Hello! And welcome to my blog! My name is Stephanie and I’m a homemaker, a keeper of the hearth and guardian of the home fires. My Husband, Nathan, and I have 6 children…4 boys and 2 girls…Elijah is our oldest and he’s 12 years old, next is Solomon and he’s 10, then there is Matthew who is 7.5 years old, Charity who is 5 years old, Samuel who is 4 years old, and then baby Carolyn who is 9 months old. We all live on a small 9 acre farm in the mountainous heart of southeastern West Virginia. Together, we raise goats for milk and meat, and chickens for eggs and meat and we have a large garden and several fruit trees and bushes. We also provide for a lot of our own heating by harvesting wood from the forest and in the late winter and very early springtime I tap our maple trees and make our own maple syrup and my husband sometimes hunts deer for us to eat.
One of the most unique things about our family is that neither my husband or I have a “job” in the traditional sense of the word (and yes, it’s on purpose…I haven’t had a “job” in almost 13 years and my husband hasn’t had one in over a decade) and NO! we don’t take government handouts…because I know that’s what you’re thinking! 😛
Most people wrongly assume that just because we don’t have “jobs” and because we have such a large family then we MUST be mooching off the state…and if you’re thinking THAT then you couldn’t be further from the truth! We homeschool, so in reality we’re actually SAVING the state $9,000 per kid per year, and with 4 kids of school age that’s $36,000 per year… so I would feel justified taking money from Uncle Sam but my conscience just won’t let me…besides, I get too much satisfaction out of watching My Lord work miracles to provide for us, He never fails 🙂
How do we pay the bills? Well, first, we don’t have many bills to begin with and that is the KEY right there! We live debt-free…we don’t have a mortgage, our vehicle is paid in full, we don’t have credit card debt or ANY debt AT ALL in ANY way shape or form!
“The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”
~Proverbs 22:7
Debt is a form of slavery and, I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t like being a slave, at least not a slave to material possessions…but I guess that’s just me… because I know there are many people out there who seem to prefer slavery, and that’s their choice…as for me, I must serve My Lord and He wants me as His Servant and His ALONE! Besides, there is no point to me going and making a slave of myself just to receive the material things that He freely gives to me anyways…that would be STUPID, I’d rather do His Will and watch Him provide, because He’s just SO GOOD like that! 🙂
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” ~Matthew 6:31-33
What few bills we do have my husband pays for by selling video games on E-Bay, but in the future we hope to move away from that and more towards selling our veggies and animal products at the farmer’s market…however it’ll probably be at least a few more years before we can get to that point. In the meantime, we tend and keep our land in order to provide ourselves with a delicious, nutritious and SAFE organic food source, and because living in concert with The Land is GOOD for the soul, for that is how God made us to be. The further we get away from THE LAND the more sickly we become…body, heart and soul.
The Land is the Original God-Made interface, the sole purpose of which is to teach us of Himself and His Ways as we go about caring for it and through that He provides for us…body, heart and soul. Of course, it’s been perverted and twisted, rent away from it’s original meaning and true purpose by the selfishness and stupidity of mankind…nothing new under the sun there…but it still doesn’t change God’s original intent in making life here on earth the way that it is…cycles of sowing and reaping, or getting what you give (some might call it Karma and I don’t object to that) is the essence of life here on earth.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
~Galatians 6:7-10
Speaking of sowing, my husband Nathan makes videos about the corrupt and treacherous practices of the advertising and media companies in manipulating and controlling the minds of the masses without their knowledge or consent. I sometimes help him find material for his movies and very much agree with his message…the techniques that the modern media and advertising industry uses in brainwashing and controlling the masses are entirely occultic and EVIL, through and through. You may want to visit his YouTube Channel or His Website at the below links. His best and most hard-hitting documentary is called “The Great Subliminal Message Deception” and I highly reccommend that you check it out…I guarantee that most of you have not heard this message anywhere else or from anybody else…and you will not be disappointed! 🙂
The Great Subliminal Message Deception
And his latest movie: Man’s Rule: The Liberty Worldview
My personal favorite of his two documentaries is “Truth in Reality”, his first documentary…maybe someday I will make videos too, when Carolyn is a bit older and I have more time to learn how to use the software…but for now, I must go…duty calls and there is no rest for a mother of five children! 😉
It is my hope that through reading this you have a better understanding of who I am as a person and why we live the way that we do…whether you agree with our lifestyle or not.
