CampFIRE Homesteading Articles - Financial Independence + Homesteading

Personal Growth

For you U.S. Army Vets that are reading this, it’s not about the detailed steps involved in the Air Assault procedure of dropping the load under the helicopter. Sorry. The saying, at least across the military, is synonymous with avoiding danger and/or an untenable situation. Some Veterans also use the adage, “Slip Right,” a Paratrooper term for avoiding a bad situation, or, “Break Contact,” a combat operational term that is a call to retrograde and discontinue engaging with the enemy. Please note, this is not synonymous with quitting. This is not looking at a situation, determining that it’s too hard, and giving up because it’s uncomfortable, your body hurts too much, or you are tired…

Jan 27

Jan 27 Defense Against The Dark Arts: Devilishly Tricky Credit Cards

Financial Independence

This article was almost titled: Why I HATE Credit Cards… And Why I Still Have One. Obviously a lesson against the Dark Arts makes more sense. #stillwaitingformyHogwartsletter

Credit cards freak me out. They always have. Have you ever heard anyone accuse another person of spending on a credit card, as if it was the most sinister thing they could do? Personal finances are deeply personal, and there are TONS of…

Jan 20

Jan 20 2021 Goals

Personal Growth, Homesteading, Financial Independence

We use this phrase a lot around here: “For all things, there is a season.” In winter, we prioritize resting and hibernating, and planning for the following year. It’s a great time to reflect on the past year, and plan for adjustments or improvements for where we are on our goals. We brainstorm goals for the next year, and put pen to paper to map out options. I love doing this. I love when My Love and I sit on the couch in the back room and plan on the chalkboard, and…

Jan 15

Jan 15 Where Do We Go From Here?

Personal Growth

2021 is off to an interesting start. I decided on the word interesting because it best captures the reality in what we live in… “may you live in interesting times” -Chinese proverb. Heather and I have had many conversations about what 2021 will bring. I believe we are pretty smart cookies, but we did not predict what happened in Washington D.C. on 6 January. However, we have…

Jan 11

Jan 11 You Can't FIRE Without A Budget

Financial Independence

We get it. Loads of people don’t budget. We watch our account balances, and ride somewhere in the middle, and go on to the next thing, rather than sweat tracking each transaction, categorizing it, and measuring the activities against pre-determined goals. I love data. Give me the stats, the figures, the charts, the…

Jan 4

Jan 4 Are You Really Ready For a Crisis?

I spend much of my time thinking about what is happening around me, a bad habit from my time in the U.S. Army as a Combat Medic. I remember, in planning for any operation, there were times when we would ensure that we could account for a volume of possible incidents. For the vast majority of these things, we fell back onto what were called ‘Battle Drills.’ For some things, however, we would have to decide…

Dec 11

Dec 11 Message > Messenger? I Think, Yes.

Personal Growth

Ask yourself a question. Are you an objective person? I’ll expound a bit. Do you have the ability to analyze information in an unbiased manner? If you just said yes, are you sure? Don’t be insulted, lets talk about it and see how objective you are.

Objectivity Exercise…

Let’s engage in a mental exercise. Ready? You are leaving a restaurant where you just had….

Dec 7

Dec 7 Micro-Decision Fatigue

Rat Race

I read a quote somewhere on the internet once that read something like this: “You do not need to have an opinion on everything.” Isn’t that little reminder freeing? Sometimes, we forget that we have the ability to…

Dec 3

Dec 3 What Does Homesteading Say About You?

When I was growing up, my Father used to tell my brothers and I the decisions we make say more about us than the words we say. I remember hearing him say, “stealing makes you a thief and lying makes you liar.” Life, as we all learn, is very rarely black and white. It is varying shades of grey. As I got older, I remember him telling us that we…

Nov 30

Nov 30 Meat Nuggets: Episode 3

We recently wrote about the importance of knowing where your food comes from, and harvesting our meat rabbits for the first time was a real-life lesson in appreciating our food. Harvesting wasn’t fun, but with very grateful hearts, we were very happy with the end result. To recap, check our Episode 1 & Episode 2. Last week, we harvested 14…

Nov 23

Nov 23 The Art of The Tactical Knee

Rat Race

As we watch the world around us change, anxiety can set in. Economic stress, political stress, family stress, the holidays are approaching, COVID-19, preparing for winter to set in… and the fact that 2020 has served as one of the craziest years in recent memory. When I served in the Army, I taught the practice of the ‘tactical knee.’ What is this? During military training…

Nov 20

Nov 20 Where Is Your Food From? And Where Is It Going?

Knowing where your food comes from sounds like a simple concept. You go to the store and buy things to eat. People who grow and make food, sell the food to the store. Right? But do you really know where your chicken eggs come from? Do you know if they were washed in bleach water before being placed in the egg carton? Do you know how many days ago they were laid? We use eggs for lots of things, not just breakfast…

Nov 15

Nov 15 How Homesteading Dies

I know. What a title! Is it clickbait? No, sadly. I am sure you asked yourself this before you decided to click on this article. This will be a longer article that is filled with a lot of information so I want you to buckle up. If you are sensitive to having international and national policies critiqued, you may want to stop reading now…

Nov 7

Nov 7 The Power of Determination

Rat Race

How strong is the mind? If you have ever served in the U.S. Military, you have probably had a leader tell you, “your weakness is in your head!” What? How does that make sense? If you listen to any story about soldiers or citizens that accomplish a seeming impossible task, they typically say something about…

Nov 5

Nov 5 How To: Give Yourself a DIY Sale on Hamburger

Financial Independence, Homesteading

Stretching our grocery dollar budget always seems to be a challenge. I’m all about penny pinching, coupons, sales, buying in bulk and repackaging, and meal planning. When I get the receipt and it shows I’ve saved $20+ at the grocery store, it feels worth it. (Until I wonder how much they artificially inflated prices in order to “save” that much.) But regardless, by only buying…

Oct 30

Oct 30 Can Homesteading Survive Another 50 Years of Restrictive Policies?

Before we begin, we must highlight that there are in fact two homesteads; the lifestyle choice where an individual lives a more self-sufficient life and legal designation called Homestead that is recognized by the government. Throughout this article, we will address both but make it very clear when we are making a distinction between the two…

Oct 28

Oct 28 Fall Garden Update: After Frost

The farmer’s almanac this year had us anticipating a 6 Oct frost. With everything we had going on just before that, I was really banking on having that long. Nope! Frost came early, and it was a quick scramble that morning to harvest what we could that was still out in the garden. Thankfully, we had collected our “last harvest” the last week of September, but I had left quite a few…

Oct 26

Oct 26 We Would Have All Been Burned!

As I learn more and more about homesteading, I am baffled at how much I don’t know. From understanding growth cycles and the moon, the health benefits of plants we collectively call weeds, and how tinctures and extracts are made. I picture myself, sometime in the future, walking my property and harvesting a specific plant I need to create a concoction for…

Oct 23

Oct 23 Your Credit Score & Being Debt Free: A Closer Look