Hi friends I’m Angelina and this is the story of how my husband Casey and I started our homesteading/business journey. It was in early 2011 that we bought our home and property. My husband and I always knew we wanted to live in the country and after buying our property our goal was to be self sufficient.
We started with a garden, neither of us being gardeners but we did have some family and close friends that were expert gardeners. It began with a few seed packets and gifted tomato starts and we were hooked on growing our own food. Each year I learned more and more and we expanded the garden and then bought chicks. I’m sure most of you know of chicken math which lead to more and more chicks. Once we started our family it was even more important because we wanted to teach our kids about growing and raising food.
With our jobs and new babies keeping us busy our homestead didn’t expand but our goals and dreams didn’t stop. We didn’t stop working on our land, we were getting log trucks of logs for firewood and would process 10 cords of wood every couple years. We also planted bare root trees for our mini orchard and did countless projects improving our homestead using free or cheap materials we’ve been given or found on Facebook/Craigslist.
Fast forward to 2016 when I was injured on the job which resulted in many back surgeries and me without a job. My husband and I had to come up with a plan B for how to compensate for the loss of my income. Since I LOVED starting vegetable plants and always too many we decided to try our hand at joining our local farmers market.
My husband found plans online from Ana White for a greenhouse and we built it to house my green babies. Some other items we sold was our garlic, jam that I had learned to can and some cute shiny metal creatures. You see my husband loves fabricating so he decided we should also offer some metal art. He used silverware to make garden art and I made wind chimes and other garden decor with old graters and a mixture of other metal items we had in the garage.
To our surprise customers were incredibly drawn to and loved our metal art. As a family we discussed our next move with our business and made the decision to invest in a plasma table and make metal decor that we were often on the hunt for during our treasure hunts at antique/thrift stores.
Our vision for our metal decor business has always been to create original designs to add charm to our customer’s home and to create custom signs that have an heirloom quality that will be enjoyed for many years. All four of us do a part in making our business and homestead run. I do a lot of the design work with some help from my husband because two brains are better than one. He’s also the muscle in the crew and runs the different programs it takes to get a design from computer screen to cut out.
In the garage we work side by side as I help clean up the sharp edges of the metal and I’m also the powder coating master. Our kids are always coming up with clever ways to help either brainstorming metal ideas, helping us set up for shows or helping us package up orders.
Our homestead is also a team effort because we are teaching our kids about hard work but also what goes into what we do. The kids love collecting eggs and packaging them up when we would sell them at the market. My son loves chatting with the hens and giving them treats from our table. Both kids have been playing in the dirt since they were in diapers and still help me plant seeds and water the green babies. They are constantly amazing me in how fast they learn and everything they want to be a part of.
Our business may appear to be only metal decor but we are much more than that. Our goal is to show others that homesteading has many faces and it can be done on any budget. We want to prove to those just starting out that there are many ways of getting projects done and most of them they can do themselves. Along with that we want to provide quality craftsman made metal to add beauty to your home.
Use the code SEED15 for 15% off White Family Homestead!
The Whites
PIN IT FOR LATER!!!
