How did it all begin?
Hi! My name is Jewel!
My husband, Ben, and I began this venture long ago in the ancient times of October of 2019… The sweet days pre-pandemic. *Funny how, essentially globally, we can now understand time by pre/mid/post-pandemic.*
Freshly married at the ripe ‘ole age of 19, we didn’t know what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go. Despite the unknowns, we trusted the Lord and all that he had in store for us. SURPRISE! I became pregnant a whopping one month into our marriage! What a joy it was to be starting our family!
Our Growing Family
Once we had our first baby, we were hooked. We adored the joy of being parents!
So we didn’t stop there.
In total we have 4 little ones. All born within 3.5 years!
Starting with our eldest daughter, Hadassah, mid-summer of 2020 and our son, Obadiah, following closely behind 11 months later. 17 months after him, our sweet Joanna was born! 13 months from there, we welcomed little miss Miriam into our joyful chaos!
To say we have been tremendously blessed is an understatement! But I wouldn’t know how to put into words the privilege it is to steward these little humans.
Figuring It Out
Anyway, we (sort of) figured out what we want to do when we grow up. START A HOMESTEAD! Small scale, at least. The trouble is, I haven’t a clue what I’m doing! (Thankfully, Ben has a better idea as that is similar to how he was raised. But we are both still mostly winging it.)
The realization that we wanted to start homesteading didn’t *quite* come to fruition until 2022. At some point after we bought our big ‘ole, fixer-upper farmhouse on Sunfield.
Coming Clean
Our thoughts through craziness of the pandemic and all that came with it hit us pretty hard. How could we provide well for our growing family if we somehow couldn’t buy food or other resources required for basic survival?!
I relied heavily on grocery stores for EVERYTHING.
That realization paired with learning how toxic our
- FOOD
- Containers
- Cookware
- Hygiene Products
- Cleaning Products
- basically EVERYTHING that we were ingesting or using regularly in our household…
Our life needed to change, and it needed to change ASAP.
The Harvest
We really became hooked on homesteading when we grew our very first garden in our first year of homeownership. Oh, how I loved going out to tend our plants, barefoot in the tilled soil, soaking up all the sunlight and fresh air.
I really didn’t think I would succeed at maintaining our garden. I figured even if nothing produced, it would at least be a learning experience.
BUT it far surpassed my expectations! I could hardly keep up with all the produce! I guess a little bit of TLC went a LONG way.
And from my the crazy amount of produce came the canning and preserving… Also a new skill I was learning in that season. I hadn’t really canned before. I quickly caught on thanks to the gracious teachings of my Mother-in-Law, a gifted water-bath canner, and my ever-fruitful tomatoes.
As Ben and I continued to gain knowledge and experience in being “self-reliant” we wanted more of this lifestyle.
With that desire… came chickens. I can relate to the issue of “chicken math”. It went from getting 11 laying hens and 2 guineas, to adding a rooster, to adding 40 meat chickens and 2 turkeys (whom we thoroughly enjoyed that Thanksgiving).
It’s safe to say, there’s no going back now. Not that we would want to.
The Point of No Return
Since the purchase of our home as
- first-time homeowners
- rookie homesteaders
- not-so-experienced homemaker
Both Ben and I have learned a few skills from many failures.
Through trial and error and some extensive Googling and Youtube research, we are making this homestead something for ourselves. But most importantly, for the glory of God.
We are beyond grateful for the experiences and opportunities the Lord has given and continues to give in abundance. Our family looks forward to providing encouragement, knowledge, and perhaps some entertainment as we press on in our “pursuit of happiness” in our “Homestead Era”.
Thank you for reading to learn more about us! Follow along as we “fiddle around and find out” in the humble makings of our homestead at Sunfield Cecils Home!
Yours truly,
The Cecils