Today I'm talking with Becky at Homesteading with BeckyJ.

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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together. Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality, and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose.

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At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful. If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care, you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. A tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Becky at Homesteading with Becky J in Oregon. How are you this morning, Becky? I am fabulous. How about you? I'm good. What's the weather doing in Oregon?

00:57
We're actually really overcast today.

01:02
Is it raining or is it just overcast? Just overcast. It looks like it wants to try, but nothing's happening. Yeah. And rain is not, it's not anything unusual in Oregon or Washington state. So I'm sure you're ready for it to sprinkle whenever, right? Yeah. Well, and I'm in Eastern Oregon. So we actually, lot of the storms tend to go around us. We're usually pretty dry. So yeah, we definitely take all the rain that we can get.

01:30
Yeah, I'm in Minnesota. It is yet another really lovely morning. It's the reason I sound weird about that is because this winter has been the longest, grayest, wettest we've had in probably four years. Oh, geez. But the sun is coming in the bedroom window. There's no wind and it's just really pretty outside. I'm like, hmm, another good morning. Yay. So. ah

01:59
I have to tell you when I saw the name of your page, Homesteading with Becky J, for some reason it made me think of a pop star and I can't for the life of me think of who it is right now. But I was like, that sounds like a rock star homesteader. I want to talk to her. Easy to remember then. Yes. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Well, I am 37 years old. have

02:28
Three children, a whole full-fledged homestead now. I literally have animals all over, but it was not like that. You know, six, seven years ago, I was living in a trailer park. So, I mean, we made some major changes for the better, obviously. There was a lot of work to get here, but...

02:51
Still grilling. So when you were in the trailer park, were you already like practicing homesteading skills though? you already learning? I mean, I've always been a meal prepper, baker, cooker. So I kind of had that going for me, but honestly, no. And I wish that I would have been practicing some of these basic skills. You know, like I could have been gardening on my porch. I could have been utilizing container gardening or

03:19
you know, worm composting or learning how to sow, but I was so oblivious to all of it. And I guess I just thought that like the property had to come first. So I'm a big advocate for people. Like it doesn't matter where you're at. Like you can literally do this anywhere. And I wish I would have started sooner, you know? Well, I would say, okay, listener, you heard it here first, but I say it all the time. So, okay, listener, you're hearing it again. Learn to cook, grow a plant, learn to

03:49
crochet or sew, just learn some basic skills of do-it-yourself things because that way you're not caught flat-footed. Yeah. Yup.

04:01
Okay, so when did you move into, when did you acquire your land? We have been here about seven years now. it just slowly but surely we started getting some animals and the first year I tried to garden it was a complete flop because I didn't know what I was doing. That's okay, at least you tried. Yeah.

04:31
Yep. Okay. So tried gardening. Yeah. The people that had lived here before us, she had a big, big garden and I know them personally. So like I seen what it looked like in full bloom and everything that she had been growing. like, Oh, I could totally do that. And so of course I just planted everything in the ground with no idea of like weed control or how I was going to water or anything. And then of course,

04:58
everything started sprouting. It looked fabulous, but then I couldn't tell what were like weeds and what were the plants. By the time it was big enough for me to tell, I'm like, oh yeah, I'm not pulling all these. I just gave up. I just let it grow wild that year. I'm like, yeah, no. Did you get anything out of it though, even though it was crowded? Some lettuce.

05:26
I did get some lettuce, but that was about it. Well, it's better than nothing. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It's definitely a learning lesson. Are you plant, are you, so have you gotten better at gardening over the years? Oh yes. I now know like what works for me and because I do work full time still. So I definitely have to have some major systems in place in order for me to make it work growing as much as I do. Um,

05:53
but I have some weed barriers down. have an automatic watering system now. I grow certain things in raised beds, certain things in the ground. And so I have a system now. Yeah. Systems are really very, very, I would could say very a hundred times. It wouldn't be enough important to making a homestead run where you don't feel like you're putting out fires all the time. Definitely. Yup. And you said you have animals. So what do you have for animals and what animal did you get first?

06:23
Um, so funny enough, we got cows first, which seems backwards in my head. Yeah. But there, we already had a fence pasture and my husband always wanted cows, you know, raise our own beef. And we started with cows and that also obviously was a learning experience. Um, the first cow we had his name was Houdini given for a very good reason, because even though it was a fenced pasture, the fence needed some work.

06:52
And so he got out constantly. So I don't know how many times I, we had to walk that guy home. Like he would end up at the neighbors, you know, half a mile down the road and someone else's pasture. And it was like, oh my gosh, this animal is huge. I'm going to get ran over. And I got chickens and chickens obviously were a little bit easier to manage. Yeah. They say chickens are the gateway animal for homesteaders. Cows is not.

07:21
Cows is not the animal they say is the gateway animal. Yeah. Really quick. I'm going to jump in our neighbors to our west, our Northwest. They have cows and they have at least one donkey. And we've lived here. We've lived here for a little over five years and I keep, I keep waiting to get up in the morning and find a cow or a donkey in my yard and they've never shown up. So they must have really good fences. And what's really dumb, Becky is that

07:51
I would not be terribly offended if I woke up to a cow or a donkey standing in my yard. It would be definitely has their own personalities. Yeah. As long as I could get hold of the owner and say, you need to come get your critter because I can't do it. I would be fine with it. Cause I think that we don't have livestock here. We have chickens, we have a dog, we have barn cats. And I

08:18
We have three acres. We don't have enough room for anybody to graze and feeding livestock right now is real expensive if you're not grazing them. Yeah. So the idea of waking up to a cow or a donkey in my yard would be highly entertaining once. Yeah. Let me just visit. Okay. Like babysit them a couple hours, maybe once a week and then take them back. Yeah. Their beautiful dog came over one day and she's, I think her name is shy or sky.

08:48
And she's the red golden retriever. Like she's not the yellow golden. She's the red...