Hi, that's me! (Or it was 3 1/2 years ago) I'm a 30-something Christ-follower, married to Tech-Daddy and mother to three gorgeous kids. I'm a self-professed birth junkie, crafter with ADCD (attention deficit crafting disorder - I never have just one project on the go and rarely get around to finishing them all...), and a Canadian expat who now calls Australia home.
For several years now I've been yearning for the homesteading life. To eat veggies fresh from the earth that we've grown ourselves, eat eggs freshly laid by our own ducks and chickens, drink raw wholesome milk I'm not allowed to buy. I an my children to grow up outdoors, intimately aware and involved with where our food comes from. I want to go to bed at night tired from hard work, but with the satisfaction of knowing i am not merely existing.
Since the beginning of my parenting journey I have always taken the more alternative paths - I cosleep and babywear, use cloth nappies (which I make myself) and many other reusable products, I breastfeed until my children self wean (and tandem fed for a year and a half) and practice babyled weaning. I make some of my own cleaning supplies and personal hygiene products - the ones I use anyway, since I've been shampoo-free for the last three years. I have always wanted to homebirth and while my first two were born in hospital I went one step further with my son and freebirthed him. More recently I have been heading down the path of unschooling rather than homeschooling which has always been my intention. So I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that I want to have an off-grid homestead.
I've been putting off starting until we have our own land, but have recently made the realisation that I don't have to wait til I can go in whole hog but ought to start now with small changes to our current lifestyle. A year ago we moved to a house with a yard and got two chickens. We were given some ducks and let our chickens brood some fertilised eggs and now we have a mixed flock of 11. I planned to put in a garden, but pregnancy interfered with that plan. I do, however, have a lovely pile of compost which the chickens have helped with.
Our current plan is to move to a small rented acreage where I will finally put in that veggie garden, get a couple of milk goats and a few more chickens. Eventually, when we can afford our own land, I want to live off-grid in a self built-cob house and be even more self sufficient. But for now I am staring where am.
Tech Daddy
Tech-Daddy is a gamer not a farmer, but he is supportive of my hippy ways. Maybe I will make a farmer out of him, but either way he works really hard to provide for us.
My eldest daughter is a free-spirited lover of nature. She loves birds and all things blue, hence her nickname bestowed upon her by her Nana.
Only 17 months younger than her big sister, Chickadee is a doting little copycat. The two of them are thick as thieves. She is sweet and tenderhearted, and very quick to forgive. She loves our ducks perhaps a little too much and is always carrying our friendly drake Banner all around our yard. A very amusing sight considering he is over half her size.
Still a baby, we've yet to get to know his personailty but he is such a delight. He's grown a lot since he was born 4 months ago but I just adore this photo taken mere moments after his birth by an exceedingly talented photographer friend (at Captivated Photography)
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