Hello and Welcome to the Traditional Catholic Homestead! You’ve stumbled into a land of wishful thinking, stoic practicality, traditional reverence, and bleeding edge experimentation… or perhaps you’re here intentionally. Either way THANK YOU!
We’ve created this site to tell the story of our journey as a family to undertake the transition from a more or less typical American lifestyle to create a life of simplicity and abundance here in the wilds of North-Central Idaho. We plan to document our observations, struggles, and successes with all who are willing to delve into this journey with us. Our sincerest desire is to create a bit of a community where we can learn from each other, pass on what we’ve discovered and hopefully help others onto this path as well.
We are a household of three generations: five children, mom & dad, and grandma. Mom stays at home with the kids and homeschools, Dad works full time off the farm (for the time being) to pay the bills, and Grandma… well Grandma is the a big part of the glue that’s holding the whole thing together. Without her none of this would be happening right now. We all work together to make the homestead a reality. We love the beauty of the Tridentine Mass, the truth in the teachings of traditional Catholicism, and look forward to the restoration and reunification of our faith.
Our end goal on this journey is to create a life of resilient abundance, where Mom, Dad, Kids, and Grandma are all in the home, working, and making the best life possible for everyone if things go bad or even if they don’t. We want to help others on this journey as well. So once again, thank you and welcome to this little window into our lives!
Jump to our content here: Articles
More Catholic Homesteading resources:
Inspiration from the New Catholic Land Movement
Homesteading tales by the Catholic Gentleman
and the story of a convert’s journey from atheist to Catholic Homesteader
Hi i was wondering if you were part of the community in Idaho?
I found a webpage for them but it has not been updated since 2012.
My husband and i have been in discernment and were thinking of visiting.
If you could please get back to me i would appreciate it. Thank you and God bless
I’m not sure which community you’re refering to, there are a couple around. If you’d like to email me at dave@traditionalcatholichomestead.com we could discuss it a little more and I could put you in touch with the right folks or whatever. BTW what was the website you were looking at?
Found you folks through the Grass-fed Homestead. We’ve got a lot in common. Traditionalist family with three generations on a farm in Maine. It’s good to find you. I’ll be reading. God bless.
Welcome Mark! Dan’s a heck of a good guy (Grassfed Homestead)! It’s good to have you here, there’s lots to read even though we haven’t been super productive on the blog front lately. We’re always open to new ideas and contributions from our readers so if there’s something you’d like to share or want more info on just let us know!
Really enjoyed your recent visit with Dan of Grass Fed Homestead YouTube channel about kunikuni pigs. I think those kunikunis are really great for a small homestead because they are very docile and easy to handle. They can be picked up when they are small and children can become more involved in their upbringing.
I too am a traditional Catholic and I see the rural homestead, homeschooling family life absolutely the best shot for every family member of getting to heaven, though my only homesteading experience is visiting my grandparents in northeastern Oklahoma on their farm. Life in a big city is just about an all-out constant attack on traditional family, especially a traditional Catholic family.
Was wondering if you, or perhaps you and Dan Ohman together, could do a video and article series all about lard, from harvesting to using it in cooking and other ways around the homestead– and maybe even an e-book for sale. Not enough is written on this wonderful food. I know it is an excellent preparedness storage food to have on hand and can be frozen. From what I have learned store-bought lard, such as Armour brand, is actually a detriment to healthful diet. Those lard pigs you raise are just as valuable to your health and well being as is the pork meat.
If you decide to do a lard series, I would be happy to contribute research / resources / articles / recipes to your use.
God bless you and your family in the Name of the One Who is Truth.
We are here on 10 acres in our first year; eastern washington near tumtum. Is there anyone else out here?
There’s a thriving traditional Catholic community in the Cd’A/ Post Falls area in Idaho reaching into Eastern WA. St. Joan of Arc parish is in Cd’A, and I know there are plenty of like minded folks in the parish. Reach out to them and I’m sure they’ll accept you with open arms….as far as Tumtum proper I’m not personally aware of anyone else.
