
It's now 2025, three years later. In addition to the "Rooftop Garden Luxury Suite," we just opened up our first RV camper site on property at PHOTO for family and friends to enjoy.
But we are not the only ones upgrading our homesteads and small farms for profit.
Did you know that many homesteaders, ranchers, and farmers from around the world are hacking their premises and starting campsites and short-term rentals (STR's) on their properties to diversify and supplement their incomes?
In today's economic downturn, this is the new "cash cow."
Did you know that Airbnb was formed during the 2007-2008 recession? People were paying to sleep on "air mattresses" instead of going to hotels due to the economic downturn of that time.
We've found a better way! We've turned our homestead into a self-sufficient farm-stay, a hospitality and agri-tourism business!
You will find that Farm-stay vacations are reasonably priced and have become a necessity (in many cases) to save the farms.
Now, after years of hosting our Airbnb/vacation rental and making major lifestyle changes, we have found that the biggest surprise of all was all the friendships we have made with our guests!
So, since we are going to continue to homestead and we are going to be gardening and raising farm animals anyway, if we could show you what we are doing to generate multiple streams of income, while creating unique spaces and experiences for guests and customers, would you like to know how?
If you love what you see here and want to know more, continue reading our blog posts and contact us.
We hope our story inspires you and you reach out!
Our Vision
Demonstrate how to grow, cook, and bake delicious healthy food."
Our 10-acre homestead produces 2 organic gardens. Herbs and flowers in one and vegetables and elephant garlic in the other.
This is so much healthier than buying from local grocery stores! Besides, we have to be healthy if we are going to be ready for what the future holds. WE are preparing now.
We grow elephant garlic on about 1/10 of an acre to sell for profit. This profit qualifies us as a "small" farm. This is a work in progress and every year we are gaining ground. (Pun intended). 😃
In addition to our elephant garlic, a few other sources of income on our homestead are selling eggs, homemade soaps, and our Farmstay Family business.
These are all works in progress.
We are working hard for our guests by not only providing a 5 star experience but allowing them to see first hand how running a self-sufficient farmstay actually works.
I have to pinch myself sometimes because we're actually doing it; we own a hospitality and agri-tourism business. How cool is that!
Come see us folks, we'd love to meet and host you.
Angela Grace
P.S: I just semi-retired in January, 2025 at the age of 62. I plan to devote all my time to my family, homemaking, homesteading, hospitality, and making the world a better place.