We are Grant & Dawn Old. Our journey began in December of 2006 when we were joined by God and decided to go forth on this path together toward debt-free, simple, organized, off-the-land living. This has by no means been an easy path so far, it (I'm sure) will only get harder before it gets better.
Last night we sat down and worked out our "debt snowball" (we've been trying to work through the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University kit). We're hoping to be completely debt free by the middle of 2011. This may seem like a long time, but that's on an income of $1400 a month.
What have we accomplished so far, toward our goal?
*We are planning for a garden this coming spring that will measure 30x60 ft (bigger than the house we currently live in).
*We have begun walking practically everywhere we go (we don't have a running car, and actually enjoy not having such a burden attached to us).
*We (most of the time) have begun baking our own bread, rather than buying store bought. This has been a challenge, as I've (Dawn) never had an electric stove before, and the stove we have doesn't have the perfect thermostat!
*Grant has begun trying to work out a bartering network of local people so that we may be able to stick to our plan of the debt snowball.
*We have been reading everything we can get our hands on from the library about cooking, cleaning, living organically and simply.
*Dawn has been working on our genealogy's and we've been trying to reflect back on what our farming ancestors (most of them) went through in times like these so that we can learn from their wisdom.
Most people look at us as if we are nuts, trying to live without such burdens as credit cards, cars, and other such things, and maybe we are. But we feel like this is the life that God has chosen for us, to draw us closer to him. We thank you for finding us and spending some time with us. If you too are on this lonely road, with no one around you to help you on your way, come and join us! We love making friends with like-minded people so that we might be able to uplift each other and learn from our mistakes as well as our accomplishments.
