315. Homemaking in Transition: Staying Grounded When Life Shifts | K of Homesteady

Summary

Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast Episode 315 Homemaking in Transition: Staying Grounded When Life Shifts | K of Homesteady Date: November 11, 2025 Host: Lisa Bass | Guest: Kendra (Homesteady)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Lisa Bass welcomes Kendra from Homesteady to discuss the realities of moving a large family off-grid to Alaska. With seven children in tow, Kendra shares the highs and lows of transitioning from a well-established family farm on the East Coast to an off-grid cabin in the wilds of Alaska. The conversation explores the challenges of homemaking during stressful transitions, adapting daily routines for a new environment, the logistics of living off-grid, and the emotional journey of leaving behind the familiar for a bold new adventure. The episode also contains practical advice for homesteaders, mothers, and anyone experiencing big life shifts.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Decision to Move Off-Grid to Alaska

   • (02:50) Kendra shares that their Alaska move began with a podcast interview about yurts, inspiring her husband Austin’s adventurous spirit.
   • The family spent the summer of 2023 in Alaska to "test" off-grid living before deciding to make the permanent move in June 2024.

   "Austin's always kind of, I think, had this dream of moving somewhere for an adventure. And Alaska is an adventure... Now's a good chance to go." — Kendra (04:00)

2. Land & Housing Realities in Alaska

   • (05:16) Alaska’s high cost of living and real estate was an initial barrier. Remote land is cheaper but often inaccessible.
   • The Homesteady family found a small but accessible cabin through a personal connection.

   "You can buy a property in the middle of nowhere for less, but with no road access. How do you get there?... The price just skyrockets from there." — Kendra (06:26)

3. Adapting Off-Grid Systems for a Large Family

   • (07:48) The cabin was a basic, insulated shell with no utilities; they added a water tank, set up a solar system (not fully wired yet), and use a chest freezer/cooler as a refrigerator.
   • (09:33) Rapid outhouse fill-up led to a switch to a composting toilet with urine diverter; daily attention is necessary to avoid odor.
   • (11:41) Water is delivered by truck (1,000-gallon tank). A laundromat is used weekly for washing clothes until they can install a washer and dryer.
   • (13:17) Cooking is done on propane; a wood cookstove is being installed for winter.

   "We did a composting toilet with a urine diverter ... We take the bucket out daily, dump it onto a compost pile ... it doesn't smell. It's pretty amazing." — Kendra (10:13)

4. Managing Day-to-Day Homemaking Tasks (Laundry, Cooking, Dishes)

   • (14:06) Hand-washing dishes; plan to use a dishwasher when solar is operational as it conserves water better than kids washing by hand.
   • Paper products (plates, etc.) are in use for simplicity.
   • Survival tasks take more daily time but, compared to running a full-scale livestock operation, have left Kendra with more flexibility for homeschooling and hobbies like sourdough baking.

   "Now we have no livestock. For the first time in 15 years...But we are kept busy. I have a little less work now." — Kendra (15:48; 16:18)

5. Homestead Downsizing and Minimalism

   • (23:02) The Alaska cabin is about 1,300 sq ft for nine people—intentionally decluttered and minimal for survival and sanity.
   • Much of their old farm equipment and clothing was sold, donated, or left behind.
   • Discussion of how minimalism is essential for mental clarity (26:47-27:09).

   "It's a lot of items, even just with the necessities...You must have your house pretty trimmed down to live with any sort of peace in a 1300-square-foot home with nine people." — Lisa (28:13)

6. Climate Adaptation and Alaska Specifics

   • (29:24) Mosquitoes ("the hatch") in early summer are intense.
   • (31:09) Alaska’s weather can be milder or less extreme compared to parts of the lower 48 (like PA).
   • Seasonal light swings: 20+ hours of day in summer, very short days in winter.

   "The long hours in the summer were a gift this year because we had so much to get done... Now... it's forcing us to slow down." — Kendra (32:27)

7. Emotional Impact & Staying Grounded in Transition

   • (20:25) The first days were overwhelming, with mess, exhaustion, and the realization that 'normal' life would need rebuilding from scratch.
   • Process of embracing the difficulty, taking small actionable steps, and gaining gratification from incremental progress.

   "I had to go through that mental exercise. Okay, here we are. I hate this. This will never work. I cannot, cannot do this. And then walked outside for a little bit, got angry, got sad, came back inside and we just got to work the first night." — Kendra (00:00, repeated at 20:53)

   • (40:14) Kendra describes herself as "toxically positive," embracing the emotional challenges and constantly reminding herself and her family that they adapt and happiness eventually levels out, no matter the new circumstances.

   "I am. Austin calls me. I'm toxically positive...That helps. And staying positive, like, even not so toxically positive, but just—things will get better." — Kendra (40:14; 42:15)

8. Homesteading Q&A: Beginner Livestock Tips

   • (35:49) Chickens (for eggs) are best for beginners; meat birds are a logical next step, then feeder pigs.
   • Dairy animals are the homestead dream for many, but represent a massive daily commitment, especially with large quantities of milk to process and the ongoing cycle of breeding and calving.
   • Milk cows are relatively easy to resell, due to high demand.

   "Egg laying chickens are easy...easy for most people to do on whatever property...meat birds are an easy transition. Then from there, pigs." — Kendra (35:49)

   "There's so much animal husbandry that goes into a milk cow. Even if you get a bred cow initially...she calves, you're milking...let's talk about breeding." — Kendra (36:50)

9. Coping with Uncertainty, Finances & Stress

   • (40:14) Kendra recommends focusing on adaptation: Life happiness tends to level out despite dramatic life changes (referenced research on limb loss vs lottery winners).
   • Emphasizes learning from loss and hardship, and extracting value from new experiences.

