Check out the collab playlist:
Welcome Grove Homestead: https://www.youtube.com/@WelcomeGroveHomestead
Blue Belly Acres: https://www.youtube.com/@BlueBellyAcres
Bear Bones Living: https://www.youtube.com/@BearBonesLiving
Smoky Mountain Homestead: https://www.youtube.com/@FruitTree
Hey ya’ll, I’m Jess from Roots & Refuge Farm
Welcome to a place that feels like home. A small farm with a big family. We hope you’ll pull up a chair, grab some coffee and visit awhile.
There was a time that all I wanted in the world was a little farm where I could raise my family and grow our food. Now, that is exactly what exists outside my door. In watching it unfold, a new dream was formed in my heart – to share this beautiful life with others and teach them the lessons we’ve learned along the way. Welcome to our journey, friend. I am so glad you’re here.
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WHERE TO FIND US (Some of the links here are affiliate links. If you purchase through our links we’ll receive a small commission but the price remains the same – OR BETTER – for you! Be sure to check for any mentioned discount codes.)
– Our Website: https://rootsandrefuge.com
– Sign up for our newsletter: https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-signup
– Join our Patreon to get early access to podcasts and other information, plus monthly LIVES with me and Miah: https://patreon.com/rootsandrefuge
– Abundance+ (Grab a FREE 7-day trial): https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-wilder-still
– Shop our Stickers & Shirts: https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-shop
– Order my first book, “First Time Gardener”: https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-ftgbook
– Order my second book, “First Time Homesteader”: https://rootsandrefuge.com/first-time-homesteader-yt
– Instagram: www.instagram.com/roots_and_refuge
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rootsandrefugefarm
– Email Us: rootsandrefuge@yahoo.com
– To drop us a line:
PO Box 4239
Leesville SC 29070
– To have a gift sent to our house from our Amazon wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/SFA0IZHZRCOZ?ref_=wl_share
– To support us through PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jessicasowards
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PRODUCTS WE LOVE – You’ve probably heard me talk about these things a million times, so here’s where you can order them (and get a discount with my code!):
– Greenstalk Vertical Gardens (Use code “ROOTS10” for $10 off your order): https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-greenstalk
– Squizito Tasting Room (Use code “ROOTS” for 10% off your order): https://rootsandrefuge.com/yt-squizito
– ButcherBox: https://rootsandrefuge.com/butcherbox
– Growers Solution: https://rootsandrefuge.com/growers-solution
– Neptune’s Harvest Fertilizer: https://rootsandrefuge.com/neptunes-harvest-fertilizer
#rootsandrefuge
41 Comments
"Think big" is such good advice, because if you can't visualize it, you will never have it. Example: For years I told my self that as a single woman I would never be able to buy a house. Once I decided that I really wanted to buy a house, I found a way to do it.
ADD: I don't claim to have done it alone, btw. I found the right realtor, who found the right house for me, and I was presented with just the right financing when my employer invited a mortgage company in to discuss with interested employees.
That coffee mug is too cute!
Morning Jess! Greetings from Eastern Washington!
I like what you said about maybe having things you may not fully use to support the system as a whole. As a vegan permaculture homesteady type person, my chickens are a wonderful piece of the puzzle. They offer so many benefits and I get to take the retired girls no one else wants to feed. And, of course, I have chickens because they are incredibly cute and entertaining little feather friends. hehe
Good morning Jess.
Thanks for being here ❤ we appreciate this content
Links to channels aren’t working for me.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic! We are buying 7.5 acres in S.D., It is a hay field that the owners are selling off and so nothing but grass hay is on it. Having the “steps/goals” written down will truly help us to make the dream retirement homestead come to life! Thank you so much for sharing this information with us!❤
So.. if the best time to plant fruit trees is 10 yrs. Ago, next best is today.. how do you plan your PERMACULTURE zones?? Since Water lines should drain downhill, perhaps book/ pamphlet on PHASES.
Just like your original plan for berries between the greenhouses.. for example
Only Amanda’s link works. The others go to an “oops that page isn’t available” I clicked on it the same as I did for Amanda?? 🤷🏻♀️
Jess, absolutely perfect! Some excellent tips. I think back and it was viewed as a "hobby" that you kept to yourself. It has certainly come a long way. And yes, it is absolutely worth it!!!
