A Little About Us

Before I start telling you about our experiences on the land thusfar, I thought I would tell you a little about us and how we got from there to here.

I was born and raised in SC and have lived in Beaufort since I was 13. Believe me, my hand never had to touch a hoe growing up! LOL! I did grow up hearing all about my great grandma's and grandpa's farm. I loved to hear my mom, aunt, uncles and grandma tell the stories of that time. While they would talk about the hard work and hard times, their was such joy and sense of family in those stories......and in all the old pictures we would have to pull out at every family gathering. It was great. I still love to get out the pictures and look at them all. Maybe from all of that is where my desire to live this lifestyle comes from. I'm not sure.

Jon is from Australia, and it would require a whole new blog to give you the story of how he ended up in Beaufort. :-) Growing up in Australia he and his family lived in rural areas, but he is not from a farming or homesteading background. I think his thoughts on "getting back to basics" is a little less romantic than mine. His is more matter of fact. Depend on yourself, not on others........and your life being full of "things" does not mean you have a full life.

Anyway, we met in 1988 and were just friends for a long time. Well, not that long I guess.........we were married in 1992. We married young (I was 21 and he was 24) and at the time had no big plans for what the future would be for us. In fact, we had no plans at all. We worked hard, but we sure didn't have the 'what do we want to be when we grow up' thing worked out. I don't think it was until around '99 that we really started talking about a place "away" somewhere.

It started with wanting a cabin in the mountains. Well, it didn't take long to figure out that if you've got a cabin on a mountain, then the land is pretty darn steep and could be a bit of a challenge if you want to actually USE the land. So, as time passed, the plan evolved. What the needs would be. What the wants would be. What did we really want to do.

It still took us years, as you've already read, for us to find the land....but it did help to know what we were looking for. So, that's us. Now I'll tell you what we've been up to.