It is hard to believe that two years ago now we purchased our homestead an moved out of “town”. The community that we live in is moderately sized for Wyoming but small compared to other states. Moving out of town was always a dream of ours. My husband and I lived in a tiny 900 square foot house when we got married. I actually bought the house after our third date thinking it was a perfect fit for me and my two cats. Fast forward a few years and we had two German Shepherds, two little boys, and still the two cats. It was a bit of a squeeze. Plus we lived across the street from a park – lovely in theory but every weekend in the spring and fall little league soccer took place in that park. Let me tell you, soccer parents can be intense for a rec center league! Plus there would be absolutely no parking. Even our driveway would get blocked in.
Plus, at the time we were just starting to dabble in growing our own vegetables and thinking about being a bit more self-sufficient. We got married spring of 2020 after all, so the blind trust of the grocery store was gone. We were able to gather a reasonable harvest, but still longed for more open space. It was going to be a bit tricky because I had quit my job as a teacher the year our firstborn turned one so we were a one income family trying to buy land.
Our first attempt fell through in 2021. It really was the hand of God. We were so excited at the idea of being able to move that we made an offer on a house and piece of property that we would not have been able to afford. Not wanting to tell our relator that, we kept moving forward with the offer hoping and praying that we would be able to figure out our finances and make it work. Thankfully, the house failed it’s inspection in major ways. There was so much mold. This gave us a valid reason to back out of the contract.
After our second baby boy was born, we began looking again. Our tiny house was taking a toll on our mental health and the thought of raising two boys in it was overwhelming. Our relator showed us a property just out of town with the best view. The house was nice enough, but the land and view – man something else. I’ll spare you the details but it was quite the process to get everything finalized. In January 2024 we finally moved in. Since then we have raised chickens for eggs and processed some for meat, raised ducks for eggs, and Kune Kune pigs. It has been a wild ride. Eventually we want to get goats too – we discovered that we really like raw goat milk and my husband wants to use them to help pack out elk during hunting season (it is actually a thing!).
So here we are in 2026 raising three little boys aged 4, 2, and 4 months trying our best to homestead and live a peaceful, Christ-filled life. If this sounds like you, welcome. I can tell you we haven’t done everything right, but we are sure learning along the way.