God’s Peace and Manifold Blessings be upon you!
Musings Of A Mountain Mama 
Oh, my goodness! You are living the dream that was hatched when I was a little girl talking about the future with my beloved daddy. Lord, forgive me, for I envy!
I totally agree with Stevie. The dream you are living was not one of mine when I was growing up, but at age 67 I so wish it had been. I have been a believer since I was 6 years old. If homeschooling had been a choice when out children were young, I’m sure I would have done that. I so wish my grandchildren were homeschooled now. I live in a small town, and my lifestyle is very simple. No cable TV, OLD cars, no smartphones. Just scratch cooking, crafting and homemaking for me. God has blessed me in ways too numerous to count and I love my life.
This is great! My family moved to Ritchie Co. WV in Feb. 2008. My husband has been bugging me about raising goats for meat. Silly question, how do u cook it and what does it taste like? Being an animal lover, i am not sure i can raise something then kill it for food. Lol. I know God put some animals here for that purpose. We do eat venison. I process it w/ my hubby and cook it. But I just dont have them in a pen in my backyard before hand. Eeeeeek. Any advice?
The only goat I have eaten so far are buck kids. One was 8 weeks old when we slaughtered it and the other was a newborn, I marinated the meat in a white wine marinade with herbs from our garden and then roasted it in the oven, it was very tender and delicious, especially the newborn buck…much like veal but even more tender imho. It’s not easy killing them but it’s normal to kill your own meat and our society is abnormal in that most people obtain their meat from refrigerator aisles in little Styrofoam packages covered in plastic wrap. I just keep in my mind that some animals are for food and some are to be as pets, I just don’t allow myself to get overly attached to the food animals and instead reserve that “attention” for the animals that are our pets. But it’s really not as hard as most people think, once you start living the life it just comes naturally 🙂
Well – it’s nice to ‘meet’ you Mountain Mama! You don’t meet many bloggers these days who practice such an awesome lifestyle plus, openly talk open God! Love your blog – but my mom, who is a homeschooling mother of 5 as well, would probably love it more! I’m the eldest of us 5 gals and I graduated in 2012. I have a blog here on WordPress as well.
Thanks for being an advocate for Jesus on the web!
Em
Greetings from California!
How refreshing to “meet” a Proverbs woman! I enjoy reading your blogs as they are such an inspiration to live outside the box of our cultural thinking. I successfully home schooled my four children also, in spite of others thinking I was “depriving” them of something essential for their well being and social development.
I hope this finds you and yours well.
I have a question for you after reading about your dandelion tincture…
I have Leukemia. I want to obtain dandelion roots that are fresh (with dirt still attached) in order to naturally dry them in the sun…but I cannot find any, nor can I grow my own due primarily to time constraints. Everything I find on line is packaged, and although usually stated as being “organic” I do not know how old they are or where they came from (usually Croatia). How long they have been lying around in their packages is of great consideration to me as I am not interested in acquiring mold or roots depleted of essential properties. I have tried searching various places locally for roots in the spring or fall, but they are usually sprayed with chemicals because they are viewed as being unwanted weeds.
Do you have any suggestions or know of a good source that I can buy fresh (in season) roots from?
I have always just dug my own roots and have never purchased dandelion roots so I don’t really have a suggestion…sorry
Rowena, I live in western NC on 36 + acres. We have dandelions growing everywhere! I would be happy to harvest box-loads of dandelion roots for you if you still want them. All I would ask in return is that you pay for shipping and my gas to the P.O., we’re out in the sticks. Just say the word if you are still in need. Praying for your complete healing!
i love your description of yourself on the front page. I am 53 years old and my finance’ and i would love to buy a piece of land and build everything from the bottom up, but feel we are not strong enough now to do it all ourselves, maybe 10 years ago. We have no regrets. We live our life simply and want to keep it that way, for ourselves and an example for our children. We want no more than we have and we crave to learn to do more with God’s nature that surrounds us. You are ones who can truly say “I wonder what the poor(rich in material goods) people are doing today?”
I am amazed how many live off the land but still manages electricity and Internet…but that sounds good to me!