here's to us

From the book Old Fashioned on Purpose. Here's to us. The ones disenchanted with blandness of conformity. The ones who swim upstream while the societal herd rides the river of least resistance. The ones who favor homegrown and handmade over cheap and mass-produced. The ones who embrace sweaty summer days and frigid winter nights instead of chasing constant comfort. The ones who grow, shepherd, nurture, produce, need and craft rather than consume. The ones who are old-fashioned on purpose and choose to truly live, not merely exist. So yeah, homesteading is a lifestyle change. It doesn't matter if you're just growing a little basil plant in your windowsill or the full-on Old MacDonald E-I-E-I-O farm. It's a lifestyle change, and you need support in community, in know-how, in and inspiration. And I put together features from all three of those things inside my member area, Abundant Permaculture. I would love for you guys to check it out right now. We're doing a New Year's registration, and I'm giving away Jill Winger's Old Fashioned On Purpose Planner. This will help you make it your best homestead ever 2021. That's a bonus right now. Discount, 10% off right now. And premium goes away. So right now you can get in on premium, get text access to us, bi-monthly webinars with us, Q&As. That's all available right now. I encourage you to check the link out in the description. And it's available until what, the 21st, 11:59 PM? All right, check it out. And I should add this, after that it'll still be there. So you can still sign up, you can still watch Rooted. Rooted is in the member area. All the learning libraries, the community, you can access that year-round. It's just that our bonuses go away and, uh, premium goes away. We don't keep it open all the time. So I encourage you, check it out right now. It's a great time. It's the beginning of the year. Let's make this, let's make 2021 our best year ever. Just yesterday, Ben and I, co-director, a Rooted set right here. We're talking show number 2. He came out for a photo shoot yesterday just for general marketing, Instagram, documenting our life kind of thing. So I'm going to roll that as I talk to you about what's in store for Rooted. One thing that I really walked away from, from that meeting very excited about, is Ben wants to level up instead of level down. Like, we did episode 1, But he just wants it to keep on getting better. So instead of saying, "Oh, how can we cut this or that?" He's like, "How can we add this or that?" More time shooting, more time developing the story. I love that aspect. But also another one more crew to bring to take this to just to the next level. He also asked me about, "What do you think if—" it's like not always about the farm. I'm like, go for it! Because you guys, this is why, because when we meet you at meetups, a lot of you will tell me you came for the chickens, you stay for the family. I think you come for the chickens, for the, for the practical, but then you stay for the relatable, the real life, what everybody deals with, whether you're in the city or in the country, you deal with real struggles like health, like family not supporting you, and then you deal with real victories like people coming along and being a hero and helping you along and getting you through. And just the ups and downs of life. I'm excited to say that the next episode looks like it's gonna be— well, you know, Rebecca's due with Snowball. We're looking at— let's get Snowball here. Let's give Rebecca some recovery time, and then let's make a show about the mom and the children. Won't that be cool? And that dynamic— like I said, a lot of you come for the chickens, but you stay for the family. We appreciate you for that, and I look forward to episode 2 of Rooted. Episode 1 is available now. It's in the, it's in the Abundant Permaculture member area, link in the description. Um, but I look forward to where we're going with this. And we're shooting, you know, I'll be honest, it's freaky because this is quite expensive. We're not getting any less expensive by adding value with a little bit more stuff. You know, I said, how do we get it from 18 minutes to 22? And he said, yeah, that, that will help. So we want to get this to show length, like 20, 22 minutes. It was— everybody was wanting more. Everybody was wanting more. It was just that good. And so I want to deliver that. It is expensive, and I'm like, this is like way next level. We're still going to do these vlogs. Compared to the cost of vlogs, it's like 1,000x. 1,000x. But I feel like Just to be honest with you, I feel like it's a risk. I mean, we're selling well. The Abundant Permaculture is selling well. People are buying into it because of Rooted, but it's going to have to keep doing well to keep it up. And I'm going for it. We're going for it. And I think it's worth it. And I think beautiful things will come from it. I've been excited to show you guys this. I think Randolph just kind of tidied up yesterday. Yes, the bathroom reno. I mean, maybe there's a few odds and ends to do left.

There are some odds and ends to do.

You want to give us a tour?

So this is my laundry room. I'm so excited about it.

And we'll start over here.

So, so that's not going there.

We don't need a light there.

Hold on, I don't know why this is— because it's—

because we wanted to pause it. So for this 2 or 1. It won't be loud. All right, just start it. The laundry must go on.

I know, right? Despite the show. So this will just be like toilet paper and towels and light bulbs and candles and extra stuff that you need in a house.

This is game changer.

I'm so excited about this laundry sink, which I can water my plants in, which I'm doing currently, and I have like a little, um, butcher block countertop here. I'm just so excited. It's just like beyond my wildest dreams. See, look. Yeah. We can put the beach towels here. They can get off of my bookshelf and I can actually use my bookshelf for books. Nice. So that will be done. I want to paint this and we're gonna, we're gonna barn door this door. So it'll be like a slider door because we're getting a door here. It's not here yet. It just shipped. So it's coming.

You know what's cool about this? This, they can be doing their business in there, showering, and you could be in here doing laundry.

I know, and that was the whole point of this because— two rooms. It was just one room and it was hard because they wanted their privacy. They're getting older. My ironing board can finally come out of my closet and live in the laundry room where it's supposed to. It's just so much room, like it's just so much room. I'm just so excited. And then I got my top loaders. I've got my cloth diapers up there. I need to wash them all. I haven't gotten that far yet, but we don't cloth diaper right away. We use disposables for the first week or two, so I have some time. Yeah, and then it's nice.

I see Randolph left his coffee mug out.

It was over here. It got moved over here by someone, but I'm going to get like a little shelving unit that goes in here. And so I can put all my soap so I can just scoop it in and I don't have to move it. All right, it gets messy as you can see.

All right, let's see this. So is this, is this bathroom nicer than your bathroom? Well, that's what the kids keep saying.

They keep saying, Mom, why is your— why did you make our bathroom nicer than yours? And I'm like, it's newish. What did you want me to do, put junk in here? I mean, I don't know. So yes, it is nice and I really, really like it. We have 5 hooks for all 5 kids that will eventually be using this bathroom. And I really love how this turned out. This, I felt like, just did a really good job. This still, I'm gonna paint again. We're gonna get somebody to paint the inside of that just to do a finish coat. Baths have been thoroughly enjoyed in here. The kids are very excited about it.

This is nice. I like the openness of this thing. Yes. Just a— Well, I figured— Stainless steel.

Because we have— We have so much storage space over here. And we really don't store a whole lot in here. Like, we'll keep our first aid kit in the laundry room. Basically all we're gonna store in here is towels. Okay. And the baby bathtub.

This is brilliant. Which is nice, just in time for little Snowball. People are wanting to know what gifts, when's Snowball coming?

He's still here. He— we can't lure him out. Yes.

And you know, we're well within the window. So yeah, it's not like I'm not overdue.

No, I'm not overdue by—

I mean, that would have been a blessing to have him a bit early, but well, I'm still early. Let him bake for several weeks.

So it's totally fine.

Big window, nice view of the farm. This is so nice.

Well folks, I think that's a nice happy ending.

Don't forget to check out Abundant Permaculture New Year's registration launch right now. A lot of goods, bonuses up. Check that out. Join the Abundant Permaculture family. We'd love to have you.