August 7, 2019 • 31 mins
Welcome to the very first episode of Old Fashioned On Purpose! My name is Jill Winger, and on today's episode I'm thrilled to share with you my very unlikely foray into homesteading. You'll hear why growing up as city kids didn't prevent my husband and I from achieving our goal of owning milk cows, cultivating our own gardens, building our own farm, and so much more. If you've ever had any interest in homesteading, don't miss your chance to peek in on my journey. Before you know it you'll be starting your own!
Some key highlights from today's episode:
- How horses sparked my interest in homesteading
- Purchasing our first property
- How a compost pile sparked our foray into homesteading
- The importance of teaching yourself
Click here to check out photos of our homestead makeover! https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2016/05/wyoming-prairie-house.html
Get complimentary access to my full library of resources for homesteaders like you at http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/grow
OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD:
- Sign up for weekly musings from my homestead: http://theprairiehomestead.com/letter
- Get my free homesteading tutorials & recipes here: www.theprairiehomestead.com
- Jill on Instagram: @jill.winger
- Jill on Facebook: http://facebook.com/theprairiehomestead
- Apply to be a guest on the Old-Fashioned on Purpose podcast: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/podcast-guest-application
Did you enjoy listening to this episode? Please drop a comment below or leave a review to let us know. This can help other folks learn about this podcast and we also really appreciate the feedback!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the old
fashioned on purpose podcast.
If you've ever felt a little bituninspired with modern life,
have felt the pull to get backto your roots or maybe just find
yourself being drawn to Masonjars and chickens and you don't
know why this will be your newfavorite podcast.
(00:24):
So this very first episode isall about my personal journey
into homesteading.
Now, regardless of whether youhave a homestead right now or
you're just dreaming of one inthe future, this episode is
going to give you some reallyactionable information and I
(00:44):
think it's really going toinspire you as well to know that
really anything is possible nomatter your situation, where you
live or your background.
Because once you hear my story,you'll understand how I am the
most unlikely homesteader andreally in a million years I
(01:05):
couldn't have guessed that wewould be doing what we're doing
today.
I'm your host Jill Winger.
And for the last 10 years I havebeen helping folks learn how to
leave the rat race and createthe life they really want by
taking the best of the old waysand weaving them into our
(01:25):
everyday modern lives.
So I'm super excited for thisepisode.
You know, if you've followed meon my blog or on Instagram or
youtube, then you've heard someof our origins story before of
how Christian and I started thishomestead path.
So some of this might befamiliar to a few of you, but
(01:48):
today I really want to dive indeeper than I've ever gone
before into our backgrounds.
And really what was the catalystfor us starting this extremely
unorthodox journey and lifestylethat's completely changed our
lives and really has been one ofthe best things that's ever
happened to us.
(02:09):
I think the cool thing about ourstory is that we really didn't
have any sort of agriculturalbackground to start with.
We didn't come from a farming orranching family.
We were typical city kidsgrowing up 1200 miles apart.
(02:30):
But our childhoods mirrored eachother in terms of where we lived
and kind of what we were doing.
It's an interesting story of howwe came together, but it really
serves as proof that no matterwhere you are or what, you know
now, if you have homesteading inyour brain and you can't stop
(02:52):
thinking about it, it's doableand you can make this happen.
Grab something, drink, sit backand let's dive into how
Christian and I went from twocity kids who knew nothing about
homesteading to full fledgedhomesteaders with milk cows and
gardens and the works.
(03:13):
I grew up in a very typical kindof a suburban neighborhood.
It was actually a ruralneighborhood, so we were a few
miles from town, but we weredefinitely locked in by houses
on each side.
I think the lot that I grew upon was like a quarter acre.
(03:34):
It wasn't a tiny postage stampsize backyard, but it definitely
was not a farm by any means.
And there were neighbors on allsides and we were for all
intents and purposes in town,even though it took us a few
minutes to drive into the heartof our local area.
However, I was kind of a weirdoright from the start.
(04:08):
So at a very, very young age,which I'll still never
understand exactly why, I had anobsession with country life,
whichis just kinda crazy cause Iwasn't exposed to it necessarily
at that age.
When I was three and four yearsold, I was fascinated with
(04:29):
cowboys and horses and farmlife.
And I remember as I was growingup, I would ask my parents this
constantly, do we live in thecity or the country?
Because I knew we were kind ofout of town, but I also knew we
lived in a neighborhood and theywould say we live half in half.
We live half in the city andhalf in the country.
(05:02):
So it really was this bizarreobsession right from the
beginning.
I remember when I was nine or 10years old, I would get our
wheelbarrow and I would push itaround our yard and pretend like
I was mucking out stalls on afarm.
I just loved even just beingaround a wheelbarrow because it
(05:24):
symbolized farm life to me.
So anyway, that was me as achild.
Not exactly normal, but hey,it's worked out well.
Even though I didn't have a farmor ranch background, I knew I
wanted to pursue that as I gotolder.
Initially the avenue that Ireally saw as being the path for
(05:48):
me was horses.
As I got a little bit older intomy teen years, I started to
focus maybe less on farm lifeper se, and really shifted over
into focusing on the horseindustry.
And I got my first horse, Iremember I had like three jobs
when I was 13 and 14, I wasbabysitting and I was cleaning
(06:11):
stalls at a local barn and doingodd jobs here and there so I
could save up money to buy myfirst horse.
So I've got the horse and Istarted doing 4-H and I started
to dream of a career in thehorse industry.
The horses really gave me, Ithink a powerful way to feel
(06:35):
like I was a part ofagriculture, even though we'd
still didn't live on a farm, youknow, we didn't have chickens or
cows or anything like that, butwe were able to board my horse a
few miles away and we got toborrow horse trailers and I got
to go and do horsey things.
And that pretty much satisfiedmy obsession for rural living at
(06:55):
that point.