   "People who lost a limb weren't as sad as they thought they would be. People who won the lottery weren't as happy as they thought they would be...It's just the body's way of bringing us back to kind of a level." — Kendra (41:04)

   • On living through times of financial uncertainty: Be practical, stay optimistic, adapt routines, and focus on what can be learned or improved.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Austin's always kind of ... had this dream of moving somewhere for an adventure. And Alaska is an adventure." – Kendra (04:00)
• "The long hours in the summer were a gift...Now we're ticking away. I think we're losing, like, six minutes every day, and we'll see how we do." – Kendra (32:27)
• "I'm toxically positive...That helps...just—things will get better." – Kendra (40:14)
• "I miss my cows. I miss going out to the barn. But I'm very grateful we don't have them right now because we have so much to do here." – Kendra (43:21)
• "Cleaning up is a project where you can see a big change fast...Just that easily, we could put the baby down. That would be where we could relax." – Kendra (22:22)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:50 — Homesteady's backstory and the move to Alaska
• 04:00 — Why Alaska? The inspiration behind the move
• 07:48 — Off-grid cabin logistics and systems
• 14:06 — Adapting daily homemaking (laundry, dishes, cooking)
• 16:18 — Transition from livestock-heavy to off-grid lifestyle
• 20:25 — Overwhelm and emotional process of moving in
• 23:02 & 28:04 — Downsizing and minimalism with a large family
• 29:24 & 31:09 — Adapting to climate and daylight swings in Alaska
• 35:49 — Practical homesteading advice for beginners (livestock choices)
• 40:14 — Mindset for handling stress and uncertainty

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Where to Follow Homesteady

• Kendra recommends following their journey most closely on their [YouTube channel], as it’s updated more frequently and visually tracks their off-grid Alaskan adventure. The Homesteady podcast is also available, but with some content lag.

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Summary

This episode provides a candid, inspiring look at what it means to rebuild home and family life during major transition. Through tales of composting toilets, hand-washed laundry, and the mental marathon of starting over, Kendra and Lisa illustrate the practical challenges and emotional rewards of embracing change. Their discussion is a trove of advice for homesteaders, homemakers, and anyone daring enough to chase a dream—proving that, with adaptation (and a little “toxic positivity”), even the wildest adventure can become home.

Transcript

[Kendra]

But I had to go through that mental exercise. Okay, here we are. I hate this. This will never work. I cannot, cannot do this. And then walked outside for a little bit, got angry, got sad, came back inside and we just got to work the first night because we needed a place to put that baby down so she could crawl. We needed a place where we could, we could sleep safely and cleanly. So we just got to work and did it.

[Lisa]

My name is Lisa, mother of nine and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone. On this podcast I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live your priorities. I help you learn how to cook from scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast and my courses Simple Sourdough and the Simple Sewing Series. I also help people reach their goals from home through my business courses and YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show notes in description box below. Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. If you're watching on YouTube, you see little Miriam now. This episode's coming out about a month after we're filming it cuz we're trying to get back into the swing after having the baby. Oh my goodness, we're going to spit up. So she's a month bigger by the time you're seeing this. But this is my new little challenge of having a baby on my lap while doing a podcast. So I'm still getting used to all that. If you feel like you hear some grunts and different little noises or me fidgeting and adjusting, that's because I do have the baby here. But today we're going to be chatting with Kendra from Homesteady, which this is a vlog and a podcast. You probably have seen them over on YouTube if you follow anything related to homesteading. They've been around for a while, a decade, over a decade now. And they recently moved to an off grid property in Alaska. They have seven children and so of course that inspires a lot of curiosity. How do you all do this? How do you cook and deal with going to the bathroom and laundry and all that good stuff? So we're going to chat about that as well as a few other motherhood things. So I think you'll find this episode interesting and hopefully you can then go over to YouTube and follow along with Homesteady and watch their journey all throughout the winter because this is their first winter in Alaska in their off grid cabin, Homestead. So I think that that'll be super fun to follow along with Kendra. Welcome on the show, we've had a lot of interest in having you all on. Specifically, we're interested to hear about your off grid adventure in Alaska. Let's start at the beginning. I know you all have been sharing on YouTube for nine years now. I think I followed you. Somewhere around the beginning I started following your story and then when did you announce you were moving to Alaska? And that whole shift,

[Kendra]

I think it's been because we started when my third was a baby. So is it 11 years now on YouTube? We started with the podcast a little before that, and then 11 years on YouTube. So the Alaska thing kind of happened in 2023. We started looking for land in Alaska. We wanted to move and didn't work out. So expensive and property was so much more than we ever expected it would be for Alaska. Instead we decided we'll just go to Alaska. We'll just check it out for the summer. We'll make some connections and see where that takes us. So that was in 2023. We spent the whole summer here. That was kind of our off grid challenge that we did initially to get a feel for off grid. What it was like, what we would need as far as a house size for a family of, of our size. And then we finally were able to make the move after we made some nice connections here in 2023. We just moved here June of this year. So we've been here all summer and going into our first winter here now.

[Lisa]

Okay, so what was the catalyst for moving to Alaska or what gave you guys the dream that made you want to go up to Alaska and live off grid?

[Kendra]

The magic of a podcast. We. Austin had interviewed somebody about yurts and he was from Alaska and he just made it seem like incredible. And Austin's always kind of, I think, had this dream of moving somewhere for an adventure. And Alaska is an adventure. So then he just, he made Alaska sound amazing. And we thought, well, we're at a good place in our lives. We're young enough. The kids aren't settled anywhere too much. My parents are young enough. His parents are young enough. Now's the chance to do a huge move like that. His parents are in Connecticut, mine are in Pennsylvania. But they're all kind of, they're good right now. So we thought, you know, now's a good chance to go. And Alaska was the adventure we were looking for.

[Lisa]

It's. That's definitely an adventure.

[Kendra]

That's.

[Lisa]

That's going big on the adventure. Some people, if they lived on the east coast, where your parents are from, would probably like, we'll just move out to the country 10 minutes. But you're like, let's just go to Alaska.

