This is a blog dedicated to my boyfriend's and my quest to live a sustainable, compassionate (and hopefully some day totally vegan) life. I've been vegan for about six years at this point and Erick is my almost vegetarian com-padre. We live in a house I bought for a steal because the entire town is surrounded by cornfields, and it had been abandoned by a hoarder for 8 years. The untold horror of cleaning this place has been half Sci-fi channel horror movie, half American Pickers. Right now we are in the process of making it our tiny eco friendly haven, amidst the weird mix of rural conservatives and hipsters that is our small northern Illinois town. We live on Holly street, hence "the Holly house".Our long term plans include a pedal power washing machine, solar panels, grey water system, using properly filtered rain water for our household needs, growing the majority of our food from our yard, chickens, a geodesic dome, solar thermal water heating, dual flush toilets, wind mill, a wood stove in the living room/kitchen as well as another small one in the garage, and a small bio diesel setup in the garage. Not to mention the routine fixes a house left in disrepair for so long needs, and the re-repairs that have to be done due to a very VERY bad contractor. It goes without saying this is not going to be a weekend project, we're in this property for the long haul.
Aside from Erick and myself our house is bursting at the seams with small furry children. Two cats, four rabbits, a rat, and a fish also call our ranch home. All but Dumpling (our rat) are rescues, as are the chickens we hope to adopt next Summer.We'd planned on starting the blog later in the year when we had more to show for our toils, but I'm home with a broken ankle and I've run out of books to read, so I'm starting it early. We can't wait to dig in and get started!