Now an interesting thing that Iremember feeling a lot growing
up, and maybe some of you willrelate to this, is I felt like
kind of an outsider looking into the agricultural world and I
don't feel like anyone in theagricultural world ever made me
(07:15):
feel like this on purpose.
I don't think it was maliciousat all, but there was almost
this pervasive thought that ifyou're not born with a ranch or
farm family, then you're kind ofout of luck.
Or at least that was theperception I had as a child.
So I kind of felt like I didn'twin the lottery because I wasn't
(07:35):
born into this farm or ranchfamily and I, it was kind of
disheartening.
The horses gave me a way to feellike I was a part of that
community.
And then as we'll talk abouthere in a minute, homesteading
really brought that full circle.
But I think it's important toacknowledge that piece because
if you did grow up with a farmer, ranch family, or you have been
(07:58):
an agricultural whole life, youknow, that's so awesome and such
a blessing.
But for those of us who didn'thave that, sometimes it can be a
little bit disorienting to wantthat so badly and feel like you
can only get it if you're borninto it.
Back to the horse topic.
I was doing horses, I wasgetting closer to graduating
high school.
(08:19):
I remember my mom took me to thelocal university to kind of
figure out what the heck I wasgonna do with my life.
And we talked about somedifferent options.
Nothing felt quite right that,you know, they said I could go
into maybe ag business and thenwork at a bank someday.
Which I was like, no, that'sjust not me.
And you know, different optionslike that.
(08:40):
So long story short, Iultimately settled on coming to
a tiny little community collegein Wyoming, 1200 miles away
because they had a good equineprogram.
I think I forgot to mention thisat the beginning, but I grew up
in North Idaho up in thepanhandle.
Even though Idaho and Wyomingtouch each other there, you
(09:05):
know, I was literally oppositeends of both states.
So I went from North Idaho tosoutheast Wyoming, which is
about as far as you can possiblyget from each other and still be
in those two states.
I decided at age 18 I was goingto pack up my truck.
I had a F-150 two wheel driveand I was going to come to
(09:27):
Wyoming, go to this communitycollege and pursue a career in
the horse industry.
I loved the college.
It was a great experience.
You know, you can't beat gettingto ride horses as a part of your
curriculum and getting likecredit for it.
It was fabulous.
While I was at that college, oneday I was working on a part of
(09:53):
the barn crew and part of ourjob was at 6:00 AM every morning
we would go into the ropingboxes and the roping shoots.
This is where the Rodeo kidswould practice their ropings.
If you've ever been to a Rodeo,you know they have the horses,
they'd back into the box, theyreleased the calf and out they
go and they rope the calf or thesteer or whatever.
(10:15):
But my job was to go in the nextmorning after Rodeo practice and
scrape the liquid cow manure outof all of the chutes.
They had a concrete floor andclean up all the manure and
there was, I dunno, about sixinches of very liquid cow manure
and we've used this giantscraper and scrape it out.
(10:38):
But anyway, that was my job andevery morning I would be there
doing that.
And one morning I saw thiselectrician guy, he was there
wiring the arena, they areputting in a new sound system
and we saw each other inpassing.
I think he noticed me more thanI noticed him.
(10:58):
I was really not on the lookoutfor anyone at that point.
You know, it was 6:00 AM I hadno makeup, hair was up in a
messy bun, covered in cow manure.
So it was very glamorous.
Of course.
And long story short, that wasChristian and we didn't end up
connecting at the arena, but weended up connecting at a church
(11:19):
that we coincidentally ended upboth going to a few months
later.
We started dating and the restis history.
He asked me to marry him onhorseback and there we were.
I like to say that ourrelationship really began in a
barn and this setting was aforeshadowing of where we would
(11:44):
end up in the future.
But as a newlywed couple we werevery aware that we didn't want
do things like everybody else.
And what I mean by that is weknew for a fact that we didn't
want to just fall into thissocietal drift of getting jobs
(12:06):
that we didn't really love,buying a house in town that was
close to things because youknow, we didn't want to drive
and just really falling intothat path that we felt like was
expected of us as a youngcouple.
And that just didn't feel rightfor us.
However, we didn't really knowwhat we would do instead.
(12:30):
We didn't know the path thatwould take us away from that.
But I remember very vividly atthat point in my life talking to
my sister, who's always been oneof my closest confidants and
just saying, man, I don't wantthat.
I just know I meant to dosomething else, but I just don't
know what it is yet.
We kind of just thought withthat for a little while, we were
(12:51):
renting a small house out in thecountry.
The rent was dirt cheap.
We loved the steadying.
It gave us a place to board ourhorses and have some freedom,
but we couldn't live thereforever.
And we knew that eventually wewould have to or we would want
to purchase our first home.
So we were there for about ayear and a half.
(13:12):
We had saved up enough money toput down on a down payment and
we started getting the itch toown our own place.
And you know, naturally wedidn't want to go buy a starter
house in town even though weknew it would be more affordable
and closer to jobs and all ofthat stuff.
(13:33):
Christian and I, as you willfind out throughout this
podcast, we'd like to do thingsthe hard way sometimes.
We had this audacious dream thatwe would have our first house be
in the country now for both ofus, even though we had no rural
(13:53):
background, we had had thisobsession and dream to own our
own land for years since we werelittle kids, both of us.
And I remember even on our firstdate, we were sitting at Chili's
restaurant eating hamburgers andjust talking and getting to know
each other.
(14:13):
I asked him what his longtermdreams and goals were and he
said, you know, I want to own aranch someday.
And I said, oh my gosh, so do I.
Which again, completelyillogical and crazy for two city
kids with no idea what they'redoing to be saying.
But we both had that sharedgoal.
And for us owning land, even ifit was just a little bit of land
(14:35):
felt like the ultimate becauseit would be ours and we could
put down our roots there and youknow, land is not something
they're making any more of.
So it felt like a reallyawesome, worthwhile investment.
So we started house shopping, welooked at a couple of different
places and you know, to get landplus the house, then we kind of
(14:57):
wanted a barn cause we had somehorses.
