I love coffee (if you hadn’t already guessed that), nourishing food, sustainable living and keeping a natural home. Here at Mochas & Milkcows, my coffee mug comes complete with fresh, raw milk from our beloved milk cow, Lucy. However, not long ago, we were buying our organic cream from Costco, milk from a co-op & cheese at a small, local store. All while we were dreaming of one day owning our very own homestead.
Now here we are, building our homestead one day at a time. From cooking from-scratch meals for my family to building our gardens up year by year, we are growing daily in our goal to utilize the God-given land, animals, and world around us. Day after day I am forever grateful for the blessings we have received with our little piece of paradise on earth! I hope you can follow along for how I feed my family nourishing food, practice sustainable living and build a natural home!
Where It Began…
In 2009, my husband Mark and I married during the fall after our college graduations. We both had grown up in the country but seeing as we were newlyweds with new jobs and a lot of new debt, we began renting a home in the city. After a couple years, we moved and finally bought our first home. A small, but affordable, home in the middle of a neighborhood in town. I had always wanted to garden and this home had a well-established area in the backyard for this very purpose. I got to planning and planted my first garden the following spring.
Then it rained. And rained more. And continued to rain. This is when we discovered that the land we lived on, and basically the entire county around us, was clay. Guess what clay does not do? If you answered drain, you would be correct. I ended up losing most of my tomatoes that year and all of my green beans. Obviously, it made an impact because 10 years later I still vividly remember it.
The New Garden
After the fiasco in the back, I looked at our beautiful front yard and realized it was doing us absolutely no good as just grass. I got to work planning and designing and the following spring we had a front yard garden full of garden boxes, concrete blocks and complete with mulch paths. It was a wonderful sight! Maybe not for everyone who drove by…I am sure I got some very odd looks during the process. Once summer hit though and those boxes were full of beautiful, ripe tomatoes, people weren’t so quick to shake heads at our creation. That year I decided gardening in boxes was absolutely amazing and started planning to build more for the back gardens.
Moving
We lived in our 1000 square foot (living space) home until our 3rd child was 6 months old. At that point we had a 4 year old, 3 year old and 6 month old. Living with one (tiny) bathroom was getting old. So we moved a whole whopping mile away to a new neighborhood and a house twice the size! But there was no garden.
New House, New Garden
Guess what we did? Yep, we built another front yard garden! See, when we were checking this particular house out, I made sure to ask if there was a neighborhood association. That to me = rules. Me & rules don’t get along most of the time. There was no active association, no dues, no paperwork. Yes! We were free to do as wanted with our land (crazy how we had to actually check into that). We built the new garden with multiple box sizes, designed to fit the space we had measured out. This time we surrounded the entire garden with railroad ties and used pea gravel as pathways. It truly was a very beautiful garden (I found out later a neighbor actually called the city to complain about it lol). It was not cheap by any means and did not look it either. We planted our first plants the summer after moving and had a very successful harvest!
One Final Move
2020 hit and even though it didn’t change our schedules much (homeschooling family here), it did make us realize that we were not comfortable living in town anymore. I was in a Bible study at the time and throughout the entire book I was praying like crazy for peace & contentment with our current home. We had looked at a few houses, got excited about one in particular only to have the showing cancelled 12 hours before our scheduled appt., and just sort of decided it wasn’t meant to be. I was still praying daily for contentment though. We made it through the holidays and I was truly at a place where I was happy with our current home (we had done a large amount of work to it). I was beyond blessed with my family, had everything we could possibly need and then some, so why else would I not be content?
The Phone Call
I was at a homeschool gym class when my husband Mark called me. He had gone to the showing of a house that neither of us was very interested in, but since the appointment was made awhile back, I told him to go “be nosy.” Sorry if you’re a realtor reading that, because I am sure that’s the absolute worst kind of client! When I answered all I heard was “I found our house. We are going to buy it today!” Whoa, brakes on! I was somewhat speechless, because hearing those words over the phone gets your heart rate up very quickly. I told my husband class was almost over and we could discuss it at home in a little bit. He told me again that we had to move fast because this place was a “diamond in the rough.”
The Purchase
That same night we signed papers purchasing a home on 3.5 acres, in another state, without me stepping foot on or near the property. To this day, that is the story we tell anyone when we want them to know just how much trust there is in our marriage. I did get to see a cell phone video walk-through that my husband did during the showing. But if you knew how quickly my husband tends to move in life, you would know why that video still does not count as a true showing for me. As soon as we sent the final papers in that sealed the deal, we became new homeowners that also needed to sell a home very quickly. Owning two homes has never been on my bucket list.
God literally had His hand on this entire move. From the purchase of the new home, to not even listing our current home because word of mouth got us a buyer within a week, to all paperwork coming back approved, He made it all happen. To this day, it gives me chills of what an answer to prayer this homestead has been.
Building the Homestead
We had almost two weeks between our closing on the new home and moving in. I finally got to see my new home after closing and, to be honest, it was not love at first sight. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled about the land. The potential there was endless and I was most excited about that part. The house itself….not totally my style but had the “needs” for sure. It also had a full finished basement and that was the selling point for us. We had never had a basement in a home and this one came complete with a room full of retail shelves for all my canned goods! My husband and I always said we didn’t care about the house as much as the land we bought, because we spend most of our time outdoors anyways!
Move In
We finally started move-in about a week before we were scheduled to close on our other home. With the help of amazing family/friends we got moved in and the work began. We started making this our homestead. As soon as we could get outside, we worked on getting the garden area ready (HUGE blessing in the massive established garden area on the propriety), fencing in pasture area for animals, and making plans for having a barn built. Everything was moving along great and the amount of work we did was insane.
Outside Homestead Overhaul
We had a lot of areas on the property that needed some TLC so my son and I got very good with a saws-all. We cut down dead shrubs, random bushes, and some small trees that were inhibiting the garden area. My husband got to work knocking down an old outhouse that housed some lovely creatures of the night. We also had to knock down an old building that we believe may have been an old log cabin. With no care taken for quite some time, we had no choice but to demolish it, even though we truly wanted to save it. Having young children running around, it was too much of hazard and it had to go. Within a month we had clear view of the sunset, the garden area almost ready, barn area ready for the building crew, and so much more. This is what made me finally fall in love with this property.
The Homestead One Year Later
Here we are, a year later, and I decided to finally go for my dream of writing a blog. I have settled into this new homestead life quite comfortably and decided it was time to share it. At this point on the homestead we have a puppy, a cat, 22 chickens and 1 rooster, 2 pet goats, a milk cow, Lucy, and her new heifer, Clover. Our first garden harvest was great considering gardening teaches you new things every year. We have planted apple trees, elderberries, and more grapes on the property. This year we hope to add turkeys and lambs to the animal list. Right now, I spend my days homeschooling our children, baking bread, fermenting, cooking meals from scratch, making butter and always drinking coffee! Our home is lived in and full of love and it shows that in a way I wouldn’t trade for the world. Hope you can join me on this journey of building our homestead and maybe start your own along the way!
