Our Story

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”       ~ Gandhi

 

Learning to work with nature instead of against it is the only way we can begin to hope for a better world to live in. Our world is full of people, businesses, and technology whose only focus is moving toward the next bigger and better thing, without regard to the lives and environment that is crushed in its' path. This is devastating.

While I would love to say that we own 30 acres and are living off the land, this is not the case. We don't own a farm (can't afford it, nor do we have the slightest clue how to manage one), we don't live in a straw bale house, and we aren't living off the grid. Maybe someday, but not today. Right now, what we have is a 7000sqft lot in the suburbs of Colorado.

As we stared at our solid clay backyard we realized that we still have a lot of potential. What if we could grow enough food just in our tiny backyard to live off year round? Is it possible? Studying philosophies like permaculture, polyculture, and forest gardens we wonder . . . What is possible in our small backyard? We took it as a challenge.

A challenge to live as self-sufficiently as we can.

For the last three years we have been working towards living locally and seasonally, which is hard to do in Colorado, where food doesn't grow year-round. We stock up from the local Farmer's Market and have learned canning, pickling, storing, jamming, and dehydrating. In addition, we have varying degrees of experience in fishing, camping, hunting, knitting, sewing, and quilting. It seems like we never choose the easy way of doing anything because we feel that it isn't the "right" way to do it.

We started this blog as a way to watch our progress, especially with the backyard, and ultimately to keep track of what is important to us. Every plant, every day, is a new experience and there is definitely a learning curve. We have high, but hopefully realistic expectations and we know it isn't going to happen overnight.


Our posts will fall into one of five reoccurring themes which are:
1. Backyard Hobby Farm - to watch our progress
2. Slice & Dice - we will share and record recipes using fresh local produce and meats. Recipes are geared towards the Paleo, Primal, and High Fat-Low Carb Diet. This diet has worked well for us for over a year and counting.
3. DIY - to keep track all of our homemade projects
4. Low Impact - documenting changes we make to minimize the footprint we leave behind
5. Playing Outdoors - we live in Colorado after all!

Feel free to join us on our journey.

                            ~ Donnie & Brittany
                    April 2013

Disclaimer: 
Please note that the views expressed on this blog are our opinions only. In addition, any recipes posted are to be used at your own risk.