Did man evolve from monkey?

It truely is hard to tell sometimes!





But the beauty sure is something to behold!

A crack-a-lackin good time...

She could not have been more proud of her success with crab legs....



Steady young grasshopper...



LET'S EAT!!

Every good man, must take a fall

And mine can do it with such class!!!!

Abby talked him in to hopping up here so that I could take a picture.



He really is a happy man...



And 20 seconds later....



The stump won! And that doesnt even show the hamburger that was his shin and stomach :)

New Life Abounds

And on my back porch!!!!

We planted some veggies and flowers this year for fun and trial run :)

He just couldn't not check them out...



In need of more growing space....aren't they just b-e-a-u-tiful????





My children love to get their hands dirty. Yet it is done with such love and cleanliness!




Some excellent looking cat grass!!!



Just after getting started, I found Phillip ignoring us so that the he could stare out the window!



Just an odd picture to show his true nature....Phillip must hug almost every tree that he passes by :D

A much loved game....

By most of America, and certainly by my husband, Kevin. We were finally able to scratch enough money together to take the whole family to a see a Reds came. We had to get the cheap seats, but later discovered that you can just watch the game from better areas, you just have to stand the whole time.

Kevin and Abagael had such an amazing time! Im not sure who had more fun!



Hotdogs at the game were a MUST.... what kind of a wife and mother would I be if I didnt come up with hotdogs???





Pictures with mascots are also a must.....

Mr. RedLegs


RoseyRed




To finish of the day we stopped in on a town named Yellow Springs (total hippy town!). I like to swing in here every chance I get, and its not often. I have only been about 10 times the whole 5 years that we have lived here. In fairness though, it is about 1.5 hours from where we actually live. But it was on the way home.

To finish up a great day, Kevin got to see this as soon as we pulled in on the main street!



Abagael couldn’t refuse the opportunity...

Learning more about what we are...and what we are not!

My husband and I are 90% polar opposites! I grew up in Tennessee, and I am 75% country to this day. I have lost some of my hickability since I have been living in a city for 5 years!

I listen to country music, I love John Deere gear, I love a ball cap and I like to leave the doors open and breath fresh air, not just the ac all the time, both of my children wear cowboy/girl boots as often as they'd like.

My husband....complete opposite. Rock music.....thats his thing. The country music he does like, makes me cringe! Hold on to your hanes guys....he's a Dwight Yoakum fan.....gag!!!!!! Although he does like Alabama, so I let it slide! The man refuses to own a pair of boots, and you can forget a hat, ain't gonna happen :)

Although, he certainly enjoys my pintos and cornbread with a mess of fried taters with onion :D

More about our family.

We are trying with all our might to be "green" as often as we can. We are on a *tight* (read stretched way too thin!) budget. We are both full time college students. He is a nuclear medicine student, and I am a nursing student. I keep flip flopping on my major, but I think I will just stick with the nursing. I have been in school for 2 years, and I need to settle on a major!

We cloth diaper, we line dry (I will get you a picture of my urban clothesline that is a cotton rope nailed in to the siding of my apartment on my back porch! We live in an upstairs apartment! ) all of our clothes when we can. We recycle....AND SO SHOULD YOU! We handwash our dishes, although we have an automatic dishwasher! We conserve water whenever we can. We usually dont turn the lights on in our apartment until around 8 p.m. when it is dark outside! We drive a small ford escort to save on gas costs, we accept almost anything that we can get for free, there is no better cost!

We try to cook healthy as often as we can. I am finding that this is much easier than I thought it would be. I didnt grow up on healthy food so it is an adjustment to learn to substitue lard for soy or olive oil :)

We have a garden on our back porch with the clothesline. Currently we have carrots, tommy toms, green onions, cucumbers, cat grass (we have 2 kittens), wildflowers, forget me nots...and I feel like I am leaving something out!

I really do need to get some pictures here so that you can better understand!

What we dont do....drugs, alcohol, tabacco, stealing, cheating, beating one another, abusing/neglecting our children, skip baths! Oh and we rarely have a "clean and tidy" home. Although we are working on this. We dont make money the center of our world. We dont have credit cards and we NEVER borrow money from friends or family....that is always asking for an uncomfortable situation!

So why an urban homestead?

I suppose firt we should disect the word.....

urban–adjective -living in a city
homestead-noun-any dwelling with its land and buildings where a family makes its home

We are a family of four, consisting of myself, my husband and our two children. An amazing girl, that is so intellegent and mature beyond her years, all six of them. And a bouncing, bubbly boy who is....100% boy, and he is only 21 months!

I grew up in a small town or 3 in Tennessee, and my husband was an Army brat, and didnt have a solid home until the age of twelve when his father retired and moved to a podunk town in Tennessee.

We were wed on January 31, 2004 and on Feburary 6, 2004 we moved in to our 612 sq. foot apartment in a very large city in Columbus.

4 years later we have doubled the size of our apartment, but we are still stuck living in a city, and longing to true homesteaders as soon as we can make it happen.

Here you will read our journey of urban homesteading, and watch us progress to podunk homesteading in the years to come.