Meet a Reader | Gretchen from Oregon
Hello, everyone! Today we're meeting an Oregonian who does an impressive amount of homesteading.
Here's Gretchen:
1. Tell us a little about yourself!
My husband and I live in the Willamette Valley in Oregon with our three kids, ages 4-6.
I used to be a Spanish teacher until I stopped working to stay home with my kids. My husband is a middle school language arts teacher.
We live on a small homestead property where we raise chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep, and dairy goats.
We also have a big garden, fruit trees, a medicinal herb garden and grow some cut flowers. We also have three cats!
We spend most of our time seeing friends and family, participating in our church activities or working on our property. I do a lot of our cooking from scratch which takes a lot of my time!
As well as other "from scratch" things like my current main hobby of teaching myself how to spin yarn from our sheeps' wool.
Another big part of our lives is adoption.
All three of our kids were adopted and one has an intellectual disability so we also spend a lot of time learning about trauma and adoption issues as well as supporting our kids with their different needs.
2. How long have you been reading The Frugal Girl?I
've been reading The Frugal Girl for 4+ years now, definitely pre-pandemic but I'm not sure how much before. I think that I heard about Kristen's blog through Katy, the Non-Consumer Advocate.
I don't know how I heard about Katy's blog first!
3. How did you become interesting in saving money?
I think I first got interested in money by ... not having any! I can remember quite a few years in college and grad school when my part-time jobs juuuuust barely covered my expenses (and sometimes not even that!) so I just needed to spend money carefully and save if I could.
I remember for many years looking at any recipe that asked for more than one kind of cheese and rejecting it right away. There was no way I could afford that! Even now, it seems quite indulgent to me 🙂
Once I started working and did have more money (although, as a teacher, especially at a private Christian school, never all that much!), I have always wanted to save money for the future.
I hate the idea of being haunted by money-woes when my husband and I are retired. I want us to have options and the freedom to pursue our interests and joys during that stage of life, so we need to save now!
Additionally, it's really important to us to have money to give to our kids so we save for that reason too.
4. What's your "why" behind wanting to save money?
I have a lot of different "why"s for saving money:
(1) to steward our possessions well because of our religious beliefs
(2) so we're insulated from the impacts of a crisis like losing a job, major illness, big home repairs, economic downturn, etc if/when they happen,
(3) to have what we need for the future
(4) to model good money management for our kids, especially saving, budgeting and generosity,
(5) to save money so that we're never living beyond our means (so stressful!!) but can use our money to enjoy life now and meet our family's needs while still being responsible for the future
5. What's your biggest frugal win?
Over time, our homestead will be a frugal "win", although it certainly isn't at the beginning!
Although we had to invest in machines like a plucker and scalder for butchering chickens, as well as the animals and their shelters, eventually our home-raised meat will be basically free.
Ditto for our garden produce, our fruit, our canned goods, and so on.
I haven't done the math to pencil out when we'll break even but I have a goal to track costs and "income" in 2024 to see where we stand right now.
Certainly, we'll never be able to beat Walmart prices but our quality isn't Walmart level either so that makes sense!
I use a grain mill to grind grain for our sourdough bread. The grain mill was an investment but if you compare the cost of homemade sourdough bread to store bought loaves of equivalent quality, it's a huge savings. I wouldn't be surprised if we've broken even already on that one!
Another, very important frugal win, my very frugal husband who's a natural saver and set us up for success by buying his first house (a foreclosed property) at 28.
7. What's your biggest splurge?
We splurge on travel, celebrations and presents for our kids. I can't resist buying them high-quality, special presents for their birthdays and adoption day celebrations.
My husband and I always go out for expensive meals for our anniversaries as well. We enjoy the time together so much, it's a very worthwhile splurge for us!
8. What are you not remotely tempted to splurge on?
I"m not at all, zero percent, truly never tempted by cars. Both of our main vehicles are 10+ years old.
Our farm truck is thirty years old! I dread the day we need to buy a new vehicle.
