Some Background

 So today I would like to give you some of my background... how did I get where I am and why.

I was raised in a very conservative Christian home, and I am the oldest of 6 kids. My mom homeschooled all of us, and as the oldest, I often helped out with the schooling and care of the younger children. I also did a a lot of the cooking and cleaning. 

Me sorting greenbeans for pickling with Ukiyah (the youngest) in a mobey wrap.

It was during that time that I really discovered my interest in homemaking, homesteading and farm life. I began teaching myself how to pickle, preserve and produce as much of my own things as possible. I also loved taking care of the farm animals and learning how to use the products they provided for us. It was a time where we wanted for nothing, there was an abundance of fresh produce, eggs, milk, and anything else we could want for. 

Milking our goat Lacy

 In 2014 my parents decided to sell everything and move in to a Toy Hauler 5th wheel, and my sister ShawNee and I moved into a smaller trailer. We then traveled to Flagstaff Arizona, where we lived for a few months off grid in our RV's while we looked for property. When we decided that Arizona wasn't for us, we moved to Cave Junction in southern Oregon. We found 2.5 acres that was our dream home, it had fruit trees, a huge garden, a vineyard, and a pond. It was absolutely beautiful, and we all fell in love right away.

Sequoia in the garden.

Unfortunately it was short lived. My dad had finally gotten what he wanted, shortly after he and my mom separated an he left me and her on the street with nothing but the clothes on our backs and told mom not to come back, I was allowed to come back, but I had to live under strict rules, and he told me personally that he dreaded having me there if I decided to stay. We went back to Madras, and lived on my grandparents couch until there was an opening at a local women's homeless shelter, where we slowly got back on our feet. 

Christmas day at the shelter, we did our best to provide good memories for the kids.

While we were living at the shelter, mom was working on getting our Madras house into her name (my dad was still a part of it) and move the renters out so we could have a home. I decided to go to school to become a Veterinary Technician, and started taking the prerequisites. We had a lot of work to do on our house to get it back into living condition, so between school classes, homework, and working, I was also helping out here. 

Me helping repair the front deck

In 2018 I graduated Tech school as a Certified Veterinary Technician, and in October of that year, I started working at Redmond Veterinary Clinic, where I still work currently. 

Since we have been living here, all of my siblings have eventually joined us here in Madras. Sequoia and Ukiyah have been with us from the beginning, ShawNee off and on, she met her now husband Dusty in school, they got married and lived in Bend for a few years before building an apartment in the shop here and moving in shortly before their son Gideon was born. Dakota and his wife Cheyenne moved in, and then a few months later had their twins, and Kiowa comes and goes.

It is a busy house, and everyone has different lifestyles, but we (mom, ShawNee, Dusty, Sequoia and I) are hoping to return to that self sufficient lifestyle that we all loved at one time.

Me, An Introduction

 My name is Sierra. I am 29 years old, and the oldest of 6 kids. I live in Madras, a small town in the beautiful Central Oregon. I am a Certified Veterinary Technician, and I work in a mixed animal veterinary clinic in Redmond. 

I am a little bit country and a little bit gypsy. I am a homesteader/prepper at heart, but I long to see new places and travel the world. I am a collector of the written word (like I literally had over 1000 books at one point), and someday I would love to write a few books of my own. 

I live on 0.75 of an acre with my mom and all my siblings, their spouses and their children. There is 12 people, 5 different households, all trying to live in a small space and get along. It gets crazy busy, loud, and hectic, and the washing machine, bathrooms and kitchen are always full! There are a lot of clashing lifestyles and differences of opinion with so many people, but overall we manage to keep it somewhat peaceful. 

I own a small 10x12 rent-to-own shed that I am slowly but surely converting into a tiny house. I know nothing about building or tools, but I am hoping that this will be a learning process for me, and I will definitely be sharing parts of that journey here. 

In my free time, I enjoy reading books, coloring, listening to music, and playing video games on either my ps4 or my gaming laptop. I am trying to build a YouTube channel for my gaming, and I would love to eventually make videos for my tiny house process as well. 

I have two cats that mean the world to me, I am sure you will see them often. 

Juniper is 4 years old. Our neighbor found her as a sick little kitten and my mom and sister gifted her to me to replace my cat Faith who had recently passed away. I nursed her back to health, and as a kitten she used to go to school with me because we were homeless/living out of our cars at the time I got her. We have a very close bond, closer than any animal I have ever had. She is fierce and sassy at times, but she is very affectionate and always seems to know when the depression is settling in or I have had a rough day at work. 

 

And then there's Rasta, he is a goof ball that always gives me a reason to laugh. He is 3 years old. I found him and his 4 siblings in a slash pile near our house. Their mom had been hit by a car on the highway, and all the kittens were trying to climb up on the road to reach her, almost getting hit themselves. We dug 4 of them out of the slash pile and I took them home, then on a hunch, I decided to go back out to the pile to look again. And there he was, he was all alone, sitting at the entrance to their den wondering where all his brothers and sisters had gone. He was the runt, but he had such a loving, goofy spirit, I knew I could not rehome him. Juniper was not thrilled to have a brother (she is still ticked off about it I think), but she adjusted pretty quickly.

Well, there you have it, that is me. 

Ttfn,Sierra