Our Urban Homestead

 As we have said before we are Urban Homesteaders, basically farmers without the farm, so our little home sits in a quite little subdivision, and if you didn't know us you would have no clue who or what this house and the people in it are capable of doing.

 Some people pride themselves in the size of their home, how well decorated it is, and how many new electronic toys and gadgets they have.  In our house we pride ourselves on how many productive, self sufficient tasks we can complete.  This goal makes for a very busy and sometimes messy home.  Racey and I often say that our house is torn apart and put back together multiple times a day just because we work in it.

 This type of life style can't be lived by just one person in the family.  It takes a group of people working toward the same goal.  When our journey first started, Racey and I were the only ones on board.  Layna was the first of the kids to come around and consider some of the benefits that could be had by living this kind of lifestyle.  She had lived on her own for over a year and knew the price of food, utilities, toiletries, etc.. I must admit McKenna and McClane have both been good sports as well. This is a family operation that takes all of us but benefits the entire family.

I took this picture an hour ago showing Eddie and Racey chopping wood for the fire tonight.  If they're not careful it turns into a little "male ego" competition to see who can get the biggest stack!

Racey and Eddie worked and sweated all through this last hot summer so we would have enough wood to make it through the winter without having to buy any.  Now Racey is all stingy about when he will start a fire because he worked so hard on it.  In years past our fires were for entertainment purposes only and now they are primarily for heating (so he says!)

Heat is not the only thing that we have to stay on top of.  Laundry is a constant battle like it is in every household, and considering we don't use our electric dryer except for rainy day emergencies or when I really need to fluff what has dried on the outside line for a minute or two if it's overly 'crunchy'.

McClane is a typical teenager who frowns every time I pull the camera out!  He said this was woman's work and he didn't want me to take his picture doing laundry when he had been chopping wood just a few minutes before!  "Woman's work!" I said. Then he gave me a goofy smile so I would leave him alone and not smother him with that nice clean laundry!






Well it's Halloween evening, McKenna has worked all day outside the home and I have a hot dinner ready for her and everyone else.  We will start a small fire, open the front door, turn the porch light on and welcome all the little ghouls and goblins to our little urban homestead!