9. If $1000 was dropped into your lap today, what would you do with it?
If $1000 was dropped in my lap today, I'd save some, tithe some, and use the rest to start a savings fund for a future family vacation.
My kids are dead set on going to Disneyland someday, which, my goodness, is an expensive proposition.
10. What's the hardest /easiest part about being frugal?
For me, to be honest, the hardest part about being frugal is resisting the fun and pleasure of shopping and buying things.
I wish I were a natural saver like my husband, but I'm not. It takes a lot of self-control for me to limit my "fun" spending.
Happily, I've gotten better at that restraint over the years so I don't do much impulsive or wasteful shopping these days.
I think the easiest part is things that are habitual so I no longer need to use will-power to resist the temptation. For example, we're very accustomed to buying anything we can second-hand at thrift stores, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace. We've saved so much money over the years shopping that way.
At this point, I don't even think about seeking out new items, buying second-hand is just second nature.
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Gretchen, thanks so much for participating! I am super impressed by your gardening skills, and wow, your cut flowers are gorgeous.
I hear you on the second-hand thing; that's my first thought most of the time too. And with enough patience, I usually can find what I want from my Buy Nothing group or Facebook Marketplace.
Your children are adorable, the baby chicks are so fuzzy, the baby rabbit's feet are precious...you have lots of cuteness around you!
I have a grain grinder too; mine's the Whisper Mill. Which one do you have?
Gretchen, your kids are absolutely adorable, and it's a pleasure to read about another adoptive family. Our son is biological, our daughter is adopted and we, too, celebrate her adoption date. In our family, it's called Brother and Sister Day since it's the day they became siblings. (It probably would have been called Siblings Day, but we let the kids choose the name when they were little). Despite the fact that they're now in their twenties, Brother and Sister Day remains an event on our family calendar. Your dedication to homesteading is impressive - best wishes to your family for another successful year ahead!
@Mary ~ Reflections Around the Campfire,
Love the idea of Brother and Sister Day! And the fact you include/honor both kids in the celebration.
@Mary ~ Reflections Around the Campfire, I'm Hindu and we have two brother/sister days each year that we celebrate. I like the intention to help solidify and celebrate that bond.
@Mary ~ Reflections Around the Campfire, I love that you call it "Brother and Sister Day"! I can imagine how with one bio and one adopted, you would need special intentionality to help them build the sibling bond. That's really sweet!
Thank you, all, for your kind comments. We'll never know how much of an impact Brother and Sister Day had on their relationship, but the kids are 24 and 29 now and they remain close. That makes this mom's heart very happy.
Gretchen,
Wow! Yours is an uplifting interview. I love that you have three adopted kids, how lucky they are to have you (and vice-versa). It looks like quite a wonderful life with all the plants and animals. I am sure it is a lot of hard work.
I think back to when I did a lot more cooking (as empty nesters we're happy with leftovers and a lot of simple meals) and it was time consuming. It is much healthier and generally cheaper but a big time commitment.
@K D, Cooking 2-3 meals a day for kids is definitely a big time committment! I know when it's just my husband and me the work load will go way down. My kids never seem to accept leftovers with as much good humor as I'd like so I find myself cooking more often than I'll need to when they're out of the home. I enjoy it as a way to nurture and nourish them, though, so I do it gladly 🙂
Thank you for sharing your beautiful life!
All of your money-saving "why's" resonate with me. And I like your thought process that although there are upfront costs for homesteading, it should reap benefits down the line. We are finding that to be true also.
Your kids are beautiful. Thank you for giving them their best chance at healing and living a wonderful, loving life.
@JP, Do you guys homestead too? Depending on the property one buys, the upfront investsments can be huge or really minimal. Our property is in the middle of the cost range but it still adds up!
@Gretchen, homesteading seems like a very vague term, but I'd say yes. We have ten chickens, two beef cows that we are pasturing for a neighbor in return for meat, and I do a fair amount of canning and freezing produce in the summer and fall.
