Welcome!
We’re the Frugal Homesteaders, a Colorado family who live in a rural mountain community near the Roosevelt National Forest. We are located 85 miles NW of Denver, Colorado.
We are looking forward to sharing our homesteading tales with you! We live on just over 5 acres, on a mountain top, at roughly 7,200 feet above sea level. Our house is a 3 bed/2ba ranch style home, set into a clearing a mile and a half from the main road.
The obstacles we face are:
- High altitude. We do not see the last frost until close to the end of May. We have a short fall season, and winter can arrive (sometimes with snow!) around the end of September.
- Rocky/unimproved areas – in working to improve the property (or even mowing), there are rocks every where to deal with.
- Off-grid water supply. We do not have a well or tap for city water. This means we must haul water up and off-load it into an underground cistern. We do have running water in the house and water for the garden – as long as we haul water up the mountain. This usually happens 2-4 times each week, increasing as the dry summer approaches and the gardens require more water.
The plus sides of living where we do are:
- Spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains.
- Wide open spaces. Peace and quiet.
- Easy access to hiking and 4-wheeling on back country roads.
- Cordial country neighbors who wave in passing on the way down the mountain.
- Privacy.
Who we are
A Kansas farm girl, and an Iowa farm boy. Well, we used to be… until the lure of corporate America took us each far away from our country upbringings. We made a conscious effort to return to the country lifestyle in 2010, and now live semi off-grid, working to become fully integrated by 2014. Our daily activities revolve around the organic gardens we tend – running our High Tunnel greenhouse and managing our produce stand; raising chickens, a few goats, a couple of pigs, cow and calf, steer and horse. In our downtime there’s cooking, canning, crafting (sew, crochet, knit), 4-H for the kids, and just enjoying the great outdoors.
She: full time blogger and web designer, developing and writing for a number of lifestyle blogs. Works 4 days a week at the job, from a home office, spending the rest of her time in the greenhouse.
He: day to day operations on our mini farm. Builder of things, fixer of broken stuff, and Emergency Management supervisor for a fire company in the city.
We would love it if you would connect with us: please give our Frugal Homesteader Facebook page a “like.”
Stay tuned as we work to convert the property into a rural homestead, complete with an organic garden, home and DIY projects, and more!
Here’s a look at the region where we live:
This is the view off our back deck – Long’s Peak and Mt. Meeker.
Our Homestead:
While we purchased the property more than 10 years ago, work schedule and our former way of life convinced us that we would only see the mountain house during vacations and in the summertime. The place sat more or less unimproved for the majority of that time. In 2010 we started our homesteading quest. Since we both have farming backgrounds, our primary goal is to move towards living sustainable in order to cut living costs. I’ve been a gardener for the past 18 years of adulthood – not to mention during my childhood, growing up on my cousin’s farm in Kansas, and gardening at home with my parents. We’re a little bit redneck – definitely not hobby farmers… mostly we’re just the ‘down-home’ type looking to transition to an off-grid lifestyle, live greener and healthier, and save money in the process.
We are working with a few raised beds, that we plan to add cold frames to this winter, as well as working a plot that is 20 x 40 in size. We will talk about our experiences with the garden, the stove, sustainable living, saving money, the farm animals, and life in general, here on the Frugal Homesteader. And we would be honored if you would come along for the ride!
If you have thoughts about what we post here on the Frugal Homesteader, please leave a comment at the end of the article/blog post. If you comment on our site, we will personally respond, and return the favor in kind. If you have anything else to say, feel free to contact us: frugalhomesteaders{at} frugalhomesteader.com. Our Twitter handle is @FrugalHomestdr.
The Frugal Homesteaders