Welcome back! As we look forward i nto this new year, it’s time we ask ourselves “What do we want to accomplish this year?” Most people create resolutions – sometimes we complete them (hahahaha… no, really), but many times most of us forget, postpone, or just simply give up on these goals. However, since we began “naming” our years, we have learned that we are more likely to keep the focus. It’s a simple concept really – one goal to focus on all year. This year is THE YEAR OF PROGRESS. Not that we haven’t been making progress – but we could have done more. We aren’t so blind to see that we ha ..read more

2021 – The year of the Homestead… so how did it go? It went… it went quickly, it went with bumps, twists, and turns. We made it though, whew! Now, I don’t know about you, but I was REALLY hoping 2021 was going to do a 180 turn from 2020 – but NO, 2021 told 2020 “Hey, watch this!” This pandemic has left me without words to even express my feelings. The anxiety we all likely felt (or still feeling) from the upside-down world we are living in has certainly put us all to the test. However, I don’t want to focus on this as I’m sure neither do you. What I do want to talk about is how we did for our ..read more

Happy New Year! Okay, so it’s a bit cliché to start a “It’s a New Year” blog with “Happy New Year”, but honestly folks – if there was any year to express how exciting it is to start a new year, it’s this year. 2020 has been, it the simplest explanation, a really grief stricken year with everything that happened in the world. I won’t get into all the death, devastation, and loss – I’m sure there are already countless blogs out there that will cover 2020 in great detail, and I prefer to focus on the positive. For us, we began 2020 naming it “Year of New Life” – and it didn’t disappoint. We star ..read more

We have a saying here at Homestead Fresh, and I’m sure many of you have the save thought process (though, some of you may not)…. If it lives in the house, it’s a pet (even our outdoor pets like cats and dogs come inside now an then, so they count as pets). If it lives outside, it is not a pet – it is a producer and needs to give back to the homestead. I know, for many people out there this may sound harsh, but this is how we manage our homestead and work to live more self-sustainable. It is a give-and-take relationship and we do not apologize for it. We give them food, medicines, comfortable ..read more

Are you looking to take the next step towards a more self-sufficient lifestyle? If so, there are some steps you need to (or at least, should) take before you jump in. Granted, you do not HAVE to do these things, but hindsight 20/20, trust us, you want to prepare yourself. I have heard of those homesteaders that just decided to quit their jobs, sell their house, buy a few acres, and move out to the country with absolutely no knowledge of animals, gardening, building, or maintaining anything. I’ve also heard of those that regretted it. There are some that were very successful, but they did thei ..read more

When we purchased our property, it had, what looked like, a bit of debris and roadside trash. We soon realized, there is a lot more trash than we initially saw. After years of overgrowth and decay, leaves and dirt have piled up and buried an immense amount of debris. Jeff and I often wonder… “What the heck did this place look like when the previous family lived here?” If you have been following us on YouTube, you may have seen our first video in which we provide a tour and overview of this overgrown mess. When making that video, I touched on how much trash we have seen on the property. Years ..read more

It’s been a few years since we started our business, and I can tell you that it has not been easy. Fun? Yes. Profitable? Eh.. a little. Easy? Certainly not. Rewarding? Oh Yes! We have learned a tremendous amount since starting our Bath & Body products business. Below, I list out 14 of the most pertinent lessons we have learned over the first couple of years, in no particular order. These aren’t all the points, but a few I thought I would be helpful for those wanting to take that leap. Now, we didn’t leave our regular jobs, drop everything, and start our own business like many people do, b ..read more

This may irritate some homesteaders out there, but this must be said: Homesteaders are no better than anyone else. Okay, now that I have said it, let me explain… Recently, there has been a significant rise in the amount of people migrating to a more self-sufficient lifestyle – possibly due to the pandemic and all the chaos in the world since the end of 2019. With that, I have also seen a lot of long-time homesteaders offering up great advise and teachings to those just getting their feet wet. I have also seen a few homesteaders, instead of teaching and giving pointers, simply telling these “n ..read more

How do we manage it all? There are things we all, even you, do today that you never dreamed you would have the time for. I’ll give you my example: When we started this journey, I thought my plate was full… but there we go, getting goats! Our daily routine changed which included twice a day milking and feeding. Weekends became consumed with cleaning goat houses and rabbit cages. Then one day I thought to myself, “Where did I find this extra time?” I thought about what I did before the animals… Oh, that’s right… I was sitting on my rear after getting home from work, claiming I was SO TIRED and ..read more

Photo by courtesy of Russell Gillenwater: Tales of the Wood Booger As we approach our 4th year anniversary of leaving Texas, I am amazed that we still get asked (a lot), why we left Texas for the Carolinas. Now, if you have perused this website, you understand that I wanted to be closer to my family. My family means a great deal to me, and though our youngest stayed in Texas, she and her husband are young – they have way more energy than we do, and can come visit us just as we drove to visit my parents. Just as my daughter may miss me, I also missed my mother – so here we are. With that bei ..read more