Homesteading – Happy Healthy Homestead

Building Raised Beds

When it comes to gardening there are so many different ways to go about it. You can plant directly in the ground, in pots, and my favorite way which is raised beds. Raised beds makes

Canned Pickles

I canned pickles for the first time two years ago. The flavor was great but the texture was a bit too mushy. Come to find out – I did everything wrong… To get crispy pickles

Soil for Raised Beds

We recently put in 6 new raised beds! They are lovely, but man was that a lot of work! Our garden area is on a little hill, so picture in your mind running up the

Baby Chickens – Getting Started

We have been backyard chicken owners for going on 8 years now. There is so much to talk about when it comes to this topic. Chickens are amazing because they are fun backyard pets, great

Homestead Update

This post is just a quick update on our projects at the homestead this spring. We had a small retaining wall put in, replaced the old white picket fence that bordered our driveway, and then

Garden Planning

I have been so excited to garden plan this year! We are in the middle of putting up a 6′ fence that will go around our garden and chicken area and give me much more

Homemade Applesauce

This past October we went apple picking at a you-pick orchard about an hour from our house near Half Moon Bay. I heard that Fuji, Gala, and Honeycrisp tend to make the best applesauce so

Organizing Photos & Memorabilia

In this digital age organizing photos and memorabilia usually looks a lot different than it did 30 years ago. Since it is so easy to take as many photos you want and save them to

This post is a bit different than my usual content. Below I discuss the background of my recent Ireland trip, Video slideshows of our trip, Our itinerary and recommendations, and what we learned about homesteading

Welcome! A little bit about me

Welcome! My name is Jess and I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California with my wonderful husband (Ryan) and son (Wyatt). We live on a property just under an acre among the redwoods.

Category: Homesteading