Who We Are

We've been married for over 20 years.  We live in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix Metro – Glendale, AZ). We love living in the Valley of the Sun, we love the heat, we don’t cope well in the winter or cold.

We have two boys who are our world. Our oldest, Dude, is studying to become a mechanic, he has been working towards this since he was in high school. Our youngest, Doodles, is still in high school, he is active in student council and the art/ceramics club. They both keep us on our toes!

We have 3 dogs that think they are humans. They like to hog the bed, the chair, the floor right in front of where you need to go and always hover when you are in the kitchen chopping up veggies. They are all three stubborn and pretty much always get their way.

We both work full-time, but within a short distance from our home. This makes it nice because we really have no commute, and we are both home by a decent time so we have time in the evening to work in the garden and improve our little grange.

We did have 8 chickens which we were required by the city of Glendale to remove them from our property. Click on the Chicken tab for our chicken story. Check back for updates on making backyard chickens legal in the city of Glendale for residential developments.

The hubs and I have always enjoyed gardening. Here recently though we’ve become more aware of where our food is coming from and we aren’t okay with that. We are making a concerted effort to grow as much of our own food as possible. We grow our vegetables from seeds whenever possible and they are GMO free. We are not okay with big businesses creating GMO foods and pretending that they are safe to eat. Our goal is to grow and preserve as much of our own food as possible so that we can be as self-sufficient as possible. We want to know where our food is coming from and how it was prepared. It’s amazing the different types of fruits and veggies you can grow in the Valley of the Sun.

This year the hubs and Dude have been drawn for elk, we are hoping to have our freezer’s full of fresh harvested elk meat. This will go a long way in helping us to be a bit more self-sufficient. I dream of the different cuts of elk meat we will have….NOW no pressure on them but they have to get one.

That’s us in a nutshell, aside from having two awesome sons, gardening, raising backyard chickens we also enjoy camping, cooking, DIY, using essential oils, crafts and scrapbooking. We aren’t perfect; we love pizza, ice cream, fries and other food that isn’t good for you. We have the same every day struggles most people have we are your average family but we are trying to live as self-sufficiently as possible on our little grange.