Browsing Tag

simple living

pensacola FL
City Living, Country Living

Changes in 2017

I mentioned in my last blog that we had some major changes coming up and it’s time to finally share some of them with you.

We’ve had several shifts in our lives over the past year: having a kid, changing our jobs several times, and finally starting our own property management/care business here in Westcliffe. We absolutely love the life that we’ve created here. We love the small town and unique culture. We love our friends and neighbors. We love our little homestead (complete with goats, chickens, ducks and cats). We’ve dreamt about expanding (Ryan wants sheep, I want pigs), and continuing to learn new things like making homemade soap and candles, experimenting with spinning natural fibers (alpaca, sheep, goat…etc) or expanding our farm products to sell in local co-ops or farmer’s markets. It seems that the options are limitless here! 

However, several months ago God started to turn our hearts in a different direction, in a unique way only God could manage to do.

We don’t quite understand it yet, and it is bittersweet (for the reasons mentioned above and many more) but we believe God has something different for us that the life I just described. We have already sold our house, animals, tiny house and business and will be moving to Pensacola FL at the beginning of May and pursuing a life in some kind of ministry.

This has all happened pretty fast, and has been confirmed in many different ways. Since we moved so many times during the first 2 years of marriage, the fact that we are packing up and hitting the road again AND we both feel right about it, is a God thing. I definitely NEVER wanted to move again. I burned our packing boxes when we bought this place, remember?? 

We.are.going.to.miss.this.place. It is absolutely our preference to continue in the life we’ve created here. But we don’t want to miss out on the more God has for us, by clinging to our preferences. And so we are excited about whatever it is that God has in store for us. This is still our favorite place on the planet and there are so many things that we love about Westcliffe and Colorado. If God hadn’t made this move clear to us, we wouldn’t be doing it.

We don’t have too many details yet about what life in FL looks like for us, (perhaps Bible college? Def days at the beach), but we’ll keep you updated as we find out! 

We recently took a trip to FL and Ellis absolutely LOVED the sand & ocean, and Ryan will enjoy the fishing scene there. Me? Gimme a book or knitting project and some shade and I’ll be just fine.

pensacola FL

pensacola FL

pensacola FL

pensacola FL

pensacola FL

 

I’ll continue to blog about our lives here. We are still planning on living simply in FL, although that will look different without 50 animals and a large mountain range in my front yard ;) I’d like to write about the spiritual aspects of our lives as well and what God has been/will be doing, I’m just not sure if this will be the platform for that or not – I’ll let you know.

As always, questions are welcomed :) 

Thanks for reading and following!

baby goats colorado
Country Living, Simple Living

Baby Goat Labor and Birth (Round Two)

Mama #2 (Tootsie) finally had her babies!

It was at least a 9 hour labor, with a couple of those being pushing. There IS a video of a birth in this post, so if that kind of thing makes you queasy, just skip over it :)

When I (Hannah) came home from work one day last week and went out to the barn to feed everyone, Tootsie wasn’t interested in getting up or eating, which is weird because goats are highly motivated by food. After Ryan got home from work, we pretty much hung out in the barn all.night.long. Because that’s what you do when you don’t have a tv and your goat is in labor.

goat labor and birth

 

goat labor and birth

 

goat labor and birth

 

 

We actually invited a friend over and had front row seats (heater and hot tea provided).

 

goat birth

 

It probably would have been better for mama for us to leave the barn, and let her labor in peace. Once we left (after midnight) she progressed fairly quickly and was pushing within 20-30 minutes.

The first baby (Holly)  had some trouble and mama couldn’t push her out all the way. Her head came out like normal, but her legs were tangled and she was stuck. Both Ryan and I tried to untangle and pull her out manually.

 

goat labor and birth

 

After about 30 minutes, Ryan was finally able to get her out safely.

Mama got busy cleaning her up before the next round of pushing.

newborn goat

 

Birth Video

 

 

She pushed Annie out much easier than Holly. After she cleaned both of them off (we helped a little bit, as you can see from the steam in the video, it was a chilly night in the teens) they were both trying to nurse her.

