Let me start by saying that our electrical company is top notch. We only have electrical hiccups a few times a year, and those generally only last a few seconds at worst. This morning, however, we’d finished breakfast and had just gotten through family chapel. The kids were hustling off to make their beds and do their chores, when I heard a pop and noticed the kitchen light go out. I looked outside at the meter, and sure enough – we were without power.

After about ten minutes, it became clear that the power wasn’t going to come back on immediately and I began changing plans. I was literally a few seconds away from sitting down to get some work done, but with no power and an old laptop battery, I’d only be able to get 10 or 15 minutes of work accomplished. I reached for the refrigerator and realized I’d better not open yet – no telling how long things would be down. As I went into the garage to get a flashlight for the basement, I heard Jesi telling the kids to pick up since she was about to vacuum – it’s incredible how quickly we forget the ways that electricity impacts us.

Our neighbor came over to see if it was just him or if the whole block was out – he was worried about his fish if the power was out for a long time. I was getting antsy to start working and I actually considered firing up the generator so that I could power the internet and our computers. Now, as things go, we’re pretty comfortable functioning without electricity. The house is heated with wood and the water is gas heated – the electricity is only needed for the freezers and the fridge – plus the kitchen stuff and lights. After about an hour, the power came back on and life resumed as normal – but I’ve been left thinking about how quickly progress was brought to a halt this morning. Granted, my biggest concern was that the coffee was getting cold, but I’m realizing just how appreciative I am that electricity flows freely from my wall sockets.

We’ve been considering having a “electricity free fun night” with the kids – throwing the breakers to everything but the food storage and camping out in the living room with flashlights and cooking on a camp stove. I’ve heard that these experiences can be invaluable for the real emergencies and ice storms – when those hit, your kids already think that no electricity is fun and not scary. Spending the evening camped out under a blanket tent with the wood stove cranking and flashlights sounds like a great way to spend time as a family and let the kids know that their world is much bigger than their local electric co-op…

What do you think of when you hear the word homestead?

For many people, this word brings to mind windswept prairies and 40 acres of land. Perhaps it brings to mind covered wagons or aprons and long skirts.

This word has a slightly different meaning to me. I hear the word homesteading and think of freedom, a different pace of life, and a dependence on self and family.

The title of our website is Our Happy Homestead. What on earth does that mean? What does the word homestead mean anymore? The dictionary defines it as the home and adjoining land occupied by a family. However, this word seems to be evolving into something with a different meaning.

My husband and I have always longed for a farm. We also knew that we had no idea how to run a farm, should we be lucky enough to find one. What if we didn’t even enjoy any part of farming one day?

We started small, learning new skills that would be helpful one day – and skills that we could use to test ourselves, seeing if we actually liked self-sufficiency! I think our first step towards this goal was joining a CSA group (Community Supported Agriculture – basicly a small farm co-op where you work several hours each week for a share in the harvest) in the middle of the city. We were able to get our hands dirty each week and have something to show for it. Each step we took encouraged us – we loved growing our food, finding ways to preserve it, getting closer to sustaining ourselves. But more than just this, we were on our way towards a goal as a family.

So this is what a homestead means to our family. It means a place where our family works together towards a common goal, a place where we are helping one another to learn for the future

Our homes are an oasis from the outside world of craziness and turmoil. When we talk about a homestead on this site, we’re talking about a haven that is created inside of a home – whether that haven is in an apartment building or a large farmhouse.

The techniques we try to teach here and the items we offer for sale will hopefully bring you closer to creating that haven in your own home. A place where you can center your family more on your homestead than on the tremendous number of activities and distractions that can tear us all away from our homes and from our families. Becoming more self-sufficient requires families to look to each other for help, support and friendship, rather than competing with one another for attention and time.

As you learn more skills that can help you become more self-sufficient, you may find a bit more time or money available, providing a bit more freedom in life. This is a little edge towards freedom – slipping away from the busyness in life and inching closer to the things that actually matter. Home, family and love. That’s what Our Happy Homestead is all about.

We’ll try to show you more ways each day to find pleasure in your own homestead, no matter where you are in life. Thanks for enjoying some of that time with us!

Today was our day to work outdoors around the homestead – my husband was busy chopping wood (we heat our house using our woodstove and there’s a storm predicted for tomorrow), cleaning up after chickens and rabbits, and cleaning out the garage. The whole time he has three little helpers following him around who think he’s the greatest dad in the whole world because he can split a log with an axe, find a worm under the rabbit cages and fix a car, all in one day!

While he was busy with three shadows, I had plenty of time to finish many chores around the house since the baby slept a good amount of time today! One of my favorite chores on days like this is hanging laundry outside to dry.

Wait, what? What’s wrong with your dryer? Absolutely nothing. While I was pregnant with my fourth child, I figured it would be a lot of fun to hang clothes outside on a line in order to entertain both myself and the kids while getting something done. We loved it, but once the baby came this was one of the easiest things to put aside due to lack of time and energy.

Then we got the next electric bill. The only thing we had changed in-between the two billing cycles was going back to using the electric dryer full time. Our bill had gone up by 35%! Suddenly it was worth it to me to go back to hanging our clothes. My husband had also noticed his clothes went back to smelling like a dryer sheet, rather than smelling like the sun.

