You could have waited another ten years to do what you're doing, but you are living the life you want, right now. I think too many people wait to live their dream, and some never reach it. As someone much older than you two, I applaud you both for jumping in and doing it instead of waiting. ❤❤

I love seeing young couples like you two starting a homestead. My parents did when they were young in 1945 with much less sophisticated tools. My husband and I are in our late 70’s and we have grown vegetables and I have frozen and canned lots in my life all the while each of us had full time jobs. I hope you have great success all things. Your place has beautiful potential.

I can’t wait to see what you do with the pond, and orchid. Your homestead is coming along and looking beautiful.

I see how you two seem healthy mentally, homesteading attributes to a healthy mind. The cost of living and creating a place that nurtures the soul is mute, having peace within is a goldmine in and of itself. I’m so glad I clicked on your channel.

Man! Y'all worked your butts off this past year and your property shows it! It's beautiful and y'all have done an incredible job! I look forward to watching what all y'all do over the years to come. ❤

I think I found my new favorite young couple! Y’all are absolutely precious!!!

We started homesteading in East TN in 2020. The main thing I've learned is that in this lifestyle, the work never ever ends. Don't sweat not getting everything done at once because even if you did, more work will just pile up. As soon as I accepted this, nothing was stressful. You're doing great, you're young and strong and living the dream.

You have plenty of time. Looks like you’ve got a lot done and the preserved food is impressive. Loved the video.

Just found your channel, I absolutely LOVE this and all your diagrams and pictures of your land are so helpful, I see your vision and am like minded. We have a small home, small land and live in the city. This is our forever home while we're here anyway, and it's always been my dream go have like a secret garden full of perennial fruits, flowers, just everything that takes care of itself, and this is yr 4 working on it, what a beautiful blessing it is❤❤

Hollar Homestead sends their Love. Blessings!

Goats milk feta - YUM! Well done and thank you for sharing your journey 🙂

Seriously so proud of you two for taking on such a huge endeavor. You are really an inspiration for everyone who is thinking about homesteading and staying as transparent about everything as you can. I hope everyone views all your content and interacts because it is such a small thing to do on our end but if we all pull together it could help you guys reach your goal.

The Holler homestead sent me here and yay! Good to see young people getting back to the land

Kudos to both of you! So nice to see homesteaders from the US rather than another country. I will continue to keep up with you guys! Best of luck!

Love watching your journey. ❤❤❤

Hi Mickayla and Taylor! It looks like you guys have accomplished so much on your property in such a short amount of time! It has been so fun to see your journey and follow along. -Cara

Glad Ben (from The Hollar) recommended your channel. When young people are passionate and hardworking, there is hope. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

I LOVED this video. Such a cool way to commemorate your one year homestead-aversary! Also...20k views....I see you girl!!! Get it! 👏

I envy both of you!! Loved this episode and one day I will be able to make my dream come true! Even if on a smaller scale! You guys are awesome and a true inspiration.

I grew a chocolate pepper this year. Taste just like a red pepper but it comes early so you don't have to wait for the pepper to go through all those colors. Really good! Highly recommend.

After seeing you helping the Hollar Homestead with the chickens. I was happy to subscribe. Love the North Carolina homesteading community .

I don't understand how you don't have more subscribers.... your videos are so good. 😮 How do you do all this renovation work AND also produce these videos?!? Very inspiring.❤

Hi, I'm a long time follower of The Hollar Homestead. You were helping Ben and Meg process their chickens, and was introduced. I figured, I'd come over and check out your vlog. Like you, we've been working on our property, and home. Hang in there, it's a continous project to take care of, and making an old home, and property into a home/homestead takes a while. We've been here 7 years, and were still working on our place to make it what we want. There will always be something that will come up which will in turn cause you to put your life on hold like family events/issues, price of parts/wood/home goods/vehicle issue ect. Remember to make a life long plan with your spouse, set your goals, and eventually you'll see these goals come true. When they're struggles, remember this too shall pass. I look forward to your future videos, and will go back to watch your earlier ones.

Cool episode. We are from Detroit and now in southwest Georgia. We have a quarter acre homestead. We have been using raised beds for a few years now. One pepper you mentioned is the Cubanell, I love them. We had an abundance of them two years ago. We finally had to start giving them away. But I like them stuffed with refried beans, cheese and covered with red enchilada sauce and baked. They are fantastic topped with diced onions. Keep up the great work. We look forward to seeing your videos.

