In November of 2019, Brian Alphonso and I (Ronni Council)were inspired to redesign our lives to follow a dream to become more peaceful, sustainable, and responsible. Part of that redesign was a decision to understand where our food came from – to become more compassionate, healthier, and self-sufficient consumers while also making a real effort to decrease waste. Together, we have spent the last 1
4 months on a journey to change our lives and turn our one acre Las Vegas home into a productive homestead. We planted a large garden, created an environment where our chickens and goats would be healthy and happy while also providing us with an abundance of eggs and milk, began purchasing our meat in bulk from a local farm as well as harvesting our own, researched and learned multiple techniques of food preservation, and found ways to ensure nothing went to waste through composting and creative uses of food as a whole. None of this is easy, and we both take turns quitting. In all honesty, the failures outnumber the successes and the heartbreak has been tragic. However, we know this journey is worth it, and by encouraging each other when we're down, we continue to follow our dream. On this particular day, we're both grateful for the opportunity to keep it going. We continue to document much of what we go through and just recently decided to share some of it with our friends and family that have watched this transformation from afar. Hopefully, many of you can now see that we’re actually not that crazy – but perhaps just a little? We also hope that anyone else who takes on this journey can learn from our mistakes and successes – both those behind us and those still ahead. Peace and love, Brian and Ronni
