How We Homestead Series-Week One

This is the first in a 5-week series about beginning a homestead.
We hope you will come back each Wednesday to read about
how 5 very different families are living and working toward this goal.


Here's our story:

How It All Began

All of my life, I've been attracted to the farming lifestyle.  Spending most of my growing up years in the suburbs, it was apparent that something was missing.  I was able to explore some of those feelings as a youngster riding and showing horses.  The smell of a tack room still sends me.  For the most part, the desires just got pushed aside.

When Big K and I got hitched, we lived on an acre

in an area where folks had animals 

and pretty much did as they pleased.  

It appealed to us.  A lot.

Some time after moving further north and back into suburbia, 

we realized it wasn't the lifestyle for us.

We don't fit into the soccer-mom, 70-hour workweek 

that most of our neighbors aspire to.  

Our family of three yearned 

for a place to celebrate our uniqueness 

without the watching eyes and judgements 

of those who don't understand us.  

Creating simplicity was a driving force.

And we wanted chickens...

Enter Jenna Woginrich.

When I first read Made From Scratch, 

it was as if she was writing  just for me.  

Here was this twenty-something woman,

creating her own niche on her own terms.

Then I stumbled onto the Cold Antler Farm blog.

I was hooked.

It suddenly all made sense to me.  

All those longings, all those skills that tugged at my curiosity, 

could indeed be fulfilled.  It was my responsibility to cultivate it.  

Big K and I truly feel that we belong on acreage, 

and that Lil' Guy's life will be exponentially improved 

by living a more rural lifestyle.    

Although we may still be a year away from our dream property, 

we continue to immerse ourselves in all things homesteading.

My profile used to say, "I'm stuck in suburbia", 

but I now know that this is all part of the process.  

We wouldn't have realized where we truly belong 

if we hadn't gone through this transition.  

Until we are able to make the dream come true, 

we'll enjoy every step on that ladder, 

knowing that God has our backs.

 

     "We write our own destiny; we become what we do."
-Madame Chiang Kai-Shek

Visit these four bloggers 
who are sharing their wisdom in this series:

Amber at Making A Home
Meg at Little Homestead
Staci at Life at Cobble Hill Farm
Tammy at Our Neck of the Woods