About Us

Located in Northwest Kansas, Hales Homestead is small rural (in-town) homestead that dabbles in a little bit of everything. Beekeeping, homebrewing, gardening, home DIY projects, canning, cooking/baking are just a few of the many things Aaron and Caryl experiment in. Hales Homestead originally was established in 2013 as a blog to help document our move to the opposite side of the state while continuing our adventures in homesteading that we had started while living in Lawrence, KS. After a hiatus we decided to restart the blog and focus on sharing our experiences and challenges in the homesteading world to help those interested in starting or continuing their own homesteading journey.

Now in the year of the 2020 pandemic, a renewed interest in the DIY culture has surfaced, revealing a need to share very practical ways that people of all backgrounds can experiment with becoming more self-sustaining. We have tried ALOT of things, and through this experimentation, we have learned that some DIY methods and approaches are too hard, too time-consuming, or not all that practical for the average person. We want to share our experience, lessons learned, and our failures, to help you weed out quickly homesteading practices that may not be suitable for your current lifestyle and find attainable alternatives to help you meet your homesteading/DIY goals. Because of our diverse interests, you will also find our blog posts contain aspects of living debt free, outdoor recreation/camping, and local history and travel, woven into the mix.

A Few Random Facts About Us:

• We have many hobbies, but one of them we really enjoy but never have enough time (or money for) is hiking in Colorado. Aaron has hiked 20 “14ers” and Caryl has hiked 10.

• Caryl didn’t know how to cook when we met. She faked it by learning to bake pie to serve when Aaron would come over to visit when they were dating. After they started their family, she had to watch a lot of Food Network to catch up on her cooking skills.