The previous owners of this property had horses so thankfully most of the fence infrastructure was already here, but we had to modify some things, and we're still getting used to maintaining a larger property! We are coming up on two years here.
Beautiful photos and a lovely family. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Gretchen! This all sounds very familiar. 🙂 Except the spinning. I've never been into fiber arts, despite my husband having sheep for fifteen years. What breed of sheep do you have? If they're wool sheep, do you sheer them yourselves?
@kristin @ going country, We have Icelandic sheep and recently bought an East Frisian. I don't do my own sheering. We were able to find someone who will come to our property and do it. What do you guys use your sheep for if not wool? Meat, maybe?
@Gretchen, We have wool sheep, Merinos. We have a shearer that sometimes can come. When he can't, we do it. My husband sells the fleeces. We eat the ram lambs, too.
A lovely family, lovely animals, and a lovely homestead! Thanks for sharing!
Gretchen, like another poster said what an uplifting meet the reader. It is dark and rainy here today so reading about your life was a ray of sunshine into my day.
When I retired I started cooking from scratch and it does take a lot of time but I wished I had done it sooner.
Cute children, cute animals, beautiful produce and flowers. You didn't touch on it but I am certain your church and school are good sources of friends and like mindedness.
We have a church we love and it makes all the difference in our retirement.
@karen, Thank you for your kind comments. Yes, our church is a very rich part of our lives. We're so grateful for it. We don't know many other homesteaders but I wish we did! I'd love to do more in person learning than I'm able to do now.
Thanks for introducing yourself and your lovely family!
I never knew that ducklings could be so pretty. And I love that you have a medicinal garden. Is it in any way like the old monastery ones?
@JNL, Ducklings are adorable! I love them. I'm not very familiar with monastery gardens. A quick google search told me that there probably are some similarities between what I have and what monastery gardens were like. Herbal medicine has deep historical roots so the plants I grow have been used for centuries/millenia. I'd like to learn more about monastery gardens. Thanks for mentioning them!
Thank you for sharing your beautiful life with us, Gretchen! Your kids are just adorable and so are your animals. I know it's all a lot of hard work, but it sure seems like a whole lot of reward, too! (My daughter spins her own wool too, but she lives in Manhattan.) I too, have a problem with "resisting the fun and pleasure of shopping and buying things." Well put!
My daughter gets fleece from a friend of mine who bought a small farm in upstate NY, which came with a herd of alpaca (non-negotiable with the sale). I gotta say, though, alpaca are pretty much duds as fun animals. Ha.
@Rose, I find it so rewarding! The hard work is actually really enjoyable to me (except on rainy and freezing and dark winter mornings when chores still have to be done.) That's so cool that your daughter spins yarn in Manhattan. I'll bet she has access to a lot of really cool yarn and fiber stores there!
Gretchen - your kids are so cute!!! That's fun that they're so close in age.
I find homesteading fascinating, so I really enjoy reading about someone who is doing it. Thank you for sharing with us! It sounds like you have built a beautiful life and I love how frugality has helped make that possible. I am right with you on having gotten better at limiting my fun spending over the years. I'm thankful that it's not as hard as it once was.
I appreciated your line about not beating WalMart prices, but how it isn't WalMart quality, either. Good timing for me to read that! I was talking with my cousins (that are farmers) on Saturday and they have a pig that is ready to be butchered but they don't need the meat from it. We talked through it and told them that we would buy it. We know that it will be more than the sale prices I get at the store, but also know that the quality will be so much better.
Thanks again for sharing with us!
@Ruth T, Thank you for your kind comment! I bet the meat you bought from your cousins will be delicious! We did the math for our bulk purchases (of a CSA, tuna, salmon, beef, pig to raise for pork and sheep to raise for lamb meat) for this year -- between what we grow at home and what we'll buy direct from producers, we'll end up with around $700-$800 in groceries every month. Not too bad for a family of 5 with very high quality products! Keeping our homesteading frugal is a fun (and necessary) challenge for me in this season.
