Episodios

  • Montana Country Homesteading
    Apr 10 2026
    Today I'm talking with Diane at Montana Country Homesteading. You can also follow on Facebook. A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together. Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality, and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful. If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care, you'll feel right at home with Green Bush Twins. That tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Green Bush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Diane at Montana Country something homesteading in Montana because it's Montana country homesteading. Good morning, Diane. How are you? Good morning. I'm wonderful. How are you this morning? I'm good. How's the weather there? 00:59 Actually yesterday for Easter was just about as perfect as it could be. And this morning it's a little overcast, but it's going to be a nice day. Unusual weather in Montana, to be honest. Yeah. It was a lovely day in Minnesota here yesterday too. Yesterday was beautiful. Sunny 50s light breeze. was, it was really good. All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Montana country home study. Well, um, 01:28 Let's see a little bit about us. I've been married to my husband who was my high school sweetheart for 47 years now. um We came to Montana exactly 30 years ago in just a couple of weeks, the first weekend of May. And um we came with our three kids, two dogs, a motor home, a U-Haul carrying a pickup truck full of all my husband's construction tools and away we went. 01:57 and came out onto a bare piece of property that quite honestly, my husband found in the back of a Field and Stream magazine in a one inch by two inch ad and said, honey, let's go to Montana. And so we did, we packed up everything 30 years ago and came onto this 20 acre parcel that we actually bought it with a couple of Polaroid, the shake pictures, you know, that you shake to develop them. 02:26 And away we went and it's been a whirlwind since we actually did homestead this property. It was set up in 20 acre tracks out here with quite honestly, no roads, no development, no nothing. They had just subdivided the land. um When we moved on the property, there was literally a two lane dirt path that came down to our 20 acres. And that I looked at. 02:52 dirt path up by the way. And it is actually considered um a stage coach line road from Billings, Montana to Park City, Montana back in the day. So that was of interesting. Yeah, we live on a stage coach road. uh It's now been a little better developed than it used to be, but it's still just a gravel road coming in here. uh But yeah, 30 years ago, we came onto this property with just a dream and an idea. uh 03:21 We were uh building contractors in the Bay Area and were just on complete overload and did not want to raise our kids in that environment. And so we made a pact with each other to get the heck out of there before our kids got uh in middle school and away we went. And we've been here since. That is amazing. I love that. Okay. So did you... 03:47 Did you grow up with people who did homesteading or gardening or farming or ranching at all? My grandparents um on my dad's side had a farm, but we didn't go there very often. uh My other grandma was the most incredible gardener that you had ever seen. She lived in a little town in Pemberville, Ohio. And um quite honestly, that woman could grow anything. And what was really amazing to me is she would 04:15 pull all of her flowers in from her flower beds and put them in what she called her breezeway in the winter months in Ohio. And she would hold those flowers over till next year and put them all back out in the beds. It was amazing to me. I don't have that gift that grandma had, but I can grow a thing or two. So what are the thing or twos that you grow? We grow a lot of our own food. um I think it's really important that you grow your own food, especially today. 04:45 with what's going on with the food chain and the modified foods and all the sprays and such that they're putting on our foods. ...
