Background: Tammy wasn’t raised in the country but she moved there as soon as she could! With her family, she purchased an overgrown, neglected property in 2000 and has been working ever since to beautify it and return it to the productive pastures of its past.

On this property is a structure that’s near and dear to Tammy’s heart: an 1880s barn, also in sad shape when she purchased the property. She had the exterior refurbished, leaving the interior as untouched as possible, and this barn has been returned to its previous grandeur and is a daily part of Taylor-Made Ranch’s cattle operations.

Tammy eventually moved with her husband to their Northeast Texas ranch in 2008 and shortly thereafter cut the corporate-employment ties that bound them to life off the ranch. They now live and work on their own piece of Texas paradise and life couldn’t be better!

In 2013, Tammy was diagnosed with breast cancer and knowing that she physically wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demands of a cattle ranch, her husband suggested that she start a blog to occupy her mind while her body healed. Tammy found that she really love blogging and has continued it since recovering. Check out the Texas Homesteader blog.

Current projects: Tammy isNortheast Texas vegetable gardening and creating an edible landscape, preserving all excess garden produce using her Excalibur dehydrator, collecting rainwater using rain barrels as well as an 18-foot-deep underground brick/concrete cistern, saving energy throughout her daily tasks and also utilizing passive solar techniques, solar cooking using her solar oven, home cooking from scratch, and thinking outside the box to solve problems before buying something to solve them for her.

Other Fun Facts: Tammy and her husband so blessed to be able to wake up each morning and watch that sunrise together. Yes, since leaving the corporate world, there are financial sacrifices that must be made, but they’re so worth it because those sacrifices allow them to live a life that speaks to their hearts.

Thankfully, environmentally friendly living often results in lower cost—two things that have always been important to her. For instance, she has the most blissful childhood memories that come flooding back to her when she hangs clean laundry under that blazingly-blue Texas sky. Just like that, she’s a child again helping her grandmother with this chore. Sweet memories!

And what commercial product can match the intoxicating aroma of sun-dried sheets? It can’t be done. Yet, hanging out the clean laundry saves money by not running the dryer. She tries to practice Voluntary Simplicity each and every day and finds her life is more meaningful and fulfilling because of it.

Connect with Tammy on the Texas Homesteader blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram.

Photo by Cynthia Marie Photography