I am a stay-at-home-mom of two boys. We have moved a lot because of my husband’s work, but now we have our own land and are looking forward to developing it into our dream homestead. We are very interested in everything to do with homesteading: construction, livestock, gardening, farmers markets, woodworking, alternative energy, water conservation, heating with wood, etc. This blog is my way of chronicling our journey as we move away from being city dwellers and toward being country bumpkins.
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April 25, 2016 at 10:10 pm
Brenda rider
Hey hey! ….found your card finally! ….from seeing you at the VFW Farmer’s Market and Garden Center Mar Menards!! …..looking to see if you are set up with any of those wonderful Pearl Tomatoes!! ….I’m no good at starting from seed and the Grandaughter loved the little lantern yellow tomatoes! …..last heard you and family relocated to the Door County area…..great earth their!! Hope to hear you are still semi local and selling your seedling treasures!! š -=b
May 27, 2016 at 9:39 am
atheisthomesteader
Hi Brenda!
Our family hasn’t relocated yet, but we are still looking into it. I decided to take a year off from gardening and raising plants for sale at the market because my husband is coming home for a 3 week R&R in June. We’ll be all over the country. After he’s gone again, I plan on doing a lot of hiking and camping all over Wisconsin and Michigan, so I’ll be gone even more.
Thank you so much for stopping in to visit my blog! I know I’ve been really lax about keeping it up, but without the gardens I feel like I’m not doing much of note. I got ducks! That’s about the only new thing on the homestead. Haha!
Hope you have a great summer! I’m sure Immerfrost Farm will have a lot of great plants and produce at the market this season.
May 27, 2016 at 9:50 am
atheisthomesteader
Hi Tony. That’s a great question. I was actually just talking with a friend about that this morning.
Short answer – we each make our own purpose. There is no given answer. Here is how I answered my friend:
“My purpose? To seek happiness. To evoke it in others. To leave a place looking better than I found it. To find beauty in everything around me. To appreciate moments, sights, actions, words, and memories. To raise my boys to be intelligent, free-thinking, responsible, and loving humans. To love. To create.
I know I can’t make any huge contributions to society or the world. I’m not a Great Person. But I still have this life, and it matters to me. I want to use it as best I can the short time I have it.”
There’s no reason you are here. You and I are cosmic accidents. Our existence is short and probably not going to matter much in the grand scheme of things. So it’s up to us to give our lives purpose. What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want other people to remember you by? What change do you want to make?
Kinda scary and exhilarating, isn’t it? Being responsible for your own happiness and purpose. It’s all you.
That’s my take on it. I’m just one in 7 billion, though. š
May 27, 2016 at 9:55 am
atheisthomesteader
As far as what happens when we die, well… we get cremated, buried in the ground, or donated to science to help further education, research, or to give someone an organ they need to survive longer.
Death is the end of your experiences, but your memories will live on for a while longer. Your presence impacts more people than you realize, and your loss will do the same. Make it worthwhile. Make it good.
June 12, 2016 at 12:38 pm
Aisha Ex
I am looking to go off grid and start homesteading with my boyfriend as soon as we can. The only experience I have with living in the country was for 2 years when I was a teenager and we were super religious at the time. Even though our religion differed from most of the people around us we were still more easily trusted I feel.
I am studying to be a midwife and I really enjoyed the community and fellowship with my neighbors but I am worried that they won’t trust me as much or accept as openly because I am not religious. I was living and plan to move back to southern Missouri. Do you have any advise or have you had any experience with that? Or am I worrying for nothing?
June 12, 2016 at 1:48 pm
atheisthomesteader
Hi Aisha. Thanks for stopping by.
I have talked to a lot of people who fall into the not-religious category, and we’ve all had different experiences, so take thus with a grain of salt and know your situation could turn out very differently.
Almost every time it comes out that I am an atheist, my religious friends begin pulling away. It doesn’t seem to matter if they knew me for years or a few days. It doesn’t matter if I’m one of the nicest people they’ve ever met. The friendship dwindles. It’s never been explosive. Just a slow deterioration in phone calls and texts. Visits and invites come fewer and further between.
Honestly, my atheism isn’t something I focus on a ton in my everyday life, even though it is featured prominently on my blog. I tend to not talk about it unless I am specifically asked or if someone repeatedly tries to engage me in their personal beliefs.
I’ve no good advice other than keeping it mostly a private matter, especially in a small town. Maybe use the words “I keep my personal beliefs private” instead of “I don’t believe.”
It’s sad. I sometimes find myself wishing I could believe in fairy tales if it gave me friends. I’m so fucking lonely. I sincerely hope you have better luck than I. Best wishes to you on your adventure.
June 25, 2017 at 12:02 pm
Billie LeMay
My husband and I are working towards becoming homesteaders and would love to share ideas with you and learn from your experiences. We currently live on two acres near River Falls and have some small livestock and a big garden. We are going to start our tiny house build in the spring and sell our house to pay cash for a larger parcel of land. We have 3 little boys who we intend to homeschool. I was happy to have stumbled across your blog.
June 25, 2017 at 10:44 pm
atheisthomesteader
Sounds like you are already well into your journey as well! Congratulations, and I hope we can keep in touch. I love hearing what other people do with their land.
We are doing some rearranging of our own. I took a break from the blog while we figure things out, but it’s exciting! You are welcome to email me any time. mrs.matthew.andrus at Gmail dot com. I look forward to hearing about your experiences!