[Kendra]

Yeah, we kind of did that. Like we had taken these steps. We were in Connecticut, then we moved from my parents family farm in Pennsylvania. So it was like we kind of dipped our toes in the country life. And then it was, well, I think we're ready now to do a big move.

[Lisa]

Yeah. So has there been anything that has been very surprising about Alaska? Cause you know, there's so much you can hear. But then when you're actually living somewhere, that's when you really experience it.

[Kendra]

The expense. When we came in 2023, it was thinking like, how do people afford to live here? And there are a lot of big families around here. Actually, just the expense of everything. As far the country, it's the, the highest cost of living.

[Lisa]

Really.

[Kendra]

Yeah. So, you know, they set the poverty guidelines and Hawaii is higher than the rest of the country and Alaska is even above that. So yeah, I don't think I realized that.

[Lisa]

So you guys have a place and you have land. So how did you come about that when the cost of living is so high?

[Kendra]

That's what stopped us in 2023 from making any big moves. Because the land we could afford was just the worst land ever. It was all on cliffs and swamp. We couldn't do that. We couldn't afford to buy land and build something. But we made a connection with someone we had interviewed and he was really cool guy. He liked us, we liked him. So a year later, when he was selling a property he owned, he thought of us and he was like, well, it may be a little small for your family, but if you could tell your audience about it, maybe they'd be interested in it. And we were like, oh, actually maybe we could come look at it because we were still interested in moving to Alaska. We just didn't think we could. Austin came out and looked at the property and he said, we can make this work. And it's a nice enough property. It gives us privacy with accessibility, which is another thing. In Alaska you think the remote properties are cheap, Right. You can buy a property in the middle of nowhere for less, but with no road access. How do you get there? Like, do you fly a plane with the whole family? Do you snowmobile in? Like, do you take a four wheeler in with the whole family? Because then you gotta think about building a road and then the price just skyrockets from there.

[Lisa]

Yes.

[Kendra]

So this little cabin we could do and it gave us a place to settle Right away, you know, with the big family. Like we can't live out of a tent all summer in the fall and winter, like I can't people do it. I cannot do that. So this is a place where we could, we could settle and then expand on it easily.

[Lisa]

Okay, so give us the background. Was the cabin already there and what kind of. How was it? What all did it have so far? And then how did you guys make it to where something that you could, that could work for your family.

[Kendra]

It's the cabin is. Was here. This was built believe in 20, 21 kind of that area. So it's a. It's a nice cute little log cabin with a second floor. It's got no. It had no power, no electricity, no water or anything. It was a shell. It's insulated. It's windows, doors, that's all done. So we didn't have to build anything, but we had to put in all the systems. So we've installed the water system, set up a solar system. It still needs wired, but the panels are up and we run boxes, solar boxes everywhere.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

Yeah. So we've got a chest freezer. Our fridge is a cooler on the porch right now that we keep just.

[Lisa]

Okay, so you still. It still doesn't have. You still don't have the solar all hooked up?

[Kendra]

No, not all hooked up. So we're running basic off of it.

[Lisa]

So how let. I think that's what the listeners will be most curious about is how you guys are making this work with a large family. You said you have a cooler chest freezer. How remote are you? How far are you from things to go get?

[Kendra]

We're on the road system.

[Lisa]

Okay. Yeah.

[Kendra]

So we can drive out to the store. It's just everything's a little farther away. So to run out anywhere to get from our house to the main road takes. Takes a while. So if we run out of something, we just can't run out and go grab it like we could in PA or Connecticut.

[Lisa]

Right, Right. Yeah. Yeah. So how are you making it work as far as refrigeration and just all the things. I have so many questions. What are the challeng and how have you all made it work?

[Kendra]

We started with the outhouse outside that was already set up. We filled it so fast and that's what.

[Lisa]

Yes.

[Kendra]

The man who we bought it from told us, he's like this will work for you for now, but with nine people, you're going to fill it really fast. And we're thinking like whatever man. He was right. Like yeah, like, okay, so we needed to think of another system pretty quickly. We did a composting toilet with a urine diverter. So it's a bucket system. It's a five gallon bucket. We use. We change pretty much daily, use sawdust to cover whatever happens in there. The urine diverts so the smell is kept down. And we take the bucket out daily, dump it onto a compost pile. You know, the human or concept where it starts decomposing and in a few years it's. It's compost essentially.

[Lisa]

Right, Right. Yeah.

[Kendra]

It doesn't smell. It's pretty amazing. The compost outside, like you can walk by, it doesn't smell.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

Which is like mind blowing that. That's a better system than an outhouse for our family, especially because the outhouse started to smell really quickly with that much use and urine not being diverted.

[Lisa]

Right.

[Kendra]

And then the yellow jackets moved in and the kids were kind of boycotting it. So we're like, okay, bring a bucket inside and that'll be it. And we made it look like a toilet just to make it be a much more familiar thing. So we kind of built up the sides. It's got a toilet seat on it. It opens and closes. It doesn't feel weird, right?

[Lisa]

Yes, yes. The things I'm wondering about are the thing that's so constant with any large family. Laundry and cooking. Because we were thinking about, we're building a house right now on our farm. It's going to be completely on grid and all this stuff. But we would love to move there before the house is done because we love our farm and we don't like living in town. Even though we have a lovely, comfortable home, we're just so desperate to live out there. Anytime we go check on the build, I'm like, I just don't want to go back. I don't want to go back.

[Kendra]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

But the things I'll need a system for, obviously that's constant issue would be the laundry and the cooking. Right.

[Kendra]

And water.

[Lisa]

And water. Oh, my word. Yes, water. Which we have there. So that's probably why that didn't cross my mind. But yes, water. Even bigger problem.

