How It Began

I suppose it all began back in 2010 when I was first exposed to backpacking through the National Outdoor Leadership School.  It would be a month of walking about a hundred miles of back country wilderness with all I needed packed on my back. People often gawk when they find out I only had a pair of shorts, one shirt and only two pairs of underwear, (Oh, and did I mention no deodorant!). Oddly enough, setting off with seemingly far less than one needs to live comfortably, life opened up and become beautifully simple.

In the few years since that wonderful adventure I've sought to live a life that simply. So I suppose it's no real surprise that when I first heard of tiny homes I was instantly hooked.  During my husbands last deployment I had somehow come across Texas Tiny Houses. I was absolutely amazed at the creative designs. While I was imaging myself in one of Brad Kittle's homes, thousands of miles away my husband James was looking at Tumbleweed Tiny Houses.  

It wasn't till one of our long distance phone calls when one of us mentioned it for the first time and  we realized that we were on the same page. Both of us were playing with the idea of building our own tiny home. Actually James had already ordered Dan Louche's book, Tiny House Design and Construction Guide and  it was on it's way to my parents house for me to view.  It made so much sense to us, James' military contract was up in October of '14 and we didn't really know what we were going to do next or for that matter if we were even going to get out of the military. What we were sure of was that we didn't want to waste anymore money on rent than we had too.

Time's moved on and up till a few short weeks ago we'd been planning on reenlisting and moving all the way to the East Coast, unless of course something perfect fell in our laps. . .All the while our dream of a tiny home just wasn't shaping up the way we'd originally hoped. That all changed when a good family friend offered us a "way out", if you will.  Now we're anticipating a multitude of changes as we transition from a military lifestyle to a civilian one.

It all begins the end of this October when we leave the blazing hot desert of Twentynine Palms, California for the cooler desert of Lander, Wyoming. There we'll be starting the build of our tiny home, while learning all about running a ranch. That leaves us just about two and half months to plan out our home with the hopes of starting construction almost as soon as we arrive in Lander.  I'm eager to see what this next year will hold as we learn about tiny home construction, to the many facets of cattle ranching. So if you're interested in downsizing, ranching, or just curious about what it's like to build and then live in a 224 sq.ft. space I hope you're able find our many experiences helpful.