The best piece advice I can give is this: When you are young time seems to move slowly. It seems that it’s taking forever to get where you want to go. When you get older time seems to move super fast. The seasons seem to move through faster and the years just tick away. Instead of succumbing to that “I want it all now” feeling. Stop and savor the slow progress you make. You don’t realize it now, but these really are the best days of your life because it’s not the accomplishment of the getting to the destination, it’s the enjoyment of the journey that makes a life well lived.
Is that miah as mr clean on that jug thing?
Community is key
Whew! I am so excited! This is one of your BEST vlogs, for sure. I'm going back to relisten and take notes. Certainly one of the best 28:40 minutes of time that I have taken part in! So may thanks from Hudson Valley, New York.
Great inspiration 😊
The cheap animals are sick animals.
Jess, you reminded me of a bit of a funny… I have an Aunt that grew up in Appalachia. Her hubby started out in an orphanage but became a self made multi-millionaire. He owned 16 Shoney’s Big Boy chain stores all over East TN in the 70s & 80s including the one that was in Gatlinburg prior to his passing. She grew up fairly poor as well. I believe somewhere along the way she forgot about it. We were talking on the phone back in November for her (80+) birthday. She asked about what I’d been up to and I told her about my gardens, canning, chickens, butchering, milling my own flour and trying to learn how to use it in comparison to organic store bought flour. (There’s a learning curve). I was actually pretty proud of myself as I was telling her all of the things that I love… her reply was “Oh honey, I’m so sorry you’re so poor you have to do that!” I laughed and said “no ma’am, I’m very wealthy – I have more food than I’ll ever need and I know how to do things most of society does not”. “I actually love my life”. She just said “hmmm- that’s strange”. I said well, maybe so- but I think PawPaw (her dad) would be proud! He was a magnificent gardener and canner! I was a teenager back then and just admired from afar as I was too interested in other things. I sure wish I could talk to him now! It just tickled me that she of all people related it to poverty. Especially since she liked canning tomatoes out of the garden in middle age. lol
This morning was the coldest morning for us too in southwestern KY, 4°F
We have 90's and 100+ temps in summer, but practically ZERO humidity. Big difference to those in the east and south where you have LOTS of humidity.
could you please go over all recording equipment you have.
and programs to video record.
Hey Jess, are you selling your coffee yet??
Jess, that is exactly how I approached beekeeping. I started with a book, then YouTube beekeeping videos. I then bought all of the equipment, hives, and paint. My grandchildren helped me paint each hive boxes. I started researching beekeepers who sold nucs local. It truly was a year almost two. I'm allergic so my full bee suit and muck boots were a must. Planing and prepare in advance was the safest way for me to become a beekeeper. 😊I love it! As well as gardening and chicken tenderer😉🙂
It is so worth it!!! If I was in my fifties I'd have cows and pigs😮😊
You have such important things to say.✨Thanks for saying them. ♥️
PLEASE invest in disease-tested animals (goats, sheep, cattle). Ask for the test results. If you are given attitude or a runaround, walk away.
I had to cover my eyes with the Brian Taylor Smoky Mountain intro. The constant flashing in the background almost instantly started pushing my brain in directions it should not go. The frequency of the flashing was exactly the most horrible possible. Even with the eyes almost instantly covered it left me extremely dissociated and with migraine onset symptoms.
Thank you for the great tips. How much money did you have to start homesteading with?
Okay, so Im trying to comment without sound jealous 😂 which I'm sure I totally fail at. 😂 Thank y, u Jesse and Miah for not only what you do for us just wishing we had a homesteading and not just a backyard space. But this truly puts helping others just starting out live their dreams.
Can you do a video on what to look for in goats? I'm planning on getting a few in the spring too! I'm so excited!
