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**Welcome Wagon:  City Slicker to Happy Homesteader  |
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happyhomesteader
Farmgirl at Heart
9 Posts
Erin
Hortonville
Wisconsin
USA
9 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 20 2011 : 04:59:37 AM
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Getting back to the basics and returning to the land is something our family of seven has been able to do. My husband and I were brought up in the city and had no experience with country living. When we first got married, all I knew how to cook was macaroni and cheese from a box, canned ravioli, and hamburger helper. We would have starved without a nearby grocery store. After we started having children we wanted to move out to the country and hopefully plant a garden. It was always a dream of ours to one day be self sufficient. We bought an old farm house on 3 acres, and fixed it up really nice. I met some Amish folks and began taking lessons on cooking, butchering, sewing, and canning. We spent one year’s tax returns on our first milk cow. We could not believe how fun and economical this lifestyle was. We started raising chickens, collecting eggs with our little children, and making really healthy meals. The first year we started canning with the Amish, we canned about 500 quarts of everything from tomatoes, green beans, apple sauce, to meat. I found that we were spending less time in the car going to the grocery store and more time as a family working together. There is no greater joy than building relationships with your children by working together for the greater good. We wanted to share our joy. Since we are professional photographers we decided to create a DVD teaching what we had learned. For over a year every new project was recorded on camera, raising chickens, boiling down maple syrup, making bread, growing a garden and all the other homestead type projects. Homesteading for Beginners DVD series is the result. Everyone who watches it says it truly inspires them try some of these LOST skills. These are skills our fore fathers knew well and used to survive hard times that would come upon them. Families would do well to learn these skills and get back to the basics. When jobs are lost or power is failing, it would be helpful to know how to provide food for their family.
Our Homesteading for Beginners DVD I and II will give you basic skills for homesteading. The first DVD is a good teaching tool for children and parents, but is geared to keep children captivated. It is a basic step one for those who know very little of homesteading. Our second video is geared more to an older audience and goes into greater depth. Both DVDs introduce everything from milking a cow, making butter, cheese, kefir, planting a garden, canning meat, maple syrup production, sprouting, baking breads, to butchering chickens.
Through all the homesteading we have learned, lived and recorded the one thing we have learned is this: There is a real need for Community life. Community life was the way of old. People would come together to work, to survive, and to learn from each other. So important in our present economy. We have had great reviews on our DVDs. Families from all over the world are catching on to the bliss of country life. I get letters every day from families that are choosing this lifestyle now, moving out of town, buying their first milking cow or goats, and canning everything. We are so encouraged to know that the example we have giving makes such a big difference to so many people out there.
www.homesteadcommunitypost.com
www.homesteadcommunitypost.com |
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kristin sherrill
True Blue Farmgirl
11303 Posts
kristin
chickamauga
ga
USA
11303 Posts |
Posted - Jan 20 2011 : 05:17:26 AM
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Hi Erin. Welcome from Georgia. Your story is very interesting. I went to your blog too. We have a small 3 acre farm too. And milk goats. You will find lots of farmgirls here that are alot like you. I'm so glad you joined us here. I hope to learn alot from you. Just jump right on in and check it out.
Kris
Happiness is simple. |
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woolgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
901 Posts
Elizabeth
Great Lakes
IL
USA
901 Posts |
Posted - Jan 20 2011 : 05:25:39 AM
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Welcome Erin! Love everything on your site! The dvd's look great. Hope you like it here!
Farmgirl #1947 |
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happyhomesteader
Farmgirl at Heart
9 Posts
Erin
Hortonville
Wisconsin
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - Jan 20 2011 : 06:00:57 AM
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Thank you all so much for the warm welcome. I am excited to stay here and learn, grow, and meet other farmgirls out their! I am so glad you like our site.
www.homesteadcommunitypost.com |
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JDC
Farmgirl at Heart
5 Posts
Joy
Greeneville
Tn.
USA
5 Posts |
Posted - Jan 21 2011 : 5:26:54 PM
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| Hi Erin, I really enjoyed your story. I too love the Country Life, to me it is so peaceful. I cant wait till garden planting time again. |
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graciegreeneyes
True Blue Farmgirl
3107 Posts
Amy Grace
Rosalia
WA
USA
3107 Posts |
Posted - Jan 21 2011 : 6:36:29 PM
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What a cool story Erin!!
Farmgirl #224
"use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"
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happyhomesteader
Farmgirl at Heart
9 Posts
Erin
Hortonville
Wisconsin
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - Jan 22 2011 : 04:50:11 AM
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This year we are planning to build some 4x4 boxes in the garden to maximize our production in the garden. We used the raised beds already but want to isolate our nutrients in the beds so we can also rotate our crops. That is a very important step in your organic gardening. Some plants leave certain by products in the soil at maturation that another plant can benefit from also. We are excited. We found free cedar boards on craigs list and want to use those. It is going to be a really cute garden this year. My kids make the garden signs and it has such an old world feel. Love it!!!
www.homesteadcommunitypost.com |
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**Welcome Wagon: City Slicker to Happy Homesteader |
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City Slicker to Happy Homesteader