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    38 m
  • An Enchanted Homestead
    Apr 8 2026
    Today I'm talking with Lydia at An Enchanted Homestead. A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together. Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality, and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful. If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care, you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. That tiny homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Lydia at an enchanted homestead. I love that name in Idaho. Good afternoon, Lydia. How are you? Hi, I'm well. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in your neck of the woods today? oh 00:58 windy and rainy. Us too. In Minnesota, same thing. It is gross outside. Yes. It's like we can't make up our minds here. One day it's like a warm spring. Now it's like kind of reverting to winter. It's so funny. Every time, every time I talk with somebody about the weather and it just keeps flipping, they all have the same sigh and I do the same thing. I did it two days ago. 01:27 We just need spring to get here and stay here. That would be great. Yes. And it's unusually warm. Um, cause I feel like winter skipped us here in Southern Idaho. We got snow like only three times and it melted the same day. And so it got pretty warm. Like we were having a pretty warm spring, um, which I was kind of excited about. And then this week it was like, psych. So it's like cold and wet. Yup. 01:56 I... There's that noise again. I hate this. Alrighty. So why is it called an enchanted homestead? Do you have magic on your homestead? Oh, gosh. I'm just always... love all things like magical and just like finding gratitude even in the mundane boring stuff and like turning it into something... Well, magical. 02:21 Enchanting and so I don't know it just it's stuck with me and we decided to name it that Well, you'll be happy to know that one of my good friends gave me a fairy weather vane when we moved here five years ago, that's awesome And it only took a year and a half to put up, but it's really pretty so 02:45 Yep, I can see it out my living room windows and every time I look at it, I think of her and I'm like, I hope you're looking down from heaven smiling at the weather rain. Oh, that's awesome. That is awesome. I love adding all kinds of stuff. Like I have like my courts around the garden, like sun catchers, wind chimes. just I love putting stuff everywhere. I'm like, I don't know, like adding that little magical umph to like otherwise boring places around the property. 03:15 And so I just, love that. Yes, because when things aren't blooming, you need something to look like it's blooming. Oh my goodness. Yes. Yes, indeed. Make it somewhat pretty. Yeah, I get it. I really do. I was talking to somebody about the fact that peonies are my favorite flower the other day and I realized I still have at least two months before my peonies bloom. Oh yeah? Well, I want to add more flowers around the property, but I 03:43 suck. I don't know. cannot get flowers to bloom hardly at all. just, I don't know. Is it shady? Some parts, but our house faces west and so the sun does like, whoo. Um, but I don't know. just, I have wildflowers though that have taken off and they come back every year, thankfully. So I'm trying to get more going. Um, 04:12 So we'll see this year. We'll see. Okay. I have a question. Did you grow up in Idaho? No, actually in Puerto Rico. Oh, okay. I was listening to you talk and I'm like, there's some accent there, but I can't place it. Yeah, no. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, moved to Hawaii and then came to Idaho. Okay. It's really subtle. I don't think anybody else would have noticed it, but I am like a fanatic about it because I listened to everything really closely. um Okay. So. 04:42 Tell me about your homestead. Well, we have a little bit over 50 chickens, I would say, give or take. We have four goats. We have nine cats, five dogs. Five dogs, yeah. And we are just on, I think about three and a half acres here. um Yeah, we do gardening. 05:11 We do obviously the farm ...
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    46 m
  • Girlypop Acres
    Apr 6 2026
    Today I'm talking with Lily at Girlypop Acres. You can also follow on Facebook. A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together. Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality, and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful. If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care, you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. That tiny homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Lily at Gurley Pop Far- Acres in New York. How are you, Lily? I'm how are you doing today? I'm good. I almost messed up the introduction yet again. I'm telling you, I- 00:56 I know what I'm going to say and the brain does not translate to my tongue to come out of my face. So how is the weather in New York this morning? Oh, it's actually decent for once. We've been hit hard by snow lately, but it's sunny and shiny and everyone, all the critters are walking around happy. Good. It is March 30th, I think. And I'm in Minnesota and the sun is pouring through my bedroom window, which is the room I do my recording in. 01:26 And it's supposed to hit 75 degrees today. Oh, goodness. I'm jealous. think we're probably in like the 40s and I'm celebrating. Yeah, the weather's been so weird. We had 81 degrees two Sundays ago for the high. Oh my goodness. And then it was cold, colder all week. And then it was really nice yesterday. I it got up to 63. It's supposed to be 75 today and it's supposed to drop down again this week. So. 01:51 I'm gonna be real happy when we get a stretch of seven days where it