About US

Allow me introduce our family. I am Amber, an artist, nurse, mother and wife to Steven who is first and foremost a lover of dirt, me and our family. He has a degree in history and archeology specializing in first contact through westward expansion. The daily lives of pioneers and Native Americans has been a lifelong interest. He is the primary author here though I will frequently share my photos and personal experience throughout. We have a son and daughter ages 10 and 13 who are allowed to (often required to) participate in all the home and garden activities we blog about.  We are very strong advocates of empowering the next generation to be self sufficient and resourceful, not just future consumers.
        Steven and I met in college and the first place he took me was on a flash light tour of his garden. I was so proud of the bean pole tunnel he created and how successful everything had been. This was late July, mind you, so every plant and vine was bent over with vegetables. The very next year we were growing a garden together on a quarter acre rental property on the edge of town. This was also when we first got the idea to teach kids gardening to improve their lives and the community. The neighbor kids loved working in the garden with us.  That next year we took a wild edibles class together. We expanded that knowledge to medicinal herbs and food being that we were still college students without insurance. Just after our daughter was born we moved to Tennessee for Steven's curator job where he also got an opportunity to do reenactment on a pioneer farm.  We, of course, had our own garden there, learned some new tricks, and met lots of great people knowledgeable in gardening, natural medicines, and conservation. Just before our son was born we moved to South Central Indiana to raise our kids close to their grandparents.
           While we were raising little ones in a townhouse complex with postage stamp yards, the all natural boom was taking off. While we were doing what we had always done using what we had to provide good clean food and natural remedies for our family, labels started popping up like certified organic and no GMOs. While we were teaching the neighborhood kids the joy and satisfaction of growing and cooking fresh treats for next to nothing, whole foods markets we suddenly becoming serious competition for traditional supermarkets.
        When the kids were both in school and I had finished my nursing degree we were finally set to purchase our own home. We thought we wanted a little farm for a huge garden and some animals but we wound up right back in the neighborhood I grew up in across the street from my parents. With both of us working now we wanted our kids to have a solid support system. Of course the first thing we did was dig up the yard before we ever moved the first box. Yes, we occasionally regret not buying that farm but the since of community on our street, those strong family ties, and the history our kids have here, is worth just as much to raising our kids as any farm would have been. Besides, Steven and I had made wonderful sustainable lives with a lot less in the past and we still have a lot more we want to do right where we are.