Front Page Rants
Baby Mama And Me
Two of my hens have been riding in the Mini Cooper for a long time now. This area...Chickens Love Wintertime!
My chickens love water. That I knew about. My chickens love the rain. Okay, interesting. My chickens get...Population: 1 Dozen
The growing egg production can’t happen fast enough for me, and I don’t know why… I haven’t come...If I Had Eyes In The Back Of My Head
At this point I am thrilled to be working on the market garden by adding a layer of...Temporarily Shut Down
It’s been an exciting time and a strange time. What I mean is that while we are looking...Do (Or Don’t And Then Do It Someday)
Nothing is more frustrating than finding little buggers in your bread flour. Oy vey! I knew I shouldn’t...
Welcome to my blog. Long ago the hubby and I wanted to live an independent, happier life together. It started out quite rough though… blending our families was a challenge and money was scarce. The decisions we made seemed to move us farther and farther away from our goals and before we realized it, we were completely off track. But somehow we got back on track and were able to build that independent, happier life. It is a true “better late than never” story filled with a lot of ups and downs. That’s why I created this website. To show you that you cannot give up hope. To show you that if we can do it, so can you. And to show you that good things sometimes come in ways you’d never expect.
This Just In…
Kitchen Garden: Growers And Goners
I decided to bring you another update because things are growing so fast around here! But let’s start with the things that have just about run the course… These are the last of the peas that I grew from...
The Condiment Series: A Nod To Pickles
I just discovered a twisted little secret in my garden. Garlic scapes. Very unusual for California since we see only softneck varieties in the stores, scapes look a little strange to us. As a matter of fact, the hubby...
Greenies Like Us: Say ‘Cheers!’ To Bugs
I want to have a garden party. I’m feeling a little defeated so I need a pick-me-up. You see, something has been munching away at my chard, kale, leaf lettuce, radishes and green beans in the kitchen garden. So...
The Dutiful Homesteader: May
First chore: Set out summer plants grown from seed If you couldn’t do this last month, then I know how excited you must be right now. It’s time! And your babies have been very patient too so at the first...
Market Garden Update: I Still Don’t Do Flowers
Many things about this course I’ve taken to sell food from my garden is uncertain. But there is one sure thing: I must give up the idea of growing flowers for the market. When it comes to flowers, I...
Wood Ash: A Hen’s Best Kept Beauty Secret
Trying to go Au naturel in providing everything your chickens need for good heath? It’s hard to do isn’t it? So what about using DE (Diatomaceous Earth) for mite prevention? It’s a natural substance so it should be okay...
The Two-Ingredient Seed-Starting Mix Followup
Don’t knock it ’til ya try it, that’s the lesson for today. The trial seed starting mix has not disappointed and I’m ready to make more of it. Take a look at the tomato seeds I started earlier this...
Tomato Plants: It’s What They Want To Do
Okay, so this is about tomatoes. But why now? We’ve only begun to get them started, right? Well, there are some things that are good to know ahead of time… way before they get big enough to bear fruit....
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Tales From The Barn: Just 8 Steps And You’re There
A series dedicated to building our homestead.
Forward
This is a summary of our long journey – from hopes to dreams come true. The easiest way to read it is to treat it like a short-story book. This one happens to have 8 chapters in it and they all complete one big picture. It explains a major turning point in our lives and our steady growth as homesteaders. It is a personal journey that hopefully expresses our love for this way of life. For more details and how-to’s on homesteading, there are links throughout the pages that refer to related posts or other sections.
My personal favorite is the chapter ‘Law Of The Land’ and the line that says, “We’ll look back and tell great tales about it someday.” You can’t imagine how we felt during this period of our lives and I think that is what keeps most people from starting their own journey – change is a very scary thing. The chapter reads with a lighthearted tone but don’t get me wrong, we went through every emotion you can imagine and then some. And yet we still found the courage to try. When you’re determined to do something, very little can stop you.
So are you at the point of no return too? The point where your heart has gone round and round so much, that now only a straight line to the goal will do? You are not alone. Take the first step in your journey with all the rest of us…
Chapters
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Other things to read
So what did we walk away from anyway? Most people would consider it a lot, but we saw it as the wrong kind of life for us so we followed our heart instead. What do you think about it? Check out “Things I Won’t Give Up” and the Selling Our Home Series.
A list of online resources that we used along the way or at the least, gained a bit of knowledge from, is found here. The business side of it all is described here.
And make sure you stop by the Build, Grow and Raise categories, and the Good Neighbors page below and search their sites… doing a lot of research will be your key to success.
From our family to yours…
