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About

Welcome to our Homestead!  I’m Dianne, the creator of Hidden Springs Homestead.

Hidden Springs is here to help you learn how to grow and preserve your own food so you and your family can be more sustainable.

Way Back When…

I grew up on a 5-acre farm. Back then, it wasn’t called a homestead—it was just home. My parents raised everything we ate.

As a child, I thought life on the farm was miserable, and I couldn’t wait to leave. But now I’ve come back to it.

In the Making

For several years off and on, my mind would drift back to living on the farm.  We had only 1 income, barely getting by, and no way I could even remotely think of having a garden, a barn, much less anything else.  When you are barely getting by, there is no money.

At night, I would lie in bed and see myself gathering eggs, milking a cow, and working in a garden, but it was only a dream.

The idea was becoming much stronger, and I was having a hard time containing it. I was reading everything I could get my hands on. I subscribed to Grit Magazine and Mother Earth News. I went to the local library, subscribed to blogs online, and poured over the internet searching out homesteading information. I wasn’t telling any of this to my husband, though. He worked out of town and home only 2-3 days a month.

I began buying and canning vegetables by the bushel at the local Amish market. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I could ask my mom, and I knew others who were experienced with canning as well.

I started asking lots questions and then I got my hands on The Ball Canning Book  .  It got even worse.  Yes, the pantry shelves were full, but I had spent way too much money buying the bushels.  I knew if I wanted to do this, I was going to have to grow my own.  I was overwhelmed, so many ideas, and how in the world could I do this with no money?

Raised Beds Begin

I borrowed my friend’s book MiniFARMING Self-Sufficiency on ¼ Acre by Brett Markham, and I couldn’t put it down. I marked and highlighted it so badly that I had to buy her a new one.

The book made it sound so simple!

That same week, I came across the blog TenthAcreFarm, and Amy, the writer, had written an article titled “How to Build a Garden on a Budget.” It was all coming together, but how?

It wasn’t, but a few days later, my husband called home and asked me if I had any use for untreated 4x4s—12 feet long. How many and how much were my first questions? “FREE—as many as you want!”   I immediately saw raised beds! Free fit my budget!

When he came home for the weekend, we borrowed a trailer and started hauling! Raised beds were coming soon. When he left to go back to work, I began digging and building raised beds. They needed to be ready for spring!

The Official Beginning

Spring  2015.

New raised beds, growing and canning vegetables, focusing on debt, and paying close attention to the budget.  How else could I save? What else could I do?  How could I earn more money on our homestead?

With a productive garden that supplies our food, selling my handmade crafts, jams, jellies, and strategic planning, my husband could come home from the job that kept him gone for weeks at a time.

He still works outside the homestead, but he is home nights and weekends. I can live with this until we are able to get him out of the rat race of working for someone else.

Homesteading is about living off the land, within your means, and not acquiring debt.  It’s about living on the basics by choice.  The homestead is growing, and it is coming together with careful planning, hard work, and goal setting.

I Began an Education

With all the excitement and desire to learn more, I returned to the classroom.  Studying gardening, herbs, and personal health, I acquired a certification as a Master Gardener.

I now enjoy the pleasure of helping others achieve their gardening dreams, using my experiences, both successes and failures. After some prodding from fellow gardeners and students, Hidden Springs Homestead was developed to help reach others who may be struggling to contain the dream I had.

Join the Journey

Our goal is to be self-sufficient. The work is not easy, and it does take sacrifice, but it will be well worth it. My mission with this website is to share our journey in an effort to inspire you to reach for your dreams—not to push them back inside but to allow them to blossom.

I will share new and traditional gardening methods, ideas, tips, tutorials, and instructions on building a homestead. Although I don’t have years of experience, if I can inspire you, then my goal is met.

Yes, our homestead is young. I have made many mistakes and failed many times already, and if I can share them with you and they help you, we both win!

I’m not a fancy person by any means, nor am I a writer, but I do believe in being real.  My heart’s desire is to help others to live their dream of self-sufficiency.  To help others grow a garden and help with the family budget.  I would also like to share everything I do here to grow our simple homestead from the ground up.

Join me on our journey. You can follow me on my website and on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have.

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