Things are pricey, you know,that can be a considerable chunk
of change, especially whenyou're newlyweds, you know,
buying your first place.
It was a tall order.
I'll never forget, I looked atthe mls listing, you know, where
they list all the houses in thearea.
(15:18):
I believe it was the day beforeMemorial Day on in 2008.
We had had some friends over fora barbecue.
They had bought a farm not toolong prior to that and she had
said, hey, if you're looking forproperty, instead of going to
realtor websites, go to the mlscause they have everything,
which, you know, I was young, Ihad no idea.
(15:39):
I was like light bulb, I'm goingto try that.
As soon as they left, I ran intoour computer, looked up the
website and low and behold therewas this little yellow farm
house with sixty seven wholeacres and some outbuildings.
And I was just convinced thatwas the place for us.
(16:01):
It was like late night on, Ithink it was Friday, Memorial
Day weekend.
And so naturally it's going tobe hard to get ahold of a
realtor, but I was convinced Iwas going to make it happen.
On Saturday morning we called upa realtor, we started to see if
we could go look at the houseand it wasn't too far from where
we were renting at that time.
(16:22):
So thankfully the realtor waswilling to meet us there and the
minute we step foot on thatproperty, I knew it was to be
ours and now I think I saw itdifferently than it actually was
because I was so blinded by apotential.
But in reality it was kind of asad little property.
(16:45):
You know, it had been neglectedfor many, many years.
Later we would find out that ithad a string of renters in it
that just did not take care ofit and really kind of destroyed
the place.
Um, it was a tiny house, about900 square feet.
And thankfully the man who wasselling it had purchased it in
(17:05):
complete destruction and he hadgutted it and brought it to a
point where it was livable.
He had basically just strippedthe house down to bare bones
cause it was in such badcondition and he had put in new
sheet rock, a new carpet, newfloors and things like that.
(17:26):
So it was livable.
Now, as far as the rest of theoutbuildings went, they weren't
so hot.
There was a cinder-block barnand a cinder block shop.
Thankfully, even thoughcinderblocks are not the most
beautiful building material,they were kind of the saving
grace because they ensured thatthe barns didn't rot over the
(17:48):
years.
So they were sturdy and strong,not gorgeous, but they were
packed full of trash.
Like I'm talking, you walkedinto these buildings and the
trash piles were up to yourwaist.
It was everything from boxes ofold Christmas ornaments, car
parts, old clothes, every mannerof trash imaginable.
(18:13):
Um, the barbed wire fences werereally old.
The posts were crumbling, thewires were broken in pieces
together.
The grass was tall and there wasweeds everywhere.
You could hardly see thedriveway.
And my personal favorite part,there was an old washing machine
in the front yard, complete withold moldy clothes inside.
(18:37):
So, you know, I'm painting thispicture for you.
You can see this wasn't exactlya showcase property, but when
Christian and I walked onto thisplace, we knew this was going to
be ours.
We're not folks who take a longtime to make decisions usually,
which can be a good thing.
Sometimes it's not so good, butit actually played out in our
(19:00):
favor this time.
And so we put things into motionimmediately to start getting
this house.
I think we couldn't get a firsttime home buyers sort of set up
with a bank because it was, youknow, 67 acres and they're kind
(19:21):
of like, hey, your first timehome buyer sort of thing is
supposed to be for a littlehouses in town.
So we had to kind of work aroundthat.
But, uh, our down payment wasthe sufficient and the good
thing about buying a propertythat is in such bad shape, it
didn't cost a whole lot.
So we were able to get that landthat we wanted to really more
than anything and get thingsrolling without having to
(19:45):
stretch our finances too much.
As you probably guessed, thatlittle rundown property is where
we live today.
And if you ever want to seepictures of that, there are
plenty of them.
On my blog and I'll leave somelinks to the particular blog
posts that have those photos.
We'll put those in the shownotes, but it's come a long way.
(20:10):
When we initially closed on thathouse, the house we have now, we
signed the paperwork.
Something came over me and priorto that really, you know I
wanted, I knew we wanted to livein the country.
I knew we wanted room for ourhorses.
That was kind of our main goalin purchasing a property outside
(20:31):
of town, but I had forgotten thepiece of me that had craved
chickens and big red barns andthat sort of lower country life
as a child.
That part of me had beenhibernating and when we
purchased this property, Iremember walking onto it a few
days before we finalize thepaperwork.
(20:53):
I was literally hit with this, Idon't know how to describe it,
almost like a lightning bolt ofinspiration.
It was almost a sort ofspiritual experience.
As I started to think of all thethings that were possible now
that we were land owners andI'll never forget it.
(21:14):
I remember going home to ourrental property that we were
packing up and getting ready toleave.
And I didn't sleep for three orfour nights, not because I was
nervous, but because I was sowildly excited to get started.
And of course, you know, Iwanted that property for our
horses, but I started to think,what else could we do with this
(21:35):
property?
How else could we make itprofitable?
What else could we grow?
Maybe we could even grow foodand maybe we could grow food
that would offset our grocerybudget, which would help that
property technically almoststart paying for itself.
You know, it's never going toreally pay for its entire
mortgage payment, but it's goingto help help off that things.
(21:59):
I started dreaming and schemingand I couldn't get it out of my
head.
Now once we got on the property,you know, it took us a few
months to get things sorted outand get moved in.
We had to rebuild a lot of thefence just so it would be safe
for our horses to be here.
That took us a little whilesince it was in such bad shape.
(22:21):
So I got distracted with thatfor just a few months.
And then one day I got tothinking, well, we have these
horses and anyone who has horsesknows that they produce a lot of
horse manure.
It's a byproduct, right?
And there's this pile of horsemanure growing in the backyard.
And I knew that it would be awhile before we could afford a
(22:43):
tractor that could move thehorse manure or spread the horse
manure.
And I thought, I don't want thispile to look like Mount Everest
in a year or two.
What on earth are we going to dowith it?
