Well, here goes...

I've been meaning to start a blog for actually years now. I tried one other time several years ago, and then my life got turned upside down and I couldn't do it for awhile, and then I went into a long period of soul searching and "self re-discovery" if that's even a thing. I wrote during that time and posted some stuff on Facebook and everyone told me I could write and I should write more, even though all that was really just a release in order to survive. Oddly enough, the events I thought were so earth shattering and world changing ultimately just proved that I'm the same person I always was, just with a renewed sense of determination. (I promise I will tell more of the story in future posts.) So here I am, in a way, back to the same place I was 4 years ago - trying to make a go of this little 1/2 acre homestead with my awesome hubby and waaayy too many animals, fitting it all in around our jobs and other "normal" commitments. Maybe this will be a good place to regroup and start again on my dream of having a blog.

The reason I was inspired to start a blog in the first place is that there seems to be very few "20-somethings" who are interested in and actually pursuing living off the land. (Living off the land, to me, includes everyone from me with my critters and garden in the backyard to my friend who has 450 dairy cows, and everyone in between.) When I was a kid you either lived on a farm or wished you did, and now that we're "grown-up" the number of us actually following through on those childhood aspirations seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Not dissing those who chose not to, of course, and sometimes other things come up in life preventing us from doing what we once thought was important. But of all those "farm kids" I knew, only about one-third are even living in the country. Those of us who are farming or homesteading spend most of our social time with people our parents' or grandparents' age. Which can be a very good thing, it just leaves us feeling like the "kids" forever.

So maybe we're few and far between, but here we are and we know that this is where we're meant to be! Hopefully this blog will be a way for some of us to connect and learn from each other. Maybe you didn't grow up reading Countryside and the Tightwad Gazette and you'd like some pointers - I hope to be able to pass along some ideas that go beyond the usual "brown-bag your lunch and don't watch cable!" kind of money saving tips. Maybe you're my age or younger or older - doesn't matter, because I think age is all in your head anyway.

Anyhow, stick around and we'll see what we get into along the way!