Alexandra Perkins (right) and her husband Chirs (left) with their horses camping in the mountains. (Supplied) 

By Alessia Proietti | rdnewsNOW

Country Mama Raising Littles

Local woman creates YouTube channel about motherhood in central Alberta countryside

May 12, 2024 | 2:07 PM

While mothers living in the countryside may be physically far apart, one central Alberta woman is hoping to bring them closer together, virtually, with her YouTube channel Country Mama Raising Littles.

Alexandra Perkins, a stay-at-home mother of two, has been living on a 14-acre lot in Lacombe County, east of Blackfalds, for the past five years. But the family doesn’t stop there; they also have four horses, two dogs, “too many” cats, and soon, 21 chickens.

Perkins started the channel three months ago to share what daily mom life is like in the country.

“I watch YouTube videos, and I have specific vloggers that I watch, and I always found that it just made me feel less alone in motherhood specifically,” she said, noting she had her children during the isolating time of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The mom part of this, for me, is just creating a community of my own. If I can post something that’s really relatable to another mom and might help her out or just make her feel less alone or like, ‘Oh my god, that’s not just my kids that are doing that,’ that was one of the main reasons.”

Icy Roads

RCMP says travel not recommended on QEII north of Red Deer

Dec 21, 2024

University Magazine

RDP ranked 17th among top culinary schools in Canada

Dec 21, 2024

JANUARY 21 ONLY

Ponoka starting Christmas tree pick up in January

Dec 20, 2024

She also wanted to highlight her family’s unique adventures with their horses which include sleigh rides, camping on horseback through the mountains where an extra horse is brought just to carry the gear, sometimes pulling a wagon, haying with the horses by attaching them to a sickle mower, and caring for the horse when they’re hurt.

Other videos on their hobby farm touch upon family vacations and funny moments with the children, Scarlett and Watson who are three- and two-years-old, respectively.

“My kids have all the space they could ask for to run around with, but also, we can live off the land a little. I know what’s going into the vegetables that are planted in my ginormous garden and the kids get to watch life form, literally. They’re literally watching the seeds grow, we’re watering them, and it’s teaching them some responsibility; that things need to be taken care of, whether it’s a plant or an animal,” she said.

For example, to get 21 chickens, Perkins said they must first place them in a brood box where they can grow in the warmth before being placed in a coop, which they must build on cleared land. They then need to be checked multiple times a day, ensuring they are free from sickness and have food and water. The children will then learn to pick the eggs.

“Being able to go back to a little bit more of a simple, not necessarily an easier, life,” she said. “There is a lot of hard work that is involved with living on a larger piece of land.”

Perkins says viewership has come from neighbours a few miles down the dirt road, the United States like North Carolina and Massachusetts, and around the world as far as Germany, receiving feedback that her content is real and relatable.

Filming the series with her phone, she already has 230 subscribers and nearly 170 public watch hours. She hopes to hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours by the one-year mark.

Visit her YouTube channel and Instagram to view more content.

—

For local news delivered daily to your email inbox, subscribe for free to the rdnewsNOW newsletter by visiting rdnewsNOW.com. You can also download the rdnewsNOW mobile app on Google Play and the Apple App Store for all the latest updates on this and other stories.