Hi, we're the Cunkles and we like to party.

From left to right that's me, my brother Tim, my Dad and Mom, my sister Larissa, her husband John and their son Samuel.

There's more to our family, but they have chosen not to participate in the family experiment at this time.  I'll introduce you to them anyway.

To the right is my brother Jeremy with daughter Ryann and son Alex.

To the left is my sister-in-law Jennifer.  She's usually doing whatever she's doing there or behind the camera taking awesome pictures like the one to the right, so that's about the best I could do for a picture of her. 

So what is this family experiment exactly?  Well, the goal is to live together.  In one house.  On some acres.  Getting out of debt and trying and learning to do things that we've never done before (or only on a very small scale) and don't know anything about - like raising chickens.  "Processing" chickens.  Raising goats.  "Processing" goats?  Milking goats.  Drinking goat milk.  Making goat cheese.  (Why goats and not cows?  Ask my brother Tim.  Maybe eventually we'll have cows.)  Growing and canning our own food.  Making our own soaps and household cleaners.  Owning fewer cars.  In short, a journey toward sustainability.  Why?  We believe in God.  We believe He designed and created an amazing earth and asked us to steward it.  We're concerned about some of the poor stewardship practices taking place - like factory farming and manufactured chemical products that you buy at the store.  We also realize that the only thing certain about the future is uncertainty.  We don't live in fear, but we believe that the more sustainably we are able to live, the more prepared we will be...for whatever may come.  So we're on a mission to turn our lives radically upside down. 

Where are we in the process?  The very beginning.  We still live on our quarter acre lot in the middle of the city with a cabinet full of store-bought cleaners and a freezer full of name brand chicken.  We've begun, though.  I'll tell you more about our beginning steps in posts to come.

I wanted to start this blog, if nothing else, as a way for our family to look back and remember our journey.  If this sounds interesting to you, you're invited to come along - to laugh with us and learn from our mistakes, rejoice in our successes, and perhaps even to be inspired to make some changes of your own.

-Kendra