We are both kids from suburbia. It’s not a bad place to grow up, but as a young married couple living in the core of Kitchener, we hankered for nature and quiet.
The Saugeen Bruce Peninsula was our favourite place to holiday in those early days. Every chance we could get away, this is where we would come to hike, camp, birdwatch and swim. Working with the Bruce Trail, we bought this property in the late 1990’s and started to plan our homestead.
Living off-grid in rural Ontario teaches you to pay attention to the world around you. Sometimes there’s a gentle breeze, sometimes snow blowing sideways across the field. We share this landscape with black flies, black bears and black ice; all in their season.
Through our adventures, we’ve learned about parenting, growing fresh produce, eco-building, raising chickens, lambs and pigs and off-grid living. The list of things we’d like to learn grows and grows as we explore permaculture design strategies, silvopasture and rotational grazing. We continue to tweak our homestead and garden designs to better work with nature.
We’d love to share what we’ve learned (both the good and the bad!) with you. We’d also love to learn what you have to share as well.