[Kendra]

Yeah. I didn't mention we actually don't have a drinking well. We have a shallow well. Okay. This was, this was something we figured out when we came and visited two summers ago. The water usage of a large family, drinking water, wastewater from washing dishes. It becomes such a job to dispose of wastewater or to get drinking water. So we have. What we have is a large. It's a 500 gallon tank.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

1,000 gallon tank that we get filled up so we get water delivered.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

Eventually, the hope is once the addition's done, we'll attach a gutter to it so we'll be collecting rainwater.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

Because in the winter, you know, if the road's closed, then we can't order water in. So we'll have to have a solution for that.

[Lisa]

Right.

[Kendra]

Other than hauling it ourselves or getting it delivered. And then. So washer. We don't have a washer and dryer right now. I'm doing everything in a laundromat.

[Lisa]

Okay. So how you can get to a laundromat. Okay.

[Kendra]

Yes. That's. It's a weekly thing. I can't do it every day. But right now we need to, like, go out to town. We take all the laundry. It's a hassle.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

At least it's done quickly, but, yeah, it's a big hassle. We're just talking about how soon we can set up a washer and dryer to kind of take that inconvenience out of it.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

And what was the other thing you were asking?

[Lisa]

Which is not near as hard, obviously, because you have.

[Kendra]

Right. And we. We have propane now. We have a wood cook stove we're going to be installing.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

So we'll be using that over the winter for heating and for cooking.

[Lisa]

Yeah. That's not near as big of a

[Kendra]

challenge cooking has been. Yeah, the cooking's been the most normal thing once we got the propane hooked up. Until then, I was using like a little camp stove with a small propane tank. And we just. We ran through that every day. Probably because the kids eat. I mean, we. We eat a lot of food.

[Lisa]

Yes. Yeah. It's constant. Right.

[Kendra]

It's all about. It's constant with the food. Anything with a large family, people will say, like, oh, what you did, it's no big deal. Just do blah, blah, blah, blah. And you think. But you don't have seven kids. Right. It's easy to say, do this. It's so easy. But with seven kids, it's a whole nother story.

[Lisa]

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be such a constant thing. And then how does it work with, like, dishes and cleanup and all that kind of stuff?

[Kendra]

Everything's being washed by hand now. Once the solar's on, we are going to switch to a dishwater. Because. Dishwasher, because that will be a lot more economical and efficient with water usage than the kids are presently right now. They do a great job washing the.

[Lisa]

You have to Worry about that, like how much water you use.

[Kendra]

Right. And we don't want to be critical of that. Like, no, don't use so much washing the dishes, because they're kids washing the dishes. That's a great thing they're doing right here. So I don't want to keep. Guys, turn off the water. Don't wash it like that. Wash more economically. So that'll be another thing we do once this, once the big solar array is hooked up, that we don't have to worry about power as much.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

The kids, we just wash dishes by hand right now. And we're using a lot of paper products, so. Paper plates. Yeah.

[Lisa]

Just to keep it more simple. So do you feel like your life before you were living, you know, on the grid, you had a little homestead and you had. You probably at that time had more time to do other things. Do you feel like right now it's kind of everything that you need to get done at home, if you were to leave, it would be impossible. Like, it sounds like just the survival stuff is. Is going to take a lot more time in this situation.

[Kendra]

Yeah. So it's switched. So before we lived on, we had a hundred. A hundred acre farm we were dealing with.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

Yeah, milking cows. We had goats and sheep. We were running pigs, butchering pigs, chickens. We kind of did everything. Yeah. You know, meat, chickens, everything. It kept us so busy with the farm that there was hardly any time to do anything else.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

Okay, now it's switched. Now we have no livestock. For the first time in 15 years, we've got no livestock. But we are kept busy. And I was kept busier back in PA with the milk cows and everything, processing all the dairy and things like that. Austin's kept a little busier now getting the generator running or emptying buckets or getting water deliveries. So I find that I have a little less work now.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

So I'm focusing now on, you know, I had been doing the same homeschooling program for the last four or five years. I. I have time now to kind of take a break from the farm stuff and analyze our homeschool pro program more to see. See how it's working for each kid. So even working on things that I hadn't done for a long time. Sourdough. Like, I gave that up when I got a milk cow because the dairy kept me so busy. So now, oh, the dairy.

[Lisa]

We only ever had one and we actually milked two at a time. One time. And just yet all day you need to be making stuff with that milk?

[Kendra]

Yes.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

Dairy processing is a whole job. And washing up after all the dairy processing and then getting ready for the

[Lisa]

next day, it's not the milking. That's no big deal.

[Kendra]

Yeah. If you're feeding calves or anything like that. And then cheese making. Right. Like it's constant.

[Lisa]

Yes.

[Kendra]

So I find myself with a little more free time than I used to have.

[Lisa]

Okay. That's probably not what people expected, however, when you're going from having that much livestock to having none. Now, do you all plan to have livestock here and what are the homestead plans for your. For here?

[Kendra]

I. We really love having our own meat and our own dairy. It's not as practical here as it is in Pennsylvania where you had a hundred acres to graze until February. We could graze almost year round there. So it's just when hay here is. You're looking at $20 for a small square bale of hay that's in decent shape. Like, it's just not as practical. I think one day we would like to look into a milk cow again, even for just beef from the calves and pigs. I think we'll do pigs. Definitely. Pigs are nice. The feeder pigs, chickens. I say this, don't tell Austin. I've looked at yaks.

[Lisa]

So we'll see.

[Kendra]

We'll see what kind of dairy animal is the most practical in this area.

[Lisa]

Yes. Yeah. Well, I've thought about that because we're definitely planning to get a dairy cow again when we move to our farm again. And it definitely, like right now I feel like I have so much extra time because we also don't have any livestock. And so there's. There's actually a lot of free time because we also don't have a lot of kid activities and we're not living off grid. So, yeah, there's some extra time there and that'll be different. But it is nice having an abundant milk supply, not having to worry about getting it. Are you able to find a good local source where you are?

[Kendra]

I could. It's just really expensive and.

[Lisa]

Okay. Everything's expensive there because.