Being newbies, we thought we were through the hard part, but we have since been told (and experienced) that when goat kids have a traumatic birth, they often have issues nursing and eating. Annie caught on pretty quickly, with little direction. Holly on the other hand was struggling.

It was 3am by this point and we both had jobs to be at in less than 4 hours, so we went to bed hoping they would figure it out by sunrise. But Holly really struggled that entire day to eat. I milked several tablespoons of colostrum from Tootsie within the first few hours and manually fed it to Holly, but she wasn’t interested in learning how to nurse.

After leaving mama and babies for the first day and a half to try to figure everything out on their own, Holly was not doing well at all and we realized that we needed to start bottle feeding if she was going to make it.

 

baby goat bottle fed

 

baby goat bottle fed

 

baby goat bottle fed

 

This actually proved to be much harder than we thought. She (as pictures above show) was willing to take the bottle for the first day. After that, she wasn’t interested in eating at all. We were forced to hold her down and basically squirt milk down her throat every few hours while she squirmed and cried loudly.

Since she was so weak and refusing to eat, we decided it was best for her to stay inside at night so that we could wake up and feed her and also because the temperature was still dipping into the teens. So, all of a sudden, it appeared that we had a pet goat. Which was adorable, but not exactly what we were looking for in raising goats.

 

goat in a diaper

 

baby goat

 

 

I (Hannah) took her to work with me for almost a week while we would repeat the “torture sessions” of feeding every few hours.

 

baby goat

 

goat in a diaper

 

She was getting stronger, but this only meant that she had more strength to fight back when we were trying to feed her.

We were also adding coconut oil, antibiotics (her eyes were infected from her traumatic birth), and electrolytes to her milk every 8 hours or so, to give her an extra boost that she seemed to need.

Finally, I turned to google and in true millennial form typed in, “my goat won’t take a bottle.help”. We’d tried everything suggested, except blindfolding the baby to feed her. So, I tried it.

And it worked.

blindfold baby goat

 

After she figured this out, we were able to leave her in the barn with the goats in the daytime, and feed her a few times in the mornings and evenings while we were home. Much more manageable than bringing a baby goat in a diaper to work.

Since then, she’s quickly progressed to no blindfold, and last night she actually nursed (with some assistance) willingly for the first time! She still needs more time to remember (and be guided) towards her mama for milk, but we’re pretty confident that she’ll get there.

This has been quite the learning experience for both of us and we’re grateful. This is why we bought a farm.

It’s also been slightly terrifying to realize how exhausting taking care of a baby is – a goat baby, not even a human who is more demanding and potentially more complicated than a goat! But it was awesome to work together to problem solve and take care of a tiny thing together.

We’ll continue to keep you update on all the goats well being, and our sanity in the process :)

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

baby goats
Country Living, Simple Living

Baby Goats (Round One) & Duck Eggs

We had an exciting weekend, one of the first really warm few days that we’ve had up here in the mountains.

Our first round of baby goats were born last week! Clarence (brown male) and Heidi (white female). Mama Lilly did awesome and did the entire birth by herself. We came out in the morning to feed them, and the babies were already cleaned off and nursing great! We couldn’t have hoped for a better first experience for breeding and birthing animals. Second Mama Tootsie is due in 2-3 weeks (we estimate) and are currently feeding both moms an absurd amount of hay and grain so they can take care of their babies.

We’re looking forward to the girls milk production being back to “normal” as we let them dry up a few months ago to prepare for the births. Going to start making cheeses and caramels again – hoping to sell some at our local farmer’s market this summer!

Also, our birds finally started laying eggs! The same day that we found the babies, we found about a dozen eggs. Half chicken, half duck. The week after that we found up to 15 each day! Naturally, we decided to have an omelette party to deal with this problem. We’ve since found several regular customers who will help us keep this egg issue under control.

