Technically, we are not living on our homestead yet. BUT…we are getting ready! We have 5 acres we call Straw Hill that we’re planning to build a Passive House on. We’re highly motivated
Two years ago we moved a barn (that was two weeks from being burned to the ground) to our property. It’s a beautiful round topped barn that we are in the process of restoring. We plan to turn it into offices, a show room, shop, and parking for our home building and remodeling company.
We’re also planting gardens and orchards, cleaning brush, mowing weeds, and getting ready for a bit of livestock.
No homestead is complete without a dog so I’m just starting the process of looking for the perfect dog, too! If you hear of any Great Pyrenees dogs that need a good home, let me know!
Our hope is to start our home in the fall of 2011 and complete it over the winter. I’ll keep you posted on the progress!
Michelle — love your new site! I had no idea homesteading was in your future…wow! When my parents built their house 6 years ago, they really wrapped their brains around the “not so big house” by Sarah Susanka. I went with my dad to hear her lecture in Des Moines. Passive houses seem smaller by nature, but with so much more. Looking forward to watching the progression of your homestead…thanks for sharing so much!
We have a plan to move back to US (we currently live in the Netherlands) in two years time and homestead. I’m anxious to hear your progress, and your passive house design is intriguing.
Thanks, Tracey! I grew up in Germany and always enjoyed visiting the Netherlands! We’re honing in on the passive house design and hope to start building next year. I’ll be blogging about it when we finally nail the design! Thanks for stopping by!
How exciting. My hubby and I are planning on looking for land in Wyoming in the next couple of years. His family has 240 acres here in Montana but I found I couldn’t live in this area and be away from him (he had to find work and it was out of state!) Im really excited to find bare land and build
The idea of a passive house is very intriguing! I look forward to following your adventures 
We moved to Iowa from Colorado and looked briefly at Wyoming. Family won out there, and we came to Iowa!
Good luck finding land. We found Wyoming to be very expensive.