[Kendra]

Because I worked, you know, you work with the cow, you've dealt with raw dairy. I don't trust just anybody to provide me with raw milk.

[Lisa]

Okay. Yeah.

[Kendra]

So we're kind of control freaks about that now.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Yes. So how long do you all plan to live in Alaska and off the grid and this adventure?

[Kendra]

The best laid plans.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

But for now, it's a permanent move.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

We've transferred everything. Yeah. We're permanently here. We all have Family and friends on the east coast. So a satellite location will be nice someday as our parents age. And so it's just maybe a little cabin close to one of our families. Would be nice to have one day if we visit for a few months out of the year.

[Lisa]

Right? Yeah. Yeah. So this episode was inspired by a listener question. I thought we could dig into this a little bit. That. That says they recently went on a crazy. This is referring to you, of course. A crazy off grid challenge in Alaska and learned a lot. I'd love to hear about being a homemaker during stressful times and changes in life. So you seem to have adapted by now. You all have been here a little while, plus you visited quite a bit before moving, so you're probably used to it a little bit. But was it stressful at first? And how did you continue homemaking and caring for your kids and all of those day to day things during such a transition before you were settled?

[Kendra]

Yeah, crazy stressful. We showed up. Austin and my oldest son showed up a few weeks before we did. They drove everything out, the dogs and the cats. And then I came out with the rest of the kids and we flew out. So we showed up here and

[Lisa]

like

[Kendra]

by the time he got had gotten the trailers and cars unloaded into this little cabin, it just looked like a bomb had exploded. And I'm showing up. I have a boy. She was eight months old at the time.

[Lisa]

Oh my word.

[Kendra]

She's just in that crawling phase and putting everything in her mouth. And I've got a three year old who's just non stop. So to look around here. And it was dirty. They cleaned it, but it hadn't been lived in for years. So there was just layers of dust. You'd walk upstairs and you could just see dust and debris falling from the ceiling on the first floor. The baby would crawl around, put wood in her mouth. So I came here the first night and I was like, okay, I'm gonna go rent us a house in town. I am not doing this. Okay. Yeah. So my mom says you got to climb the mountain before you come down. So I was climbing that mountain, like, what can we afford? Well, we can't afford anything else here. We're paying a mortgage on this cabin, so I can't afford to rent anything. But I had to go through that mental exercise. Okay, here we are. I hate this. This will never work. I cannot, cannot do this. And then walked outside for a little bit, got angry, got sad, came back inside, and we just got to work the first night because we Needed a place to. To put that baby down so she could crawl. We needed a place where we could. We could sleep safely and cleanly. So we just got to work and did it. And, yeah, it's very gratifying, the whole thing, because I love a project that can be completed quickly and you see a big change from.

[Lisa]

And cleaning up is definitely one of those.

[Kendra]

And a big cleanup job is like that. Especially when you're like, I sat. I set up our living room, so we cleaned really well. We vacuumed everywhere, and we put our couches in an area rug, and it was like, bam. All right, now this looks like a home. Just that easily, we could put the baby down. That would be where we could relax

[Lisa]

some quick gratification on something like that, where it was already a lovely place. It's a log cabin. It looks like it has a lot of rust.

[Kendra]

It looks beautiful.

[Lisa]

And you're just stripping back all the dirt and the grime and then putting your pretty things in there, and it's like, okay, we got this. Now what size is it? Is it a tiny cabin?

[Kendra]

It's not tiny. When. When we were. We were looking to build in Pennsylvania, so we kind of explored the tiny cabin thing. Looking at shed conversions. What could we do? And I think what this is, is this 1300 square feet. About that. Yeah.

[Lisa]

So not tiny. That doesn't count.

[Kendra]

No, no.

[Lisa]

Like, you guys use every square inch. I mean.

[Kendra]

Yes.

[Lisa]

Guarantee you use every square inch of that.

[Kendra]

Yeah. Especially once you talk about, like, storage of winter clothes and.

[Lisa]

Yeah, because there's no basement, I'm sure.

[Kendra]

No, there's no basement. There's no. There's no outbuildings or anything. So. So we're storing stuff in a trailer. Tools. Everything else is in the house. Yeah. And we're. It's. Yeah, it's. We're packed.

[Lisa]

You're packed because we have two. Two more children we're living. I never did get the. The exact square footage on the house we're living in right now, but I know it's not. It's probably not quite 2000. And we use every single square inch and then some. Yeah.

[Kendra]

So you're. You're a family of 10, 11 with the new baby, right?

[Lisa]

Correct. Yes. We just had a new baby. Yeah.

[Kendra]

That's 200 square feet per person. That's not. I mean, when you look at a tiny house for two people, if it's 400 square feet. Right. It's a. It's a small space, too.

[Lisa]

That's a tiny house, right? Yes. Yes. And And I feel like I have decluttered so incredibly much, just so ruthlessly. Like we don't really have. I don't even have kids clothes in storage anymore. The other day I got out every last bit of it and I was like, let's be realistic. I have nothing great. Anyways. When it's time to swap out clothes for the season, I don't go look in this bin because it's always somewhere really inconvenient. Now I think in the new house we're having a basement, I would probably go there. But right now it's like shoved in like a closet because there's no basement in this house. And I also do such minimal clothing. I know with you doing once a week laundry you probably have to keep a little bit more. But I do it to where like if we didn't wash every day, we wouldn't have enough clothes. And so I'm like, why am I even keeping extra stuff at this point? And still this place feels like stuff to the rafters. Like it feels so full.

[Kendra]

We only brought, we only brought. My dad has like a pole barn back in PA where we left probably three quarters of our stuff. And I did the, all the farm stuff that I was like, okay, I'm not gonna be milking right now. All our fences, yes, but stuff that's, it's valuable. I don't want to sell my milker or my fencing, so I want to keep it. But yeah, all the kids clothes that were in storage, I got rid of most of it, except the stuff I knew we would need because it just took up so much space. And we had a garage there, we had a pole barn there. We don't have any of that there. And this stuff sits and sits and sits and you pull it out and you're like, that's. Are they ever going to wear this again?

