I’m Alie and my husband and I have a small homestead in north-central Idaho. Our neighbors always comment about how loud the frogs in our pond are in the spring, hence, Frog Pond Homestead. Given that our nearest neighbor is over a quarter of a mile away, I would say we have pretty impressive and vocal frogs! We grow and can quite a bit of food, raise chickens for eggs and meat, and try to be as self-sufficient as we can while both working full-time away from the homestead. We have a special-needs rescue pupper (born deaf and with limited vision), a super sweet rescue cat from a hoarding situation, and a stray cat we have gotten ‘fixed’ and feed whenever he wants to hang out. My husband has four wonderful adult children who all love this place as a quiet retreat from their own busy lives.
The main things I like to share are our slow-and-steady-wins-the-race approach to growing our homestead and self-sufficient lives. I’m sure I’ll say it more than once, but we have found that taking on too many new things all at once in the garden, with animals, or with canning can be overwhelming and discouraging. We keep each other in check to grow our homestead slowly and thoughtfully so we aren’t taking on too much new stuff at one time. Hopefully some of our lessons can help others!