I'm building my dream homestead just over the PA border to live a simpler life!  Today is September 25, 2012.  Like so many others, I'm leaving the city to live in the country.  I hope to connect with many other individuals as I have lots of questions that remain unanswered despite reading the latest sources of information.  What a fantastic resource Farm-Dreams.com is! 

I'm starting from scratch on 21 acres in beautiful York County. I just acquired this land in December of 2011 after a two year search for an existing house on the right piece of property.  My father finally convinced me to build from scratch. I just couldn't find what I was looking for.   So far, I have no regrets!   I don't have much experience in where I'm actually going with all this. But I am extremely motivated to try!  October 10th is now the proposed move in date.  I can't wait!

I'm in the home stretch now.  I've picked out everything that needed to be picked out...Appliances, floors, stains, cabinet knobs, you name it, it's been decided upon! So fun, yet so headache-inducing at the same time!    About two more weeks and my new life can begin.  

I want the homesteading life. I'd really like to see just how far I can go in producing things myself rather than buying. I love the country and I love animals. I want to commit to raising heritage breeds the way nature intended...no pesticides, no growth hormones, no chemicals.  I'd also like to grow heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables.  I'll need lots of advice.  I'll be asking a lot of questions, so bare with me.

A vegetable garden will be first with maybe some fruit trees.  Then I'll start with chickens and go from there.  Not a detailed plan, I know.  But with a blank slate, it's been a challenge to envision.  I've even started dabbling in the idea of permaculture.  I have much to learn, but it sounds like a real sustainable way of living. 

I have no gardening experience.  I have no raising livestock experience.  What I have is an innate ability to be frugal.  And that has been enough to fuel my dream to homestead.  Isn't that what a homesteader is?  Frugal?  You learn to live without, make do with what you've got, or somehow create/produce what you need. 

That's me.