[Lisa]

Well, and I already thrift the clothes. When we do like, we do a twice annual swap out usually for Missouri, that's May and October when it's cold and when it's warm. So I can do all the winter, you know, long sleeves jeans in October and I can do all the short sleeve shorts and all that kind of stuff. Late May, typically, we're out of anything cold at that point. And I, I go thrifting. We have, everybody probably has these now, like those curated thrift shops where you can go and it's really easy. Like it's literally as easy as going to Target. You just go in there and you can find everything. I'm like at this point, why would I, knowing that these types of stores are available, even keep things and let instead just give them to those thrift shops and people can buy them and just kind of swapping it out via the thrift shop. So I don't know, I think that's when you're really feeling pressed for space. Even something like that. Like, I went through, oh, so many things, and still it's.

[Kendra]

And you know, the mental space that. That all takes up, if you have it.

[Lisa]

The mental space storing really does. Because when I was thinking about doing my swap out this year, I was like, okay, I gotta go find those bins. Where were those bins we moved and where did I throw those bins? And I'm like, or I could just not worry about it and go collect the five things I need at a thrift shop. Like, it's not that big of a deal.

[Kendra]

Right?

[Lisa]

I agree that it does. It takes up mental space. And I think if you have a really great system, like, some people are like, well, I have organized bins on these, like, racks in the basement. Yeah, you basically have the thrift shop in your basement. That's great. And so you're organized and you have the space for it, but right now we do not. And so pressure's off. Like, I'm just not keeping this stuff.

[Kendra]

Yeah, I was, I was organized. I was organized. And I would get people. His grandma would give us clothes and they'd go in the bins. Right. I did my processing. Boop, boop, boop. And then like, I had a toad get into a bin and die.

[Lisa]

Oh.

[Kendra]

I was like, these clothes have been sitting here for years and years now. They smell like.

[Lisa]

They smell like dead toe.

[Kendra]

Yeah. I was like, this is just. This is not for me with a lot of stuff. Some people find a lot of comfort in having those things. They have a lot of comfort with their things, and I just don't.

[Lisa]

Well, and that's true. Yeah, for me it's the opposite. It's like, well, it must be. You must have your house pretty trimmed down to live with any sort of piece in a 1300 square foot home with nine kids. Or not nine kids with nine people. Because that's a lot of items, even just with the necessities, like shoes, clothes, a blanket. You know, there's a lot of things that go with nine people.

[Kendra]

Yes.

[Lisa]

The cooking stuff, the plates, the forks, all that. So you must have. You must have done something to make that work.

[Kendra]

We did a lot. Yes, it was. Do I use this every day? Will I Use this every day and then we bring it. If not, it was. We'll keep it in storage or we'll sell it. We sold a lot. We had gotten a lot of butcher chicken butchering equipment. And we don't plan on butchering that many chickens again. We would butcher up to 100 chickens at a time.

[Lisa]

We don't plan to eat all the things. Yeah, yeah.

[Kendra]

So we sold that stuff like that. We really had to look at. We have experience doing this. Is this something we want to continue doing?

[Lisa]

Yeah, yeah. So what have been some of the most difficult things to adjust to? Moving from very different climate. Just everything, I'm sure, different between where you were from in Alaska. What have been the most surprising things, the most difficult to adapt to?

[Kendra]

When we first came, it was June, and June's pretty bad for mosquitoes. So that was a big Alaska or. Oh, yeah.

[Lisa]

Okay. I was like, in Missouri. It's terrible. I didn't know.

[Kendra]

It's not like that in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, PA do not have a bad mosquito problem here. The mosquitoes are bad, and it's because of the permafrost. There's a lot of wet around. That was hard. So that was another thing. When we first showed up, the house was a mess, and we got out of the car and you get swarmed by mosquitoes. I'm like, how do people live like this? Yeah, it did quickly. You could see there are ebbs and flows in the mosquitoes, like, as far as hatching and stuff, which we didn't realize, like, okay, now the hatch. We showed up during a hatch. It was awful. So we stayed inside a lot the first few days.

[Lisa]

I'm sure it's already. Well, this episode's coming out in November, so obviously it's cold, but, like, right now when we're speaking, it's not. It's October, so it's already cold there, I'm sure.

[Kendra]

Yeah, it's already like. It gets down to 39 at night. We're 40s to 50s during the day right now.

[Lisa]

Okay. Well, one thing I think is interesting. Luke's cousin lives in Alaska. So I keep. There's a town in Alaska that I keep in my little weather app. You know how you have, like, places you've gone, and if you don't delete them, they're still there. And so I look often at their weather just out of curiosity, and I'm always. I think I have it in my head that Alaska is. And obviously there's different parts of Alaska. So I'm just thinking of this One place, but that it's so cold, like, so freezing cold. And in the middle of winter when we're just so cold here, it was actually warmer where they are most the time. So it was like, not the extremes. And I don't know where you are in Alaska and what it's like for

[Kendra]

you, but yeah, that was funny because that kind of gave us the confidence to do this move, because I was. I was following the weather, too, from PA last winter, and we had some really cold snaps in pa.

[Lisa]

Yes.

[Kendra]

Like, and I looked.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

Yes. For days on end. I lost a calf. It was so cold. You know, the cow decided to go outside to give birth instead of in the barn to give birth. And I think the calf just instantly froze.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

So, yeah, we had awful weather like that. And I'm looking at Alaska, I was like, it's not even freezing there right now. They had one of the mildest winters that anyone could remember. So I was like, all right, we could do that.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Well, okay. So maybe it was just mild last year because that's when I was checking, too. And I'm like, what? They're. That's what they have.

[Kendra]

Like, I thought, yes, it was a mild year. And I know a lot of people are hoping it was like the winter before where it was cold and they got a lot of snow, because people around here miss the snow. They're like, they're here for the snow. They're here for it, and they want to go do their snow stuff.

