Browsing Tag

rural living

Life with Goats

When we closed on our house at the end of June, we had no idea we were going to have goats by the end of the week.

Well, sort of.

We had been looking for some male goats to eat our 6.5 acres of very high brush (since we didn’t have and didn’t plan on getting a lawn mower). But when a local goat expert said she was selling some of her milking goats, we were super interested.

Now, just so you have a good idea about the level of experience we are talking about; before this photo, I’d never milked anything in my life.

I was a little nervous about potentially having goats because there was just SO much unknown for this city girl. However, after getting some brief milking lessons, tips on how to save money on goat feed (post to come on details of this, if you’re interested), and where to buy hay – we felt much more confident. I think that much of this was because our goat mentor made it seem super attainable. She didn’t have a huge list of organic materials that the goats just needed to have to enjoy a long, healthy life. She didn’t have a whole list of criticisms of what “other goat owners do”… you know the kind of criticism that makes you feel like you’ll never be able to do anything right?

Nope. Instead she shared money saving techniques and tricks, and contacts for buying hay – and most importantly, encouragement: “You got this!” Which was the biggest thing that we both (me especially) needed to hear; that this thing we were just jumping into blindly, that it was totally do-able. That doesn’t mean we’ve done everything perfectly, but we’re learning (reading books, listening to podcasts, & asking a lot of questions) and the goats are still alive and milking!

Here are some photos from the past few months

Here are some things that we & neighbors have made from the goats milk so far:

Mozzarella cheese (plain, garlic & onion, and pepperjack)
Yogurt
Cardamom ICE CREAM (so.good.)
Ricotta
Cajeta carmel
Homemade Fudge
Feed for chickens (super high protein is great for our little pullets)
Used it in baking in place of cow milk

Something slightly magical (yes, I said magical) happened when I first milked these animals. I got SO pumped about having our own homestead, taking large steps towards being self-sustaining. There is something so invigorating about taking care of your animals, and they in turn take care of you. Whether that is through milk, meat, or fiber. I’m learning so much through taking care of these animals.

September 3, 2015

Country Living, Eating Simple, Simple Living

Life on the Homestead

Working full time and taking care of 50 animals takes quite a bit of time – but seriously loving every minute. Until I can update again, I’ll share a brief overview of whats been going on around the homestead.

– Made some Elderberry Ginger Syrup

– Experimented with making a high altitude adjusted Chocolate Beet Cake

– Learned how to save money and make our own goat feed

– Still learning about raising pullets

– Watching ducks make a massive mess everyday in their food & water

– Making reusable “utter wipes” for the goat milking

– Canning summer fruits and veggies

– Visits from family

– Homemade yogurt

– Using the dehydrator more often to preserve summer goods

– Goat cheese making

– Sourdough successes

Processing Homestead Life

After moving around and having constant change for the past few years, its been really great to have some routine and structure. Milking every morning and evening, feeding animals, making cheese and sourdough, finally being able to actually throw away moving boxes (!!!) and settle in. It’s been kind of crazy how fast all this has happened. It’s such a different life than what we were living before – and such a refreshing change. I don’t think I realized how absolutely peaceful living on a homestead, taking care of animals, and being SO busy with things that I love doing, was going to be. In the craziness of what our world & culture looks like these days, this verse describes perfectly what we sense God is calling us to and what we find joy in:

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to work with your hands, so you may win the respect of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone”

We also have the most amazing neighbors ever. I’m serious. I can’t even tell you everything that they’ve done for us in helping us get going – not only are they pros at homesteading, they are just really fun people and we are super blessed to have great friends living just down the road. You should follow them here or here.

I also have to brag on the husband a little bit – he’s been working extremely hard over the past few months at work & sacrificing time spent on the farm, so that we can actually have this place. #imlucky

I hope to have time to post more updates with recipes, photos, and stories – but for now I’ll leave you with this quote from Abraham Lincoln

“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.”

Linking up with Leigh Kramer

September 1, 2015

Country Living, Simple Living, Tiny Living

Westcliffe CO: And Back Again

You people aren’t going to believe this. Some of you are going to think we are nuts.

And you’re definitely correct about that.

We’re moving back to Westcliffe – the land flowing with milk and honey.

Well not quite. At least about the honey part.

We’ve had quite the adventure over the past 2 years of marriage. We got married and started building a tiny house and lived it in for a few months, we moved to Westcliffe CO after dreaming about it for a couple years. We attempted to make it work (financially) in the small town – and figured out in order for us to get anywhere in life, we needed to make some substantial money first (otherwise, we’d end up living in cycles of poverty for quite awhile) – we moved to Brighton CO because Ryan got a job working in the oil fields in Northern Colorado.

Well, as you’ve all noticed gas prices are way down from what they used to be.

And while this is wonderful for lots of people, this has put his job at risk. In fact, he was pretty much guaranteed a lay off in the next few weeks/months. Since we are young and used to change, this hasn’t exactly shaken us too much. On the contrary – it feels like freedom to us in a lot of ways.

Most people know someone who works on the oil field, and you know that their work hours are unreal. Ryan has been averaging at 110 hours per week that he works (2 week on, 1 week off rotations). There are 336 hours in 14 days. 220 hours he has been working, 116 (58 a week or 8 hours a day – which always ends up being closer to 6) hours are spent sleeping, eating, showering, traveling to and from work, and anything else that comes up in life: like spending time with your wife.

Needless to say, we’re kind of DONE with oil field lifestyle.