So I got the wild idea that hey,we can turn this manure into
compost.
Right?
(23:03):
And I got some books from thelibrary kind of prior to that
point.
Compost was a foreign concept tome.
I got some books, startedfiguring out.
I learned that it has to bepiled high and needs to have
some moisture.
It needs to be able to get hotenough in the middle to kill
weeds, seeds and make it really,really good.
I convinced Christian to takesome of the old scrap lumber we
(23:26):
found lying around the propertyand build me these two cute
little compost bins and we builtthem on the edge of our yard.
We didn't even have a gardentilled up yet.
There was not a garden plot whenwe purchased the property and we
were still figuring out wherethat would be.
(23:42):
But I knew I had this compost bin, so we built two side by
side, one that would hold thefresh compost and one that could
hold the finished compost.
And I'll admit Christian was notoverwhelmingly excited to build
the bins because we had so manyother projects to do at that
point.
But I was dead set.
It was going to happen.
(24:02):
And so he dutifully did his joband as we were drilling
postholes that night in Augustand nailing the old boards up, I
just knew that this was thebeginning of something bigger.
And I started to dream of thegarden where I would mix the
compost into the soil and thevegetables that would grow from
(24:24):
that nourished rich soil.
And then all the things I coulddo with the vegetables, the
canning and the fermenting andhow I could use the vegetable
scraps to eventually feed aflock of chickens that I was of
course going to get next.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And then the chickens would give us eggs and then we
could get a milk cow and themilk cow would add more manure
to the pile that would in turnnourish the garden and start the
process all over again.
I like to say that ourhomesteading journey really was
started by a compost pile andthat was really the first step
(25:05):
that we took into making ourdreams bought this property.
And for those of you who havefollowed me online, you know,
the rest is really history fromthat point forward.
It was a process of learning newskills and trying new things,
making lots of mistakes.
(25:26):
And you fast forward to where weare now.
We're still in that same littleproperty, but it looks a lot
different now.
We remodeled the house, we'veadded new barns, new fence
lines, new gardens.
It's a thriving, productivehomestead now instead of a sad
little abandoned farm propertyand homesteading has, without
(25:48):
sounding cliche, seriouslychanged our life.
Homesteading not only fulfillthose dreams that Christian and
I had as children, but it gaveus that foothold in the
agricultural world that we hadalways wanted but thought was
unattainable for us since weweren't born into it.
And it gave us a lot ofconfidence.
(26:09):
You know, we went from kids whodidn't really know what, how to
do anything, to knowing how tobuild buildings and milk a cow
and breed cattle and growvegetables and build fence and
handle animals and do everythingin between.
And so it really boosted ourskillset, which in turn just fed
(26:30):
our creativity and ourconfidence and has been a game
changer for us all the wayaround.
Now, homesteading is also helpedus to create a tribe of
likeminded.
And I'll tell that story in alater episode, but that's also
been really valuable to findfolks who are likeminded and who
(26:52):
think the way we do and have thesame aspirations.
That's a really valuable pieceto find those friends and
colleagues.
And that's been a priceless partof this journey.
So as we wrap this up and I wantto think about how you can apply
this to your own life and yourown homesteading journey, no
(27:16):
matter where you are, no matterif you plan to get your
homestead next year or in 10years, or maybe you're living a
life and on the homestead rightnow, I've been thinking about,
you know, what really madeChristian and I sucessful at the
beginning and what gave us themost ability to really create
(27:38):
the homestead of our dreams.
And I think there were a fewthings.
The first one is that we werewilling to just dive in.
And what I see a lot of folksget stuck on in homesteading or
in other goals in their life isthat they tend to suffer from
paralysis by analysis.
And it's so easy to spend somuch time researching and
(28:00):
planning and looking at all theoptions that you can almost get
into that cycle permanently.
And you never push yourself offthe ledge, jump off the cliff
and start moving forward.
And so keep that in mind.
It's okay to educate yourselfand to learn and to analyze.
But at some point you just gotto pull the trigger and go.
(28:23):
The other thing that was a hugepart of our success was our
willingness to make mistake.
And holy cow, we have made somebig ones.
Every mistake under this fund.
We've been there, done that.
The trick is is we didn't letthem knock us down permanently.
So we made the mistake, wepicked ourselves up, shook
(28:46):
ourselves off, and kept movingforward.
And then the third and finalthing was that we were able to
teach ourselves.
And that's not to say that thereisn't a time and place for
mentors or having local friendscome and show you the ropes.
But if you can really hone yourability to teach yourself skills
(29:10):
or at least to get yourselfstarted and you can use books or
blogs or podcasts or youtubevideos and you can get really
good at understanding how youlearn and how to absorb the
information and then apply it,that will take you a very long
way.
Because in our age ofinformation, you know, it's
(29:31):
never been so easy to learn newskills.
I don't care if it's underwaterbasket weaving or how to milk a
cow.
There is an article or a blogpost or a video out there that's
going to show you how to dothat.
If you can understand how totake that information, apply it
and take action on it, there'sreally nothing you can't teach
(29:52):
yourself.
Well with a few exceptions,maybe let's not learn brain
surgery or rocket science fromYoutube, but you know what I
mean.
So that's the beginning of ourjourney and I can't wait to dive
into more of the moving piecesin future episodes.
We'll be talking about how westarted our homestead on just
one income.
(30:14):
Being debt free has been areally big part of Christian and
I's story and really enabled usto do what we wanted to do long
term.
We'll talk about how we startedour businesses that now fund and
fuel all of our homesteadprojects and beyond.
Uh, some of the mistakes wemade.
We'll be talking a lot about themistakes cause there's lots of
(30:34):
them.
Um, what to look for when you'relooking for your first homestead
property.
Lots of good stuff coming up.
So if you're ready to do thishomestead thing, but you're
feeling a little bit unsure ofwhere or how to start, well
you're in the right placebecause that is my specialty.
(30:57):
I have created an entire libraryof resources.