Awesome episode! Thank you for the insight of future plans. Can't wait to see the Chik-Mansion full build episode. Love your channel

Caught you on holler homestead, and was impressed, I'm a full time subscriber now. Best to y'all's adventures ❤

The Hollar's sent me, i subbed. This has been a great video. Im glad I caught you on their butchering video. This has been fun. Looking forward to checking out more videos.

I subscribed to your channel today. I wish you all your dreams. Wish that I had known about homesteading when I was younger, 67 years on this earth. Love what you all have done. Can't wait to see what you do.

I love what you are doing. It is so encouraging to see young people homesteading. Things I would concentrate on are building a large compost area to use to amend your gardens. Think about using your chickens to help with composting. As for trees I would get Elderberry established, currants, grapes as well as berries and fig trees. For a survival food start a patch of Jerusalem Artichokes. Jerusalem artichokes are an edible tuber that you harvest in the late fall and winter. Our chickens and ducks love to eat the foliage when they are green as well as the tubers. A small plot of approx. 5 foot by 5 foot can produce up to 100lbs of food. We use the tubers like we do Potatoes. Grow Comfrey which can be used for feed for the chickens and ducks as well as to make fertilizer for your gardens. We built a garden bed around our chicken and duck run of lots of greens like mustard greens, collards, Kale, swiss chard and lettuce as well as amaranth. We allow the chickens and ducks to eat the greens through a fence we put up that allows them to stick there heads through. It's worked great and they love it. Anything the animals can't reach we use for ourselves. Squash and Pumpkins is another great crop to grow. for storing as well as to feed the chickens and ducks. Another great animal to raise are quail.. We live on a half acre suburban lot and have incorporated all of these things and can feed our family of four adults throughout the year with everything we can and raise.

Came over from the Hollar's channel, watched your latest video and subscribed. Looking forward to watching you take on the new challenges. Also appreciated your honesty regarding finances. Now going back to watch your previous episodes.

Great job. You two did a ton the first year!

Smooches to Ricky ❤ Good goals and needed flexibility is what I see. Level head thinking is a must. Great job

I have been following the Hollar Homestead for sometime now and learned of you folks on the chicken processing workshop they just did so had to check you all out and I am glad I did. I commend you and your husband for taking on the task that you have and glad to see you seeing success in it. If I could go back in time I would love to choose the homesteading life, but at our age, both myself and my wife in our mid and late 70's, we just can't do something like that. We went a different direction in life, with me working a career in the auto industry working in maintenance and finally taking my retirement after 35 plus years. We relocated from California to TN when I transferred to a new type of work environment (Saturn Corp) and bought a nice home on a big lot in a subdivision in a small community. We do have a few raised garden beds that I enjoy growing vegetables we both enjoy eating. For several years we had a small (6) flock of laying hens which we enjoyed the fresh eggs from them, but unfortunately some type of varmint got into their pen and that was the end of that. So now I support local egg producers either at farmers market or selling them from their farms. We also did canning (my wife does that) and would buy fruits or vegetables from local growers. Unfortunately getting old comes with some health issues so my wife no longer can do that, but on a bright note, our younger daughter took our canning equipment and now she is doing that so that was good. Anyways, probably have written much more than needed so again wishing you folks the very best in your venture. Have watched many of your videos and enjoy them all and also subscribed to your channel. Blessings to you both.

Found you on Ben & Meg's channel. I can already tell I'm going to enjoy your channel very much! You guys have done amazing things and i look forward to your next year on the homestead! 💜

It's Thanks Giving Day. We thank God we saw your show. It was very inspiring. We are on the late middle of our homesteading journey. May the Good Lord bless your effort. It's such a blessing to hear your story, see your plans and to join with you in your hope. Good job.:)

I came by because of the Hollars, and subscribed for the cats. Mickayla can tell a tale with the best of them. Taylor seems to be a good man, who's smart enough to live by the old chestnut, "happy wife, happy life."

Sent by the Hollars! I'm starting out small myself, got 4 chickens 2 months ago, and 2nd yr gardening that I'm expanding a lil each time, added garlic a greenhousr and putting strawberries in the raised beds this weekend. Can't wait to see your journey unfold. ❤ Baker creek has thise pepper seeds you want, I saw them last night in the catalog.

