Sexy Hot Beauty Girl in New Farm House
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00:00I reached out on Instagram and had tons of questions all about the farm, so I thought it'd be fun to do a little Q&A video.
00:09So get cozy, grab yourself a nice big mug of tea, because this might be a kind of long and chatty video.
00:18So eudaimonia translates to a life well-lived or human flourishing, and for us that means always striving for self-improvement in all ways, mental, physical, spiritual, and we really feel like that just describes what we want to do here with our life on the farm.
00:48Our goals are of course practical, like we want to provide enough food for ourselves and create a new career for ourselves for after my spicy career ends, but we also want to pursue a lot of intellectual and physical health and wellness goals as well as a deeper connection with nature.
01:14So lots of difficulties for why we want to live on the farm.
01:26I get this question a lot, am I married or are we married? And yes, my husband Dennis is right behind the camera, say hi.
01:34Hi.
01:36And yeah, we met in 2010 and I got married in 2012 and I couldn't imagine a better partner to do all these crazy adventures with.
01:46So my absolute favorite hobby is nature photography, but I also love to knit and sew on my antique needle machine, and I love baking, of course, and gardening, pretty much anything that's creative and with my hands, and I also really love to read books.
02:12And on that note, another question I get asked is if there are any books that inspired me or any books that I recommend to anyone who wants to know more about homesteading, so I have quite a few suggestions.
02:26So the first book I know is a little cliche because everybody who likes homesteading mentions this book, of course, but for a good reason because it's a classic.
02:42Walden by Thoreau, of course, and then when I found out that he was living on Emerson's land, I decided to read Nature by Emerson, and it is such a beautiful book, it's kind of both poetry and not, and it just talks so much about how transformed you can be in nature.
03:10So I love that book.
03:12Then there's The Good Life by Helen and Scott Neary, who are a couple of socialists who consider homesteading a political act, and I thought that was very inspiring.
03:25I have tons of notes all throughout the book.
03:29This one was a huge inspiration for me.
03:33So the next book is Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara King-Soliver, and it really opened my eyes to see how broken our food system is and how eating locally and seasonally and doing regenerative farming is really the way to go.
03:49Next is Pain Hollow by Harlan Hubbard.
03:53This was a very inspiring book because even though we have a lot more modern conveniences and amenities than they did, their life of mixing art and providing for themselves and their homestead was what really inspired me.
04:08And the book really is just written in such a way that makes you feel the peace that you felt living on the land.
04:15So this next author, Jean Logsdon, actually has quite a few really good books.
04:20My favorite being The Mother of All Art, which is a book about how farming is not only the origin of most art, but also a creative endeavor in itself.
04:30But for somebody who wants to get to know more about homesteading, I suggest Homesteading How to Find New Independence on the Land, which is more of one of his instructional books.
04:42Next is Helen Hoover.
04:44Her books are like reading a journal of somebody who is living the most magical life, homesteading.
04:50And my favorite is The Gift of the Deer, which talks about how a deer came and visited them on Christmas Day.
05:00And he was injured and they basically nursed him back to health by feeding him and watching over him.
05:07And over the course of a few years, they see him grow up and have a family of his own.
05:12And it's just a beautiful story and it's really well written.
05:15So I love these books.
05:17This next book is Walden II by B.F. Skinner.
05:20And it's not actually the second Walden book, but it was inspired by that, where the author, in a fictional tale, imagines a utopic, intentional community.
05:32And it goes into such great detail of how the community is run, that a lot of intentional communities that actually exist today use this as their founding book.
05:42So currently, I'm almost done with this book.
05:46I am right around here.
05:48And the book actually ends here, because all of this has footnotes.
05:53But this book is called At Home in Nature by Rebecca Neal Gould.
05:58And it's a really good book, kind of summarizing and dissecting all of the different ways different homesteaders have taken their journeys.
06:09And I recommend it to anyone, because you'll find out a lot more authors that you'll have to check out afterwards.
06:15So if you're not sure if living in nature is for you or worth it, then I definitely suggest reading The Nature Fix by Florence Williams.
06:24Because it really goes into the science of how and why our environments affect us, whether we're good or bad in both our physical and our mental health.
06:35But yeah, it's a really good book, and I think it'll inspire you to get outside just a little bit more.
06:45So we saved up for years and never travel or buy fancy things.
06:52And we actually haven't eaten anything from a restaurant, not sit down or take out, in years.
06:58Because one year we looked at our expenses, and we saw we had spent $7,000 on junk food taken out in restaurants.
