Why Homesteading?

When we first bought our property and I brought up the idea of homesteading, my husband was hesitant. I’m not sure what he thought a homestead was, but his initial reaction was that we live too close to town and didn’t have enough land. Yes, we live less than ten minutes from town, but I felt certain that 36 acres was more than enough land. The reality is in this day and age, you can homestead on a single acre or in an urban home. At it’s roots, homesteading is about self-sufficiency and sustainability no matter what scale you accomplish them on.

Our Why

Just as there are many different types of homesteads, so too are there many reasons for homesteading. Perhaps it’s simply a desire to get back to nature. Perhaps it’s a response to the state of unrest the world is in. For me, I grew up in a self-sufficient home, our garden grew enough food to feed our family of seven. My grandfather and uncles hunted, and the whole family fished and foraged. I grew up being exposed to canning, preserving, baking and sewing. We traded our bounty with ranchers in our extended family to get milk, eggs, and beef. Then later my uncle began raising the beef we ate. There were very few times as a child that I can remember eating foods that came from a store. Our meat came from the freezer in the basement, and it was packed in tidy white wraps with my grandmother's scrawling writing on them. Eggs were brown with bright yellow yokes. The bread was baked fresh every week. Milk came in big glass jars, and I spent my days eating fruits and veggies directly from the ground.

After years of city living, in Southern California, I’ve finally grown up enough to find a desire to get back to my roots. It started by moving back to my hometown with my husband Daniel. We came home to Colorado with a desire to get back to nature. The purchase of our dream property simply took that a step further. After all, what’s the point of so much land if it isn’t going to support us? I’ve never been one for material things, and I’ve long since learned the value of homemade and handmade goods.

Add that to the fact that our property came with a home, an off-grid cabin, a deep clean well, a terraced garden, established fruit trees, a root cellar, goat pens, and a chicken coop, and well it just seems silly not to homestead when everything is already set up for it.

What Comes Next

While we can’t say exactly what comes next, we’re excited to embark on this new homesteading journey. We’ll be growing food, foraging, hunting, fishing and preserving. Our first projects will involve renovating the existing home and cabin as well as rebuilding the slightly dilapidated coop and pens to bring in livestock. Additionally, we plan to build several off-grid guest houses as well as begin a budding business selling eggs and produce. We invite you to follow along as we learn the ropes of mountain living, become homesteaders instead of just homeowners, and convert to an off-grid, fully sustainable life.

Until next time,