I'll be honest. I don't really know what living the simple life means. Not if by simple you mean easy. Or comfortable. But I do understand living simply. It is, after all, what we left our previous lives in Oregon to pursue. A life that is rooted in the fundamental things like good food, hard... Continue Reading →
If there ever was a year to inspire a change to your way of life, 2020 probably wins the prize. Food shortages. Civil unrest. Political division. Lockdowns. Pandemic. These things have created fear, uncertainty and concern over what the near future might look like and whether or not we'll ever return to some sense of... Continue Reading →
Homesteading is all about the experience. We all come to homesteading for different reasons. But in the end, what we really crave is a different approach to life. An experience that transcends the meaningless grind that has become the norm in modern day living. For our family, it was a hunger for a simpler, more... Continue Reading →
I can remember when our neighbor asked us to watch their chickens while they were out of town. This was about five years ago. About a week into scraping poop off the board they used underneath the roosting area, wrangling the ones who always escaped and chugging through mud to fill buckets of water I... Continue Reading →
It humors me when I look back on our lives. I don't even have to go back that far. I mean, who are those impostors? Those two young kids who agreed to walk down the isle together. They really had no clue what lay ahead of them. The birth of 4 children. Building a life... Continue Reading →
Alright. I've got some things I need to get off my chest. It always baffles me when I'm on a homesteading forum or FB page and I see people shamed by others for not being a "true homesteader". Seriously, what does that even mean anyway? I'm gonna keep it real here friends. Unless any of... Continue Reading →
I'll trade you a pig for a summer's worth of pulling weeds. Sound like a deal? And if you'll babysit our kids once a month I'll make sure you never run out of homemade jam. Shouldn't life be that simple? What if we could do more of the things we want to do without always... Continue Reading →
It goes without saying that this self-sufficient lifestyle comes with certain characteristics. Like determination. Persistence. And plain old stubbornness. You know the kind of stubbornness I'm talking about. Right? Grit. Stick-to-it-iveness. Refusing to quit by all means. Even when that might be the best thing to do. I understand that all too well. I don't... Continue Reading →
So you want to be a homesteader... I get that. The longing to live on your own land, grow your own food and learn a lifestyle of self-reliance and simplicity. It's one of the reasons we moved our family half way across the country just to find the right place to settle our roots. Whatever... Continue Reading →