07:06And we were like, oh my goodness, that is so much money.
07:09So we cut that out, and we started meal prepping all of our food.
07:15And yeah, we stopped buying so much stuff online and started buying more things at thrift stores or on places like Kijiji,
07:25which is basically like Craigslist.
07:28And yeah, so we just saved up a whole bunch.
07:32So for years, we were just waking up every morning and refreshing all the real estate listing pages, looking for something that fit our criteria.
07:42We knew we wanted at least 11 acres, 10 of which being just forest, so that we could grow all of our own food as well as cut all of our wood for heating.
07:54But for so long, everything was out of our price range, or didn't have internet, or there was some other major deal breaker.
08:04And it wasn't until the beginning of 2021, we saw this place.
08:11And we went and came to a visit, and we just knew immediately that it was going to be ours.
08:19So yeah, actually our offer was rejected three times.
08:23Not for the price, but actually because the previous owners kept wanting more time to pack all their stuff up and get out.
08:32So we kept having to put in a new offer that gave them an extra month here, an extra month there, time to pack all their stuff.
08:40And finally it was accepted, and we signed it in May, which was two months after we had first seen the place.
08:47And then we got all of our inspections done in the summer.
08:51And then finally, at the end of September, we closed and got the keys.
08:56And yeah, it's been amazing ever since.
08:59It was a really long, almost whole year of anticipation and waiting and frustration.
09:06But it was well worth it, considering how good of a deal we got on the place.
09:10So I don't know if it's better in every scenario, but at least for us, it is definitely cheaper to buy an old farm and fix it up, rather than buy one that's already fixed up.
09:28Even including the renovations, because we're doing a lot of the work ourselves.
09:32Pretty much everything that's not too dangerous and structural, we're doing ourselves.
09:37We're doing all the painting, refining all of the light fixtures ourselves from Kijiji.
09:42And yeah, we're doing a lot of the work ourselves, which makes it a lot cheaper.
09:48So in the end, definitely for us at least, cheaper than buying a house that is already fixed up and has the same amount of land.
10:00Also, since this is agricultural land and we do plan on having a farm business, the renovations are actually tax deductible.
10:10Which is very much a reason why we want to get our farm business started as soon as we can, because that will help.
10:18As well as keeping our property taxes low, because if we lose our agricultural zoning, then the property taxes will get to be quite expensive.
10:27So we have to get started selling some stuff ASAP.
10:37So I don't believe in just having one life's passion.
10:40I like making spicy videos of course, but I also want to grow all of our own food.
10:46And I also want to learn how to spin wool, and I also want to learn how to take care of animals.
10:51And basically I want to try everything.
10:53So that's why I love home-staying so much.
10:56I guess that's my life's passion, because it allows me to do pretty much everything.
11:07So there might be a Saffron Cookbook one day, I'm not sure when.
11:11But I really enjoyed doing my Cooking with Saffron series.
11:16So it would be really exciting to do a cookbook filled with farm-fresh, from scratch, healthy foods.
11:23So maybe one day.
11:27As a side note, I get this question a lot, and I'm not vegan.
11:30But I do only eat meat from local, sustainable, ethical farms.
11:35And we hope to grow all of our own meat ourselves.
11:39And give the animals such a wonderful life, so that they only ever have one bad day.
11:45I really believe in regenerative agriculture.
11:48Which includes animals in the system, and helps everything else survive.
12:00I don't miss city life at all.
12:02It's so much quieter here, I see so many animals.
12:06And honestly, I never go back.
12:15What I love most about the farm, is that it's not just a house.
12:18But also a whole new way of living, and a new way of seeing the world.
12:23It's a healthy lifestyle, and a spiritual path, all in one.
12:33So, there are quite a few renovations we have to do.
12:37Because they're structural, and dangerous.
12:41But the one renovation we want to do, is the kitchen.
12:45The current countertops are laminate.
12:49And they were done a long time ago, by a previous owner.
12:52And now they're all cracking, and chipping, and just awful.
12:56So, we're saving money everywhere else, by doing all the painting ourselves.
13:02All the fixtures, all the finishing, everything like that.
13:05And we're splurging in one little area, which is the countertops.
13:09I love soapstone countertops.
13:12I really, really want some soapstone countertops.
13:15Not only does it fit with the house, because that would be one of the common materials used when this house was first built in the late 1800s.
13:24But, they're also a really durable, and long-lasting, and easy maintenance, nice countertop.
13:31And we spend so much time in the kitchen cooking, that I feel like it's just worth it to splurge in that one area.