[Lisa]

Yeah, they have their snowmobiles, and that's probably how they get around easily in the wintertime.

[Kendra]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Lisa]

Yeah. So how has it been adapting to the light? That's something I think with Alaska, I'm like, oh, man, I don't know if I could handle the long hours in the summer and then the short hours in the winter.

[Kendra]

Yeah. The long hours in the summer were a gift this year because we had so much to get done. So to be able to be working until 11 o' clock at night and not even realize it was that late, it was nice. Now we're getting to the point where we're at less than 12 hours of daylight now. So at 8 o' clock in the morning, it's dark, and at 7 o' clock, it's dark. So now we're ticking away. I think we're losing, like, six minutes every day, and we'll see how we do. Yeah, I like it this year because it's kind of forcing us to slow down a little bit instead of. Well, we could work till 11. Now it's like it's pitch dark. It's seven. Let's go inside. Yeah. Let's be done. So I'm hoping I can kind of embrace that, but we'll.

[Lisa]

Yes. What does it get to though? Like at the solstice, does it get to like three in the afternoon or what?

[Kendra]

Yeah, they'll say it kind of is that like dusk kind of look all day long where it doesn't even.

[Lisa]

It just doesn't ever.

[Kendra]

It doesn't feel like sunny. Yeah.

[Lisa]

Okay, well, I guess we'll see how that goes, right?

[Kendra]

Yeah. Report back. We'll let you know.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Report back. Yes. Yeah, I feel like there'd be. It'd be such an adjustment with, with Alaska. Now, have you had any family members that have come to visit you yet?

[Kendra]

When my. No, not yet. This year Austin's family drove out with him. His mom and dad, they. They made the drive with another trailer load of stuff. So they've. They've done it. My. My family was able to come the summer we visited and saw it. They haven't seen this cabin yet, though. A lot of people will go. They'll do their vacation in the winter to warmer places. So we may do our east coast trip. Yes. I don't think they'll come in the winter. Not my family. We may be the ones going to the east coast for a little less because, you know, here in March, it's still going to be kind of miserable. March, April, it'll be cold. April in PA is getting nicer. So we may do that.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

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[Lisa]

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[Kendra]

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[Lisa]

One of the listener questions. You have a lot of homestead experience, whether it's in Alaska or over in Pennsylvania. What livestock are the most manageable for beginners and which are easiest to sell if needed? So I guess that question basically is where would you start with livestock? Like what, what tips would you have on that?

[Kendra]

I think chickens, especially egg laying chickens are easy. Easy for most people to do on whatever property they have with proper zoning and everything like that. And then it's easy to segue into if you're ready for more of a product than eggs. Like meat birds. If you've got the chick experience already, meat birds are an easy transition. And then from there what we did was we went to pigs, feeder pigs, because we didn't have to breed anything. We found a great breeder who could mentor us. And the product from pigs, you know, is so nice, huh?

[Lisa]

Yeah. I think a lot of people, usually the first thing they think of is dairy, whether it's a goat or a cow. You and I both spoke to that. That's a big job. And it is. It's not the milking. People think it's the milking. It's not the milking. That's no problem. It's fig and that. I mean it's, it's a thing. It's definitely a thing because you have to be home and you can't go anywhere. But the, the biggest, the hardest part is dealing with the amount of, of dairy.

[Kendra]

Yes. And there's so much animal husbandry that goes into a milk cow. Even if you get a bred cow initially. Right. She calves, your milking. Now let's talk about breeding. Right.

[Lisa]

Like this is not a one and done deal. Like we gotta think about this three months after the calf is born. We've gotta get back on it. Yeah.

[Kendra]

Cause I love a cow. I think it's much harder than having a pig. A pig for the season though. So analyze what you want. What are you in it for? Are you ready to have year round livestock? Like what's your setup for water if you're freezing or for heat for shade if they need it. Yeah. So a year round setup can be more complicated than like four months for feeder pigs.

[Lisa]

That is so true. That's a good point. That's something you have to. There's not really a break from it unless you, you know, don't. Don't get her bread back. And you plan for that.

[Kendra]

Right. As far as selling like my milk cows, I don't think we've Ever sold livestock as easily as milk cows? Like, we always got good, good money and they sold very quickly. Every milk cow that we sold, even. Even obnoxious milk cows sold quickly.

[Lisa]

Uh huh. Well, like we were just saying, that's usually what people first think of. Like that's the dream animal. When you think of getting a homestead, it's chickens first, of course, and then at some point we'll get a dairy cow. And so I think, you know, people are looking for them because of that. So.

[Kendra]

Yes. And it's easy to idealize that whole thing. And I'm already doing it for years

[Lisa]

and I'm like, I cannot wait until we get a dairy cow again, even though I do know it's a ton of work and I can get it from somebody locally very easily. Right now we have multiple sources and I'm still like, I. I know I want a dairy cow.

[Kendra]

Yeah. Does anyone in the family other than you milk?

[Lisa]

Well, when we had one last. Not really, but I think we could definitely get to that point at the. But now. So, yeah, I think that that would. It's been a few years and I think that we could at this point, but we don't mind milking. My husband and I don't mind it. He doesn't mind it at all. I think it's. It is the, the amount of dairy is the kind of the issue that you get.

[Kendra]

Yeah. We would do milk dates, so we'd milk once a day. Austin and I would go out and. Yeah, that would be like our date for the day was milking.

[Lisa]

Huh? Yeah. Yeah. We go out to the barn and just the two of us. I don't know. I think it's. I think it'll be. We'll at least try it again. I don't know, maybe we'll calf share because we did a year where we didn't share. And so we had, you know, twice a day every day.