Just for homesteaders like you,whether you're new or
experienced, and you can getcomplimentary access to this
library right now attheprairiehomehstead.com/grow
we're going to leave a link tothat in the show notes, but if
(31:18):
you just go in there, type inyour email, you're going to get
instant access to this library.
I'm covering everything fromhomestead action plans where you
can fill out a template, gardenguides, chicken stuff, cooking
information and everything inbetween, and that's all for this
episode.
Folks.
Thanks for listening and I wouldbe so grateful if you would hit
(31:42):
subscribe and jump over toiTunes and leave a quick review.
That's all for today, but Ican't wait to see you in the
next episode of the oldfashioned on purpose podcast.
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the old
fashioned on purpose podcast.
If you've ever felt a little bituninspired with modern life,
have felt the pull to get backto your roots or maybe just find
yourself being drawn to Masonjars and chickens and you don't
know why this will be your newfavorite podcast.
(00:24):
So this very first episode isall about my personal journey
into homesteading.
Now, regardless of whether youhave a homestead right now or
you're just dreaming of one inthe future, this episode is
going to give you some reallyactionable information and I
(00:44):
think it's really going toinspire you as well to know that
really anything is possible nomatter your situation, where you
live or your background.
Because once you hear my story,you'll understand how I am the
most unlikely homesteader andreally in a million years I
(01:05):
couldn't have guessed that wewould be doing what we're doing
today.
I'm your host Jill Winger.
And for the last 10 years I havebeen helping folks learn how to
leave the rat race and createthe life they really want by
taking the best of the old waysand weaving them into our
(01:25):
everyday modern lives.
So I'm super excited for thisepisode.
You know, if you've followed meon my blog or on Instagram or
youtube, then you've heard someof our origins story before of
how Christian and I started thishomestead path.
So some of this might befamiliar to a few of you, but
(01:48):
today I really want to dive indeeper than I've ever gone
before into our backgrounds.
And really what was the catalystfor us starting this extremely
unorthodox journey and lifestylethat's completely changed our
lives and really has been one ofthe best things that's ever
happened to us.
(02:09):
I think the cool thing about ourstory is that we really didn't
have any sort of agriculturalbackground to start with.
We didn't come from a farming orranching family.
We were typical city kidsgrowing up 1200 miles apart.
(02:30):
But our childhoods mirrored eachother in terms of where we lived
and kind of what we were doing.
It's an interesting story of howwe came together, but it really
serves as proof that no matterwhere you are or what, you know
now, if you have homesteading inyour brain and you can't stop
(02:52):
thinking about it, it's doableand you can make this happen.
Grab something, drink, sit backand let's dive into how
Christian and I went from twocity kids who knew nothing about
homesteading to full fledgedhomesteaders with milk cows and
gardens and the works.
(03:13):
I grew up in a very typical kindof a suburban neighborhood.
It was actually a ruralneighborhood, so we were a few
miles from town, but we weredefinitely locked in by houses
on each side.
I think the lot that I grew upon was like a quarter acre.
(03:34):
It wasn't a tiny postage stampsize backyard, but it definitely
was not a farm by any means.
And there were neighbors on allsides and we were for all
intents and purposes in town,even though it took us a few
minutes to drive into the heartof our local area.
However, I was kind of a weirdoright from the start.
(04:08):
So at a very, very young age,which I'll still never
understand exactly why, I had anobsession with country life,
whichis just kinda crazy cause Iwasn't exposed to it necessarily
at that age.
When I was three and four yearsold, I was fascinated with
(04:29):
cowboys and horses and farmlife.
And I remember as I was growingup, I would ask my parents this
constantly, do we live in thecity or the country?
Because I knew we were kind ofout of town, but I also knew we
lived in a neighborhood and theywould say we live half in half.
We live half in the city andhalf in the country.
(05:02):
So it really was this bizarreobsession right from the
beginning.
I remember when I was nine or 10years old, I would get our
wheelbarrow and I would push itaround our yard and pretend like
I was mucking out stalls on afarm.
I just loved even just beingaround a wheelbarrow because it
(05:24):
symbolized farm life to me.
So anyway, that was me as achild.
Not exactly normal, but hey,it's worked out well.
Even though I didn't have a farmor ranch background, I knew I
wanted to pursue that as I gotolder.
Initially the avenue that Ireally saw as being the path for
(05:48):
me was horses.
As I got a little bit older intomy teen years, I started to
focus maybe less on farm lifeper se, and really shifted over
into focusing on the horseindustry.
And I got my first horse, Iremember I had like three jobs
when I was 13 and 14, I wasbabysitting and I was cleaning
(06:11):
stalls at a local barn and doingodd jobs here and there so I
could save up money to buy myfirst horse.
So I've got the horse and Istarted doing 4-H and I started
to dream of a career in thehorse industry.
The horses really gave me, Ithink a powerful way to feel
(06:35):
like I was a part ofagriculture, even though we'd
still didn't live on a farm, youknow, we didn't have chickens or
cows or anything like that, butwe were able to board my horse a
few miles away and we got toborrow horse trailers and I got
to go and do horsey things.
And that pretty much satisfiedmy obsession for rural living at
(06:55):
that point.
Now an interesting thing that Iremember feeling a lot growing
up, and maybe some of you willrelate to this, is I felt like
kind of an outsider looking into the agricultural world and I
don't feel like anyone in theagricultural world ever made me
(07:15):
feel like this on purpose.
I don't think it was maliciousat all, but there was almost
this pervasive thought that ifyou're not born with a ranch or
farm family, then you're kind ofout of luck.
Or at least that was theperception I had as a child.
So I kind of felt like I didn'twin the lottery because I wasn't
(07:35):
born into this farm or ranchfamily and I, it was kind of
disheartening.
The horses gave me a way to feellike I was a part of that
community.
And then as we'll talk abouthere in a minute, homesteading
really brought that full circle.
