APARTMENT TO 40 ACRES – OUR HOMESTEADING JOURNEY
Join us as we reflect on our journey from an apartment in the city to a 40-acre homestead.
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Our Pantry Chat episodes are now also available as a podcast, so visit here to download and listen whenever you want: https://homesteadingfamily.com/podcast
In this episode:
– Josh and Carolyn talk about why they made the move from the city to the country 18 years ago.
– How they honed their homesteading skills in the early years.
– How to fill up the space you have now and be resourceful before moving on to something bigger.
– How to be strategic, ask the right questions, and make the right decisions when starting to grow your own food.
– What is clabbered milk and how can you reuse the cultures to speed up your process.
Time Stamps:
0:00 – Podcast Announcement
1:58 – Chit Chat
4:40 – Question of the Day: Can you start your own dairy cultures and keep them going like a sourdough starter?
7:13 – Main Topic
7:50 – Apartment living
12:00 – Living on 1/4 acres
17:25 – Living on 5 acres
22:10 – Living on 20 acres
24:40 – Living on 40 acres
31:30 – How Homesteading Family began
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MORE ABOUT US!
WELCOME! We're so glad you're here! We are Josh and Carolyn Thomas. Together with our nine children, we are The Homesteading Family where we’re living a self-sustainable life in beautiful North Idaho. Let us welcome you and show you a bit about us here: http://bit.ly/HFWelcomeVideo
Grow, Preserve & Thrive with us!
Visit us at https://www.homesteadingfamily.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homesteadingfamily
A few highlights you don't want to miss are our FREEBIES!!
Click any of the links below for instant access to free video training resources:
– Healthy Healing at Home- Free 4 video workshop on our herb course Herbal Medicine Cabinet: Colds
http://bit.ly/hhath
– Bread Making workshop- Free 4 video workshop on our masterclass, The Art of Homemade Bread
http://bit.ly/breadmworkshop
– Meals on Your Shelf- Free 4 video workshop on canning. The Abundant Pantry: Canning
http://bit.ly/MealsOYS
Click any of the links below for instant access to these free downloadable PDFs:
– Homesteading Family's Favorite Holiday Recipes – A PDF download filled with our family’s favorite holiday recipe.
http://bit.ly/HFHolidayRecipes
– 5 Steps to a More Self Sufficient Life- Simple PDF download on 5 steps anyone can take wherever they are to start a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
http://bit.ly/SelfSufficientLife
– Thrive Wellness Checklist- A simple PDF download for healthy living.
http://bit.ly/thrivewellnesschecklist
– Permaculture for Your Homestead- PDF download that is an introduction to permaculture with some strategies for applying it to one’s homestead and garden.
http://bit.ly/permacultureFYH
– Carolyn’s Cottage Garden herb list- PDF with Carolyn’s favorite herbs for growing at home.
http://bit.ly/CGherblist
– Carolyn’s Make-Ahead Breakfast Casseroles- Carolyn’s favorite make-ahead breakfast casseroles.
http://bit.ly/breakfastcasseroles
– Your FREE Guide to Preserving Eggs- PDF download with multiple ways to preserve eggs.
http://bit.ly/preserveeggs
– 5 Steps to a Healthy Garden- PDF download with an explanation of what makes healthy soil and 5 steps you can take to improve your garden
http://bit.ly/5HealthyGarden
– Save the Crumbs- Several Recipes for using bread leftovers, a less committal entry to bread than the workshop.
http://bit.ly/savethecrumbs
– Fearless Fermenting- A PDF on basic lacto-ferments.
http://bit.ly/Ffermenting
– Fermenting Tomatoes- PDF download on fermenting tomatoes
http://bit.ly/fermentingtomatoes
– Preserving Culinary Herbs- Downloadable, step by step directions to drying, freezing and salting culinary herbs.
http://bit.ly/preservingculinaryherbs
– Render Your Own Lard- PDF with instructions on how to render your own lard.
http://bit.ly/renderlard
#homesteadingfamily #homesteading #homesteadjourney #homesteadingjourney
Yes please a Great Depression cooking video 🤗🤗🤗
I would love it too!
THANK YOU for sharing your start. I’ve followed ya’ll for the last few months and while I’m insanely inspired by you, I’m a townhouse homestead dreamer who currently lives in the city. I’m learning everything I can until my husband and I “escape” to a small hobby farm (we hope in 4 years). To hear that you started your path on the more conventional route (careers, commuting, apartment living) to what I see now means so much….that this lifestyle is in fact, in reach! God bless ya’ll!
I would luv to let you know that you are a beautiful couple with a beautiful family. No only do you thrive but you share your God given gifts and time with the world to make it a better place. With all my luv and gratitude. If we could have more of your divine kINd on our sweet earth, we sure would have heaven on earth.
I’m thankful for learning from your videos. I’ve started to put into practice learn where you’re at. I’ve started with chickens 🐔 and gardening. Each year I’ve added to my garden and making a food forest. Slow process, but fun. I’ve learned to can, dehydrate, buying meat and milk from a farmer. Thanks for helping teach these skills. I’m praying to get some land. Have a blessed day!
Hey guys, thank you for the great videos. Miss Carolyn, do you have a cookbook, or a book on preserving?
Maybe one day!
We have GG Roselyn, born in 1921 and still going strong. Love her stories, and wanted to get her story in the library of Congress.
That was my favorite video of all time with grandma. I love hearing the stories straight from the source. So much wisdom that needs to be shared. I can’t imagine how you have the time for all you do. Do you hire farm hands or?
