Welcome to the homestead : Our 3 year journey starts today!

 Welcome to Against All Odds Homestead 

Life with chronic illness and disability means that my hands can no longer manage the heavy lifting or the digging required for self-sufficiency here in Shropshire. I once struggled alone, but I now embrace help as a vital strategy for success.

This blog is dedicated to proving that you don't need to be able-bodied or traditionally skilled to build your self sufficient “the good life” in a rural homestead.

 My partner has become the indispensable "brawn," learning new skills alongside me so that we can realise this vision together.

We want to inspire you to find your support system—whether it’s an understanding partner, a helpful neighbour, a family friend, or a community member. We believe in asking for help ethically, putting opportunities out there to see who might genuinely be interested, rather than obligating anyone. It’s about building a sustainable life through design, collaboration, and accepting grace.

We are three years into this adventure, and we have thousands of photos and countless stories to catch you up on! We'll be using future posts to share the history of how we got here and all the projects we’ve tackled so far.

More important , I haven’t bored you with my ailments in this intro, but I will share my story with you all in a future post so you can see - if I can do this, so can you. I’m very sick & in pain so I’m not or never will be a mind over matter guy! Hope you join me and stick around!

We'd love to hear from you! What part of the self-sufficiency journey are you most excited to hear about first (gardening, building, livestock, managing energy)? Let us know in the comments below!