I am a person that is very detailed, to a fault. Its a weakness and a strength. I get overwhelmed with where to start. so then I end up procrastinating the start. Well here I am diving in to what…….I have not idea. But if I don’t start, I wont arrive at the goal.
It has been our dream to live on a ranch. We want to be able to leave it to our kids, so they can do the same. We are a family that lives the rural country lifestyle. I grew up in the world of rodeo with small acreage full of horses. My husband lived on a family ranch when he was little and then moved to town. He was always the country boy, hunting, fishing, wheeling and the like.
We currently live completely on grid with 2.5 acres in the northwest. So lots of rain, mud and only a few months of the year that our property is useable to exercise the horses, let the dogs run, and just function. I want to live where we have room to roam, fish, hunt, race the horses across the ranch. Just live in our own little paradise. Even though my husband has a wonderful job that gives us many blessings, it can only provide so much and that world is expensive when you aren’t born into it. I work also, along with running the operations of our home. We have a very busy lifestyle between 2 working parents, property to maintain, breeding mini auggies, a daughter that high school rodeos in 3 events, trains her own horses, has 4h pigs, works part time.
Our family has always been a do-it-yourself kind of family. When it comes to wrenching on the vehicles or equipment, providing care to our many animals, repairs on anything at our home, there isn’t much we can’t do. We dig in and get it done. About a year ago, we started thinking that we wanted to move to a different climate. And by climate, I mean many things. We want a different way of life. We want to go back about 50 years……. ????. But I don’t want to give up those things that make life comfortable. I mean who doesn’t want to be able to watch a movie on a cold winter night snuggled by the fire, or have internet to conduct business or shop for necessities, lights at a flip of a switch, heat when its cold, running water and plumbing. I mean come on, a hot shower or bath on the daily is necessary, clean clothes, sheets and towels. Oh, how about this……..In the middle of the night, I want to walk 10 feet to the bathroom, not bundle up to make the trek across the yard to use the outhouse. I’m not a complete monster. ????
But the idea of not having monthly bills, living completely self-sufficient. It does have a magic appeal. Can I still look like I live on grid but not be? Can we choose our own little slice of paradise, letting only those we hold dear to be a part of? Making common sense choices about the way we live and not allowing others that don’t understand our lifestyle to dictate how we take care of our home? Those are the questions I started asking myself and my husband. Where there is a will there is a way. Being the detail person I am, I started reading, researching, looking everywhere I could. Lots of people homestead, live off grid, but it didn’t look like I wanted to live. I wondered if it could be possible to have both worlds. And here we are. Starting the journey of self-sufficient off grid living that looks a little more current than all those off grid shows that you watch on tv.
What do you want to learn about with me?