But I think it's important toacknowledge that piece because
if you did grow up with a farmer, ranch family, or you have been
(07:58):
an agricultural whole life, youknow, that's so awesome and such
a blessing.
But for those of us who didn'thave that, sometimes it can be a
little bit disorienting to wantthat so badly and feel like you
can only get it if you're borninto it.
Back to the horse topic.
I was doing horses, I wasgetting closer to graduating
high school.
(08:19):
I remember my mom took me to thelocal university to kind of
figure out what the heck I wasgonna do with my life.
And we talked about somedifferent options.
Nothing felt quite right that,you know, they said I could go
into maybe ag business and thenwork at a bank someday.
Which I was like, no, that'sjust not me.
And you know, different optionslike that.
(08:40):
So long story short, Iultimately settled on coming to
a tiny little community collegein Wyoming, 1200 miles away
because they had a good equineprogram.
I think I forgot to mention thisat the beginning, but I grew up
in North Idaho up in thepanhandle.
Even though Idaho and Wyomingtouch each other there, you
(09:05):
know, I was literally oppositeends of both states.
So I went from North Idaho tosoutheast Wyoming, which is
about as far as you can possiblyget from each other and still be
in those two states.
I decided at age 18 I was goingto pack up my truck.
I had a F-150 two wheel driveand I was going to come to
(09:27):
Wyoming, go to this communitycollege and pursue a career in
the horse industry.
I loved the college.
It was a great experience.
You know, you can't beat gettingto ride horses as a part of your
curriculum and getting likecredit for it.
It was fabulous.
While I was at that college, oneday I was working on a part of
(09:53):
the barn crew and part of ourjob was at 6:00 AM every morning
we would go into the ropingboxes and the roping shoots.
This is where the Rodeo kidswould practice their ropings.
If you've ever been to a Rodeo,you know they have the horses,
they'd back into the box, theyreleased the calf and out they
go and they rope the calf or thesteer or whatever.
(10:15):
But my job was to go in the nextmorning after Rodeo practice and
scrape the liquid cow manure outof all of the chutes.
They had a concrete floor andclean up all the manure and
there was, I dunno, about sixinches of very liquid cow manure
and we've used this giantscraper and scrape it out.
(10:38):
But anyway, that was my job andevery morning I would be there
doing that.
And one morning I saw thiselectrician guy, he was there
wiring the arena, they areputting in a new sound system
and we saw each other inpassing.
I think he noticed me more thanI noticed him.
(10:58):
I was really not on the lookoutfor anyone at that point.
You know, it was 6:00 AM I hadno makeup, hair was up in a
messy bun, covered in cow manure.
So it was very glamorous.
Of course.
And long story short, that wasChristian and we didn't end up
connecting at the arena, but weended up connecting at a church
(11:19):
that we coincidentally ended upboth going to a few months
later.
We started dating and the restis history.
He asked me to marry him onhorseback and there we were.
I like to say that ourrelationship really began in a
barn and this setting was aforeshadowing of where we would
(11:44):
end up in the future.
But as a newlywed couple we werevery aware that we didn't want
do things like everybody else.
And what I mean by that is weknew for a fact that we didn't
want to just fall into thissocietal drift of getting jobs
(12:06):
that we didn't really love,buying a house in town that was
close to things because youknow, we didn't want to drive
and just really falling intothat path that we felt like was
expected of us as a youngcouple.
And that just didn't feel rightfor us.
However, we didn't really knowwhat we would do instead.
(12:30):
We didn't know the path thatwould take us away from that.
But I remember very vividly atthat point in my life talking to
my sister, who's always been oneof my closest confidants and
just saying, man, I don't wantthat.
I just know I meant to dosomething else, but I just don't
know what it is yet.
We kind of just thought withthat for a little while, we were
(12:51):
renting a small house out in thecountry.
The rent was dirt cheap.
We loved the steadying.
It gave us a place to board ourhorses and have some freedom,
but we couldn't live thereforever.
And we knew that eventually wewould have to or we would want
to purchase our first home.
So we were there for about ayear and a half.
(13:12):
We had saved up enough money toput down on a down payment and
we started getting the itch toown our own place.
And you know, naturally wedidn't want to go buy a starter
house in town even though weknew it would be more affordable
and closer to jobs and all ofthat stuff.
(13:33):
Christian and I, as you willfind out throughout this
podcast, we'd like to do thingsthe hard way sometimes.
We had this audacious dream thatwe would have our first house be
in the country now for both ofus, even though we had no rural
(13:53):
background, we had had thisobsession and dream to own our
own land for years since we werelittle kids, both of us.
And I remember even on our firstdate, we were sitting at Chili's
restaurant eating hamburgers andjust talking and getting to know
each other.
(14:13):
I asked him what his longtermdreams and goals were and he
said, you know, I want to own aranch someday.
And I said, oh my gosh, so do I.
Which again, completelyillogical and crazy for two city
kids with no idea what they'redoing to be saying.
But we both had that sharedgoal.
And for us owning land, even ifit was just a little bit of land
(14:35):
felt like the ultimate becauseit would be ours and we could
put down our roots there and youknow, land is not something
they're making any more of.
So it felt like a reallyawesome, worthwhile investment.
So we started house shopping, welooked at a couple of different
places and you know, to get landplus the house, then we kind of
(14:57):
wanted a barn cause we had somehorses.
Things are pricey, you know,that can be a considerable chunk
of change, especially whenyou're newlyweds, you know,
buying your first place.
It was a tall order.
I'll never forget, I looked atthe mls listing, you know, where
they list all the houses in thearea.
(15:18):
I believe it was the day beforeMemorial Day on in 2008.
We had had some friends over fora barbecue.
They had bought a farm not toolong prior to that and she had
said, hey, if you're looking forproperty, instead of going to
realtor websites, go to the mlscause they have everything,
which, you know, I was young, Ihad no idea.
(15:39):
I was like light bulb, I'm goingto try that.
