Our Story

MANY BABY BOOMERS ARE JUST LIKE US...CONCERNED ABOUT HOW WE WILL ADEQUATELY SUSTAIN OURSELVES THROUGH OUR RETIREMENT YEARS! 

Life happened fast while we lived, worked and raised our kids and we've entered into our later years needing a RADICAL SOLUTION!

The good news is we have gathered time-tested secrets and a uniquely revived plan......

 

***Our Story***

Married in 1991, most of our years together were spent in servant-leadership ministry - Sharon as a worship pastor/leader, Bruce in worship support/leadership roles in addition to his training as a pastor/intern. Like many worship/pastoral leaders, sadly, we had no real retirement plans provided through our many years of ministry assignments.

Lots of prayerful research and passion for alternative health lifestyle led to the awareness of homesteading and low-debt retirement independence. We often lived below the poverty guidelines so, inspired by the tiny-home/debt-free movement our plans gradually emerged to create a Habitat for Humanity type of model for ourselves, creating a low-debt, high-sweat-equity alternative.

After we 'window-shopped' for tiny home possibilities, searching three surrounding counties for acreage for several years, we were still spending over 1/3 of Bruce's monthly salary on a lease/purchase rental home in the city. 

It took two episodes of flooding rain in our garage and basement in November and December of 2015 plus the first of two salary-cuts, to convince us to leap forward in faith! 

We sold much of our personal belongings, moved out of our 3000 sq.ft. home, walked away from certainty and moved into our camper in April of 2016, paying far less each month for a local RV site. 

Six months later, we closed on our modest-priced acreage in September and started working on basic water and electrical systems to sustain us living in our tiny 184-sq.ft., ultra-lite camper.


Although the property met most of our goals--a 35 minute commute to Bruce's job, a potential well, high-speed internet potential for future virtual employment, good resale value (just in case!) and strategic location to have gorgeous views of Sharon's beloved Appalachian foothills - it was a compromise of our initial desire for 10+ acres. As we prayed about it, we felt impressed to "start small" by managing a micro-farm. Our biggest surprise was the 80-year-old small house that came with the 1.5 acre land deal. 


  

"It isn't always pretty, convenient, or even comfortable sometimes. We DO get tired, cranky or discouraged."

Now our master plans have morphed to tiny living in our camper for a couple of years as we restore the modest house for our retirement...

...we have started our HABITAT HOMESTEAD!

As we develop our micro-farm, we are planning on creating a sustainable food supply, living on-grid initially while we establish full off-grid back-up systems.

Our plans include educational homesteading/nutrition/CSA-vocational workshops, once-a-month country market day cooperative events with local artisans, crafters and organic food growers and, most important to us, a home-based Torah study fellowship!

Tiny house, off-grid, sustainable food production -- these are all hot topics in the reality, DIY, Youtube entertainment sectors. And, like many of our ancestral pioneers, we dreamed about doing something radical and free while studying hundreds of hours books, documentaries and web-based instruciton on how to achieve such a life.

"...we are working to live genuinely and increasingly, more independently."

Finally, inspired by our circumstances with income issues pressuring us, we jumped! We took the risk, worked our butts off, sold, packed, stored, gave away belongings and made peace with massive change in our lives. 

It isn't always pretty, convenient, or even comfortable sometimes. We DO get tired, cranky or discouraged. I sincerely wish I could whip out a checkbook, hire a general contractor and have our house completed in 16 weeks! (That's my win-the-lotto-and-presto!-homestead delusion.)

Despite the temporary hardships we are working to live genuinely and increasingly, more independently. That's the BIG deal -- that's the only way we could envision having some peace and freedom from the wave of never-ending debt insecurity that we'd been trying to stay afloat on.



Why don't you sail with us on this little freedom crossing? We'll share some of the secrets we've discovered along the way, along with a big course correction of what it really means to unplug, settle down and join those who have time to gaze at the stars...