Making the Most With What We Have: Terry and Melynda Brown’s Family Story

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Making the Most With What We Have

Welcome to our brand new series here on Little House Living, “Making the Most With What We Have”! This series will showcase individuals and families all over the US (and even outside the US!) that are making the most of what they have. We know that you can be a modern homesteader without 160 acres of land and a mule so this series will share the stories of these families so we can get a peek into their lives and learn from each other.

Today we are learning about Terry and Melynda’s story…

Where Do You Live?

We live in a standard ranch style 3 bedroom home. It was an abandoned HUD repo when we purchased it. In the two years we’ve been here, it has been transformed into a wonderful home. The yard has been cleaned and food gardens have been put in. We heat exclusively with wood, freecycled from Craigslist. We can, freeze, and make jam and pickles. Our next venture is bees and from there I want chickens. But, I want chickens for a different reason; I will house the layers that have come to the end of their cycle, but need to be adopted. They will be my garden helpers. For both of us, this life is a return to the best of how we each lived as children, so many years ago. The name of the blog (Our Sunday Cafe) is what we believe in, dinner with the family to keep in touch.

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Backyard – Before
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Backyard – One Year Later

What Are Your Dreams and Goals for Your Homesteading Journey?

Our goals are raised garden beds (we’re freecycling 2X6 boards for that now), to build two (or more) top bar bee hives, build a small greenhouse to start seeds and extend the growing season, and to adopt chickens.

What Are Some Things You Have Learned So Far?

We have learned that we can learn anything! If you look inside yourself you will see the desire to learn, so you can move forward with any plan, goal, or dream.

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How Are You Making the Most With What You Have?

We freecycle almost everything; wood for heat, manure for the garden, rocks to build walls, plants, furniture, and even a few decor items! We buy mostly used (and have more to show for it) and we are great book collectors. We cook mostly from scratch, using food grown from the garden. And of course compost, deep mulch gardening.

Share Your Favorite Recipe!

My grandmother’s apple pie.

Share With Us One Unique Tip That Has Helped You

It is a philosophy, “make do, use it up, do without”. The reason this works is because tomorrow is another day and there will be new ways to complete any task, goal, or dream.

Your Favorite Useful Homesteading Item

Mason jars, we use them for everything!

Anything Else to Share?

Here are a few extra tips:

You won’t get it all done in one day or even one year. What you are building is a life, you can call it a farm or a homestead, but it is your life. You need to take each day as it comes, completing what you can while planning for tomorrow. In life, when you look back at the end of the week, month, or year, that is when you see how much progress has been made. For you see, daily you have been living your life, and that is very important work.

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Want to be a part of the Making the Most With What We Have Series? You can read about it and fill out the interview questions here.

Thank you Terry and Melynda for sharing your story with us!

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13 Comments

  1. Love that strawberry planter! Was that something you made up or a plan from somewhere? It’s beautiful. I also love the idea of retiring hens to help in the garden. We have 4 that are older and need retired, but I just can’t stand the thought of butchering them. Any chance you live in Indiana? 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

    1. Hello Carrie, I would love your hens, but alas we are in Vancouver Washington. The planter was made up from one we had noticed on another blog, I will try and find it and post a link later this evening.

    1. Diana, thank you so much. It is fun to take the grandchildren out to pick berries and not worry about tramping down the plants.

  2. I really enjoyed reading your story. The yard transformation is amazing. And, I love the strawberry planter. I would like to make one of those for my strawberries.

    1. Thank you, I appreciate your comment. We love our yard, this year we are putting in raised beds. It can be chilly here, the raised beds should increase production. I am hoping to can my own tomatoes in the future.

  3. Hi Merissa – Thanks so much for sharing this with the Let’s Get Real party. This is my featured post at this week’s party.

  4. I love this idea to share about other family’s homesteading. Thanks for linking up at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! We hope you join us next week!