As the country continues to explore a simpler lifestyle and continues to become more receptive to alternative living, so have we! College-educated Jessica Collier and Brannon Collier gave up what was expected of early-twenties millennials and instead traded it for simple living similar to the lifestyle shared by their grandparents and ancestors before them. Don’t get me wrong, having the joys of modern living, such as electricity and modern plumbing do not go without being noticed. I mean that is how this blog is able to be shared and our lifestyle is supported. However, being able to connect with the earth, with the animals that walk it, and truly taking a step back in time has its bountiful rewards!
To understand why we chose this lifestyle, it is best to start with a little bit about us. So, I, Jessica Collier, am the primary emotional and literary spokesperson for JB Homestead. I pride myself in being able to articulate myself in an emotionally connective and literary-compatible way. I desire to connect with people and more than just on a surface level! This is why, I spent a fortune going to The University of Alabama for a Human Development and Marriage and Family Therapy degree. While that master’s degree looks great on a resume and draws the attention of folks I’m chatting with, primarily from those who think I have a flawless marriage, it wasn’t what filled my cup and made me whole at the end of the day. I longed to connect with my ancestors I never knew.
Growing up, I lived with my primary family: mom, dad/stepdad, and siblings. But, due to some familial circumstances, ties with my extended family and even with some of my siblings were cut. Soon, it was just my mom and brother. And for decades it has remained the “Three Amigos”. So, as I grew older, attended university, met my husband, and began discovering the dreaded “what do I want to do with my life”, I realized there was a major gap in my identity because I didn’t know where I came from. I’ve heard stories of folks who were adopted longing to find out information regarding their birth family to help them fill in the gaps of who they were so they can help the individual discover who they “want” to be.
As I approached my mother to gain insight into my family lineage, I uncovered an excitement that I didn’t know existed. People who had fantastic stories, comparable to novel book heroes and protagonists, lived a life of hard work, tremendous caring and compassion, and love and pleasure. Through this journey, it was learned that my ancestors were heavily compassionate people who faced hardships in trying to conceive, with instability in the government/country, and with challenges in simply trying to provide for the family they were blessed with. I realized that the people who had a part in making me share a lot of the same qualities with me despite decades of difference.
So, I took this information and began exploring what it was that these people in my genealogy would do to provide for their families, what kind of life did they live, what made them happy, and what was success like to them, and I applied it to the life I live now. Some may think I’m living another person’s life, but instead, I am appreciating a lifestyle that comforted so many in previous decades and even centuries and adapting it to fit the life that I want to live.
Since beginning this journey, I have learned more than I ever thought imaginable. I’ve had some failures and some really hard “coming to Jesus” talks with myself and my husband. I quit my mainstream 9 am-5 pm job that I was miserable at. I’ve acquired more farm animals on my little sliver of an acre, and I’ve never been happier!
While this is my story, Brannon shares a similar, but yet different approach to why he chooses to live a more traditional lifestyle, a “back to the basics” style.
Growing up in North Alabama, Brannon came from two sides of a family that were known for raising cattle and working on the land. As farmers and cattlemen, he grew up knowing long days, short breaks, and achy bodies. But he also learned the sense of accomplishment after a long day, the importance of soaking up time with your family during those short breaks and appreciating the strength of our bodies when they’re achy.
When we decided to embark on this lifestyle, there were reasons that he held specifically valuable and essential to maintain and articulate on this journey. The first is self-sufficient. In today’s society, most rely on loans and big corporations to meet their daily needs rather than finding ways to provide for themselves. The reason there is mention of loans specifically is because we often discover that those in today’s society are trying to live above their means in order to get things that they don’t in fact need. We strive to ensure that everything we have on our homestead provides for us in more ways than one and try to use every aspect of what has been provided. For example, in later articles, we will discuss the mealworms we grow and raise for our chickens and our hedgehog. Long story short, mealworms require bran in order to survive and thrive. It is essentially their food source. When we grind our flour in the kitchen, instead of throwing out the bran, which might normally be considered “waste”, we give that to our mealworms who then continue to care for and provide for our other animals.
In addition to self-sufficiency, Brannon’s points for beginning this journey also lie in wanting to take better care of our individual bodies and create a deeper connection with the resources that will do as such. Here in 2023, there have been some major advancements made in the areas of non-gmo and organic foods being made readily available. However, I’m not sure if the same can be said for you, but I don’t feel like paying extra for foods and body care items that are “safe” or “free of whatever” because they should already be that way. So, we decided that in order to be in control of what we put in and, on our bodies, without taking out a second mortgage to do so, we needed to make or grow the items ourselves.
While everyone will have different reasons for going back to this traditional, somewhat harder, way of living, we are happy to share ours with each of you! Here on our blog, we will be sharing the information we have gained on this journey and will be encapsulating it in one place so that regardless of what information you are looking for, you can find what you need without aimless searching and potential misinformation. If there is a topic you’d love to know more about or things that we should explore and uncover, please do not hesitate to leave us a message and we will be excited to look into it!
Thank you for joining us on this journey. And with that, welcome to our homestead!