Nice to meet you Gretchen!!!
What beautiful photos. Your homestead sounds like paradise.
This was inspiring and motivating to read, thank you for sharing your life. It sounds very busy, but also very fulfilling. Your children are beautiful and it’s wonderful to hear that you celebrate the adoption days too.
Happy to hear that you have/make time for a time consuming hobby as spinning. Someday I hope to have a similar life on our own homestead 🙂
oh my goodness. Between the kids, animals, flowers...there is sooo much cuteness and beauty in your daily life! I would spend half my day holding that bunny haha!
@Marlena, I'd be next in line for the baby bunny--and first for the baby duck!
@A. Marie, Here I go with Betty MacDonald again. "Mother was out raking leaves, watching the children and exercising the mallard duck, which someone obviously not familiar with the family had given us alive and expected us to kill and eat."
@Marlena, baby bunnies just can't be beat! They're so so very cute and cuddly. Baby chicks and ducklings are so cute too but they're not as easy to hold as the bunnies so I think the bunnies win 🙂 Baby lambs and goat kids are pretty darn cute too!
Gretchen, thanks for giving us a peek into your homesteading life. Your lucky children are adorable and your flowers are stunning!
So fun, Gretchen, to read your story today. Well-written, too, and all the fuzzy animals made me smile widely. I love your splurges and the fact that you honor your children with two special days a year. These kids are so lucky to be raised in the world you and your DH have created.
I’m interested in what a medicinal garden might involve and how you use it.
Thanks for sharing this brightness with us.
@Erika JS, thanks for your kind comments. I struggle at times with thinking of my kids as "lucky" (although we frequently hear that comment). It's so wonderful, of course, that they aren't still in foster care or dangerous family settings, but it's hardly lucky to have suffered trauma/abuse/neglect at very young ages and then experiencing family separation. I hope that we can offer them a safe place to heal from their experiences.
The medicinal garden has herbs and other plants that have some medicinal function. This includes kitchen herbs like mint, sage, thyme, rosemary, and others but also plants that are primarily medicinal like comfrey, yarrow, elecampane, lady's mantle, echinacea, hyssop, mullein, and others.
I collect different parts of the plant (flowers, leaves, or roots) depending on the use or the plant. I dry the plant material for teas, and make tinctures, syrups, or salves. It's very cool to see them actually have a healing effect and I love teaching my kids how to use plant medicine.
Thanks for sharing! Your homestead, flowers and produce, baby animals, and your children are all so photogenic!
@Robin, thank you! Although I'm biased, do think we ended up with some very cute kids 🙂
Wow! I loved reading about you and your family and I really enjoyed seeing the pictures of the little cuddly critters (both human and animal) and the flowers. Sounds like you have a very blessed, amazing and happy life. You may not have a lot of money, but IMHO you are living a very rich life indeed.
@Fru-gal Lisa, thank you! Like many of us, probably, I can struggle with maintaing a spirit of gratitude and remembering my blessings. (I like the Thankful Thursday posts for this reason.) Your response, and others like it, are helping me remember to be grateful for what I have. So thank you!
Nice to read about your life, Gretchen! The Willamette Valley is such a great place, and your life looks ideal.
Here is a list of my thoughts:
1. Will you actually be able to butcher some of those animals? (Yikes, I am a wimp.)
2. Your children are so close in age—that must have been a real rodeo when they were younger.
3. Warby looks like my Perkins, and your son on the left looks like my great nephew who lives in Salem!
4. As long as your vehicles are either Toyota or Honda, you don't have to worry about replacing them for many years yet.
5. I associate homesteading with homeschooling. Since your husband is a teacher, I am curious about whether you are teaching them or sending them to school.
6. Your interview made me realize that I don't know the real definition of "homestead" or "homesteading".
Thanks for sharing your life with the Commentariat!
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, The willamette valley is lovely! Central California is too 🙂
Some responses:
1. Yes, we do butcher our own animals. So far just poultry and rabbits although I'd like to learn to do pigs and lamb too. I don't enjoy it but it's an important skill for us. And in terms of frugality, very important because the butcher fees can be significant!
