Preface

I’m not going to pretend I am some expert woodsman or master carpenter. Nor am i going to pretend my wife is a gardening guru or even a homesteading prodigy. We are normal everyday people, just like you. We aren’t youtube famous or tred setting bloggers, thats not why we’re here. Our goal is to record and document our failures and successes, our setbacks and our forthcomings, our harships and our dreams. Our goal is to show you that if we can do this…..so can you. Learn from our trials, our errors, our successes. Join us on our winding path to living by hearth and hand, soil and sweat, and field and forest.

Our Tale

Our tale is not one of sunshine and rainbows, but of grit and determination. It’s true, we are not new to homesteading. A little more than a decade ago I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Fast forward through the chemo and hair loss and my wife and I decided we wanted to try our hand at this whole homesteading thing. An attempt at a healthier cleaner life.
It was an honest attempt, but half-hearted. We had a small city garden in West Virginia, along with a dozen or so chickens. We had no idea what we were doing.. Being in the city we weren’t allowed to have roosters and of course, one of the pullets we raised was just that, a roo.ster. Trying to stick to our new path, we wanted to butcher the rooster…..the problem was neither of us knew anything about butchering any animal. Boy were we surprised when i beheaded that bird and it began jumping and hoping around without a head! Cleaning the bird was an…..experince for sure. It was summer and the smell was unforgettable to say the least. Regardless we hung in there and got it done, and with that, sealed our dedication to becoming homesteaders.
We knew what we wanted to do, but the West Virginia city was too small, too cramped. So we upped and moved. 10 secluded acres in Northern Michigan. The price was too good to pass up, albeit an hour away from the nearest hospital or even Wal-Mart. But, we got used to it, grew to love our secluded woodland life.
Things were going well for the first three years. We raised chickens, goats, and even a couple pigs. Not to mention our garden, while not huge, was still many times larger than our little city garden back in WV. Up until this point though homesteading was still more of a hobby than a way of life. It was someting that we just did when we had time. We still ate junk food, ate at fast food joints, and had more than our fair share of losses in the garden. Then the unthinkable happened. Stage 3 colorectal cancer.
A second cancer within 6 years of the first. This one wasn’t anyitng like the first cancer. This one was a BRUTAL uphill battle for me, my wife, and our kids. This time the remedy was chemo, radiation, and several intensive abdominal surgeries. We had to get rid of all our farm animals. Chickens, goats, pigs, even our livestock guardians. All gone. as the doctor said i wasn’t allowed to take care of them because of the risk of infection, and with my wife being pregnant at the time there was no way I was going to leave her to manage the entire homestead alone.
Little did we know, my very first abdominal surgery I was left with an abscess that go infected and went unkown for almost a year. It began to dissolve my tailbone and left me bedridden in a pain that no drug could remedy for almost a year. I’ll spare you the details, but eventually they discovered the abscess and I switched docors because i was told the next surgery was beyond my current doctor’s capabilites. So I had to leave behind my My michigan home and head back down south to John Hopkins for thier legendary doctors.
I went in for just a consultation and the doctor took one look at me and my chart and sent me striaght to the E.R. to begin surgery immediately. It ened up being a 110 hour surgery of mainly the doctor just cleaning out infecction. She told us I was lucky to be alive because the scar tissue had sealed off the infection and stopped it from spreading and prevented me from going septic. This last surgery was particularly harsh and recovery was extremely slow. I spent the next year In WV at my parents house since they were only an hour away from John Hopkins. Our Michigan home sat unlived in, fallow.
Finally I was healthy enough to go back home after almost a year of being away. I was sore, tired, but ultimately excited. Me, my wife, our three kids, and our dogs were finally able to go home.
When we finally got back home the place was unrecognizable. Everything was overgrown. The weeds in the gardens were taller than me. Trees down, knee high grass, and trash everywhere. Apparently Mr. bear had paid us several visits while we were away. Our property was trashed to say the least. I’m not talking just becaues of the grass and the weeds, for while I was fighting cancer and while I was bedridden for that year, the trash it piled up. the scrap, it piled up. Being in pain I ALWAYS took the easy way out. Junk and trash are piled outside the garage, outside the house. Trash was strewn everywhere from the bears and possums getting into EVERYTHING. It was a nightmare, a dump. And worst yet, we were starting from scratch. No gardens, no chickens, no nothing.
My wife, my rock through it all, constantly comforted me, reassured me it was all ok. She would keep telling me I’m here, I’m healthy, and that was the important thing. She would keep reassuring me that we can rebuild, that we could start over. Finally, one day through all my depression it clicked. She was right. I would be here to see my children grown up, My youngest son would know my name, I would be there to see my daughter’s first dance., I would be there to help my second born work on his first car together.
It funny how the wife is always right isn’t it? So here we are, starting over. Yes the property is a mess still, yes the place is wrecked and trashed and we have more repairs and projects than we know where to start…..but we’re not quitting. We’re restarting, not as a hobby this time, but a way of life. I want to be around to see my children grown up, to have grandchildren visit, for the big family dinners. This time its going to be different.

Thus far…

I’m sure if you’ve made it this far you realize we are far from perfect. I never inteded to make a website or a youtube channel or anything of the sort. But considering everything my family and I have been through, i figure maybe some good can come out of it and other like minded people can see that if we can do it so can they. With that being said, we do have a tiny head start. We have been back almost a year now and we have a whopping 4 goats and about a dozen chickens. But next spring, next spring is our secod chance. Recovery is done, all restrictions lifted and my docor has cleared me. Now we really delve into the homestead lifestyle and see just how far we can go.
~The Hearthhand – 2/15/25