Eating clean, minimalism and sustainable living have caused an influx of families to ditch the mainstream life, buy chickens, and start their own farms. Maybe you’ve watched The Biggest Little Farm or have been following some picture-perfect homesteader Instagram feeds and are wondering, “should I homestead?” In my most recent Project Simplicity post, I shared...
Mama hens hatching and raising a brood of chicks. What could more perfectly capture the dreamy homestead life? Reality check: Our last couple weeks of this picturesque life has involved exploding rotten eggs, dead chicks dangling from a mama hen as she runs around the coop, deformed chicks, drowning chicks, evil mama hens and countless...
My first “real” winter taught me some major lessons. About life. About work. About reality. About myself. I didn’t like it. There, I said it. I bragged to my southern California friends before moving to the midwest that I was sure I’d be fine with the winter because I love drinking coffee and staying inside...
Though death is inevitable on a farm or homestead, it’s never easy. My mom always reminds me when I call her to let her know of another animal loss…”livestock is deadstock”. I was enjoying a lazy extra hour in bed and listened as my husband left the house to do the morning chores. I heard...
Our tiny little backyard homestead is in full summer swing right now. Our native plants attract tons of wildlife- hummingbirds, butterflies, song birds, and plenty of caterpillars. The girls are loving their Caterpillars of North America field guide book– trying to identify things. CHALLENGE: Can you find the caterpillar on the pink sage bush? Hint:...
It’s been 4 months since we left the homestead and the homesteading bug hit my husband and I like a ton of bricks this past weekend. Now instead of 3 acres we have a tiny little yard but that doesn’t mean we can’t still homestead! First I cleaned up a little strip of garden space...
It’s a bittersweet feeling to be in our new place. Leaving the farm was a good decision for us, but I will miss my animals, the views, the wildlife and the neighborhood so much.
Life’s been a little crazy lately. We started homeschooling. That’s been fun interesting different than what I expected hard. I still love it, though, and the second day at home was way better than the first. I get to witness my daughter learning, which is amazing. I’ve started teaching my wonderfully unique performing arts students...
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...
Okay, this isn’t just one week, but some photos from the past few weeks. Welcome to our crazy life… The strawberries have been incredible this year. Because of an unusual amount of freezing temperatures this winter and early spring, the California strawberry crops lost many of their early blooms but came back strong with heavily flowering...