is moderate and spring-like. It would be great. Oh, same here. Same here. It was snowing just two days ago here. Yeah, it's nuts. So tell me, I wanna know about you and what you do, but tell me why your place is called Girlie Pop Acres. So I have four dogs, three great Pyrenees and one beagle. And back when it was just the great Pyrenees, 02:20 um I had two of them puppies and you know, great Pyrenees puppies don't listen to anything at all. And it was just easier to yell girly pops at them instead of being like, over here. So I would yell girly pops and I accidentally trained all three of them to only respond to girly pop. uh And now the beagle does So I just named it after my dogs. That is so cute. 02:50 I call my dog girly all the time. Oh, I love it. I'm sure my neighbors know that we're girly pup acres because my dogs used to break out of the fence before we had our fences as good as we do. I'd be outside yelling girly pups, girly pups. Oh, Funny. You know what would be funny? It would you made cake pops and took them to your neighbors and were like, I'm so sorry that I'm always yelling girly pop. Here's some cake pops for you. 03:19 I should. I don't know if they can even hear me because my neighbors are pretty far away, but if they do. Yeah, I think that would be really cute. If you ever get an inkling or hear a rumor that they're upset, just throw together some cake pops and I don't know, put cute little dog faces on them and take them over to them. Oh, that's a great idea. That's what I would do because I really like turning messes into messages. That's such a cute like motto. I love that. 03:49 Uh huh. have gained so many sayings from this podcast over two and a half years from people I've talked to. 03:57 and they're all relevant. So I just, have a whole rolling lexicon in the back of my head of things that I can do or say. I love that. Yeah. It's been great. Okay. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do, Um, so I'm a homesteader as you can guess, since I'm here. Um, I raised Nigerian dwarf goats. We have eight goats right now. Uh, we got the four dogs. Uh, we got a goose named Boopers. 04:26 walking around next to me right now. I got a bunch of ducks, a bunch of silkies, and I raised two feral farm children and a potbelly pig named Big Bertha. sounds like Homestead. Yep. Very full life over here. I consider myself a Lyme's disease advocate because I have Lyme's disease and so does my husband. 04:56 um I'm a disabled ...
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    32 m
  • Cole Canyon Farms - Doin' The Damn Things!
    Apr 3 2026
    Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farms. You can also follow on Facebook. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farms in Montana again. I think for like the fifth time maybe. Good afternoon, Morgan. How are you? Good afternoon, good afternoon. Yeah, we've gotten to chat quite a bit since we met a few years ago over those little groovy goats. So I'm excited to be back on. 00:27 It's funny how podcasting can create friendships, real friendships. Yeah. Yeah. It's actually really honestly the digital age. It's crazy how we can create friends that we don't even see in person, but they, they're a real friend. It's I, mean, there's pros and cons to digital, but that is one of the things I love about it. Like the community I've made and met and the people like you I've gotten to meet have really shaped Cole Canyon farm. 00:55 to what it is today, honestly. Oh, well, I'm glad to hear that. How is the weather in Montana today? It's hot. We've been in the 70s. I'm not even kidding you. Like, I had shorts on and this is like unbelievable for Montana to be this warm. So I think it's like 70 today with light breeze. So it's a good, you know, a good day to start spring cleaning and getting all of the, you know, future projects we have done. How's your weather? 01:24 It is partly sunny. is 68 degrees. Feels like 68 degrees. I'm looking at my weather app right now and there's hardly any wind today. So that's a nice change from Saturday. Saturday, the wind was blowing so hard. was making the house creek. man. Yeah, it does that to our house. We've had like, so it's windy where I'm at, right? So I'm not ever shocked by wind, but in the last few years, we were seeing more and more gusts. I remember when like 01:50 75 mile per hour gusts were huge a few years ago and now this is the second time in the last six months we've had 90 plus mile per hour gusts here. Yeah, I, this, I don't even know what to say. I've talked, I talk about the weather on every single episode and I am literally out of things to say except that it's just weird. It is the apps never correct. Like we had rain last night. We could hear it cause we live in a middle, like a metal tin boot. 02:20 like 10 house, you Yeah. And I could hear it and my husband, it was like, I don't know, we got in a bed kind of late last night because I went to the auction, the horse auction. So I had a lot to film in on about. Did not come home with anything, side note, good thing on that. But, you know, we heard just this light pattering and I was like, is that hail? Because like that would normally like snow hail season as this season, right? Yeah. And we were like, no. 02:46 No, actually that it's sprinkling outside and the app never updated never said we had precipitation nothing. So I bought uh I think it's a hydrometer or whatever where you stick it outside. I need to figure out the real name for it, but I just called the rain catcher, but it will tell me how much rain we're getting because I think to be honest with you, they're not they're not as accurately recording what's going on and being a farmer. That's super important. So 03:13 because the digital age has changed and we can't rely on these