Saw you on The Hollars so I popped on over to check you out! You guys have truly jumped into a monumental task but your young and motivated…that’s everything you need! Can’t wait to watch you both grow!..New sub..blessings from a western NC neighbor ❤🙏🎉

Here from the Hollards. Happy to have found you and follow your journey. Congratulations!😊

After seeing you helping at the Hollar Homestead, here I am. Great seeing the progress you’ve made in a year. Best of luck on KZfaq, and in your own homesteading journey.

Hello from Australia 🇦🇺 I came across from the Hollar Homestead after watching the chicken processing. Looks like you two have a great property and I'm sure you will enjoy the journey clearing and developing it and homesteading in general. And good on you for starting as youngsters and not waiting till you had all "your ducks in a row" first. I didn't start till i was a lot older and that's my main regret. Goats are great. They are the focus on my place. Everything revolves around them. I'm looking forward to watching how your journey develops. In Aus we call it Self Sufficiency rather than homesteading but the same principle.

Hi there! We just discovered your channel and love to see people join the homesteading movement. We began our homestead in 2019 here in North Alabama and now farm for ourselves and also run a blueberry u-pick farm. If I could give you 2 pieces of advice, 1) Get as much done as you can before you have kids. Nothing slows down farm progress like having kiddos 🤪 and 2) just enjoy the process and don’t overcommit financially. You’ve got time to get it all done but don’t less your desire for speedy results get you in debt to the point where it’s not fun anymore 😅 Anyways, we really like your channel and are now subscribed. Good luck, we are rooting for you!

Here from The Hollar Homestead 🏡 Thank you for helping them with their recent butchering! Maybe Ben and the kids could help finish the coop. I think Jason and Loranne are close by, too. A day with all hands on deck could mean that the coop and run are done and you are freed up to do other things 😊

What a lovely wedding. I think August might be lucky. We married August 19th. Celebrated our 50th this year. Best wishes for you both.

Congratulations 🎉 on your wedding 💗 Found you after watching The Hollars chicken butchering video. I give you guys kudos for stepping out and making your dreams come to fruition. You have accomplished a lot already, and even though there's more to do "Rome wasn't built in a day". Keep up the great job you are doing!!!!!!!!

Just watched you with the Hollars. We too have a "field of kudzu" on our homestead in AR - the answer for us was goats. They eat anything and clear a path doing it. And they are lovely pets with the potential for milk, meat, soap, etc down the road. Looking forward to homesteading along with you - I've subscribed.

Fantastic accomplishments! Great workers! It was fun meeting you over at the Hollars on their video! 🤗💕🇨🇦

Another Hollar fan tuning in to be with you on your journey. I'm somewhat jealous of what you're doing. Wish I was able to to experience what you are experiencing, but 87 years kinda cuts into what I'm able to do. That said, I'm more than happy with the life I have been able to have. My general attitude is to "Let go and let God". Bless you both! ... Live long and prosper!

I had fully intended to watch the live but I put my phone on the charger because I was neck deep in jalapeño’s and tomatoes that afternoon. I loved hearing the story of what you’ve been up too and I sure hope that as you put this video together you were encouraged by your accomplishments as well. It was also nice how both of you shared in the narration of the video. I can honestly say that if we could go back to the time we bought our first house (1984) in the suburbs, and not in a more rural area that was also on the list, we would. Today we are on an acre in a pocket area of the suburbs where many of the houses are on 1/2 acre plus size lots. It feels a little rural with lots of folks having chickens and gardens and some have enough land to raise a pig or a cow. Starting this so late in life has its own problems but when you’re doing what you believe is best for you then you just do it! You definitely need time to rest and to get away so that you maintain your relationship too. You’ve got a great work ethic and plenty of dreams and ideas to go with it. Congrats on what you’ve accomplished in the last year!

The Hollar family sent me your way. That was a wonderful education, processing chickens, you got with them. So nice to meet you. I subscribed today.

Don't get discouraged! It is definitely tiring when the projects never end. Just know this is your life and you have to live this time anyway! You will get there day by day!

It’s great to get your start early. You will be surprised where you’ll be in 10, 20, 30 years.

I loved having ducks. We had chickens, ducks, and llamas. I loved all of them, but the ducks held a special place in my heart. They are absolutely worth the extra effort.

