ABOUT US

We started this page because we believed we have something unique to offer.  From the pictures you can see we are not a "typical" family.  My wife and I both come from an agricultural background being born and raised in the cornfields near the border between Minnesota and Iowa.  We both attended land grant Universities in Iowa and quickly entered into the life of young urban professionals upon receiving our degrees.  The problem was we did not really fit this persona, or even the persona of the suburbanite despite finding ourselves in this setting.  We seemed to be fish out of water so to speak.  Nonetheless, our quality of life (i.e. income) was much better than we had ever known and quickly fell into dependence upon our setting.  We were married 10 years before we took the leap to invite children into our home.  Marie and Mackenson were born in Haiti and were adopted by us in 2008 through a long an arduous process.  Through the adoption process our blog was born and many of the earlier posts are about our adoption experience.  With the addition of children into the family we began to notice a lot of the things that we took for granted growing up in a rural setting such as self reliance, food production, nature's flora and fauna, etc. were hidden from them.  We began to see the ignorance that seems to have infiltrated every aspect of our culture in regards to food, the natural world and the ability to be self reliant so we began to strive to increase our own knowledge base.  We saw the consumerism and disposable mindset that pervades nearly every facet of modern life.  We figure if we increased our knowledge, reduced our consumption and included our children in the journey, we could do a small part to curve societal ignorance instead of contributing to it.  We knew a little about gardening, preserving vegetables, cooking from scratch, etc., but soon found out we were still way behind in the knowledge curve to become self reliant.  We found a multitude of resources concerning wild foraging, herbal and traditional medicine, gardening, food preserving, DIY and overall simple living.  We have been incorporating more knowledge every year into our life and life endeavors and strive to share it openly.  One day we hope to retire with the proverbial 40 acres and a mule on good agricultural land.  We do not consider ourselves hermits, anarchists, anti-capitists or even politically active even though we have strong political opinions about many issues.  In most cases we are the opposite of these prescribed labels.  We want this blog to help like-minded folks, friends and family see what we do, develop interests, and learn from our experience regardless of affiliations or background.  At the very minimum we hope to provide a unique perspective and entertainment.  Thank you and feel free to subscribe, ask any questions or provide any criticism through the comment section of the blog.