I’ve also since learned about the nutritional value of duck eggs:

  • they have more albumen (great for baking)
  • more Omega 3 fatty acids
  • they are an alkaline producing food (cancer cannot grow)
  • six times the amount of vitamin D
  • twice the amount of vitamin A
  • twice the cholesterol (good or bad depending on the latest research)
  • higher in calories
  • twice as high in mono unsaturated fat
  • Stay fresher, longer because of the thicker shell

Overall, duck eggs have twice the nutritional value of a chicken egg, which is awesome for BOTH of us (Ryan, because of his chicken egg intolerance, and me for  extra nutrients & fat during my pregnancy).

Here are some sweet pictures of the kids and their mama during their first week.

Be looking for another post in a few weeks with Baby Goats, Round Two!

 

baby goats

 

baby goats

 

baby goats

 

baby goat

 

farm fresh eggs

 

farm fresh eggs

 

Linking up with Leigh Kramer

westcliffe colorado
Country Living, Responsive Living, Simple Living

Revisiting Vision

You know how sometimes you get so deep into something that you’re not really sure what you’re doing?

Well, that’s where we’ve found ourselves the last few weeks. Not at all unhappy with the life that we’ve chosen. On the contrary; I’m (Hannah) extremely happy on the homestead. It brings a lot of joy and peace to my life.

But between milking goats, making cheese, feeding chickens, fixing fencing, and working full time,  one can tend to get overwhelmed with the day-to-day.

So, I figured now was a good time to revisit our vision. The same vision that we had when we started this whole adventure together. Maybe see where we are lacking, and where we’re doing really well.

corky

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Groth

 

Are we cultivating creative, adventurous, and imaginative minds?

Creativity has to come out in problem solving around the farm – we wanted to build a root cellar, but didn’t have the time or resources to build the one we were envisioning, so Ryan dug a hole in the ground, and we bartered for a large freezer from our neighbor, and we’re going to bury the freezer: root cellar! Adventure for me looks like trying new recipes, maybe they fail, maybe they work. Or butchering chickens or milking goats for the first time. Or attempting to develop an online business. Ryan is currently working on finishing my dream library in our living room.

ryan corson

 

His creativity and imagination (and thoughtfulness) is making our home even cozier than it already is.

 

Are we finding joy in knowing and interacting with the people we live around?

Yes. 100% absolutely. This one is easy. Have I mentioned our neighbors?

 

Are we sharing what we have with others?

This is actually something we’ve talked about lately. We’d like to be more generous in the way that we think. There is a family here in the valley who are some of the most generous people I’ve ever met. They have us over for dinner and when we leave, they always give us a bag of natural, herbal goodies. They are the most hospitable people; hosting folks in their home constantly, cooking great quality food, and giving away so much of their time and resources.

We want to be more like them in the way of generosity. With our mentality on serving others, and giving where it’s needed and asked for, and even where it’s not. We don’t want our lives to be about ourselves.

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” – Charles Dickens

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” – Paul in Galatians 5

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” – Jesus in Mark 9

 

Are we appreciating music & art more fully?

Hah. No.

Definitely could be more intentional about this. I was chatting with my sister recently (she’s an artist who just recently completed her senior art exhibition) and she recently had her senior art exhibit. She shared with me that when most folks view or experience a work of art, their first thoughts and questions are always “how?” related.

elizabeth groth

 

“How did you make this?” How is this held up?”

She feels the need to address the “how” questions first thing, so that the viewer can move on to the “why” questions.

I love this. & I also feel like the season I’m in right now has been more of a “how” season. That is fine – and needed. I need to know “how to” milk a goat, “how to” make goat cheese, and “how to” butcher a chicken….etc.

But I love the thought of  a season dwelling more on the “why”. I think that this will bring more art & music into our lives naturally.

Isn’t that what art is? An expression of the “why” of life.

 

Are we developing knowledge and creativity in horticulture?

 

In smaller ways, yes. We’ve spent time foraging & harvesting from our land this fall. Since we moved onto the farm and just got going in July, it was too late to start a garden, but we’ve started to think about and plan for what we’ll grow next spring/summer. We’ll definitely be learning more about this in the next year.

