Little Okie Homestead

I wasn't called to be normal! I was called to be different from the rest of the world and I feel it almost daily how different my family truly is! Homeschooling, homesteading, and homemaking are so far from the norm in our society. Then if you add in that I'm a Christian who is married to an unbeliever that adds a whole new aspect to being different. And of course our goal of tiny living. But it's working! Our family is a strong family unit. We work together, spend time together and make decisions together. We choose to make sacrifices to keep our family strong and connected and we love helping people around us when an opportunity arises. Homemaking is an important part of our lives and how we choose to be different. I'm not just a stay at home mom. I don't just merely stay home. I'm actively making a home for my family. I clean, bake, organize and create a loving and caring atmosphere for my family. I make choices on saving money by cooking most even...

Day One Set Up It's only been two weeks since we've brought our chicks home from the store and I'm amazed at how fast they have grown! I swear that each day they change. They grow new feathers, they grow bigger, and they are now learning how to fly! I'm amazed at just how much they change each day. 2nd day home. So tiny! But the most amazing thing about the chicks is the responsibility that Monkey has taken on by caring for them. Every morning he is up giving them clean food and water. A few hours later more food and water. A few more hours he's at it again. Having so many chicks requires lots and lots of feeding and watering throughout the day. Thank goodness we are home to care for them! 5 days after we got chicks Aunt M got some new chicks. Had to expand the chick coop. The older chickens are still my responsibility but I think that once the chicks make there way out to the big coop that Monkey will start helping me care for them as well. ...

Now that we are becoming homesteaders instead of city folks we are looking for all kinds of ways to save money. One thing I have noticed about people that are new to homesteading they seem to try to get off grid as much as possible shortly after seeing the bills lowering with small changes. That is one of our goals too. We eventually want to be self-sufficient and not rely on the power companies and grocery stores to care for our family. Of course this is a big goal and will take some time accomplishing. Right now our goal is getting our electric bill reduced. So how does handwashing dishes and the electric bill go together? We you probably know that the dishwasher uses electricity. Then you add in the hot water used and it cost money to heat the water. Plus the well pump is ran from electricity too. So all that adds up and can add up quickly. So we are experimenting to see if hand washing dishes will actually lower our bill. This past month our electric bill was $191! That...