I so enjoyed this video. It is always inspiring to hear about someone’s journey. I have followed you for a few months now and I have learned so much even though I have preserved since childhood and I’m now 75. I grew up in the south but lived for years in Salt Lake City. I moved back to help care for aging parents. Now, I long for the West, just like you mentioned. I miss the mountains, even the weather, but especially the culture. Thanks for all you are willing to share with us. You have a beautiful family. Thanks also for interjecting your faith in God and the blessings you have been given.
I so enjoy watching your Pantry Chat. I have learned so much from you two. I learned how to bake a descent loaf of bread, I finally learned how to can and have just learned lots of other little things. I’m so glad that you decided to start doing Homestead Family so that we can learn from your experiences. Keep up the good work!
I’m late to the game on homesteading. I’m now 66 but 5 years ago we finally got some acreage (2 acres with .5 in forest) and started a plant nursery. This year I’m getting more into gardening and preserving. This is our forever home, so it will evolve into more vegetable gardening and less perennials as I move forward. Thanks for your encouraging story!
Hi Wendy, like you I am 66, have a desert like property but am working with it. Can’t have any livestock except Chickens, and horses, I don’t need horses, like them but way destructive and expensive. Like you learning to preserve.
I am excited for you! Godspeed on your journey!
Never to late! Enjoy it!)
Its never too late Ms Cash! All the best for your wonderful garden ❤️
Us to moving to 2.5 areas and doing much more gardening and preserving
Yes a Great Depression cooking video would be great.
Always a joy to listen to your story’s, encouragement and lessons. Thank you so much for sharing!
I enjoyed hearing about your journey. Since I started following you, I wondered about how you got started with this. I wish I could live the way you do. I am now over 60, live alone. I do garden, and preserve food – as best I can. I have been looking into agri-hoods. This concept is still too new to be economical. The ones I have found, are so high priced, they are for a select group of people, and not inclusive of everyone that is interested in that lifestyle. So – I will keep doing my best on my own. I do have a question please. I have a glass top stove, that I read cannot be used for canners. I was so excited to have found Nesco Smart Canner – to do pressure canning. I have done green beans and some squash. I later found out that canning squash is not recommended. Besides that, I have received very negative comments on a fb group that I follow, about “there are no approved electric pressure canners”. I am now doubting what I have already canned, and fearful of doing more. I know you use & have talked about how to use a regular one, but that is not an option for me. What are your thoughts on the electric one? I had no idea I was doing something that may be dangerous. Thank you !
This is a great question, I’m interested in knowing too. I do so hope that your cans will be safe after the work you have put into them!
If you are concerned about the glass top stove I would recommend a Camp Chef 2 burner outdoor stove that runs on propane, I use mine so I don’t heat up the house in the summer when canning. About the electric canner I would read the manual very carefully to see what you are able to use it for. My extension office is very helpful for any canning questions, also the USDA preserving website is very extensive along with the Ball canning book. Hope this helps you in some way.
@Workin On It I second the recommendation for the Camp Chef Stove. I was hesitant to use it, being a rule follower, so I actually called up the company and talked to someone there about it. They explained that the BTUs it advertised are the max BTUs, and that they actually have quite a few customers who use them for canning. It’s not officially endorsed for canning, but I have seen tons of homesteaders using them without issue…including Homesteading Family. It should be used outdoors, of course, so weather (cold, wind, rain) can be a bit of an issue. But I like that it runs on propane, without electricity, and I can have several tanks on hand.
Natasha S. Also, the Camp Chef gets so hot it can be hard to keep the pressure at the right level.
I watched this three times so far. Y’all are living the dream I missed out on with my first husband. Now I am alone and pursuing the dream. Currently saving for my first piece of land that will be mine. I am developing skills like you suggest. I am really good at gardening and dehydrating. I would really like to learn pressure canning and herbalism this next season. Bless y’all
What an amazing journey! Thanks for sharing it with us. 40 years ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to buy a house with barns and 30 acres – and we did not because I was scared, I did not have the knowledge I have now. There was no Internet, no YouTube, no bloggers to learn from. Younger people can learn so much now and make the jump. Thank you for sharing your knowledge so freely.
oh how i relate to your journey. been married 38 yrs to the same man and we both worked making really good money to my husband becoming disabled to having it be a necessary to garden , canning, chickens, i go wild forging, ect . i did not know how ive missed out on all this wonderful times. arkansas is different weather than you and we dont have but1/2 acre.but God is Good.
What a great story guys, i really enjoyed it. Its been a little over a year when i started watching your video’s and started with Kombucha. After that i followed the breadbaking-4 days and i can proudly say i havent buy any bread since then! Now i have a fooddryer and a lot of jars, i make tinctures and salves and love everything about it! Your are my great input and inspiration and to be honest, i really want to grow and learn more, so keep going, lol.
X
I always hear of people finding rentals with acreage that they can farm, where are you finding these properties???
Cities that aren’t “cool.” Spokane, WA is a good example and where I have moved to with the hope I will eventually be able to do this. Idaho. Montana. Poor states. States that aren’t trendy. Don’t go moving to Oregon… You’ll spend a fortune on property taxes.
I never realized you lived in Tennessee! So much different that the Western States. East Tennessee where I live does have plenty of mountains (Great Smokey Mtns National Park) but they look much different than the majestic Rockies! Thank you for sharing such quality information to all of us! Blessings!
Sent this to my boyfriend as a “hey… this is a goal”😂🤍