 

 

Are we acknowledging and appreciating the existence and creativity of the God of Israel?

This one is convicting to some extent. We cannot help but acknowledge the existence of God. We’ve both seen and experienced too much to be convinced otherwise. However, there are seasons where God just seems to go silent. We see this in the Bible, we can look around and see that this happens with others, and we experience this ourselves. This is part of the reason for this vision revisiting. We just sometimes find ourselves doubting whether or not we are actually doing what He would have us do. Life has seemed like an up-hill battle for us since we met. We’ve listened for God’s voice and at times, He has spoken very clearly, and we’ve acted.

Then, in the silence, we tend to doubt what we heard in the light. Which, is not something we’re supposed to do, but we struggle with it.

We don’t believe in the prosperity gospel.

But we hope that we can evoke the favor of God to some extent, through our obedience.

And at least sense the Spirit of God in our daily lives more.

But this article contains a lot of truth about our generation & here is an excerpt that concludes it nicely::

  1. Stay wildly ambitious. The current world is bubbling with opportunity for an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success. The specific direction may be unclear, but it’ll work itself out—just dive in somewhere.

  2. Stop thinking that you’re special. The fact is, right now, you’re not special. You’re another completely inexperienced young person who doesn’t have all that much to offer yet. You can become special by working really hard for a long time.

  3. Ignore everyone else. Other people’s grass seeming greener is no new concept, but in today’s image crafting world, other people’s grass looks like a glorious meadow. The truth is that everyone else is just as indecisive, self-doubting, and frustrated as you are, and if you just do your thing, you’ll never have any reason to envy others.

 

#nosetothegrindstone

 

Are we encouraging others in their journey to discover themselves capable of creating a simple, fulfilling, self-sustaining lifestyle?

I would hope that this would happen, but I guess the only thing that we can control is to live this out for ourselves and make friends along the way. Which is what we attempt to do.

There are many other points from our original vision for what our life could look like, and maybe I’ll revisit them at some point.

Ryan: It’s encouraging to look back and see that even though we envisioned our lives being different in a lot of ways, all of our goals still apply. And we’re achieving/practicing most of them. Even though we’ve been discouraged at times when things haven’t worked out according to our vision of how they should go, God has still been faithful to the things he’s spoken over us, and in a lot of cases [like the tiny house (plan A) or the purchase of land and trailer (plan B)], His provision has been greater than we had envisioned for ourselves. 

For now, we’ll just leave you with this verse that we are convicted & challenged by often.

“If you get rid of the yoke from those around you, the finger-pointing and malicious speaking, and if you offer yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday. The Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose waters never run dry. Some of you will rebuild ancient ruins; you will restore the foundations laid long ago; you will be called the repairer of broken walls, the restorer of streets where people live.” (Isaiah 58)

IMG_4593

Photo Cred: Elizabeth Groth

Country Living, Eating Simple

Autumn on the Homestead

Here is a quick little update of what’s been going on around the homestead in the last month or so…

  • Made applesauce, apple butter, apple chips, & apple scones. Apple tea is still on the “to do” list.
  • Pumpkin puree & pumpkin butter
  • Honey spiced cake – (orange, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, coffee, & vanilla)
  • Autumn Spiced Cajeta (cajeta with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, & vanilla)
  • Honey toasted goat cheese ( cinnamon, cardamom, & goat cheese)
  • Barn & coop cleaning and straw restocking before the winter weather hits hard
  • Getting our new buck, Kosher, adjusted to life on the homestead. The girls took to him immediately and he snuck out of his pen the first week on the farm. We’re hoping to see some goat kids in the next few months!
  • Starting to transition from the summer go-go-go around the farm to more of the “hunker down, drink lots of tea & fire cider, do indoor projects and go to bed early” that winter tends to brings.
  • Ordered some new oils from Eden’s Garden for the upcoming holiday season. So far, my favs are Cinnamon Leaf, Nutmeg, & Sweet Orange – smells like Christmas and was super affordable.
  • Started reading the C.S. Lewis sci-fi series (again) – so good. Also, you should shop here for cheap books. Seriously – so much cheaper than Amazon.
  • Had several custom orders on my Etsy shop & several orders of udder wipes that sold this past month, which I think is kind of hilarious. But I obviously love it because IT’S UDDER WIPES.

