This is what our food forest looked like when we first got started

Oh hey there! Welcome to Golden Vista Farm! We live on 33 acres of land in Montana. Here on our farm we really try and live a simple life. We are not trying to recreate the life our great grandparents led—that would be pretty impossible. But we are trying to go back to our roots just a bit. Learning to be a bit more self-reliant. Raising animals, gardening, foraging, hunting, making our own cleaning products, body care, herbal medicine, and all that good stuff. Do I always make everything from scratch? Goodness no. We have small children who are high energy and keep me very busy. :) Currently our farm consists of chickens, guinea fowl, honey bees, our 4 farm cats, and a big black lab named Yukon. We raise pigs about every other year when our freezer is empty, and meat birds every spring. One of our largest projects is building a 1/2 acre food forest in our zone 4/5ish dry and windy climate. It began in 2019 and is just getting better every year.

To me it’s not about doing all the things all the time—it’s about learning HOW to do the homesteading and self-reliant things so I am capable of doing them when I am able. While you are looking around and finding all sorts of things I’ve made and done, please know that I do not do everything on this blog all of the time. Some of them I’ve done for a season and then moved on to something else. Pick and choose and do the things that most appeal to you. Because here’s the thing: homesteading, farming, sustainable living, self-reliant lifestyle or whatever you want to call it, looks vastly different from one person to the next. It's not a one-size fits all lifestyle. And it shouldn't be! So wherever you are in your homesteading life--I encourage you to not compare yourself to anyone else. If you are growing herbs in your windowsill, that is so wonderful. If you have 10 cows, 4 pigs, 22 chickens, and an acre garden, great! My intent with Golden Vista Farm is to share what we do for homesteading in our own simple way. We are learning as we go, and definitely have a lifetime of learning to do. I would love it if you'd join our journey so we can all grow, learn, and encourage each other as we live a more simple and intentional life. God gave us this incredibly beautiful earth so let’s use it for His glory.