How It All Started

When you ask different homesteaders why they decided to take the plunge and get away from city life, they usually tell you that they’re tired of city life. They say that they wanted to become more self-sufficient and holistic. They say they wanted to get back to their roots.

If you ask our family the same questions, we’ll probably say the same things, except there'll be one difference. We decided to start this experience because we made a promise to each other. Growing up we were all really close. Our mother became a single mom in her thirties when our dad died of cancer, and we all had to lean on one another to make it to where we are today. We had events that tried to pull us apart and make us drift away from one another, but all those experiences did was make our ties as a family that much stronger. We experienced all the highs and lows together, and we promised that we would never let life drag us away from each other again. That’s what brought us here. This land is our dream.

For my entire life we've always been "that" family. The ones with a garden in their backyard instead of grass, or rabbits and chickens as pets instead of a dog or cat. I mean, we did try having dogs and cats, but that didn't work out for a whole host of reasons. What I'm trying to say here is that we didn't just up and decide one day that we hated the city life so much that we wanted to move out into the middle of nowhere. We were raised on almond and walnut orchards, we've gardened most of our lives, canned tomatoes and applesauce and made a lot of our food from things we'd planted and grown. We knew what we were signing up for, and we couldn't wait for it to happen.     

It all started in October of 2018. My brother and his family moved to TX, and we promised that we’d be following right behind them. Two years passed and we hadn’t found a lot of land we were in love with, much less one that was big enough to fit all six kids with their perspective spouses and children, and was close enough to a city that had the right jobs. Basically, we were stuck. We knew things weren’t going to change if we didn’t make the choice to change them, so our mom, my sisters, and I booked our flights out to TX. We were on a recon mission.

We got there and it was beautiful. Everything was green and gorgeous, and the kiddos were so happy to see us. It was magical. Everywhere we drove we saw something we loved, and picturing our home in that area was all too easy. There were a couple houses which we had found that we wanted to look at, but none that we were ‘in love` with. We decided to take a little detour after dropping in to see the family, so we got right back in to our rented car and we drove 6.5 hours to New Orleans.

After spending a couple days in Louisiana we made the choices to take another detour, and drive north-west to Missouri and window shop a little bit. Our mom had been looking at different properties there the previous few weeks, becoming steadily more and more interested in what MO had to offer when it came to homes and land, so while we were on our way to Missouri we booked some tours.

Ten hours later we made it to Willow Springs Mo, and everything changed. We found a local realtor who was really nice and willing to make last minute plans, and then did the rest of it ourselves. We saw up to 5 or 6 properties within 2 days, with at least 3 to 4 different Realtors. It was definitely a little crazy.

At one point there was a little confusion, because we booked a time slot to see the house below through realtor.com, but the realtor who was in charge of the property wasn't notified that we were coming to see the property! The good thing is the owner of the house WAS the realtor, and he didn't mind showing us not only his home, but the land itself. The property was gorgeous, the house was beautiful--it kind if reminded me of the house from Anne of Green Gables--and the owner was kind and welcoming, but...it didn't feel right fit. 

Niangua, Mo. 

My sister was so car sick that day, I don't think any property felt right to her, but it didn't stop us from looking more. Our second day of property visits we met our realtor Cory, and he was amazing! He recommended some properties to us, and we were excited to look at them. We didn't have very high expectations since we had already looked at our favorites on the first day. They were all beautiful, just not what we were looking for. Anyway, Cory took us around to the properties we had found online, but despite how unique and amazing they all were, they weren't the right fit for our family. 

Ava, Mo. 

It wasn't the end of the day though. Cory had one more place he wanted to show us which wasn't on the market anymore, but he was able to convince the owner to let us check it out. It was 80 acres in the outskirts of a small town in the southern section of central MO. The owner had been selling the back acreage of his property, but had taken it off the market not long before we came to town. 

My first impression of it wasn't the best. I was tired, a little dejected and ready for the day to be over, and I wanted to get it over with. My sisters piled in the back of the 4x4 the owner was letting us borrow, the rest of us buckled up in the front, and we started a twenty minute ride that would change our lives.    

There were rolling hills and beautiful trees all over the place. The owner was running cows on his property, and as we drove around the perimeter looking at everything they followed behind us! We have videos of them chasing after the cart while my sisters moo'd at them and called them pretty girls. Basically, we felt the magic. 

We looked at the open pastures and we saw a place for our workshops and our houses. We drove through the trees to a closed off clearing and we talked about the playhouses we could build for the kiddos and grandkids (in our mothers case). 

                         

We looked at the land that you're looking at now, and we knew we wanted it to be ours. By the time we made it back to Texas we knew what we wanted, but it wasn't just us who had to make that decision. We told our family in Texas about the property, and we called the ones in CA. We sent them pictures and told them about the area. We researched the closest military bases (since 2 brothers are in the military and the other's an engineer) and we calculated the commute...…

By the time our call was over we made a choice, and we called our realtor and made an offer!!!

When we were shown the area we were told it was going to be 80 acres, but the owner agreed to add in another 13 acres since it connected to our section of the land. With that decided, we negotiated a price per acre instead of a general sum, and about a month later we closed on our 93 acre property! It was official! 

This is our dream as a family, and we can't wait to share that dream with you. It's not going to be easy. There aren't any houses on this property, running water, electricity or sewage systems, but there will be. We're going to be going through this together, learning together, growing together and building together. I hope you enjoy the ride.