 

autumn treats

goats on homestead

homemade apple sauce

 

 

fall in the sangres

 

homemade Pumpkin puree

 

 

farm animals on homestead

Winter crafting

sangre de cristo mountains

 

honey toasted goat cheese

westcliffe colorado


 

We’re looking forward to what some are calling an”el nino” winter. Which for Colorado could mean feet of snow, gallons of hot tea, and truckloads of wood pellets for the stove. We have family coming for the holidays and we intend to be fully present this year (as opposed to last year).

Projects on the to-do list this winter: knit socks, knit mittens, sew a dress (or quilt), crochet a blanket with this pattern, develop a fodder feed system for the animals, build a magical book shelf (think Belle from Beauty and the Beast) complete with 12 ft aspen ladder for our ever growing book collection… I’m sure there is more, but I’ll stop there before I get completely overwhelmed.

Quote of the month:

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts & be thankful.

Thanks for following our journey!

 

Linking up with Leigh Kramer.

Country Living, Eating Simple, Simple Living

High Altitude Chocolate Beet Cake

“Is it better to be feared or loved? Loved, because people associate with you because they want to, not because they need to. We need to eat beets, but we want to eat cake. Be the cake of the world.”
― Jarod Kintz

OR just be the chocolate beet cake of the world.


 

I haven’t done TOO much baking at our homestead yet – for many reasons. One being we are at 9,200ft elevation, and sometimes major adjustments are needed when baking. & I’ve been so busy milking goats, dehydrating veggies, and just getting settled on our farm, that I haven’t had a TON of free time.

However, once I saw this magical photo (taken by a homesteader in Vermont) a few weeks ago, I knew I would most likely be able to find a few free hours to make it happen.

chocolate beet cake

Jessica lives in southern Vermont and can be found making all kinds of homemade goodies @sugarhouseworkshop or www.sugarhouseworkshop.com

 

The recipe below is from Jessica, who is somewhere around 1,500ft – however, I’ve made minor adjustments to work for our elevation. I included both recipes because I’m assuming that the population who would be reading this and live at 9,200ft is minuscule.

 


 

chocolate beet cake


 

High Altitude (9K ft) Chocolate Beet Cake

  • 3-4 medium to large beets, peeled and chopped
  • 2.5 c all purpose flour
  • 1 c sugar
  • 1/2 c dutched cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 c warm water
  • 1/4 c oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Low Altitude (1K ft) Chocolate Beet Cake

  • 3-4 medium to large beets, peeled and chopped
  • 2 c all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 c sugar
  • 1/2 c dutched cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 c warm water
  • 1/4 c oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Cook beets in lightly boiling water for 15 minutes or so until soft and easily pierced with a knife. Purée beets in a blender or food processor, and set aside 1 1/4 cup. Heat oven to 350. Whisk dry ingredients in a medium bowl, and in a separate bowl combine eggs, water, vanilla, oil, and puréed beets. Whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir together until thoroughly mixed. Coat a 9″ pan liberally with butter or oil. Pour in batter and bake 45 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool at least 20 minutes, then remove from pan and pour glaze over.

Chocolate glaze

  • 1/2 c cream
  • 1 tsp maple syrup or honey
  • 3oz bitter or semi sweet chocolate, chopped

Heat the cream and syrup over low-medium heat until simmering. Add chocolate and stir to melt it throughout. Pour over cake and allow to set at least 30 minutes.

 

Enjoy!

 

*Feature image credit

honey bush loose leaf tea
Country Living, Eating Simple, Herbal Tea

Honeybush Sarsaparilla Herbal Tea

I love experimenting with new herbal teas.

I have no idea what I’m doing, I just buy loose leaf teas & herbs and try mixing a few together.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

This time, it did.