13:38We also found a Quebec producer, or I suppose a mine, of Quebec soapstone.
13:46So, we'll be using that, and keeping it with the theme of the place, of having all local materials.
13:53For as much as possible.
13:55So, for the house and barn renovations, we hope to have all of that done by the end of summer.
14:06But, for the actual farm plan, like the farm businesses, we plan on having our cash crops be apple products from our apple orchard, and yarn from some sheep.
14:17We'd also like to build a really big garden to produce all of our own vegetables, as well as herbs to put into soaps and salves to sell.
14:25Eventually, we'd also like to transform the apple orchard into a food forest, which takes a few years after starting it to really mature.
14:35And of course, we'd like to get chickens and sheep, and grow all of their food here on the farm.
14:41So, we think maybe after five years, we'll be considered done setting up.
14:47But of course, we're going to start selling what we can right away, starting this summer.
14:52As well as continuing our spicy content, and making more YouTube videos, and doing other side projects, like nature photography, and turning our nature photos into puzzles.
15:11So, the art studio is where we think that the farm will pay for itself.
15:15Because we know that there's a good market for hand-spun, organic, naturally-dyed wool and yarn.
15:21So, we're going to be putting my spinning wheel, as well as dyeing equipment, and everything else we need to turn dirty wool straight from the sheep into valuable, beautiful yarn.
15:33So, I absolutely think that this will be our forever home.
15:36Because not only is it a wonderful house to live in forever, but it's actually going to be our way of making a living once my spicy career ends.
15:45Because I know that after just turning 30, that I can't make a living like that forever.
15:51So, it'll be both our place to live, as well as our career.
15:57So, other than painting everything, and light fixtures, and stuff like that, the next big DIY project will actually be to build some benches right behind me, on either side of the fireplace.
16:08And not only will they be benches, but the way we want to build them, they'll have some storage for our furniture.
16:17So, I'm very excited about that.
16:27As far as aesthetics go, we just want to keep what would go well with what the house already has.
16:33So, matching the natural wood and the earth tones.
16:36We don't want to modernize so much that it loses its history, but we also definitely do want to modernize anything that's really inefficient.
16:45So, this fireplace is actually a really good example, because it's a really good example of how to keep a house modernized.
16:54So, this fireplace is actually a really good example, because it's a really good example of how to keep a house modernized.
16:59So, this fireplace is actually a really good example, because it's a really good example of how to keep a house modernized.
17:02Because the original installation in the 70s was extremely inefficient and also very polluting.
17:10So, this new one we put in is awesome.
17:14It actually heats the room, unlike the other one, and it is way less polluting, and so it's way more efficient.
17:21And it also, we feel, matches the character of the old hearth without being too modern, but it's way better than the old one.
17:31So, there's little things like that around the house that we'd like to change, keeping within the style of the character of the house.
17:44So, definitely foxes. I'm really not sure.
17:49So, definitely foxes are our favorite animals that we've seen.
17:54We have plenty of deer and turkeys, which we love too, but until we lived here, I had never seen a fox in real life, ever.
18:02And now we've seen at least one a few times.
18:05So, that's very exciting, and they're definitely my favorite.
18:14So, the weirdest things we've found in the house.
18:17Okay, there are plenty.
18:21There are some creative and interesting building methods that previous owners have used, both in the house and in the barn, that some of our contractors have laughed at.
18:34So, there's that, but there are also some very weird objects that we have found.
18:41The first being a bullet or a bullet casing. Is it a bullet casing or a bullet? It's a casing.
18:48A bullet casing in our barn. Not sure where it's from.
18:54And then the next being an extremely strange vintage child's toy stroller.
19:00Now, the story of that is a little creepy. I'm not sure where it came from. No one knows where it came from.
19:07Just one day after they were excavating around the foundation of the house, because there was a huge crack and it was leaking in the basement, so they had to dig in a little bit and put some membrane or something to stop the leak.
19:21Doesn't matter.
19:22Anyway, after the workers had left, all of a sudden, there was this little stroller by our front door.
19:28I have no idea where it came from.
19:30We think it might have come from under the porch, but it doesn't seem like it.
19:34And no one knows where it's from.
19:37It's very unexplainable, kind of creepy, but also really beautiful, so I'm keeping it.
19:42And I'm not sure what I'm going to upcycle it into, but stay tuned for a creepy stroller DIY upcycle.
19:50The stroller was actually in perfect condition, perfect condition, like brand new mint condition, which is even stranger because we looked it up and you can't buy.