Welcome to the foothills of NC! We built our dream home during 2020 in McDowell County. We have 12 acres and we love it. The internet situation has been our biggest challenge. Congratulations on just jumping right in there because there never is a BEST time. Although, I'm old enough to be your parents, I loved hearing your story. ❤🌻

You are an awesome couple and could become my favorite ! as you are hard-working , real, relatable and honest I hate the Leaf-legged bugs who love to hatch babies on tomatoes and demolish them. You are amazing in your vision of knowing what you want and have so many home-steading skills already. You have made so much progress in just one year and you are learning day by day and getting better. You are definitely a power couple who can make your dreams come true step by step.

WOW! Your larder is VERY impressive! All your canned foods are amazing and I know you will enjoy every time your pop open a jar! It’s too bad you weren’t able to get rid of the pests. Best time is to pick them off at night and putting them in a jar of water with dish soap, they glow in the dark, once you pick them off and put them in the jar they will drown. God bless! Keep up the hard work and you are right you have to keep the faith and knowing it will work out. Goats are really good for clearing brush and fast! I highly recommend getting goats to help clear your land. Omg! Mold is one of the worst things to clear out! But it is possible and you just need to keep pushing forward. KZfaq videos are a fantastic way to learn how to do anything! 🥰❤️🙏🏻🇨🇦🍁Congratulations on your wedding, what a beautiful bride you made!! ❤

I enjoy keeping up with the Hollar ~ got to see you learning to be a chicken plucker 😁 Checked on the link they shared ... you now have one more subscriber 👍 Like your content.

Hey... just saw you at the Hollers! I found you last week and I am super excited that you have such awesome neighbors! I love what you're doing. Keep on keepin' on!

I love these styles of videos, I think its someone that allows you to reflect and appreciate and learn from whats happened, you should do this as a yearly video!

Congratulations on your homesteading journey! I learned about you kids by watching the Hollers! Good luck with your vision!

YOU GUYS this was so good! Can't wait to see your property one of these days

If you haven't watched it already, Living Traditions Homestead did an awesome set-up for their ducks recently. You should check it out for some ideas for you ducks.

You could have at least two horses. I’m so jealous because that what I’d get immediately but that’s just me. Gorgeous property and can’t wait to see in another year !!! Such a cute couple with your whole life ahead !! ❤️💯🙏🐴

Thank you both so much for sharing so honestly. I feel that there are too many channels out there that only give a small portion of their journey. Please keep it up!

Such an inspirational video to see such beauty and nutrients coming from land that would’ve otherwise remained destroyed and neglected without caring and driven owners. Please keep up the awesome work and message

Your story is awesome 👍 That land looks amazing, great work. Hollar Homestead sent me to your channel. Going to keep watching your journey

Watched you helping process chickens with the Hollars. Then I subscribed! Enjoyed this video. Keep on the journey.

New sub. You two are amazing. Good for you. I am just now starting a homestead on 70 acres with just me (54 yrs old), a shovel, and a boxtruck. Garden is first priority. Thanks for the inspiration!

I feel your strength and desire in this blog and know what Michigan roots mean! Blessings always and the Hollars are the best neighbors to have. Build your community well. 💪 🙏

Guys, have you thought about hiring some goats to help clear the land, they will eat almost anything, but the homestead is looking good, you should be proud of what you have achieved in a short period, well done. ❤️🇬🇧🙏

Like several other people, I learned about you on the Hollar’s video. I’m also from Michigan! I just subscribed to your channel, and look forward to seeing your future adventures in homesteading.

A lot of farmers work on their own equipment as much as possible and teach their kids skills. This is what makes it harder as a starter out, but you will learn skills over time

This is something ive felt, like "just go for it!"

Hollar Homestead sent me .... Welcome to the fam!

Very nice video, no drama / acting, nice to see normal people finally lol THANK YOU Two....

You guys are awesome! Keep going and be safe and God Bless! 🙏❤️🙏

I got indian runners this year & have been struggling with their mess also- I have learnt to turn that struggle into a benefit! I have a large pond for them, which gets incredibly dirty within only a day or two! I ended up coming up with this solution: every night or 2 when I go to lock them up, I put a submersible pump into their pond, this pump has a hose going directly into my compost piles next to the coop! The pile consists of bedding, shavings, straw, grass clippings etc. The poppy pond water fills the compost pile with nutrients! In the morning, about 20 minutes before my automatic door opens for the coop, I have an automatic timer that starts filling up the pool again! And then the ducks have fresh water to swim in in the morning!! Once you have the system set up, it is very easy!!! My chickens also just drink the pool water, so it eliminates their water needs too! Hopefully this can help you with your duck water system!