apps anymore as much as we did for weather, I'm having to learn the old ways, which is always good, right? Like if the electricity goes out, you need to know how to do this. But I've started turning rain myself, so it'll be interesting. I need to look at what we got last night, but I don't think it was enough to even register, honestly, Mary. But yeah, we've had strange weather here too. 03:37 Yeah, I'm at the point where if I want to get kind of an idea of what the weather is going to be in a few days, I will catch the morning news. Yeah. They seem to be more accurate than the weather apps. And if I want to know what the weather is right now, I literally step outside. Yeah, that's how I am too. Like we live kind of on an outlook, right? So the storms whip around us because we're on the top. We're kind of on like it's called a rim out here, but it's like a fat uh kind of a flat plane that's in the middle of 04:07 Some canyons right there's canyons in the middle of it where it popped up. Well, you know it'll if it goes around us left If it goes around us left then Will sometimes get rain but if it goes right which is into Laurel the city Yeah, then we don't ever see it So you can almost stand on the flat and it'll say that ...
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    44 m
  • modernhomestead95
    Mar 30 2026
    Today I'm talking with Westen and Taylor at modernhomestead95. You can also follow on Facebook. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Taylor and Westen at Modern Homestead 95, and I'm sure we'll find out what the 95 is about. In Arkansas, did you say, Westen? Yes, we are. We're in Northern Central Arkansas. Awesome. 00:28 I told you to shut your video off because it uploads better without the video. But from what I saw before you shut the video off, it looks beautiful in Arkansas. Is it gorgeous there today? It is. Yeah, it's a 55 degrees and it's spring's starting to show itself. So we got all the trees blooming and the grass is turning green and starting to grow. things are all coming alive. All the bugs are coming out. Yeah. favorite part. Homesteaders. 00:57 Favorite time of year, I swear, is March and April. Yeah, it's a good time. Get everything going and just life seems to be waking back up. So yes, the long, horrible winter is almost over. I'm in Minnesota. It is sunny. is windy as hell this morning and uh it's only about 35 degrees. So I was going to say probably still cool up there. 01:22 Yeah, we had a 90, not 90. I think it got to 81 last weekend. Okay. And then it cooled right back down. I was like, okay, that's the second fall spring. Maybe the next one will be the real one. You know, we've done that a couple of times down here too. We kind of warmed up. What was it the other day? 89? Yeah. Yeah, I think we might've even hit 90 and then it's, it was 35 last night. So. Yeah. 90 in March is just gross. 01:51 Yeah, it's like we're not ready for summer yet. No, no, you cannot go from winter to summer overnight. We have to have spring. Yes, yeah, much nicer with them intermittent gradual incline. Yes. So the name of your place is Modern Homestead, Modern Homestead or 95. What's the 95 about? So my wife and I were both born in 1995. Okay. 02:19 So, yeah, we... It's a good year. Yeah, it's a good year and Modern Homestead was taken and so this is Modern Homestead 95. Well, that is a brilliant thing to call it. My kids are 36 and 34 and 28 and 24. So my older two are 02:48 are right around you guys' ages. yeah, yeah, it's perfect. Yep, it's so funny because I used to think that 30 was old. No, 30 is not old. Right. Yeah, I just realized that a little while ago. Yep. turning 30, we're like, no, we're still some spring chickens. Yes, and even at 56, you can be a spring chicken. Just make sure you take care of your health until you get there. I remember that. Yeah. 03:17 Tim McGraw has a song called in my, I don't know the name of the song, but the chorus is in, or the verses start within my next 30 years. And in my next 30 years, I want to be 25 again. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. All right. So what do you guys do at the Homestead? And did I read that it's, you've been, the Homestead has been a hundred year in the family? Yeah. Well, it's not in the family. we bought, 03:46 our property and house two years ago in 2023 and we moved out here to Arkansas from California. Oh wow. Yeah, so we were just just tired of all the the nonsense that California has going on with it. Just we don't need to get into politics and everything but we don't agree with a lot that the state has going on and the way they handled 04:15 COVID and everything, we just didn't feel like it was the right way to go about it. um we've been looking for a place to move for already a year when COVID started going on. And we had traveled around a couple of different states and looked. I've lived in Texas and Mississippi and driven from coast to coast and back. 04:45 And we took a trip out to Florida and looked and it was just getting pricey and we couldn't really afford what we wanted. And one day we were sitting in our apartment at the time. We had a little 600 square foot apartment or something. And my wife Taylor was like, have you thought about Arkansas? And I was like, I don't know anything about Arkansas. 05:12 We started just looking it up and researching and it's just kind of checking the boxes. And we had a pretty good list of stuff we were looking for, wanted and needed and things like that. And so we just kind of went down the list and it seemed to align pretty well. And we were like, let's take a trip out there and see what it's all about. And we did. We spent two weeks or a week, one week driving around in the car. 05:42 and just sleeping in the car and fell in love with it. Trying to...
