What’s in a name?

Creekside: Taylors Creek runs beside our property. “The Taylor Creek Mill of 1932, with its extant concrete dam and partially intact mill works, is a typical example of a later grist mill that also was used as a saw mill.” ~DHR’s Survey of Historic Resources Hanover 1990 LCA report. Remnants of the mill still exist and the rocks used as landscaping came from the mill after it was blown up.  

Hollow: “A small, sheltered valley that usually, but not necessarily, has a watercourse.” ~USC’s Southern Appalachian English. We’ve definitely got the hills and the valley. What a workout just walking the property.

Homestead: “A house and the farmland it is on.” ~Cambridge Dictionary. We are zoned A-1 agricultural so pretty much anything goes!

Creekside Hollow Homestead is located 25 minutes west of Short Pump in the quaint, rural town of Montpelier, Virginia  We are located in Hanover County only a few miles from the Louisa County line.  In 2021, we moved from the suburbs after our kids left the nest.  We say we downsized the house to upsize the land, garage, and solitude.  This land and house spoke to me when we first saw it because it reminded me so much of my grandparent’s farm property in Taneytown, Md.  The smell of the boxwoods transported me right back to my childhood summers at Mom Mom and Pop Pop Kiser’s.

We spent the first year clearing debris, planting a garden, making an outdoor fireplace, and learning country ways.  In 2022, we added chickens and revamped some very large but neglected open air coops and repurposed a playset into a grow out coop.  In 2023, we converted an 8×12 shed to a barn and fenced in a paddock to house our first two dairy goats. In 2024, I learned how to hand and machine milk and farm sat for some folks.  I was also able to attend the birth of our second two goats, Rockville Ridge Luca and Leia.

In 2025, we added two does in milk: Better Ways Belle and Heaven and built our own milking machine.  We built a chicken tractor, a duck pen, a kidding barn, and added 3 Welsh Harlequin ducks. We have also bred all 5 of our does for Spring 2026 births!

Luckily, we have made some great goat friends and mentors who have helped us along the way.

We love this life and look forward to all the learning and adventures it brings.

We are so grateful you have checked out our page and we hope to see you in person soon.

Mark and Julie Lohman