What the Future Holds

We moved to this homestead with plans and dreams. They were dreams we always dreamed before ever having a place to make those dreams a reality. Then we finally found a place, and it’s as if a life was breathed back into those dreams. I want to share those dreams, and hopefully shed light on what we hope the future holds for us.

Where this started

With our past, me as a health nut (or so I thought) and Jesse in the Ag industry as a commercial applicator (one who sprays chemicals on crops). We hit a point where we started becoming aware that the food from a grocery store was making us, well less than healthy (or more accurately sick). Even organic crops can be sprayed (with some of the worst stuff out there) and still be considered “organic”, just needs to be under certain levels. As a mom I knew we couldn’t afford all organic, but I began to worry how do we do this. Thats when our urban homestead journey began.

We started backyard chickens and ducks, we committed to keep chemicals off our yard and let the birds free range as much as possible. And we started a garden, we pumped the duck pond water to water and naturally fertilize the garden. We built a greenhouse and started a small aquaponic system.  All this was to try to help answer our own fears and worries. Were we the only family who worried about these harmful chemicals? Or nutritionally void food? Surely other moms felt the same way, right? That’s what we thought and that’s where our dreams began.

Could we make a side business out of growing real nutritious food? What if we could help produce quality but reasonably priced foods to an area of Kansas that has a culture of chemically filled foods? Or what if we could sell eggs from birds that get to live the way birds were made to live? What if right? That’s where our dreams stopped cause we were stuck in a town, and a town that will not allow gardening of anything to be sold. A town that did not support forward or sustainable growing thinking.

So….

Dreams revived

But then we moved, new county, new area…. What if the dream can live again? That my friends is where we are at? With 5 acres could we have a flock of birds that can produce quality eggs in a sustainable and chicken friendly way? (we love our birds they are like pets, no cages for them girls) What if we build greenhouses could we produce quality food year-round that are never found locally? (locally we produce beef, wheat and corn, and that about it). Or what if we can produce foods not only enough for us but for others as well.  And what if we had our own little farm-store to sell from? Well this dream could grow and expand as we did, more greenhouses, more gardens, U-pick gardens, pumpkin patches, orchards…… the sky is the limit. And in the part of the country we live in eating organically or non-GMO hasn’t really taken off. No one can afford it. Well, folks our dream is to be part of that change. Change for the next generation. Real food for chemically grown frankenfoods.

Recently a change has happened in our lives to help this change to happen. We are hoping this is God’s plan, and he is opening doors for us, to give flight to these dreams. We have a long road, funding, building, supplies and lots of hard work….. But we are continuing with hope. Hope that this little homestead project can also become a business. A business with health as the goal, where locally grown food are a comunity staple.

So we don’t know what the future holds, not really. We know what we hope it holds, but truly our future is not written in stone, we are more of a blank slate just watching and waiting.

Thank you for stopping by and letting us share our dreams and aspirations with you!

Beth

Beth is a mother of 6 living on a handful of acres in an old farmhouse in central Kansas. Beth has a background in the military and health and fitness however her passions come from her homestead life. Beth is an enthusiastic homeschooling mom, avid organic gardener, chicken & goat wrangler, who is obsessed with herbs and natural remedies and maintaining an all-around Do-It-Yourself lifestyle. Beth loves to share all she has learned about and sustainable living. While striving for a healthy, natural life, family-centered life.