2. They're still only 4 and 6 so it's definitely very much a rodeo! Our two boys (the six-year-olds) have TONS of energy. One of them has an intellectual disability so that adds to the chaos quite a bit. They keep us busy!
3. That's a funny coincidence! We're in Salem too 🙂
4. We have Kias but they've been very realiable so far!
5. We don't homeschool the kids. They're thriving in school settings so we're very grateful for those educators who teach them for us. In particular, for the special ed teachers for teach our son with an intellectual disability. It would be quite challenging for me to homeschool him!
6. I think the definition of "homesteading" is somewhat debated. For me, it means turning the home into a center of production, not just consumption. This can be on very small or very large scale. I love the creative processes involved in learning how to garden, raise animals, cook, preserve food, save seeds, make herbal medicines, and so on. For me, that creativity is also part of homesteading. I love that people can do it from apartments to big rural properties.
@Gretchen, re #3 and being in Salem, if anyone ever calls your boy "Levi" by accident, you will know why!! I think he is also 6 years old. . . weird.
Thank you for defining "homesteading" for me. I am very impressed with your medicinal herbal usage, and the butchering. Again, I say YIKES!
Hi Gretchen!
Have you taken classes to learn about photography? You have some gorgeous pictures! Amazing that you can squeeze everything into a day. Thanks for sharing!
@Kris, Gretchen, I agree with Kris. Your photography is stunning! I’m impressed with your writing skills as well. You have painted quite a beautiful and inspiring picture of your family’s life. Thank you so much for taking time to share with us!
@Kris, that's really kind of you! I actually think of myself as quite a mediocre photographer but I did try to choose some of my best shots to share for this post 🙂 I would love to learn more about photography someday for sure.
I’m sitting at home in a darkened house because the horrendous storm still passing through northwest Florida has knocked out our power. My office didn’t even open today so no driving in this, thank heavens.
So I was feeling pretty gloomy till I saw this.
The flowers, the kids, the baby animals, the cat getting contemplative on a hay bale!
You made my day brighten up considerably! Thanks for posting!
@JD, Our power flickered, then went off for two hours, but is back on now. BUT, the storm hasn't hit yet!
@JD, I'm glad it could brighten your day! It was pretty gloomy here too (although no storms, thankfully.) I found myself looking back at some of my pictures of flowers and gardens and longing for springtime!
Gretchen, thanks for sharing, and especially for all the great pictures! You have an impressively wide variety of animals; it would be hard enough for me to be able to keep up with the category of "fowl" (or even just the subcategory of chickens). Are they hard to keep contained? Our neighbors had rabbits for a while and despite many housing revisions, those rabbits were pure escape artists. Our garden definitely suffered that year, but we were treated to many immensely cute bunny sightings : )
@Suz, For the most part we've figured out good enclosures for all the different animals. We have definitely done our fair share of chasing escaped bunnies around the yard though. Little kids come in very handy for that type of thing! And I have also chased some escaped sheep through our neighbor's property, which was pretty embarrassing. In general, though, our animals are pretty content in their enclosures and tend to stay put.
Yay for another Willamette Valley reader! Your homestead pics just brought big smiles.
I have an antique grain mill that is similar to the Country Living Mill that we hook up to our early 1900 hit and miss engine for big batches of flour.
We grow a medicinal garden: Peppermint, Rosemary, Spearmint, lemon thyme,
regular thyme, calendula, borage, oregano, basil, German Chamomile, lavender,
Plantain (I know, weed, but it is so useful I grow it in a specific place), Clary Sage,
White and Purple sages, yarrow, Garlic Chives, Garlic - 3 kinds, Dill, Echinacea Angustifolia, Elderberry - this is grown in a wetlands fence row, Stevia, Lemongrass,
Parsley and potted Aloe Vera and Ginger. This year I am going to try growing Arnica montana, I may live too low ion elevation (430 ft), I collect the flowers when visiting my brother's ranch in Montana. It is wonderful for use in arthritis salves and helps with bruising.