I recently bought some Honeybush tea from an herb shop nearby and hadn’t really experimented with it until recently when I was having a little bit of a sweet tooth after dinner. With the summer starting to end and temperatures dropping significantly after dark here in Colorado, some hot herbal tea sounded cozy.

And it was.

 

And here’s the recipe:

honeybush sarsaparilla herbal tea

 


 

Honeybush Sarsaparilla Herbal Tea

  • 1-2 TBSP Honeybush loose leaf tea
  • 1-2 tsp Sarsaparilla root

Steep in boiling water for 5-7 minutes

Optional:

  • 1 TBSP cocoa powder (for energy)
  • 1/2-1 tsp Valerian root (for sleep)

 


 

Here’s where you can buy honeybush, sarsaparillavalerian if you don’t have a local herb shop.

Here are some benefits of Sarsaparilla & Honeybush, if you’re curious. Also: Honeybush is very similar to Rooibos in taste & the fact that they aren’t technically a tea. They also are both caffeine free.

 

ENJOY & SHARE!

 

*There are, in fact, affiliate links in this post

** Feature image credit

zucchini chips
Country Living, Eating Simple, Simple Living

Spicy Zucchini Chips

Super easy. Super amazing. Super Simple.

We use an Excalibur Dehydrator that we got last year when we were living in Brighton and we love it.We’ve made dried bananas, raspberries, blackberries, and dried apples are our fav.

But lets just keep it simple and get to the good stuff.


 

spicy zucchini chips


And here’s the recipe for you who will copy/paste/print the heck out this sucker.

 Spicy Zucchini Chips

  • 4-5 medium zucchinis
  • Cajun seasoning
  • Olive Oil
  1. Slice the zucchinis as thin as you can without cutting yourself (OR use a food processor)
  2. Toss in a bowl with drizzled olive oil
  3. Sprinkle Cajun seasoning and toss some more
  4. Lay the sliced and spiced zucchinis on your trays –  not touching or layered on top of each other.
  5. If you want them EXTRA spicy, sprinkle some more seasoning.
  6. Stick them in the dehydrator for 2 hours or until as crispy as you like!

 

(You can also use an oven. This recipe says to stick them in at 235 degrees F. for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours.)

Enjoy and share!

 

*Feature image credit

the restoring simple homestead goats
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

ryan and hannah corson
Country Living, Simple Living, Tiny Living

Home Sweet Home

 

 

Quick update on our housing situation:

We bought a home in Westcliffe!

 

 

And it has a finished house on it!

With heat, water, electricity, AND a functioning kitchen.

And 6.5 acres. Also a barn & a couple of chicken coops.

And fun neighbors that we love.

We also ordered 30 chickens, 10 ducks, a couple kittens & 3 goats.

It may have taken us a couple years to get to this point, from starting to build a tiny house in Golden CO, to moving to Westcliffe last year, moving back to Denver area for work, and moving back to Westcliffe in March of this year.

 

Tiny House

westcliffe colorado tiny house

Lots of folks ask us about our tiny house, so I wanted to talk about that a little bit here. It is currently on our neighbors land, waiting to be moved onto ours. We were initially told that the trailer was a better grade of metal than it actually is (thank you Craigslist) and we have been told by several knowledgeable folks that it needs to be put on a permanent foundation before we finish it/ASAP. SO: as of right now the plan is to move it onto our land and take it off the wheels & set it in its final resting place. There, we will either rent it out (nightly on Airbnb) or have it as a guest cabin for friends who come visit.

 

Our plans have changed so many times over the past two years. We’ve moved 15 times since we were married in April 2013.

But we’re hoping that this one really sticks.

In fact, to signify this commitment, we are expanding our family by 45 (before butchering most of them in the fall). We’ve got 30 chickens, 10 ducks, a couple kittens, and 3 goats headed to our little farm over the next month.

You better believe I’ll introduce to you them all and attempt to share our homesteading adventures over the next few months.

Welcome to our new adventure – we’re diving straight into this homesteading life!

(Photo cred for feature image: Susan Bonee)