The week before Thanksgiving 2015 we were pre-approved for a loan. Matt had found a log cabin (a LOG CABIN, folks!!!) on 5 acres that was about the same distance from work as our current home. We had our realtor friend show it to us and made an offer the next day. The following week our home was listed and a week after that we had accepted an offer on it. (We don’t play around in this house, y’all – we we decide something, we make it happen.) We endured a stressful, emotion-filled December, but closed on both houses and moved into our dream cabin on New Year’s Eve 2015.

Then the work began…
It’s hard to say what project we tackled first at the new homestead. There were so many items on our list that we started working on several at the same time (and honestly still haven’t stopped). New appliances were ordered and installed within the first month because the dishwasher was slowly dying, only one burner on the stove worked, the oven didn’t reach temps necessary for cooking, and we had spoiled ourselves with a shiny new appliance suite right before we moved from our other house. (Great for resale, sad for us…*I will never forget you, double oven.*)

I insisted that I needed four new chickens immediately, so a week or two after we moved in I bought four pretty pullets (2 Golden Laced Wyandottes and 2 Barred Rocks) to add to the flock. I also decided that my “five-year plan” to buy a horse was really a two-month plan, so we spent entire days and whole weekends cutting and burning the HUGE brush pile (ahem, and separating the brush AND garbage to throw away – can someone please tell me who throws away a TREADMILL in a pasture?!?!) that had been sitting in our pasture from two owners ago awaiting the multi-year burn ban to be lifted. Also, the horse would need shelter, so we had to build something that wasn’t an eyesore – quick! We ended up with not one, but TWO horses, within two months of moving in…sorry, Matt, love you!

In the midst of this, I had accepted a promotion at work, so my stress level was crazy and we both lost a ton of weight (don’t worry – it’s all back, and then some) because if we weren’t at work we were working on SOMETHING at the house. But you know what? I wouldn’t trade the hard work and I certainly would never go back to our old house. After moving brush and helping keep the fire controlled for around 12 hours one day, we sat back with a couple of beers and got to see this view:

and we will never look back.

What are your homestead dreams? Have you reached them, or are you still planning?

(The full history of how we ended up at our homestead is available, enjoy Part 1 and Part 2!)