As soon as they left, I ran intoour computer, looked up the
website and low and behold therewas this little yellow farm
house with sixty seven wholeacres and some outbuildings.
And I was just convinced thatwas the place for us.
(16:01):
It was like late night on, Ithink it was Friday, Memorial
Day weekend.
And so naturally it's going tobe hard to get ahold of a
realtor, but I was convinced Iwas going to make it happen.
On Saturday morning we called upa realtor, we started to see if
we could go look at the houseand it wasn't too far from where
we were renting at that time.
(16:22):
So thankfully the realtor waswilling to meet us there and the
minute we step foot on thatproperty, I knew it was to be
ours and now I think I saw itdifferently than it actually was
because I was so blinded by apotential.
But in reality it was kind of asad little property.
(16:45):
You know, it had been neglectedfor many, many years.
Later we would find out that ithad a string of renters in it
that just did not take care ofit and really kind of destroyed
the place.
Um, it was a tiny house, about900 square feet.
And thankfully the man who wasselling it had purchased it in
(17:05):
complete destruction and he hadgutted it and brought it to a
point where it was livable.
He had basically just strippedthe house down to bare bones
cause it was in such badcondition and he had put in new
sheet rock, a new carpet, newfloors and things like that.
(17:26):
So it was livable.
Now, as far as the rest of theoutbuildings went, they weren't
so hot.
There was a cinder-block barnand a cinder block shop.
Thankfully, even thoughcinderblocks are not the most
beautiful building material,they were kind of the saving
grace because they ensured thatthe barns didn't rot over the
(17:48):
years.
So they were sturdy and strong,not gorgeous, but they were
packed full of trash.
Like I'm talking, you walkedinto these buildings and the
trash piles were up to yourwaist.
It was everything from boxes ofold Christmas ornaments, car
parts, old clothes, every mannerof trash imaginable.
(18:13):
Um, the barbed wire fences werereally old.
The posts were crumbling, thewires were broken in pieces
together.
The grass was tall and there wasweeds everywhere.
You could hardly see thedriveway.
And my personal favorite part,there was an old washing machine
in the front yard, complete withold moldy clothes inside.
(18:37):
So, you know, I'm painting thispicture for you.
You can see this wasn't exactlya showcase property, but when
Christian and I walked onto thisplace, we knew this was going to
be ours.
We're not folks who take a longtime to make decisions usually,
which can be a good thing.
Sometimes it's not so good, butit actually played out in our
(19:00):
favor this time.
And so we put things into motionimmediately to start getting
this house.
I think we couldn't get a firsttime home buyers sort of set up
with a bank because it was, youknow, 67 acres and they're kind
(19:21):
of like, hey, your first timehome buyer sort of thing is
supposed to be for a littlehouses in town.
So we had to kind of work aroundthat.
But, uh, our down payment wasthe sufficient and the good
thing about buying a propertythat is in such bad shape, it
didn't cost a whole lot.
So we were able to get that landthat we wanted to really more
than anything and get thingsrolling without having to
(19:45):
stretch our finances too much.
As you probably guessed, thatlittle rundown property is where
we live today.
And if you ever want to seepictures of that, there are
plenty of them.
On my blog and I'll leave somelinks to the particular blog
posts that have those photos.
We'll put those in the shownotes, but it's come a long way.
(20:10):
When we initially closed on thathouse, the house we have now, we
signed the paperwork.
Something came over me and priorto that really, you know I
wanted, I knew we wanted to livein the country.
I knew we wanted room for ourhorses.
That was kind of our main goalin purchasing a property outside
(20:31):
of town, but I had forgotten thepiece of me that had craved
chickens and big red barns andthat sort of lower country life
as a child.
That part of me had beenhibernating and when we
purchased this property, Iremember walking onto it a few
days before we finalize thepaperwork.
(20:53):
I was literally hit with this, Idon't know how to describe it,
almost like a lightning bolt ofinspiration.
It was almost a sort ofspiritual experience.
As I started to think of all thethings that were possible now
that we were land owners andI'll never forget it.
(21:14):
I remember going home to ourrental property that we were
packing up and getting ready toleave.
And I didn't sleep for three orfour nights, not because I was
nervous, but because I was sowildly excited to get started.
And of course, you know, Iwanted that property for our
horses, but I started to think,what else could we do with this
(21:35):
property?
How else could we make itprofitable?
What else could we grow?
Maybe we could even grow foodand maybe we could grow food
that would offset our grocerybudget, which would help that
property technically almoststart paying for itself.
You know, it's never going toreally pay for its entire
mortgage payment, but it's goingto help help off that things.
(21:59):
I started dreaming and schemingand I couldn't get it out of my
head.
Now once we got on the property,you know, it took us a few
months to get things sorted outand get moved in.
We had to rebuild a lot of thefence just so it would be safe
for our horses to be here.
That took us a little whilesince it was in such bad shape.
(22:21):
So I got distracted with thatfor just a few months.
And then one day I got tothinking, well, we have these
horses and anyone who has horsesknows that they produce a lot of
horse manure.
It's a byproduct, right?
And there's this pile of horsemanure growing in the backyard.
And I knew that it would be awhile before we could afford a
(22:43):
tractor that could move thehorse manure or spread the horse
manure.
And I thought, I don't want thispile to look like Mount Everest
in a year or two.
What on earth are we going to dowith it?
So I got the wild idea that hey,we can turn this manure into
compost.
Right?
(23:03):
And I got some books from thelibrary kind of prior to that
point.
Compost was a foreign concept tome.
I got some books, startedfiguring out.
I learned that it has to bepiled high and needs to have
some moisture.
It needs to be able to get hotenough in the middle to kill
weeds, seeds and make it really,really good.
I convinced Christian to takesome of the old scrap lumber we
(23:26):
found lying around the propertyand build me these two cute
little compost bins and we builtthem on the edge of our yard.
We didn't even have a gardentilled up yet.
There was not a garden plot whenwe purchased the property and we
were still figuring out wherethat would be.