So while this bring a tad of uncertainty back into our life, being the oldest children that we are, we both find some excitement in that.

Which brings me to the title of this post:

We are moving back to Westcliffe!!!

LOL

I’m sorry, I can’t help but laugh and roll my eyes at us. So its totally ok if you are too :)

Our goal in moving away to Brighton was to save some money so that we could *someday* move back, buy some land, and live simply. Well, this move back is certainly quicker than we thought it would be, but I suppose that’s life.

We are in the process of purchasing a piece of land in a beautiful valley (a couple lots over from this picture), with amazing neighbors who are already well on their way to living the homesteading lifestyle that we’re interested in. On the land and what we will live in is an…. (get ready to laugh and roll your eyes again)….

UNFINISHED TRAILER!

LOL! (Maybe I should have named this blog post “Déjà vu“…)

I couldn’t really believe it either when we started looking at this lovely piece of mess (sorry, no pics yet). I told Ry, “I’m really not sure I can do this again…”

I remembered last time we lived in a shed(tiny house), without electricity, without water, without a kitchen or bathroom… I mean, HELLO: I wrote an entire blog on it!! But before we saw the inside of this creature, we went through the things that were needed in order to make it livable:

Water
Electricity
Warmth
Functioning Kitchen & Bathroom

When we finally got into the tiny shack, we realized: it’s not as bad as we thought it was!! While it definitely needs some TLC, and a couple of major changes (like digging a well), overall, we don’t feel overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. And that’s saying something.

Another question we’ve wrestled with: “can we/should we finish the tiny house?” And this is something we are still wrestling with. Because at this point where we are at with it is still: unfinished. Is it better to put money into tiny house or another unfinished housing project? Well, “what one requires less cash & stress?” is going to be the winning answer.

I haven’t found very many other tiny house people with a similar story to ours: except Casey and Jessica Friday (recently had their tiny house stolen). I empathize so much with this blog that Jessica recently wrote about why they won’t be living in their tiny house. While we do have several of the things that the Fridays no longer have at their disposal (land, lifestyle..etc), I totally get the basis of what she’s getting at here. The whole point of the tiny house movement is what? SIMPLICITY. So that’s our focus moving forward: do the simple thing.

So here’s to many more future blog posts about building chicken coops, milking goats, making cheese, and sharing life (and cows) with neighbors in our precious lil mountain town. Here’s to not many more moves, but an acknowledgement of “that’s where we are in life”.

Here’s to the kind of simple living that is sometimes more… complicated :)

(linking up with Leigh Kramer– because what I’m up to these days is moving and living the nomad’s life)

March 4, 2015

City Living

Brighton, CO

So, remember when we shared that its pretty difficult to find work in Westcliffe?

Our savings account knows that fact all too well.

After a long winter without much work, and a husband with ADD cooped up in a house with no job, we’ve decided to take a few years to “fund raise”.

Basically what this means is…. we’re on the road again!

This time this destination is: Brighton Colorado!

This means a few changes for our rural living lifestyle:

(1) Saying goodbye (or see ya later) to this great little town we’ve really come to love and appreciate. We’ve made so many amazing relationships here and we cannot wait to move back ASAP.

(2) Macey has to go (or stay really). The cute lil pooch we got when we moved here isn’t really suited for the apartment lifestyle of the city. Being a St. Barnard and Lab mix, she loves running around our 2 acre lot. We have a good friend who has offered to take care of her and she will get to live on a farm and chase cows and chickens: her dream.

Maceyface

Griselda Hobbs

(3) Grizzy. The 1975 Jeep that has rescued Ryan from the mud, ice, and snow many times this winter. She’s such a beautiful old thing, but like Macey, better suited to mountain life. She is currently for sale if anyone is interested in giving her a loving home.

(4) Tiny House will stay here. We just had it moved {expensively} down here and some friends have graciously allowed us to store it on their land for now. So until we get land of our own and have some $avings to finish it, the tiny house will stay in Westcliffe. {see recent pics on instagram}

(5) The Mountains. AHHHH. Need I say anything else?

Hello these are my friends, the Sangres.

New things we are excited about:

(1) Stability. We are both going to be working full time jobs for the first time since we’ve known each other. This is uncharted territory people. :)

(2) Future. Since being in Westcliffe, we’ve had lots of time to begin thinking about what we really want in life. This move (and the job$ that come with) will enable us to pursue the things we really want to. Also, not live in poverty forever. :)

(3) Purpose//Focus. Since we know what we want (at least, we THINK we do), we’re attempting to be pretty focused on working really hard & saving some cash. So, if you happen get married in the next couple of years, and we aren’t able to come: please {oh please} understand its totally not you. We are really just trying to practice discipline with our finances. Or if you come into town, maybe we can go for a lil walk instead of to dinner? #pleaseunderstandweloveyou #alsoholdusaccountableherepluleaaaze #daveramseystylesavings

All that being said, here are some things summed up into one picture that we’re going to miss.

mountains.car.pooch.westcliffe.

Dear Westcliffe,

We are so grateful for the past 6 months. We love your people so much, they are the most down-to-earth people we’ve ever met. They all love to garden and fix things. We think that we’d like to raise our family here someday. If you could get a few more jobs for younger people like us, that would be rad (but don’t get too many ok? we like you small). But until you do or until we can handle your drought, we’ve gotta say goodbye for now.

Don’t worry. We’ll visit. Often.

Ryan & Hannah

June 6, 2014