Where there's a will, there's a way...

It's no secret that homesteading is all the rage. In a day and age when groceries are at a record high and the cost of living keeps climbing, many are desperate for a simpler lifestyle. For us, it meant flipping our life upside down for a chance at sustainability.

My husband and I started our homesteading journey just over a year ago with nothing but high hopes and dreams. We gave up our beautiful "forever home" in a subdivision to move to a 20-acre hobby farm that hadn't been used as a farm in many years. The house and the property were absolutely gorgeous. The barn and pasture were fully functional. However, the garden beds were small and overgrown. The trees in the orchard were dying. The chicken run needed some TLC.

All we saw was endless potential...

I should start by saying that we had absolutely no experience. None at all. I had a long running history of killing gardens (five, to be exact), and the most exotic pet we'd ever had was a dog... What were we thinking?

We started with six chickens... which quickly grew by 19 more (ever hear of Chicken Math?!), including several little chicks. Two of those chicks happened to be roosters, which gave us a shot at incubating eggs over the winter. On our first attempt at hatching our own chickens, we got lucky and 20 out of 22 eggs hatched, and our flock grew substantially.

When the ground thawed enough to dig, we started on a garden. My husband must have a lot of faith in me, because after the number of garden's I've killed, I definitely don't deserve the 80x80 garden we put in. But gosh, it is beautiful!

After we got the garden started, we added a pet pig to our chaos. When my husband talked about raising pigs, I am positive he didn't intend on a mini pig I brought home in the back of my GMC Acadia. Porkchop is now the farm mascot and will be living out the rest of his years happily in the barn.

Eventually, we brought home the pigs my husband had in mind from the get-go. Showing our true colors, we pulled a full family affair to knock out a pigpen build 24 hours before we brought home a few "Bacon Seeds."

Throughout the last year, I also tried my hands at sourdough. That deserves a post or two on it's own...more to follow on that journey!

Our garden produced more than we could have imagined. We planted such a large variety of crops and given my track record, I expected it to fail. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of failed crops waiting to be tilled up in the garden as I type this. I was too stubborn to listen to the experience of others to accept that I can't plant beans in May in a Zone 5, just as I can't successfully grow watermelon and cantaloupe. Spoiler alert: the experienced people were right.

By the time we reached our one-year mark, we had successfully revived Cherry Creek Farm and scored an invite to a local farmers market. Though we only made it to a few markets before our crop slowed down for the season, it was such a great experience. There's something really cool about seeing your work pay off, and watching others enjoy it too.

It's been a wild ride, and it's only just beginning. My point is this: you don't need a experience, a small fortune or a large amount of land to start your homesteading journey. We have taken a "learn as you go" approach, and you can too. It doesn't have to be pretty, and it won't be perfect. Set your goals, and start reaching them. Where there's a will, there's a way!