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A Tiny Homestead

A Tiny Homestead

By: Mary E Lewis
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We became homesteaders three years ago when we moved to our new home on a little over three acres. But, we were learning and practicing homesteading skills long before that. This podcast is about all kinds of homesteaders, and farmers, and bakers - what they do and why they do it. I’ll be interviewing people from all walks of life, different ages and stages, about their passion for doing old fashioned things in a newfangled way. https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryesCopyright 2023 All rights reserved. Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Morning Sun Homestead

    Morning Sun Homestead
    Apr 15 2026
    Today I'm talking with Maryann at Morning Sun 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 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. 00:28 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 Mary Ann at Morning Sun Homestead in West Virginia. Good morning, Mary Ann. How are you? We're doing well. Thank you for having us on your podcast. 00:55 Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it. I was just going to close Facebook, your Facebook page because it was still open. Do you have an Australian Shepherd? We actually have two of them puppies. We got them the first weekend in January. Two males. One is Remington, one's Winchester and we love them. They are wonderful dogs. 01:21 Yeah, I happen to see the always on guard even if it's watching a pesky cat post and I was like that looks just like my Maggie because we have one too. 01:32 We are in the process of trying to train them to herd cows and chickens. uh One is more relaxed. He likes just to stay on the porch and watch, but the other one has the instinct and the drive to really herd. So we have to watch him a lot. He's very good about keeping the chickens across the fence where they belong, but he likes to nip a little bit. And that is okay for a cow, but a chicken is much more tender. So we're working on that right now. 02:04 I wish you all the luck in the world with that. Our Maggie doesn't really have a farm job. Her job is watchdogging for the home. And uh the thing we've learned in the five years we've had her is that she is not a dog that knows how to fetch. She loves to chase things, but if we say bring it back, she will not bring it back. 02:28 That sounds very familiar. Yup. And are yours full size Australian Shepherds or are they the smaller ones? 02:39 They are full size. Once they're grown, they'll be full size. Okay, Maggie's a small standard. weighs like 36 pounds. 02:53 Okay, so how is the weather in West Virginia this morning? It is sunny and cold in Minnesota. 03:01 We are supposed to have 78 degrees today. We had rain last night, a thunderstorm moved through. It rained really, really hard. Then this morning it was 52 degrees and we had a little bit more rain. It stopped, a few more showers. Right now it's 66. We're supposed to have 78. But this is a roller coaster. We've had some nice weather and now tonight it is supposed to be 37 and tomorrow we're supposed to have snow. 03:30 And then it's supposed to shoot back up to the 50s, 60s. And then next week on Tuesday, we are supposed to have 17 at night. So we are just up and down with the weather. But this is a small taste of spring and we want to get out and do all kinds of things, but we have a lot of mud, which is okay because we needed the moisture. We are very dry. So that worked out to get more rain. um We're really anxious for spring to come when you have warm days like this and you get out and you're able to work a little bit. And then 03:58 you have snow again. So that's a let down, but we are on a roller coaster ride. Yeah, we're supposed to get a little bit of snow every day through Sunday this week here. And I'm like, okay, um, I guess I can handle it because hopefully it'll be the last of it for the winter. Hopefully. Um, so tell me a little bit about yourself and morning sun homestead. 04:28 So my husband and I, um well when we got married of course we ate like everyone else. You know, was fast food and quick dinners and things like that. And then over time once we had our children we realized that that wasn't the life we wanted to continue. So we started to dig in and um grow in our own food. And we have branched off from that and now we do our own meats. You know, of course we have our own eggs. The girls are a tremendous help. 04:58 They all are on the bandwagon with us, so to speak. So it really helps to ...
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    27 mins
  • Faithful Harvest MN

    Faithful Harvest MN
    Apr 13 2026
    Today I'm talking with Abigail and Christian at Faithful Harvest MN. 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 Abigail and Christian at Faithful Harvest Minnesota in Dexter, Minnesota. Good afternoon, guys. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Good. 00:54 So I'm in LaSore, Minnesota and it's overcast here and it's like 57 degrees. Is that what it's doing where you are? Yeah, it's about that here. It's really windy today, but the sun is out. So we're happy about it. Yeah, the sun is not out here. It's kind of great. Oh. 01:15 But that's okay, because at least it's warm and it's not snowing. Finally, yeah. You get all cooked up over the winter and then finally like the nice days, you just want to break out and do clean everything all at once. 01:33 Oh yes, my husband spent most of Easter day outside and he was either riding the tractor and watering chickens or he was in the greenhouse planting seeds. yeah, perfect timing to start doing this stuff. It gets exciting when the weather finally starts getting nice and itching to get outside and get all that stuff done. Absolutely. So do you guys consider yourselves homesteaders or farmers? 02:01 Uh, we consider ourselves homesteaders, um, just because whenever I think of farm, I kind of think of the large scale industrial farming and our homestead is very small batch and homemade and we have it smaller right now. yeah. Okay. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do as homesteaders. Yeah. So, um, I'm right now I'm an ER nurse, um, and I'm 02:31 part time with that right now. And uh that's kind of a new transition for me personally. And we've been doing the homestead for about four years now. And uh recently over the last year, we've gotten much more into the business side of the homestead and just starting to share what we do on the homestead and our daily life and everything. So that's kind of where we're at right now and what we do. 03:01 I'm just spending a lot more time doing stuff for marketing and just getting ready for the planting season here. Yeah. When starting the homestead, I do have a drywall business. 03:21 other than doing the homestead. 03:26 so you both have outside income. 03:30 Yeah, yeah, we both have our jobs outside of this. And then, you know, we're considering this a really fun job. The homestead is the job you want to be doing. The other two jobs are the jobby jobs. Yeah, exactly. The goal is to maybe one day we both do this full time and that's kind of our long term dream one day. But for now, just paying the bills with that and then in our free time we... 03:59 do everything we can for the homestead just to be out there and just working together on it. sounds very familiar after talking with people over 500 episodes in the last two and a half years. You're not alone in that guys. That's how it's done. So did you always want to be homesteaders? Were you raised by people who grew things? How did it work? Yeah. on 04:27 My side, I did grow up on a small hobby farm is what we called it. And my parents just raised cows, pigs, and sometimes chickens just to feed the family and some friends. And my mom always had a garden growing up. So it's kind of been in my blood. And when we finally got together and we've been, Christian and I have been together for five years and just got married last year. And in that five years we've 04:54 learned a lot about each other that we both would love to get back to our roots of making things homemade and growing our own things, growing our own produce and livestock and just being able to be self-sustaining more. And that was kind of our biggest goal. So I do have a background in farming, I guess, but I learned a lot more in the last five years of ...
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    30 mins
  • Montana Country Homesteading

    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 mins
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