About Us

A lot has changed since 2009 when Heather Harris published the first article on The Homesteading Hippy. The site has grown to almost 1,000 articles (at the time of writing this), and the team has grown to 5 homesteaders who post regularly (more or less).

Speaking of which, here’s a little bit about us, and our homesteading and self-reliance experience…

Tom Marlowe

Tom is the main writer here, and for good reason. His articles leave no stone unturned, and his writing style is easy to follow and sometimes entertaining.

Tom’s been working on farms and in gardens ever since he can remember, and he’s still enjoying a mostly self-sufficient lifestyle. he typically grows a variety of fruits, veggies, and herbs, as well as decorative plants. For wintertime, he preserves some of this produce via canning and freezing. He also enjoys dehydrating, particularly jerky.

When he’s not taking care of his mother or writing, you’ll probably find him training and advising folks on various things ranging from personal security and preparedness to self-reliance. Oh, he’s also experienced in building, remodeling, and repairing homes.

You can e-mail Tom here.

Di-Anne Seebregts

Di-Anne Seebregts

Di-Anne’s been farming and gardening along with her children in the countryside and burbs of South Africa, where every drop of water counts, and where nature isn’t always the kindest.

As such, she’s very disciplined when taking care of her veggies, greenhouse, and her chickens, and will typically recycle and repurpose everything humanly possible. You can e-mail Di-Anne here.

Tim Makay

Tim is the latest addition to our team, and he’s doing a fantastic job explaining things even a complete newbie would understand. He likes to grow veggies and chickens, and stay tuned to his upcoming series on food preservation with a dehydrator!

Rebekah Pierce (White)

Rebekah (White) Pierce

It’s hard to see when Rebekah has time to write her in-depth articles with the hundreds of sheep, pigs, and chickens that she raises, not to mention the gigantic greenhouse and veggie garden.

Whatever the time of year, she’s always busy with planting, sheep shearing, or handling a chicken coop emergency! You can e-mail Rebekah here.

Greg Seebregts

Greg Seebregts

Greg is Di-Anne’s son and her right hand on the homestead. He’s passionate about the outdoors and living self-sufficiently, and is knowledgeable about a ton of stuff. You can e-mail Greg here.

Heather’s Story…

Our journey into homesteading began in 2006. We had bought our first house and attempted to start our first garden.

Heather Harris
Heather Harris

We began by adding 2 4×4 raised bed boxes, and planting over 200 seeds and plants in those tiny spaces. Needless to say, we didn’t get a whole lot of produce due to some overcrowding issues.

In the following years, we read more, learned more, and tried different things. We added laying hens and began our journey toward self-sufficiency. Our kids raise meat birds, turkeys, and rabbits for 4H, so those are naturally added each year.

Our garden takes up over 1/3 of our yard, and the animals get another 1/3 of the yard, so we are left with a tiny little space in which to enjoy ourselves outside. Having a manicured lawn no longer has precedence, though, and we enjoy our “poultry vision” much more than any TV show or movie.

My hope is to encourage you to start where you are at, and just do what you can do. Each of us can make a difference, but only if we try. I’m so very glad you are joining me on this journey!

You can read our privacy policy here. If you’d like to e-mail me, you can do it here.

6 thoughts on “About Us”

  1. Very interesting story. Your parents went through similar trials during your early years. We didn’t have Dave Ramsey, only God who lead us slowly through the matters. Life is interesting to say the least and it teaches you is you listen.

    dave Ramsey

  2. Hello Heather,
    I would really enjoy connecting with you, and appreciate the invitation though Linked-In. But I have discontinued using social networking sites for various reasons so would rather do it this way. I like what you and your family are doing! Isn’t homesteading quite the adventure, with so much to learn?

    I grew up in FL since the age of six, and of course our off -grid homestead is here in central Florida. But I was actually born in Goshen, IN and have good memories of visiting my grandparents on their farm there for many years.

    Blessings to you and your family as you continue your journey!

    Rose Petal
    http://www.LiveReadyNow.com

  3. Katrina Weghorn

    Hi! I “met” you at Bloggy Con ’13 but very briefly. I’ve talked/followed you from there.

    I love the information you have posted. My family is very interested in homesteading/urban gardens but alas, we are book learning until we can buy a house.

    I’m glad to have met you and can’t wait to learn more!

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