[Kendra]

Yes, me too.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Yes. Yes. Okay. One of the listener questions that we had, I was looking for this one because there was a couple that were in regards to like, finances and when things are stressful. Okay. So how do you stay grounded and hopeful when finances or circumstances feel uncertain? And then another one was, what practical tips or resources can help families save money while living paycheck to paycheck? So I guess let's. Those are unrelated questions, really. Let's talk about the. You know, you guys took a risk. You moved not just across the country, but like, you know, across a couple countries to get to where you are. And I'M sure that there was some parts that felt uncertain. How did you manage that?

[Kendra]

I am. Austin calls me. I'm toxically positive.

[Lisa]

Okay. I know some people like that.

[Kendra]

It's idealistic.

[Lisa]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

It can be a good thing. It can be a good thing. Except the idealism combined with that means I can be disappointed a lot. Right. Like, I showed up and thought this was going to be amazing. So when it was just awful right away, it was very easy to sink down into that. But you know that study they did where they compared the happiness levels of people who lost a limb and those who won the lottery?

[Lisa]

Okay. I don't think I've heard this.

[Kendra]

No, they found out. I think it was in the 70s they did this. They found out that a few months after that, whether they lost a limb or won the lottery, they. The levels of happiness were about the same.

[Lisa]

Really? They, like, quickly adapt.

[Kendra]

Right.

[Lisa]

Like you quickly adapt to your new circumstance. Is that what it is?

[Kendra]

Yes. And, yeah, people who lost a limb weren't as sad as they thought they would be. People who won the lottery weren't as happy as they thought they would be. It's. The theory is that the. It's just the body's way of bringing us back to kind of a level where we keep wanting to do more

[Lisa]

and that no matter what. Yeah.

[Kendra]

Think. Thinking that no matter what happens now, they'll get better, things will improve, or at the very least, they'll change. So as long as we always say, as everyone's alive, we've. You know, you lose a lot of animals on the homestead, and you take your time and you grieve and you look at what can be done, you learn from it. The experience goes with you. Whatever you learned, there's value there. So you. We're going through this hard thing. We're learning. This was a challenge. I. But, hey, I flew out here with six kids by myself. Like, what I learned from that, I learned what kind of person I am. I can handle that. Onto the next. Yeah. Staying grounded. That helps. And staying positive, like, even not so toxically positive, but just. Things will get better.

[Lisa]

Mm. Yeah. That's very.

[Kendra]

And it got better. And it got better quickly.

[Lisa]

Yeah. Do you ever miss or long for where you used to live?

[Kendra]

Certainly.

[Lisa]

Maybe not because of your personality. Maybe the toxic. Toxic.

[Kendra]

Yes. I don't. I don't. Look. I always say to Austin. Austin loves to, like, look back and regret and wallow.

[Lisa]

Okay.

[Kendra]

And I don't. I like to. I like to think, like, well, let's move forward. I Don't want to feel sad about that. But the things I miss, you know, Alaska doesn't have thunderstorms, so is that good or bad?

[Lisa]

Because I kind of like thunderstorms.

[Kendra]

It's bad for me. It's good for my son. He's terrified, but it's bad for me. I love, like, a humid day with a thunderstorm. So, like, I miss kind of the heat. That humid heat we'd get. It was beautiful summer, a beautiful summer here, and we'll see how we like the winter. But I did miss some really hot days with a thunderstorm at the end of them. I miss my cows. I miss my cows. I miss going out to the barn. But I'm very grateful we don't have them right now because we have so much to do here.

[Lisa]

Right.

[Kendra]

To just think about bringing in water and feeding cows and goats and sheep would just be way too much work.

[Lisa]

Well, I try to think logically about things, and you all made a decision based on a lot of factors, a lot of thought, and to then in a moment of emotion, if you were to decide something else that you made a decision on, it's not necessarily helpful to be like, oh, I miss this.

[Kendra]

Yeah.

[Lisa]

So, yeah, maybe that's how you approach it.

[Kendra]

Yeah, it's more. And then just realizing, like, the emotions I'm feeling. I'm very governed by emotions, so I feel like I should do this today. Let's do it. And just remembering, like, emotions are valid for me. I'm feeling them. That's a valid feeling for me. It doesn't mean they're right or logical.

[Lisa]

Right. Exactly.

[Kendra]

Yes.

[Lisa]

That's so important to remind yourself. Okay, tell us about your podcast. Tell us about your YouTube channel. Because I'm looking through the thumbnails, and there's just so much I need to catch up on with you all. I mean, I've followed you, like, over the years, and then your. Your move to Alaska. It's all very interesting. So tell everybody where to best follow

[Kendra]

along with you right now, because we're doing so much. It's on the YouTube channel. And so that's. That's the best place to see everything that's going on. The podcast will come out, but it's a little more delayed than the YouTube channel. So go to the. The YouTube channel to check that out. And we're about. We're a few weeks behind there, but we'll catch up pretty soon, hopefully by the first snow, so everyone can see how we do with that.

[Lisa]

Okay. Yeah. And if you need to catch up fully. Just scroll way back. This will give you a marathon of content to watch. You can follow along with the entire story, catch up, and then follow along all winter. I know. I'm excited to watch you all this winter and see how your winter in the Alaskan cabin goes. I think it'll be great.

[Kendra]

Yeah, I think so too. It's a beautiful place. So if you want to see some beautiful Alaska scenery. Yeah, be sure to Be sure to watch.

[Lisa]

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it.

[Kendra]

Thanks. Lisa.

[Lisa]

Thanks as always for listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. My husband Luke and I and our eight kids work together side by side on our little homestead and use our blog, podcast and YouTube channel to reach other homemakers, home cooks and homesteaders with practical recipes and daily family life. For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to check out our blog, farmassonboone.com and to dig deeper, we do also offer a course called Simple Sourdough over at Bitvit Ly farmhousesourdoughcourse. That's all one word. Bit Ly farmhousesourdocourse. If you're looking to learn how we earn an income online, check out my YouTube course at bit. Ly farmhouseyoutubecourse. All one word.

[Kendra]

Sam.