Headed for Homestead

   Have you ever just stood in the middle of the forest and gazed at the life around you? You may not have seen any creatures, but the trees, the plants around them and the dirt you stand on, are all full of life.

   As a young boy, my greatest joy was being in the mountains during the summer time, after school was out and my responsibilities dwindled down to merely 3 things: Don't get hurt or killed, don't get in the way or in trouble and have as much fun as possible building forts in the woods while exploring nature!

   It wasn't until I turned 17 that I moved out and finished my senior year while living at my grandmother's house that I found out what true responsibility was. I had a truck that used gas, and insurance to pay each month. 18 rolled up right around the corner and going to school turned into going to work. I always honored and respected a man who worked hard for a living like my father did. He taught me how to work for myself, even though I started out working for a business at 18. I never forgot those life lessons. I filtered out the crazy talk, the false teachings and the gossip most of the time and hung onto the life lessons I watched my father make while learning a few first hand myself.

   For years after my first job, I found out first hand what renting month to month was like, how minimum wage made a man feel worthless when you live paycheck to paycheck, just to wake up and do the same thing over again, to keep on doing the same thing.... Day after day. Cherishing the weekends with friends and occasionally partying.

   I tried to find love, all in the wrong places of course, well not in the wrong places perhaps, but in the wrong type of woman. I chased after the young and the restless, the fake and stuck up ones and after the troubled ones. I broke a few hearts and got my heart broken of course. But it was all for a reason.

   Just before my 30th birthday, I was blessed with my first son. All my life, I was always so awe struck by the beauty of nature and life itself. You think you may have seen the most beautiful thing in all of existence before you ever become a parent. It wasn't until I set my eyes on my first child that I saw true beauty. reation. At that moment when you hold your first child, you make a vow to yourself to always protect that child, to teach it all you know, to lead it righteously into a bright future. You finally grow up.

   I knew the struggle of living paycheck to paycheck, and the struggle of not knowing where you'll end up growing up. I went to 13 different schools in my schooling years as a kid. My parents tried so hard to find our place in this world where they could feel accomplished as parents and leave my siblings and I something to carry on. I tired my hardest growing up to learn everything I can in life that I'll ever need to know. I never wanted to fail as a parent. Becoming a parent meant that I couldn't fail. I needed more help than I could ever offer my family alone. I needed true spirituality.

   When I found myself one summer in the most terrible trouble I've ever been in, I gave up for a moment. I let go of everything I ever knew to be right and I rebooted my mind. I found my true spirituality. I had a true revelation!

   When my son was three years old and I had my second son on the way, I finally decided to live not for just myself and my family. I began to most importantly live for God as well. I was given the passion to invest my time and money into more fulfilling and things. Things began to fall into place and order for once. My love life and relationship with my wife began to flourish. I began to feel like I had a purpose in life, to teach my children honorably, righteously and correctly. How to live better life, more fulfilling and wholesome. I had a revelation and it put it in my heart and my wife's heart to create a homestead.

   I always had an interest for solar power, but never learned anything about it much. I searched for months, trying to find property with a water source with a budget of $20,000. Finally we found a 2.44 acre piece of land in Oregon with an existing well. It had very few trees, but the sandy soil was perfect for gardening.

   "I've always wanted a man who can build me a cabin in the woods," my wife would say to me. And now I'm becoming that man. To this day, we have a solar powered well that pumps 2.5 gallons a minute. We have building plans for a 3 bedroom A-frame home I'll hopefully get to build soon. We also have everything we need to install a septic system. We have planted many more trees and started gardens. We are creating a homestead.

   We have 4 children now together, our youth still, and a strong foundation in our spiritually. It's our strong beliefs that have become the foundation to our success. Homesteading is not for the faint hearted, people who cherish the city life or those that want an easy, laid back life style.

   Getting away from the city and learning all we can about surviving off of the land, raising animals (like the ducks and chickens we raise now) and learning about how our forefathers preserved food, is what our passions have become. It may take everything you own and all the time you have, but the investment lasts a life time. Eventually our solar systems will pay for themselves and our gardens will replenish themselves. I'll build my own house, on the rocks.

   Going off-grid is a new found passion of mine, and I haven't regretted one part of it. I will leave my children a land that replenishes itself, leaves a much smaller carbon footprint and will support them. Investing my earnings into something that will pay itself off in the future is a better use of my money i believe. If you're thinking of starting a homestead, go into it with a big heart, high hopes and be determined to learn everything you can! Take a chance. You fail at 100% of the chances you DON'T take. I hope my story inspired you to look into a new passion. Be blessed. Thank you, reader.