Welcome to the Homestead

This blog has been a long time coming. I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a blog off and on for the past several years and now is the time.

A little about our homestead. 

My wonderful husband and I bought our homestead back in 2018, and after a few months of paint, fixing things up, and making the place ours, we moved in in October. 

It’s hard to believe that we haven’t even been here two years; it seems like this is where we’ve always been. If you’ve ever had a house that felt like home the moment you stepped over the threshold, you’ll know what I mean. 

After driving WAY too far out of town to look at the house, the moment we stepped out of the car we KNEW.

It is peaceful here. You can hear so much – the breeze, the insects, the local animals. What you don’t hear is the hustle and bustle of the city. And THAT is worth the drive.

Our five acre homestead sits on the high prairie at the edge of the Great Plains. It’s a work in progress. The field is overrun with thistle, mullen, wild roses, and a host of other things that don’t make for the best pasture. We’re taking things slow, one step at a time. Both of us still work full time, so things happen when they can. The plan for next summer is goats. They’ll like the weedy brambly nature that is most of our property. 

The first summer we were here, we put in a large garden and orchard area. Not counting walking paths, we have 2400 square feet of vegetable growing space, as well as a large area for our semi-dwarf orchard we are working on expanding, and, let’s be honest, keeping alive. We also got a small flock of five chickens that provide us with eggs daily and a grasshopper free backyard.

This summer we’re continuing to add to our homestead. We’ve added more fruit trees and vegetables. We’ve also added more mulch. Our high prairie climate demands any type of water retention available in order to not be beholden to the watering hose.

Our homestead has added some cuteness as well in the form of a flock of 10 ducks and two geese. (I’m pretty sure it has been this addition alone that has won my husband over to this way of life!) When they’re grown, they’ll work as garden debuggers and weeders, in addition to being the most adorable flock you’ve ever seen. I’ll talk about the ducks more in depth in subsequent posts. In fact, I have a plan for a whole series on raising ducks and geese.

A little about us.

Until we moved to our homestead, we’ve always been “City Folk.” God how I hate that term! It makes us sound like we’ve spent our lives living in the city ignorant to the ways of country life. 

While until 2018, we did live “in town,” it was a town of about 8,000 people and by no means the big city. In fact, many people there will use the phrase “going into town” to indicate that they are headed into the nearest big city to do errands, see a movie, or go out to dinner. 

Neither of us have ever lived in what could be considered a “city.” And this move to the country has been everything we’ve ever wanted in terms of living a peaceful life at least somewhat away from the hustle and bustle of even a small town. (Though to be honest, we’ve lived in “the country” before in a way our neighbors probably never have. Just out of college we lived in a little town of less than 300 residents an hour away from the nearest grocery store and two hours away from the nearest movie theatre. How’s that for country!) 

For work, both of us are teachers. One day, I hope that our homestead will be self-sufficient enough that it can be my full time job.

In addition to our farm animals, we have two beautiful dogs. A Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix named Penny Lane, and an English Springer Spaniel/Rat Terrier mix named Watson. (Yes, he looks like a Border Collie puppy, but he’s actually six years old.)

Having land has always been my dream since I was a little girl helping my parents in their garden. I never expected to have more than a small house on a postage stamp in a small town with an overabundance of fruit, veggies, flowers, and a few chickens. You know the one. Now we’re here, and I want to share our adventure with you.

What to expect from this blog.

There’s so many homesteading blogs and Youtube channels out there already. Many of them already established homesteads, or homesteaders who quit their jobs, moved to the country, and had the time to turn their homestead into something working in a year or less. 

You won’t find that here.

Don’t get me wrong, I love these blogs and channels. They have provided me with inspiration, and something to aspire to, but I’ve yet to find one that completely clicks with my way of life.

Maybe it’s that so many of these homesteaders have children and a lot of their content is influenced by this. We love working with children as teachers, but are child free by choice.

Maybe it’s that so much of their content mentions religion. If that’s your thing, that’s perfectly okay with me. It’s not ours.

Maybe it’s just that we are that weird secular, liberal, child-free couple trying to make a go at a life where our lifestyle and political/religious views are the minority. (Let’s be honest. It’s definitely that.)

So what can you find here?

You can find a homestead in it’s beginning stages. A homestead being slowly created when time and money allow. A homestead being run by a weird, secular, liberal couple who are interested in sustainability, minimalism, working towards living off grid, self-sufficiency, and good homemade food.

Welcome to our homestead!