So why write about this chore? Well, I’ve found it’s one of my favorite ways to get back to our homesteading mindset. There’s something very relaxing about the rhythm of hanging clothes, pinning them to the line, folding them outside, all the while in the sun and wind, the kids playing in the background and running through the sheets and towels, hearing the crack of wood being split on the other side of our lot and chickens pecking at stray clothespins that have fallen. One of my sons has taken on the chore of carrying the clothespin bucket to the line each time I come out with a basket of clothes to hang. The oldest son thinks that I am personally offending him if I try to carry the clothes back into the house myself, without allowing him to do it for me.

I love the relaxed feeling that seems to drift over me as I’m hanging up the clothes outside. A while back I read about a practice that I’ve adopted with this – praying for each individual as I hang up his or her clothes. So this ends up being a quieting time for my own soul, as well as a needed chore. With each item of clothing, I think isn’t that soul-quiet what we’re all searching for? That’s the reason for our own search for our homesteading life…

Alright. Today I had a total disaster with applesauce. Applesauce! It’s really a very simple process; all you have to do is boil or steam the apples in a little bit of water and then on to the canning, right?? Well, obviously, I’m quite talented at NOT getting this right!

I thought I would get a head start on making applesauce with my slow cooker. The plan was foolproof; I would simply cook the apples overnight, and then can them in the morning. This would break everything down into manageable bits, since canning hot fruit is not something to be done with children close by! The cooking went very well overnight, scents of apples filling our house all night (every time I came out of our room, the smell made me hungry!).

In the morning, I was ready to can my applesauce, but then I took a look at all the other apples left. I figured that I could probably just cook one more batch of apples into applesauce before I canned so that I could fill the canner. I always hate canning with only a half full canner. As I threw another batch into the slow cooker, I reasoned that if I ran one more batch through, I could be done with all the apples at the same time. It’s never that easy, is it? I ended up filling the cooker five times and cooking apples each time for 8 hours, storing the cooked apples each time in the fridge.

So here we are; by this point I have a fridge about half full of cooked apples, and still nothing canned. Now if you’ve ever canned anything, you know you’re supposed to cook it just before canning so that the fruit is hot going into the jars – there are several reasons for this, none of which matter at this point. If you’ve been paying attention, you probably realize that none of my pre-canned fruit is hot. Here’s where things start unraveling.

I threw all the apples into one HUGE stockpot to heat. BAD IDEA! The apples were so thick at this point that there was no way on earth I could stir them thoroughly. Plus, apples contain sugar, which is very easy to burn! Stockpots, strangely enough, were designed for stock – so if you’re not cooking stock, it actually turns into a burnpot. So perhaps you can do the math – me with a HUGE amount of apples in a HUGE stockpot making a HUGE stink in the kitchen while I tried to figure out what on earth was causing the stench! Yeah, it may be funny now, but not at the time.

Luckily I have a wonderful husband who can lie when asked if something really tastes as bad as I think it does. Smoked flavor does not go well with applesauce! Thankfully, enough sugar and cinnamon can make almost anything taste good. My poor children will grow up thinking that applesauce is supposed to taste like it was smoked over daddy’s grill!

Today our home is filled with the scent of apples cooking. Not yet the scent of spiced apples, or apples cooking inside of a pastry, but the almost watery scent of apples baking in their own juice – the epitome of fall. Outside, the air has a crispness to it as if trying to clean out the stuffiness of the end of the summer heat.

For years, my husband and I have had the goal of moving out to the country to a small farm, trying to live off the land and be self-sufficient. We’ve taken great strides towards our dream with our little homestead. Granted, we’re still in town, although thankfully it’s a very small town. We haven’t yet escaped the neighborhood, but you’d be surprised what kind of country living can be done inside of town limits! At least we’ve taken a large step away from grocery stores with our small jump towards our farm.

Back when we were in the city, I did not expect how I would feel each spring and fall. Since much of our food comes from our land, the seasons mean something other than a change of wardrobe. I feel the changing of the seasons much more vividly than before, each season bringing with it a change of pace so dramatic that it is impossible to ignore. This inexorable passage of time brings about an excitement every few months that is breath-taking.

As a perfect illustration, this last week has truly been the beginning of a beautiful fall. We weren’t sure we’d get a true fall this year, since the snow came following a week of temperatures in the 80s! However, stepping outside today, I can feel the autumn all the way to my bones. One of my favorite parts of fall is the crisp feeling to the air as I take a deep breath along with the new scents – the last mowing of grass, the dusty scent of fallen leaves, the apple scent that seems to be everywhere.

This kind of crisp feeling in the air always stirs something deep inside of me – a primal, almost visceral need to burrow into our home. I feel a rush to get the firewood chopped and stacked. I long to be home instead of out running errands. I feel a deep-seated drive to stock up on foods that can be tucked away in the pantry for that day when the snow prevents us from leaving the house. I start craving hot cups of tea and cardigan sweaters and candles with a spicy scent and I have to admit that even knitting begins to sound exciting!

The craziness of the summer is starting to wind down, the baby pool has been cleaned out and stored for the winter, and the sled and snow shovels are ready in the garage. The baby bunnies are all grown, the chickens are scrambling to get the last of the summer bugs and best of all – the apples are being harvested. I’ve always loved the fall, but somehow, living closer to the land, I’ve fallen in love with it all over again.