Let’s start a homestead.

Well, this is a new venture for me. I'm not much of a writer, and quite frankly a bit dyslexic. Nevertheless, I'm going to give this a shot and see where it takes me. This is my journey, or rather my embarkation, into rural life. So, here we go. Greetings, I'm Josh. I'm a husband to my wonderful wife and a father to three daughters. I don't consider myself particularly interesting, but I do fit the mold of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Depending on the day, that can be either a blessing or a curse, in my opinion. I'll leave it to all of you to decide as you follow my family on this adventure.

So the drive to be independent, well… I'm not exactly sure when it all began. Both my parents have green thumbs, but gardening never really captivated me as a child. I wasn't raised on sprawling acres with farm animals and endless space to explore. My childhood involved a lot of camping, sports and outdoor activities. Oh and Naturally, there were also moments of youthful mischief, as my friends and I cruised the backroad in our rural community.

I could spend days trying to pinpoint when I started considering this path. Perhaps it was when I began honing my carpentry skills building houses, or maybe during summers spent with my uncle learning to fell trees. It could have been my first fishing trip with my grandpa, or the time I changed the brakes on my first car with my dad, who really knows. If I took a guess, I believe it truly started when I began taking concrete steps to turn it into a reality, utilizing the skills I've acquired over the years and investing in my first house at the age of 19. Over time, my vision of the next steps evolved repeatedly. It began with a simple fence for the dogs and a small garden bed to test my green thumb. I renovated the master bedroom and main living room. Ideas flowed freely, but at that time, the idea of a homestead and rural life hadn't fully formed in my mind. Little did I know, this was the beginning.

Fast forward three years, and I find myself in a new house with a wife and two kids. We've sold the bachelor pad and purchased a family home on two acres. Concurrently, my responsibilities at work have increased, sparking occasional thoughts—albeit faint—about what life would be like living off the land, with more time for family and less time in the corporate world. This new house became the site of our first true vegetable garden, which, unfortunately, ended in failure. My ambitions outweighed my knowledge, and I bit off more than I could chew. It was also where we first kept chickens. Despite everything seeming fine, the location wasn't ideal, being too close to a busy road, and the house didn't quite suit our needs. Once again, I found myself immersed in remodeling, undertaking a complete kitchen renovation. Thats when we thought… Lets get some land and build a house.

Fast forward another two years, and we're living with my in-laws, attempting to divide their ten-acre property into two five-acre plots. Everything we own is in storage, our dogs are temporarily housed in the shop, and our chickens have found new homes. Our days are filled with video games, kids' sports, and work. While this period provided an excellent opportunity for my wife to pursue her accounting degree, our dreams of owning a property were slowly fading. The bureaucracy and endless paperwork associated with dividing the land seemed never-ending. Each hurdle the in-laws, my wife and I cleared only revealed another in its wake. To make matters worse, due to wetlands regulations, the supposed five acres were reduced to barely an acre of usable land after the county’s interventions and required setbacks. We began questioning our decisions. Two more years passed by, and we finally gave up, deciding to start house hunting.

Finally, in 2018, we stumbled upon a five-acre property within our budget that had been sitting on the market. While it wasn't exactly what we had envisioned, both my wife and I saw the potential in the house and the land. So, we made an offer, and it was accepted. This was the beginning—the moment when our actual dream could take shape, and the sparks of possibility ignited. We were ready to embark on our homesteading journey. Starting this website in 2024, the projects just keep coming.

P.S. As we rewind, I realized I wasn’t very great at documenting what I was doing and getting good before and after photos. But I’m going to pull together what I do have and see where this all goes.

P.S.S. Eventually, my in-laws managed to divide their property and sold it to a developer, as well as selling their own house. They ended up moving just four miles up the road from us, leading us to joke that they were following us here.