In case you haven’t read about it yet, we’ve decided to leave our homestead and live in town next to the beach again.
This was a very difficult decision driven mainly by the desire to get completely out of debt (cars included) and save money. We will also be closer to our church and the school I work for, as well as the dance school and all the other things we’re involved in. This will relieve a lot of stress because right now it takes an extra 30 minutes to get home from “civilization”. That means an extra hour round-trip on any day we decide to leave the house…which means almost every day. We can’t just run home for a break or if we forgot something for the day.
We live on 3 acres in a 3-bedroom/2bathroom home. (That cute little A-frame on the hill is ours.) We are moving to a 800 square foot 0.5 bedroom home. Yes, that’s a studio with a 11×8 area we will turn into a bedroom. At least it’s bigger than the less than 250 square feet this family lives in!
The good part is that we will have a lot of yard space. We will be able to have a large garden and even a backyard area for a few chickens.
I’ve already started simplifying like crazy. I literally am either selling or trashing 2/3 of everything we own. It’s very refreshing, actually.
Last week there was a wild forest fire close by that actually scared me enough to start evacuating (even though it wasn’t necessary). It was a great way to start packing, though! I started by clearing out everything that really mattered and sent it to stay at my parents’ house for now. I’m left knowing that what’s in my house isn’t the most important stuff and I can live without most of it. We should all pack this way. In fact, we should all just clean out our homes regularly and live this way. (And maybe stop buying so much unnecessary STUFF.)
Of course we are excited to start this next chapter in life, but we are going to miss the farm.
We’ll miss our large flock of chickens.
And the eggs.
Our goats.
Our ducks.
The turkey that often jumps up on the window sill to watch every move we make. We’ll also miss his crazy turkey dance he does, puffing out his feathers, dragging his wings on the ground and tapping his feet in a strangely impressive rhythm.
Shooting BB’s and arrows in the back yard or shotguns down the street.
Neighborhood kids riding their horses bareback and bringing our girls home on them.
I will seriously miss the awesome old fashioned neighborhood we live in…with frequent potluck dinners at the community center and the annual “hooligan”, complete with donut-eating contests…
(Yes, I do let my kids eat crap on rare occasions like this. This picture was in the newspaper, too!)
and frog jumping contests with GIANT bullfrogs. (Bidding on these guys starts at around $700 to raise funds for the community volunteer fire station.)
The llama next door.
The wild turkeys that show up in the yard every once in a while.
The herd of cattle that swing by our side of the mountain every few weeks- with new calves in the spring time.
Seeing wildlife every day like deer, foxes, bobcats and hundreds of different native birds.
The views.
I will not miss the rattlesnakes and tarantulas. (It’s actually kind of fun to find tarantulas and the chickens keep them far away from the house.)
We hope to be debt free soon and saving money for our future. We hope to have the freedom to travel more and go out to dinner or gelato without total guilt every once in a while.
We hope to participate more with our church and get connected with new families- especially homeschooling ones.
We’re not going to stop homesteading, though, because ANYONE CAN HOMESTEAD! Whether you’re growing basil in your window sill or raising a herd of cattle, all that matters is that your making an effort to be self-sufficient in some way. I do believe every little effort counts!
I’m looking forward to sharing our new homesteading adventures with you. I’m happy with my garden and chickens…but I’m pushing for bees and maybe even rabbits! We’ll see. 😉
So what do you do, or what do you want to start doing, to be self-sufficient?
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