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Three years ago today we arrived in Wyoming. 

The trip here had actually started in July of the year before. We came on a road trip from Oregon to see if we even liked Wyoming before deciding to change our lives and move here.

Before we made it back to Oregon we were on the phone with the realtor wanting to put in an offer on land.  2 months later we finally closed.  A couple of days after that we put our Oregon home on the market. That was September. We didn’t actually want to move to Wyoming until the following spring but with the Oregon housing market we figured that would work quite well since things were taking 6 months to sell.

We got an offer 2 weeks later.

With a closing date of December 1 that really did not fit our “move to Wyoming” plan. While we owned 2 acres in Wyoming we did not own a house in Wyoming.  The idea of moving to Wyoming in the dead of winter with no house was not appealing. We considered turning down the offer. We considered getting a rental in Wyoming for the winter (rentals were very limited here at that time and extremely unlikely with dogs and cats). We considered taking the offer and living in our 23 foot camp trailer.

We decided to take the offer and live in the camp trailer. But the slight twist was we would not park our trailer on our Wyoming land for fear of freezing to death. We moved back to Joe’s home town in Northern California and parked our trailer on Joe’s Grandma’s land (thank you Grandma!).

Joe worked a temporary job for the state parks department clearing brush from trails. He came home filthy every day and loved it. That was definitely a ‘dream job’ for Joe.  We were very fortunate that my sister and her husband (who also lived in N. Cali when we moved there but now live about 2 hours from us) gave us their old camp trailer to use along with ours. We lived in the ‘lap of luxury’ that winter in a 23 foot trailer and a 15 foot trailer. 🙂 Christopher was born on December 30 and his little bassinet fit perfectly right by my head on our jack-knife sofa/bed.

On May 1, we left California.  May 3 we pulled onto our property. It was even more beautiful than we’d remembered.  And had even less trees in the surrounding area than I’d remembered. Did I mention that our Oregon home was on the edge of a state forest? I really missed trees when we first moved here!

View From our Property. And a Pile of Junk That Came With the Property

For about 7 weeks we lived in our 23 foot trailer. It was quite cozy!

The Little Camp Trailer we all Lived in

We were quite excited when our ‘new’ home arrived. We had been very fortunate to find an older double wide that was in terrific condition with new windows, siding, a newish kitchen, pellet stove and plenty of room. All at a price we could afford. 

What a Wonderful Thing to see!

It did take some time from when the house arrived until we could move into it. But it was sure fun to watch the progress and be able to go over there in the evenings just to get a little more space for a bit.

Ready for Occupancy!

Starting with a blank canvas (2 acres of nothing) was exciting and sometimes overwhelming.  When we had originally purchased the property we didn’t have any plans for it. When we moved here things had changed for us. We had started on our real food journey while living in the trailer in California (yes! You can cook real food in a teeny, tiny kitchen). Once we were settled here we knew we for sure wanted chickens for eggs.

Our first chicken house was only 4×4 plus an outdoor area. Designed for 6 chickens that would free range during the day and used that coop for sleeping.  It was a good idea…

First Chicken Coop in Wyoming

After 3 years in Wyoming, we are still not 100% sure what we are doing with our property but many things have changed.  That first little chicken coop worked great the first year. And then we decided that we needed to raise chickens for meat also (after watching Food, Inc.). At the same time it seemed like a good idea to offer eggs to others who couldn’t raise their own chickens. A second and third coop were soon built along with chicken tractors. None of these have been fancy but they have all done the job well.

Each year we have also attempted a garden. I predict that it will be a huge success in 2012! We’re also working on getting our thoughts and plans better organized to move forward with our 2 acres. It is amazing what one can really do on a small space!

In fact, I know that many people are doing great things on even smaller spaces than we are. Over the next several weeks (at least) I’ll be sharing not only the things we are doing on our 3 year old homestead but guest posts from others.  I am always so impressed to see what people do on their ‘homestead’ whether that homestead is hundreds of acres, a small city lot or even an apartment balcony. 

I have to admit, until recently I didn’t consider our property to be a homestead. Not sure that you have a homestead either? You might! One thing that is helping my husband and I with our realization and to focus our homesteading dreams is a great eBook from Jill of The Prairie Homestead.

Your Custom Homestead takes you through a 21 day plan to realize your homesteading dreams where you live right now. Your Custom Homestead is definitely worth a read and at less than $5 is a huge bargain. I wish that it would have been written three years ago! I suspect we would be much further along than we are. At the very least, we’d know where we were going. 🙂

 Tell me about your homestead! What are you growing  or raising? What do you want to grow?

Would you like to have your homestead featured on Real Food for Less Money? Email me about guest posting! realfoodforlessmoney (at) gmail (dot) com.

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