VAMOS TOMAR CAFÉ ☕ DELICIOSO UMA SEMANA ABENÇOADA 👏🏻
Awesome I love advise. I'm in North Alabama we have ice. & have had it for to darn long having to feed chickens & ducks through the fence because it is and ice slick Grrrrrrr. Hoping in next day I'll be able to gather the frozen eggs. Maybe I'll salvage some. Thank goodness outside their big run is clear enough for me not to fall again. But they have a warmish house to go into but funny to see ducks sliding on the ice😊
É 💯% PORCENTO ORGÂNICO VEGETAIS SIGNIFICA SAÚDE👏🏻
I'll just have to say you people living down south are spoiled and can't handle cold weather. When you get bad weather and roads you don't know how to drive in it. Your community is not set up to handle cold weather. You don't have the snow plows. When power lines go down you depend on the people up North to come down and put up your power lines when freezing rain takes them down. Your buildings are not constructed to handle freezing weather. The building codes are such that the water lines are in the ceiling where they freeze. My advice would be for anybody building a new home down south to consider freezing pipes in the winter. Bury your water lines especially those going into the house. You should follow the building codes that we follow up north. Just be prepared because even thought it's mostly warm all the time. There are times when you get really cold weather.
Great advice. I didn't even know I was homesteading when we started 20+ years ago. We made every mistake you talked about and then some, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat because the struggles were worth it.
Great video and collab, Sowards fam! Just a bit of encouragement for those like myself who do "homestead" yet do so on a postage stamp yard in the middle of a bustling suburb: honesteading is a lifestyle & mindset, not just the reflection of acreage, gardens & livestock. I embrace all of Jess' tips here, tho my fences were put up by my neighbors to keep their dogs in their yards, not to keep my livestock in since my herd is kept inside…a 40 y/o cockatoo & a rescued stray cat. But her tip about learning how to utilize and preserve the harvest BEFORE reaping it is Job #1!!! Even just here in village living, I was compelled to dive headlong into pressure canning and dehydration in the summer of 2020 before the largest harvest I would ever reap thus far came in. And the best tip is her final reminder to not forsake community. Living alone it would make zero sense for me to grow & preserve all this food for just myself. So I made it priority to engage with neighbors & friends/family near & far to help them through the lean with the fat I was provided. "Love thy neighbor as thyself" took on a whole new importance to not just be in word but in deed. And the joy that comes with giving away the fruit of my labor carries me through the inevitable disappointments when something doesnt go quite as hoped or planned. Thanks for taking part Jess….now I'm off to find your co-collaborators and sub some new friends! Blessings!
I crave your lifestyle again, I've kinda come to terms with the fact that I'll never have it all again. But I still do as much as possible. And Yes Arkansas is freezing 🥶🥶🥶🥶
❤ Bless you Jess ! .
see me coming from a farmers back ground my uncle ran cows his whole life and instead of selling the problem cows or bulls we eat them because you don;t want a problem animal on the farm one summer i went to help him and this one bull didn;t like me i was never mean too it but he got me good one day and my uncle watch that bull hit me well next day my uncle put a gun in my hand and i shot the bull then we processed that bull but this was also back in the 80's their were no hobby farms like now where people just feed animals until they die and does nothing to i could see this if they were milk cows or goats not a beef cow and don't get me wrong i love cows and take good care of my animals but if i'm feeding you theirs got to be a return for me not just a emotional attachment pet
Yay, more east TN people!
Maybe your part of today’s conversation will ‘set the hook’ with me and others:
In homesteading, Get one system fully in place before doing something else. Sure, that includes The Infrastructure … BUT, ‘The Infrastructure’ includes education in your Waiting Room, AND logging a lot of Hands-On Time, like making things from your herd’s milk, or canning vegetables before you’re pouring it out on the ground or batting fruit flies in the kitchen. Thanks, I needed to hear that.
There is so much to know about everything. How can anyone ever find the time to be bored.
THANK YOU! I have been through the newbie thing and have too many animals. ADMITTING I needed to downsize was the worst and best. WORST bc I felt like a failure but BEST because I realized it and was able to downsize to a level I was able to work with. We have slowly and I mean slowly added on. We have goats, chickens ducks and GEESE. We grow our own food and will be venturing into soap and lotion….but only after I am positive we can run without the additional stress of those items added onto our flow.