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    31 m
  • Redwood Seeds
    Mar 27 2026
    Today I'm talking with Kalan at Redwood Seeds. You can also follow on Facebook. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Kalan at Redwood Seeds in California. Good morning, Kalan, because you're not in California right now. Good morning. Yeah, it's 10 a.m. here where I am in New Zealand. Tomorrow, for me, right? Yes. It's Tuesday for you. 00:28 Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I've interviewed a couple of people in Australia and New Zealand and it's so confusing because for me it is 4.03 in the afternoon on Monday. Yeah, definitely. It's confusing for me as you've seen trying to um set up meetings with people, especially the states just went through the time change. 00:52 Now it's a four hour difference for me. then when New Zealand goes through its time change in about another month, then it becomes a five hour difference the next day. Uh-huh. I, every time I talk to somebody who's that far away, I say that it's, it's actual time travel because it might as well be. Yeah. feels like it. Whenever we travel down here, we basically miss a day. It's crazy. You lose an entire day. oh 01:19 Okay, so I want to talk about redwood seeds, but I also would love to know why you're in Austria in New Zealand. Yeah, definitely. Well, I married a man from New Zealand 20 years ago. So we come down here a couple of months every year during our off season and spend time with family. Well, that is a hardship to have to go to New Zealand, boy. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, it's different. We come down here or not really tourists, so we don't like. 01:49 You know, it's less of a vacation and more just like my kids, go into the public school system when we're here and we sort of just live normal life, you know, but we get to stay on the farm with em my in-laws. And that's really, really wonderful. That's really interesting. What do they farm? They're both retired now, but my husband grew up on like a mixed em sheep and cattle ranch. oh 02:17 the kind with like 2000 sheep, they're shearing for wool and that kind of thing. Okay, cool. That you are a very interesting lady. I'm very glad that I asked to talk to you. so tell me all about Redwood Seeds and what you do. Okay, well, we are based in Northern California. We're about three or four hours north of San Francisco up in the foothills of Lassen Volcanic National Park, actually. So if you're looking at 02:47 California, we are in the eastern slopes, the eastern foothills at about 2,500 feet. And we have a organic seed farm. We grow organic vegetable, herb, flower seeds, and sell them in packets, essentially. We started doing this in 2009. And then... 03:11 have now we're expanded into like about 70 different retail stores. So we have seed racks in those stores and send seeds to the stores, you know, a few times a year for customers. And then we also have a website where we sell our seeds. It's redwoodseeds.net. And sometimes I sell at like different festivals and markets and things like that. I would say that I call us a farm based seed seed company. 03:40 grow the majority of the seed that we sell. I do purchase some extra seed from other organic seed farms, mostly in the western states. 03:54 Yeah, we usually offer about 150 different varieties. um All of our varieties are open pollinated, which means that you can, they're not hybrids, essentially is what that means. And you can use traditional seed saving techniques and uh save the seeds and you'll get trutatite results. Most of, many of them are heirlooms, which means that the variety is like pre 1950. 04:22 but we also have a lot of really great varieties that have been bred using traditional plant breeding techniques since 1950. Okay. So since you do this for a living, I have a question. I bought a 60 day watermelon seed from, I want to say it was burpee, but I could be wrong and I'm pretty sure it's a hybrid. Okay. So, 04:51 If we were to save, if we get any melons out of it, I bought 12 seeds, we're praying we get watermelons out of it this year. If we get watermelons, which means we get seeds, and we plant those seeds, if we save those seeds and plant them, is there any chance that we'll get seeds producing 60 day watermelons next summer? There's a chance, yeah. 05:15 The way that it goes is that hybrid, it's called the F1 generation. Sometimes you see hybrids referred to as F1s. That's the first generation after the cross has been made. That watermelon had two ...