My husband and I have experienced water seepage in our basement so he layed plastic like a tarp from foundation out but first he built up dirt higher around foundation slopping away from house. We then covered with dirt and landscaping. Didn’t have anymore problems after that in our old farm house. Another home a trench was dug so water that seemed to gather on our land would run to the trench. This was a perimeter drainage a good way from home on two sides. Then in garden area we use raised boxes and that too was on slope. We utilized free manures and wood chips from county fairs after fairs and 4 h events and also local saw mills. Worked great along with chickens waste and compost. God Bless your continued success in homesteading!

I love this! You guys are so inspiring and I literally almost cried watching this

Ducks are excellent to use in orchards! They eat a lot of grasshoppers and other pests that attack fruit.

You guys are wise beyond your years!!

Found you because of the Hollars. You’ve done a lot this year! Congratulations!

Hubby and I (and the 3 year old) bought 4ish acres in GA this year. Did a complete restoration of a mobile home and I began a teaching career. He started his own business almost two years ago. We did the clearing of the land all summer before we actually moved onto the property. Water lines. Sewer. Plumbing. All the fun stuff. We want to get where the pair of you are! Gardens, animals, and living off the land as much as possible. Your story is inspiring! Thank you so much for sharing!

The Great Folks over at Hollar sent me!!! Best Wishes🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

You guys have done such a good job! We are about 18 months into being on our 1 acre place here in Australia. Found it hard to smash things out at fast as we want with working full time as well. You guys have achieved tons! The space you have has heaps of challenges, but it also has a lot of charm! Get yourselves a float valve for the ducks water, so it just refills itself when it drops below a certain level you set it to.

You inspire me. You make me feel confident that I can do it.

I just happened upon your channel and am so happy I did. Such a great couple; living their dream. Best wishes. God bless.

When we first moved in our garage flooded as well. My husband got a sealer and painted it on the lower portion of house and we put a french drain in. Its basically a large PVC pipe with holes in it. Voila it worked. Ah to be young with energy! lol

Came over after an introduction from Ben and Meg, congratulations for your first year of accomplishments.

Thanks for sharing ! Y’all’s work is amazing ..

I'm in WNC also. Been offgrid farming since 2016 here. You'll have your hands full with the Kudzu. You have gotten a lot done for such a short time. We pump from a spring and drag hose also. We have rescued horses and dogs on the farm and chickens, guineas and turkeys. I want ducks also. I am also focusing on growing herbs for my chickens and tea. Established Lemon Balm and Echanacea from seed and it has given me a sense of fulfillment. My only regret is that I wish I were younger. It is a great feeling when you collapse at the end of the day and look at your accomplishments. Congratulations and welcome to WNC.. Looking forward to following your journey.

I'm really enjoying your channel! Sooo glad you went over to Ben & Meg's. Good job. BTW. Nurse Judi in Scottsdale AZ and E Minister. Prayers daily 🙏🏻 for 🙏🏻 you!

Just popped over from The Hollar Homestead. Can't wait to watch your videos!

You guys are easily the most realest on KZfaq when talking about the homestead journey. This is so relatable! Welcome to Western NC! We love it there.

I just found your channel today and I love it! You should try praying mantises in the garden for bug control and also using bug netting will really help!

Just keep on keeping on! The best time to plant a tree is yesterday! Bartering is an old way to get things done! Your accomplishing great hints!

Excellent round up of your year guys, you have been busy!!! Keep up the good work. I enjoy watching young people chasing their dreams. Trust me you will get there way sooner than most. Keep finding ways to inspire.

You guys are smart to do one or two animals and do them well before you take on more. I’m so impressed with how you think things through so well. It’ll be fun to watch your progress🌱

love this so much! I am about to embark on my own homestead journey myself and this just makes me so excited!!! congratulations on your wedding too!

I’m a 79 yr. old granny from zone 7 (East Tennessee . Enjoy your videos very much, keep up the good work. I still garden in raised beds. Hope you have a blessed day.