(23:42):
But I knew I had this compost bin, so we built two side by
side, one that would hold thefresh compost and one that could
hold the finished compost.
And I'll admit Christian was notoverwhelmingly excited to build
the bins because we had so manyother projects to do at that
point.
But I was dead set.
It was going to happen.
(24:02):
And so he dutifully did his joband as we were drilling
postholes that night in Augustand nailing the old boards up, I
just knew that this was thebeginning of something bigger.
And I started to dream of thegarden where I would mix the
compost into the soil and thevegetables that would grow from
(24:24):
that nourished rich soil.
And then all the things I coulddo with the vegetables, the
canning and the fermenting andhow I could use the vegetable
scraps to eventually feed aflock of chickens that I was of
course going to get next.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And then the chickens would give us eggs and then we
could get a milk cow and themilk cow would add more manure
to the pile that would in turnnourish the garden and start the
process all over again.
I like to say that ourhomesteading journey really was
started by a compost pile andthat was really the first step
(25:05):
that we took into making ourdreams bought this property.
And for those of you who havefollowed me online, you know,
the rest is really history fromthat point forward.
It was a process of learning newskills and trying new things,
making lots of mistakes.
(25:26):
And you fast forward to where weare now.
We're still in that same littleproperty, but it looks a lot
different now.
We remodeled the house, we'veadded new barns, new fence
lines, new gardens.
It's a thriving, productivehomestead now instead of a sad
little abandoned farm propertyand homesteading has, without
(25:48):
sounding cliche, seriouslychanged our life.
Homesteading not only fulfillthose dreams that Christian and
I had as children, but it gaveus that foothold in the
agricultural world that we hadalways wanted but thought was
unattainable for us since weweren't born into it.
And it gave us a lot ofconfidence.
(26:09):
You know, we went from kids whodidn't really know what, how to
do anything, to knowing how tobuild buildings and milk a cow
and breed cattle and growvegetables and build fence and
handle animals and do everythingin between.
And so it really boosted ourskillset, which in turn just fed
(26:30):
our creativity and ourconfidence and has been a game
changer for us all the wayaround.
Now, homesteading is also helpedus to create a tribe of
likeminded.
And I'll tell that story in alater episode, but that's also
been really valuable to findfolks who are likeminded and who
(26:52):
think the way we do and have thesame aspirations.
That's a really valuable pieceto find those friends and
colleagues.
And that's been a priceless partof this journey.
So as we wrap this up and I wantto think about how you can apply
this to your own life and yourown homesteading journey, no
(27:16):
matter where you are, no matterif you plan to get your
homestead next year or in 10years, or maybe you're living a
life and on the homestead rightnow, I've been thinking about,
you know, what really madeChristian and I sucessful at the
beginning and what gave us themost ability to really create
(27:38):
the homestead of our dreams.
And I think there were a fewthings.
The first one is that we werewilling to just dive in.
And what I see a lot of folksget stuck on in homesteading or
in other goals in their life isthat they tend to suffer from
paralysis by analysis.
And it's so easy to spend somuch time researching and
(28:00):
planning and looking at all theoptions that you can almost get
into that cycle permanently.
And you never push yourself offthe ledge, jump off the cliff
and start moving forward.
And so keep that in mind.
It's okay to educate yourselfand to learn and to analyze.
But at some point you just gotto pull the trigger and go.
(28:23):
The other thing that was a hugepart of our success was our
willingness to make mistake.
And holy cow, we have made somebig ones.
Every mistake under this fund.
We've been there, done that.
The trick is is we didn't letthem knock us down permanently.
So we made the mistake, wepicked ourselves up, shook
(28:46):
ourselves off, and kept movingforward.
And then the third and finalthing was that we were able to
teach ourselves.
And that's not to say that thereisn't a time and place for
mentors or having local friendscome and show you the ropes.
But if you can really hone yourability to teach yourself skills
(29:10):
or at least to get yourselfstarted and you can use books or
blogs or podcasts or youtubevideos and you can get really
good at understanding how youlearn and how to absorb the
information and then apply it,that will take you a very long
way.
Because in our age ofinformation, you know, it's
(29:31):
never been so easy to learn newskills.
I don't care if it's underwaterbasket weaving or how to milk a
cow.
There is an article or a blogpost or a video out there that's
going to show you how to dothat.
If you can understand how totake that information, apply it
and take action on it, there'sreally nothing you can't teach
(29:52):
yourself.
Well with a few exceptions,maybe let's not learn brain
surgery or rocket science fromYoutube, but you know what I
mean.
So that's the beginning of ourjourney and I can't wait to dive
into more of the moving piecesin future episodes.
We'll be talking about how westarted our homestead on just
one income.
(30:14):
Being debt free has been areally big part of Christian and
I's story and really enabled usto do what we wanted to do long
term.
We'll talk about how we startedour businesses that now fund and
fuel all of our homesteadprojects and beyond.
Uh, some of the mistakes wemade.
We'll be talking a lot about themistakes cause there's lots of
(30:34):
them.
Um, what to look for when you'relooking for your first homestead
property.
Lots of good stuff coming up.
So if you're ready to do thishomestead thing, but you're
feeling a little bit unsure ofwhere or how to start, well
you're in the right placebecause that is my specialty.
(30:57):
I have created an entire libraryof resources.
Just for homesteaders like you,whether you're new or
experienced, and you can getcomplimentary access to this
library right now attheprairiehomehstead.com/grow
we're going to leave a link tothat in the show notes, but if
(31:18):
you just go in there, type inyour email, you're going to get
instant access to this library.
I'm covering everything fromhomestead action plans where you
can fill out a template, gardenguides, chicken stuff, cooking
information and everything inbetween, and that's all for this
episode.
Folks.
Thanks for listening and I wouldbe so grateful if you would hit
(31:42):
subscribe and jump over toiTunes and leave a quick review.
That's all for today, but Ican't wait to see you in the
next episode of the oldfashioned on purpose podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com