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    30 m
  • Tryna Homestead
    Mar 23 2026
    Today I'm talking with Kendra at Tryna Homestead. You can also follow on Facebook. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Kendra at Tryna Homestead in Wisconsin. Good afternoon, Kendra, how are you? Good, how are you? I'm good, and I'm not gonna lie. When I looked at who I was talking to today, because I have it in my calendar, I saw Tryna Homestead and I was like, you know, 00:28 I hope that's trying to, you know, a play on trying to. if your name is Trina and I've been thinking it's Trina, I'm going to sound really dumb. How is the weather in Wisconsin? Did you guys get all the snow that we got on Sunday? We were supposed to get 12 to 18 inches, but we're right up against the river. And so it kind of buffered us and... 00:53 I think we only got about eight. It's hard to tell though, because we had the blowing snow and the blizzard conditions. So we have spots where it's fair and then other spots where we have two feet there. we definitely got snow. Did it start for you Monday night? No, we, started Saturday night while we were actually outside boiling sap. Oh. sitting in it as it started. And then it went, it was still snowing through Sunday night. And then 01:23 uh Yesterday and today have just been cold and sunny but cold. Okay. Where are you in Wisconsin? We're in Western Wisconsin, Northwestern. We're right on the border with Minnesota. Okay, because I'm in Minnesota and it started for us about nine o'clock Saturday night. Yeah, think it ended about, it really ended about seven Sunday night. But 01:54 The wind was so bad that you couldn't see anything. All day. insane. Yeah. Yeah. It was so loud. Like all Saturday night and Sunday night. was so loud. The wind was just whipping. Oh yeah. My Australian shepherd, she sleeps downstairs and my husband and I sleep upstairs. And about every couple hours Saturday night, I would hear, Arf! Just one Arf every couple of hours. She was barking at the wind. 02:23 I believe it. I was just like, there's nothing you can do about it sweetie, go to sleep. It's all good really. The house is not going to collapse, I promise. So yeah, it was some wild weather and I don't know about you, but it's the first real snowstorm we've had all winter. Yeah, it's the first we've really had in the last three years, be honest. Yeah, it's been so bizarre and 02:49 when I talk to people who don't live in the general Minnesota, Wisconsin area, they're like, oh, it's, been a real winter for you. I'm like, we're having a real winter at least five years. Right. Yeah. I, I love winter. It's actually my favorite season and I love the snow, but March snows are actually my favorite because at that point I'm done with winter. I'm focusing on spring. 03:15 But when we get snow, I know it's not going to last, it covers the brown for a little bit. uh Saturday morning before the storm hit, we had green grass showing. Yeah. I was like, we don't need a foot of snow. This is ridiculous. So the reason I open the podcast every time with how is the weather or did you get the same weather we got is because weather is a big freaking deal for people who grow things. 03:46 and you have a homestead. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Yeah. So we, my husband and I, we've been homesteading in a rental for seven years and we just bought our property last fall in like middle of August and we're just on four acres. And so this is our first year really getting to do the things that we've done on a really small scale in our apartment for the last 04:15 seven years. um We raised chickens down at my parents place, but I'd have to drive 45 minutes to go take care of them. And I would garden in containers and fill our tiny little patio. And now I'm actually getting to have chickens right in our backyard and a large in-ground garden. So we're really excited. And all the things that we have dreamed about doing, we're finally able to start putting those plans into action. 04:44 now that we have our own space. You sound like me five and a half years ago when we moved from our tenth of an acre lot with a house and a four car garage on it to a 3.1 acre property. That's about we are just shy of four acre. We have 3.98. They couldn't give us the point oh two. Yes, exactly. em 05:09 So I have a question. When you moved and you actually realized that you've done it, did you step outside and look around and go, oh my God, we did it? Oh, we walked around this property so many...
