What Does Your Ideal Life Look Like?
Ours involves small livestock, a big garden, a prolific food forest, and a quiet life in the country where we can support ourselves through our homestead.
Hiya! Welcome to The Swallows Nest Homestead. We are a homesteading family of 3 with big dreams on small acreage. Growing up in a suburb of Seattle, our family ate a pretty typical American diet.
It wasn’t until my son was diagnosed with asthma, allergies, and Tourette’s syndrome in 2007 that I started to understand how our diet and gut health impacts our brain and body. Finally, in 2008 I did something I’ve never done before; I made a New Year’s Resolution and actually stuck to it. That day I decided we were going to make major changes to our diet starting with no more high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, and sweeteners, or ingredients I couldn’t pronounce. That was a LOT to try to change in one go! As a result, I had to become a compulsive label reader. We also started a little vegetable garden in the front yard.
The Stuff Dreams are Made of
We started dreaming of buying acreage in the country and growing our own food. While we looked for the “perfect” piece of land, we started learning whatever “old-fashioned” skills we could. I learned to grow and can food, make my own yogurt, and buy meat in bulk.
Then, while listening to an episode of The Survival Podcast, I heard Jack Spirko talk about this crazy thing called Permaculture. I read everything I could about Permaculture and was drawn to the wisdom and logic behind it. In 2013, I took a Permaculture Design Course with Geoff Lawton and knew we would implement permaculture in our lives in every way possible. In 2015, I became a certified Washington State University Master Gardener because I wanted to create a local connection between permaculture and home gardeners in our area.
The Homesteading Family
I am Erin, a homeschooling mom, Permaculture designer, Master Gardener, home cook, crafter, and DIY’er. These are just a few of the hats I wear around the homestead.
It’s not just me on the homestead! I mentioned my son Ethan. He is an avid coder, photographer, and chicken tender. He says he is also a “pun master.” You will occasionally see blog posts from him, particularly about the chickens.
My husband Cliff is the resident handyman and dishwasher. He works away from home full time, so you’re not likely to see much of him.
We really are a homesteading family.
Dreams Really Do Come True
Finally, in 2016 our dream came true! After 8 years of searching, we fell in love with 5 acres of raw land in southwest Washington. Now we’re learning as we go; building gardens, a food forest, outbuildings, chicken coops, and even a house!
I hope you’ll stick around as we document our projects, share our insights, and discuss all things homestead-related! We look forward to taking on more homestead livestock such as turkeys, meat chickens, sheep, pigs, and bees. We have big plans to expand our food forest, be more proactive with cover crops, landscape the back yard with micro-swales and a kitchen garden, and so much more. Please join us on the journey and let us be your guide to a modern homesteading and handmade life.
Keep In Touch
Keep up with our homesteading family on Instagram and Facebook. We also post videos on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing! Finally, the blog is where we post about livestock, gardening, DIY projects, and of course recipes to use all that fresh, home-grown produce.
If you want to keep up with all the latest happenings on our homestead or learn new homesteading tips and tricks, be sure to join our mailing list.