They'd lived in the suburbs for around eight years now. It was time to pursue their dream of moving out to the country, raising more of their own food and becoming more self-reliant, while their sons were still little.

They looked at a lot of homes, but none of them seemed quite right, so they hunted for land. Much of it was priced out of reach, zoned so it wasn't suitable for homesteading, or snapped up as soon as it went on the market.

Then they spotted it - a "For Sale" sign, tipped over in a ditch on a out-of-the-way country lane. Calls were made - yes, the land was still available. An offer was made, and accepted.

To access the part of the land where they wanted to build (and keep the operating farm field intact), they reached out to a neighbor to the east about access, offering to share an improved driveway - and were rejected.

Then they reached out to the neighbor to the west, a young, hardworking man who had just turned 21. He'd purchased the parcel with the original homestead buildings not long before.

He agreed to give a strip of land along the east edge of his property for a strip to add along the west side of his property. This gave him more room to build closer to existing buildings, and gave the couple room for a driveway.

Soil samples were taken, plans were drawn - and then their builder had a heart attack. Thankfully he survived, and family members stepped in to help. Groundbreaking was delayed, but not stopped.

They were on their way to building the place what would one day become the inspiration for Common Sense Home.

This is Part 1 of Letters from the Homestead, a special six-part series about how we built our homestead, what we learned along the way, and why those lessons eventually helped inspire the Resilient Living Summit.

It's hard to believe that was more than 20 years ago. We didn't set out to become "homesteaders," and Common Sense Home didn't exist yet. We simply wanted a place where we could raise our boys, grow more of our own food, and build a life that was a little less dependent on a world that can be rather unpredictable.

We had plenty of ideas about what that would look like.

Reality, as it tends to do, had a few ideas of its own.

Our story is just one example of what resilience looks like in real life. Again and again, I've found that the most useful lessons don't come from everything going according to plan. They come from the unexpected challenges, detours, failures, and difficult choices — and from figuring out what to do next.

That's part of what inspired our Stories of Resilience interviews. I wanted to sit down with people who've faced significant challenges of their own and hear, in their own words, how they found a way forward.

Stories of Resilience: David Stelzer

As part of this special series, I also want to introduce you to people who have faced their own unexpected challenges — and found ways to keep moving forward.

For our first Stories of Resilience interview, I sat down with David Stelzer, founder of Azure Standard and author of Seeds of Hope: The Azure Standard Story.

David's story stretches back more than 40 years, from returning to his family's farm and making the decision to move away from conventional farming practices, to building Azure Standard into a company that now serves families across the country.

It wasn't a smooth or predictable journey.

We talk about some of the challenges David faced in his own life and with Azure Standard, how he and his family responded when things didn't go according to plan, and the lessons he's carried forward.

​Watch my Stories of Resilience interview with David Stelzer →

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You can also learn more about David's new book, Seeds of Hope: The Azure Standard Story, at the Seeds of Hope website.

Building Resilience, One Step at a Time

One thing I've learned over the years is that resilience isn't something you achieve and check off the list.

It's built a little at a time — through the skills you learn, the choices you make, the people you connect with, and yes, sometimes through the things that go wrong.

That's the idea behind the Resilient Living Summit, September 14–19.

Amber Bradshaw and I have brought together more than 20 experienced teachers to share practical skills for growing and preserving food, preparedness, homesteading, herbal medicine, creating a more resilient home, and much more.

The summit is completely free to attend, with each presentation available free for 48 hours.

If you'd like to join us, you can reserve your free Summit pass here → https://resilientlivingsummit.com/summit-registration/​

And on Thursday, I'll be back with Part 2 of Letters from the Homestead — and the story of what happened when we started turning that patch of Wisconsin farmland into the home we'd imagined.

As you might suspect, not everything went according to plan.

Talk soon,

Laurie