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  • Three Birch Homestead
    Mar 20 2026
    Today I'm talking with Andrea at Three Birch Homestead. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Andrea at Three Birch Homestead in Canada. Good morning, Andrea. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Canada this morning? um It's a little bit cold. We had like a really warm spell and now it's kind of freezing again. 00:30 Yeah, I'm in Minnesota and we've had a couple of really beautiful days and they're saying we're going to get snow tomorrow, a little bit of snow Thursday, and then they're kind of hyping up a bigger storm over the weekend. And I'm like, it's March. Could we please put it to bed now? Please. Yeah, I'm ready for spring. There was actually a really like heavy windstorm here the last couple of days and the power's been out, I guess, like all over the place. 01:00 um But because we're off grid, we like don't even notice. We just hear about it from other people. Uh-huh. It's one of the benefits of living off grid. You've got that covered. All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself, please. um We live in northern BC, Canada, off grid um on a property, like a rural property. We're about 45 minutes from the closest town. 01:30 an hour and a half from like a bigger center. So it's a bit of a drive. There is like a small community about half an hour from here. um But there's just like a general store and a post office. It's not, there's not a whole lot going on there. Yeah. So and we raise animals for meat and we um have kids and 01:59 homeschool and yeah, just sort of try to do as much as we can on our own and provide as much food as we can for ourselves. 02:11 Okay, I have a question. You have kids. How many kids do you have? um I have five kids. Two of them are adults, so they don't live with me anymore. And then I have a 14 year old son and then a two year old and an eight month old. 02:29 Okay, having raised four kids without a whole lot of family around, because my family lives in Maine, uh how has it been for you? Do you have family at all in the area that can help out or is it just you? um When my other kids were little, I lived in a different area and I did have family around, so that was very helpful. Here, we didn't have much family around, but my husband's parents recently moved to the area. 02:59 They live uh here half the time and then in Ontario half the time because they wanted to be closer to their grandkids. So, um because the two boys are their only grandchildren, so they wanted to be close. And so that's been really helpful. 03:16 good because when I hear moms having more than a couple of kids and I don't hear anything about extended family being able to kind of help out here and there, I worry because I did a lot of the raising of my four kids myself and it is a lot of stress and a lot of energy and I loved every minute of it but it would have been helpful to have extended family to step in. Yeah, it's definitely nice to have somebody. So I thought I 03:48 Yeah, I thought I would ask because I don't recommend anyone do homesteading or off-grid living or anything else like that if you don't have some form of community to call on if you do need help. It's definitely nice. Yeah. you you disagree? Yeah, I agree. It can be really isolating. When I first moved out here, 04:12 Like where I had lived before, I did live out of town, but I only lived a couple minutes out of town and I had lots of friends around. And so when I moved out here to live with my husband, like my now husband, I didn't really have that anymore. it definitely, I didn't realize how much it was going to affect me until I got out here. And then I was like, wow, like I don't have anybody. And so I was pretty lonely. And then my son joined Taekwondo. 04:42 which helped us to meet people. And so now I do have some friends around, but they're definitely not as close. they're, you know, a good 45 minute to an hour drive away. So I don't get to see people as often as I used to, but I've kind of learned to adapt. It's given me a lot more time to do stuff at home, which is nice. I spend less time socializing and more time making bread and doing other things that I wanted to do before too, but didn't have time for because I would be out and about. 05:17 Absolutely. I am an extreme introvert and I spend most of my weekdays from about 730 in the morning until about 430. Just me. And I love it because I get so much done and I can pursue the things that I'm ...
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