My husband and I have moved around…not a lot…but enough. We started in Illinois as high school sweethearts. After we had both gone to separate colleges, we moved to Minnesota. He had received a great job offer including moving expenses. Seven years later we moved to Michigan, again for his work. Two years after that, with a 1 year old and another on the way, we made the decision to move back home, closer to family. Our boys are blessed with a family the size of Ping the Duck’s and we wanted them to grow up knowing their grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
In Minnesota, we had about a quarter acre and were obsessed with keeping the lawn green, mowed and free of dandelions. We didn’t garden, we didn’t can. We didn’t do anything with our yard save rake leaves, mow and have the occasional bonfire.
Then my husband got a promotion with a transfer to Michigan. Around that same time we had started listening to the The Survival Podcast (TSP) with Jack Spirko. My husband started listening first and kept trying to get me to listen too. The first episode I listened to was on cooking. Jack had a guest, Keith Snow of Harvest Eating, and I was salivating by the end of the episode. Chef Snow cooks seasonally using produce from his garden as well as local farmers markets. I had always been a bit intimidated by gardening. I joked around with family that I had a “brown thumb”. Yet, after listening to a few more episodes of the podcast I started to think that just maybe I could give it a try.
Our new place was on just under an acre. Gorgeous backyard backing up to 40 acres of timber. Perfect. We moved in during the Spring and were so busy getting things arranged in the house that we missed a window for growing a full garden so we started with herbs, a few tomato plants and planted an apple tree, cherry tree and blueberry bush. My husband grew hops up our deck railing and we made plans to put a woody bed in for a garden. We were learning more and more about permaculture and sustainable living and we were quickly getting ourselves out of debt. In the two years we lived in Michigan, with both of us working full time we managed to pay off 5 student loans and 3 vehicle payments. We were happy in Michigan. We had great neighbors, we both had good paying jobs…but we missed our family and we had one son, another on the way and we decided it was time to move closer.
So in January 2012 my husband started applying for jobs in Illinois. In May he landed a job at Caterpillar with the referral of a college friend and we told our family we were moving back.
We bought a house on 5 acres. It is south facing and there is not a lot of shade. It’s a blank slate for us to really make our own and we have grand plans that we will be implementing over the next few years. Orchard, fedge (a cutesy way of saying “food hedge”), gardens, greenhouse, hops, grapes, a tilapia stocked pond and on and on.
We’ve been faithfully listening to TSP for almost 4 years now and we owe a large part of our journey home to Jack Spirko and the community he created. This blog is inspired by encouragement from my husband and other family members to get back to writing, which I have always loved.
a pinch of homestead 
Hey Mellisa, found you on 13skills.com thru TSP. Me and my family look to moving to our own place sometime in the next year or 2 and hope you have a lot of success in yours. We’ll be following your experience to learn more about what we might have in store for ourselves in the future. Take care and God Bless!
Wonderful to hear! We have been learning a lot since we moved…from successes and from failures, but learning and enjoying the land just the same. Good luck to you!
Saw you post on TSP today and followed your link here. I used to work for big yellow until they sold off my business unit in 2012. I didn’t realize there was anyone in my area that listened to Jack.
I am going to Sun Dappled Farms next Friday to see Mark Shepard speak, maybe I will see you guys there.
I’ve heard Jack talk about him before…I’m going to see if my husband wants to go with me…great opportunity and so close.
I did the same thing 🙂 Nice blog here. I plan on going to the info session on Friday as well.
Thanks for stopping by! We may not make it but would be interested in hearing how it goes.
Wow, I didn’t know there was anyone so close that was a fellow listener! I hadn’t heard about the Sun Dappled Farms workshop…I’ll have to try and see if I can make it over for the Friday info session. Are you going on Saturday too?
I am just doing the info session. I was saving up for the PermaEthos PDC and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do both. I think you have to register for the Friday event even though it is free. http://www.eventbrite.com/e/restoration-agriculture-workshop-tickets-11021996087
I really enjoyed this podcast with Mark and Diego (Permaculture Voices):
http://www.permaculturevoices.com/podcast/the-future-of-agriculture-changing-the-concept-with-mark-shepard-pvp039/
Greetings from ThinkFun addictively fun games! I ran across your post (https://apinchofhomestead.com/2015/01/02/learning-in-january/)
mentioning your boys received Zingo and Robot Turtles for Christmas. Hope they enjoy them! Playfully yours, Cristina
They just love both of them…I especially enjoy Robot Turtles. I get to be silly with the boys while they learn. 🙂
I also think they would enjoy Gravity Maze so will have to put it on the list for next year. My oldest got MouseTrap for Christmas and loves to “kick the bucket” and watch the marble go through the maze.
Glad to hear they were a hit, makes our day. Please get in touch re: Gravity Maze!
I love your blog and have nominated you for a Liebster Blog Award Thank you.
Thank you! Glad you stopped by. 🙂
My dad read “Go North Young Man” by Gordan Stoddard and was inspired to venture to Alaska to homestead. What an adventure!
Your children will have many great memories of how you have chosen to live. ~Elle
Thank you! We are so fortunate to be able to do this for ourselves and our children. I hope they have many great memories!