Our Story
Updated: Feb 3, 2020
Welcome to Relatively Rural! We are a family of four who moved out of our downtown condo into the beautiful canyons of Southern California in 2019. This blog will mostly follow me (Beth) as my family and I traverse the adventures of home ownership, raising kids, growing gardens and moving towards sustainability.
Our new property sits among beautiful centuries old oaks, babbling creeks and rolling foothills, BUT, it's still Southern California and our neighbors are very much our next door neighbors. The hustle and bustle of urban sprawl is but 15 minutes away. Hence the name Relatively Rural.
Our goals are similarly middle ground. We don't intend to go 100% off grid, or eat 100% off our land, but we do want to work towards healthier, happier living and reduced grid bills where possible. We're homesteading-ish.
My personal background is decidedly more rural. I grew up in the forests of northern Wisconsin on 6 acres of land. My mother had an in-ground veggie garden that sprawled in vast rows larger than entire SoCal yards. In high school I moved to 15 acres in farm country. Then at 18 years old I moved to SoCal and landed myself right in the middle of suburbia. It was...an adjustment. (To put it nicely.) Our first home as a family was a condo dead in the center of the city. My garden was a 5x3 plot in the front that often got buzz cut by the HOA gardeners plus whatever pots I could fit on my back patio. We had our first daughter, Kaylee, there. It was a good little starter home but I knew eventually I needed land.
In 2019, my husband unintentionally, and oh so innocently, started it all with a phrase that would change everything "Why can't you?" He was browsing listings on Redfin and pulled one up. I waved my hand dismissively and said "Don't show my things I can't have." He liked to 'keep an eye on things' but I didn't like looking when we weren't intending on buying yet. We were only a couple years into a five year plan. His response, of course, "Why can't you?" set everything into action. I was pregnant at the time and I think he may have underestimated the intensity of a nesting pregnant lady's desire to acquire a new, better nest.
Fast forward to June and we found ourselves in the canyons on a modest plot of land that came with 8 chickens, 10 goldfish and a turtle. Our second daughter was born in September, we upgraded our car to a mom wagon, started the holidays and now finally find ourselves in January, settled, somewhat rested and ready to tackle to potential of our very small, almost rural, homestead.
We hope you'll join us on our adventures! See you soon!
Bethany
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