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, When I was a kid and foraged a lot (so want to get back into it) I used to pick plantain and them to our dinner salad. A friend of mine grows elderberry to make into tinctures. I also grow a lot of the herbs you list, but to eat, not make into medicine.
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, I also grow many of these herbs but to add to my cooking, not to use medicinally. Wish I knew how to do that.
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, That's so cool that you're in the Willamette Valley too! Where are you? I'd love to see your antique grain mill.
Thanks for sharing about your medicinal garden. I grow most of those same plants but would love to add aloe vera and ginger, as well as arnica.
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, I grow a tiny selection of these, but it is simply because the deer won't eat them!
@Rose,
I foraged for the elderberry, too. Then I started volunteering with the native plants society and found the perfect place to plant them on our property. I freeze dry the berries now (using my cousin's home freeze drying unit). I used to juice them and can into half pint jars, then they would be used in recipes for cough drops ( more like cough jellies - think gummy bears). The herbs are used mostly in food, except when I make tinctures to add to my salves, lotions and oil mixtures. I just planted 20 tea plants and will make my own tea mixes as well. I studied with a local tribal medicine woman for 20 years. The plantain was something that my Grandfather taught me as a kid to grind up a poultice to use on bug bites and stings. I make my own biting fly sprays for the livestock.
@Gretchen,
Hi! I used to farm in the Zena area (way out W. Salem) and now am further West towards Perrydale. The aloe and ginger plants are in pots that I over winter in the greenhouse.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
Oh deer! The local deer steer - get it? clear of our farm as our pup (border collie) is a very hyper, vigilant guard. The cows do not like the deer, either.
I do have 9 ft fencing around the 1 acre garden/orchard area. I line my rose garden with lavender plants and they will not cross the lavender to get to the roses.
That duckling is so cute I could just eat it up! So...will you, um, eat it up at some point?
@Becca, hahahaha so funny. We do, in fact, eat them but not until they're quite a bit bigger and less impossibly cute. I really don't enjoy butchering but it is just a reality of a homestead and where meat comes from in general.
I loved every single thing about your bio---the farm, the animals, the fact that you adopted children, the skills your kids are learning by living on a farm. (the pic of your kids is cute as heck!) Thank you for taking the time to give us a window into your world.
@Lindsey, so nice of you. Thank you! I do hope our kids will learn some good skills here. In particular, I want them to see me going through the learning process (including mistakes and failures) so that, whatever their passions are, they pursue them in their own lives in the future.
great post. love the pictures. you have such a good head on your shoulders. thanks for sharing. your family is beautiful. i know you will enjoy disneyland when you get there.
What a beautiful homestead and life you have Gretchen! The sweet children and lovely flowers are wonderful to see as, like other readers, I am waiting here on the east coast for heavy rains to morph into a storm. I love reading about the varied lives Frugal Girl readers have!
It’s s pleasure to meet you. You are an inspiration on many levels!
Wow, your life looks really sweet, looking in from the outside. I know everyone has woes and difficulties, but my goodness, those beautiful children, gorgeous property, adorable animals...what's not to love? So pretty. And I agree with your priorities. Those are some kiddos who've gone from unlucky to lucky, to become part of your family on your gorgeous homestead. Thank you for sharing with us! It brightened a dark day.
@Jem, Thanks for your kind comment. As you indicate, every life has its challenges. I didn't share about it much in my "Meet the Reader" section but raising kids who have experienced trauma is deeply challenging and demanding. I know God brought them to us and is using us in their lives but it's definitely stretched us to our limits at time. Nonetheless, we're so grateful for them and feel so lucky to live on our small property. I'm really glad that so many readers enjoyed seeing a little slice of our life 🙂
We held firm on *not* going to Disney (this was 30 years ago and it has not gotten any cheaper). We took inexpensive vacations once a year. When the kids graduated from college, none of us had any debt.