Ponderings, plans for 2023 and a very happy new year!

 Happy New Year dear readers!

Thank you for following our family's journey to a simpler, more sustainable life as we continue to navigate the life we live towards the life we value. 

Around this time every year, many of us undergo a period of reflection. We reflect on the year that was, where we are now and what our hopes for the future might be. Some of us write resolutions, others set goals and some choose to take a new year just as they did the last one - one step at a time.

For those that are new here, we are a family of six who lives entirely off-grid in a modern 30ft yurt while we establish our off-grid homestead/farm. Four years ago we bought our 265acre property and moved 2000kms to a property with zero infrastructure. It was quite literally a bush block. Those early days were a combination of exhilarating and bloody hard. We lived in an old vintage caravan and the boys slept in tents. There was no power, no running water, no bathroom and no internet or phone connection. We were only meant to camp for a few weeks until our yurt arrived from the USA, but due to shipping holdups, the weeks turned into months. HERE is a Post from my old blog 'A Simple Living Journey' which contains stories of our early days. 

Eventually, our yurt came and we began to set down roots and turn this place into a home. We added another baby, beautiful Elsie who is nearly three. We have put in a 10,000L header tank that gravity feeds water to the yurt, installed a small solar system, and built out the yurt by adding a kitchen, pantry, bedrooms and loft. We have laid flooring, built a small bathroom under the porch and put in a wood-burning Aga for winter cooking. The yurt is now a sweet and functional home. Albeit a little on the small side. If you want to know more about yurts you can read a post I did HERE.

We started our Boer goat herd which we have grown to fifteen and still counting this season. We have chickens, a few cows and are looking to add guinea fowl, geese and a pair of milking goats. Grant doesn't know about the geese yet. He'll love them I'm sure, he just doesn't know it....shhhhhhh.

Grant built a big machinery shed and in that he built a room for his wood roaches with their very own slow-combustion wood fire to keep them toasty on cold frosty nights. Soon we will be adding a solar system to the shed to run an energy-efficient heater which will ensure their temperature is more stable. You can read about his wood roaches HERE. We have the expensive parts for the new solar system which are the inverter and batteries, now we are just waiting to find some second-hand solar panels in good condition.

 

The last few years have been rocky. We always knew it would be a hard move but covid and unstable employment due to covid threw a curve ball we didn't see coming. Money has been unbelievably tight and there were times we struggled to scrape enough together to keep our heads above water. I know there are many people who found themselves in the same position over the past few years.

But coming into 2023 we have a feeling of hope. Finances are still tight, but we can survive if we are careful. Grant has a good, stable job with the forestry department that he loves, which is a game changer.  There is potential to build a good solid career with them over the coming years.

We have some exciting projects on the go. Our garden plans are coming along which you can read about HERE. We are in the process of putting in the first stage of our boundary fence which is a couple of km's. The posts are mostly in, we just need to save a few thousand dollars for the wire. (which is obviously easier said than done.) Once that's done we will be finally starting on the deck. While we save for fencing wire we can work on other projects like building a small isolation shelter/sick bay and yard near the yurt for the goats and a milking shed. We have gathered a fair bit of second-hand iron that can be used and we can fell hardwood posts from our own forests for the frame. We do everything we can here using recycled materials or using things that can be sourced naturally on our own property. 

The last few months have given me a renewed sense of enthusiasm and purpose for blogging and a clearer direction of interesting topics to write about. People are moving from the cities to rural areas en masse and many people dream of owning a small homestead or a couple of acres. I hope to encourage those dreaming of making a lifestyle change as well as those looking to simplify where they are at. Living simply and mindfully is just how we live our lives these days, it is easy to forget that our lives look quite different from many of those around us. I know have found others who share how they live simply, embracing permaculture and building a sustainable life incredibly encouraging and I hope this blog can be a place of encouragement for you too.

We don't send our children to numerous activities and sports, believing that time spent at home and in nature together is equally valuable. They have each been given the opportunity to learn an instrument. Will no longer does guitar lessons, though Angus does and is enjoying it immensely. Henry will start an instrument this year if he chooses. We don't buy our children lots of toys, partly because space is at a premium in a yurt. Instead, we buy less and ensure it's open-ended and promotes imagination and creativity. If we are able to purchase or make things utilizing natural fibres, all the better. They are welcome to purchase what they want with their own money and this is how they have chosen to buy their own tablets. We very rarely eat out due to the cost of feeding a family our size and instead enjoy home-cooked meals. An exception to that might be fish and chips at the beach. However, I believe in balance when it comes to food and our children do eat shop-bought biscuits, chips and two-minute noodles. Though I do bake biscuits, make huge pots of homemade popcorn with butter and make nourishing bone broth with rice noodles in it too. The reality is our children live in a world where fast and processed foods are the norm. We want to show them healthy food choices without hard and fast rules. In my experience children who grow up without food choices risk falling into a culture where they binge on junk food the second they get a chance and can grow to obsess over forbidden foods. Which I believe causes much bigger problems than consuming a homemade slice of cake with a generous slathering of butter icing on top or the occasional packet of two-minute noodles. 

Futuresteading is one of my very favourite podcasts. I find it really encouraging and uplifting. 

Living simply off-grid also looks different. We have limited power so we need to catch what we run, we have a small 12V TV, and we don't have any hot water in the kitchen so we have to heat a kettle with the gas or wood oven. Our bathroom is tiny and we have a composting toilet that uses sawdust instead of water. Our home is small and we don't keep up with the latest trends. We buy second-hand where ever we can and have taught our children that buying second-hand is a good thing. However, we will buy new if it's the better choice. We never shop for entertainment, in fact, we generally consider shopping an annoying chore and get in and out as fast as possible. Instead, we love to go to the beach, and national parks or enjoy some kind of experience together. The kids love the local historical museum which has a steam train, horse-drawn carriage and blacksmith shop. We swim at the beach or river, go fishing or go on bushwalks in the local forests. 

We are not absolutists in anything. We just do the best we can with what we have, including energy. Our principles and values guide us, but not at the cost of our sanity, relationships or general well-being. It's ok if we make a choice that isn't perfect. That doesn't mean trying to live a simpler or more sustainable life isn't for us or that we have failed. It just means we are trying to make choices that differ from the mainstream, consumerist driven and encouraged norm. 

It's hard to walk a different path and it's okay to not do it perfectly. 

Anyway, these are some of our plans, musings and thoughts as we move into 2023, clear as mud right? But perhaps that's ok. Perhaps we don't need a hard and fast plan of how we are going to "succeed" this year. Maybe moving forward with hope, enthusiasm and joy in our hearts is enough and the rest will fall into place in its own time. As long as we continue to take the next step, who knows where we will find ourselves? 

Much love,
Emma
xx

PS - If you want to follow our journey, support us or get notified about new posts you can find us on other platforms HERE. I always post a link to new blog posts on FB and IG as Blogger seems to have lost is's subscribe feature. I'll be on updating my blog soon-ish to include a new one.