Dear Dave and dearest traditional Catholic brother’s/sisters/family’s, friend’s, I have been directed by the good father Malachi Martin on one of the interviews he gave and he had talked about places that are growing traditional Catholic communities that are living in a way that may be perhaps a bit of sanctuary’s places where good faithful Catholics are living there life’s in accordance with the way the Lord intended us to!!!he also hinted that these “safe places” may be the Noah’s ark of our time but that’s not why I’m here even no he is one of only a handful of men that had seen the true third secret of Fatima and for him to specifically say that there’s special places that may be knowingly or unknowingly designed to be provided by God through Jesus Christ our Lord and savior and the blessed Virgin Queen mother Mary and the communion of saints and angel’s to be protected by the Divine Mercy it’s a place that I have been looking for now for a few years but haven’t had any luck in till father Malachi Martin spoke of the first one of these places would be in Idaho! and I heard you speaking of a community in Idaho falls could you please tell me how I can reach out to anyone from there community me and my family would greatly appreciate it if you could direct me to someone who can help me out with additional information on how to become part of their or a community like theirs thank you Dave sincerely yours truly Brandon Michael Lanktree and family, Christ Jesus be with you and your family!!!
I’m not aware of a community in Idaho Falls. There is a growing community of Traditional Catholics in the Post Falls/ Coeur d’Alene area of North Idaho however. You can contact the FSSP parish up there at St. Joan of Arc https://www.stjoanarc.com/
There is also a SSPX parish there as well if that is more to your liking, I don’t know how to contact them though. I hope that helps! PAX-Dave
It is so great to find other Traditional Catholics in our area who are also looking to get back to the land!
My wife and I just returned to Eastern Washington (Elk, WA) to start a market farm and homestead with our eight children and we have found a great Latin Mass community at St. Francis Xavier in Spokane.
We are looking forward to meeting other likeminded people answering the call to return to the land and to our true identity as Catholics!
My family and I recently relocated to my home state in the Deep South and are working as steadily as possible on our goal of homesteading/farming in upstate SC. I was getting to know your site and felt compelled to write how grateful I am to see other faithful Catholics doing this good work when I saw my friend’s comment above! (Small world, Forrest, hah!) I’ll definitely be saving your site, Dave. Pax.
Awesome. Family and I are discerning relocating to Idaho. We are traditional Catholics. Where do you guys attend Mass at?
We have to make a 3 hour pilgrimage up to Cd’A to attend Tridentine mass, otherwise we just goto the local parish on a weekly basis especially when the weather is bad!
Just found you. We just moved to Kooskia Id, my husband , youngest son and I. Just one at home after raising 7 kiddos. Had just found St JOA in CDA before our move. Attending Mass in Kamiah now, do you know of any Latin rite Masses nearby? Nearby being a relative term. We only have an acre, and have a lot of experience raising animals as we had a farm for years in Elk WA. Considering raising a kunekune, not certain yet. Happy to have found your blog. Lots of great info.
Keep fighting the good fight good luck and God bless you and your family. Glad to know and find like minded families.
Your friend
Semper Fi
Welcome to the neighborhood! We’re not too terribly far away from you guys. The closest weekly Latin Mass is up at St. Joan’s. I hear rumor of a monthly SSPX mass up on the Prairie but I don’t know for sure. There is a pretty good possibility of a Latin Mass down in Lewiston in the near future, but we’re just in the beginning stages of getting that off the ground.
We keep Kune Kune and Mangalitsa pigs at our place. They are great! Shoot me an email at dave@traditionalcatholichomestead.com if you’d like to talk a little bit more!
+PAX+
Dave
It’s good hearing from you Hank, thanks for the well wishes! Hope you and your family are doing well. Feel free to stop by and visit the old homestead sometime.
+PAX+
Dave
Finding you just now unexpected as I searched for ‘fermenting kale’ and as I was needing a boost… I am a convert, too, and a traditional Catholic in Honolulu where we do not have traditional pre-VII Catholicism. I will be moving to the mainland for the real Church.
Hi Dave, I found your page trying to find some videos about keeping American milking devons as a family milk cow. I’ve been in touch with a breeder off the coast of washington, but I’m super fascinated by your amd/jersey cross! Just the other day I was wondering if doing an amd/mini jersey would be a good idea down the road.
We are up in the Palouse and just starting to research cows, gardening, etc. as we are moving onto some acreage (small, but big for us—8 acres!) Do you breed any of your cows to sell heifers? If not, where did you get your Amd’s? I love that they are tri-purpose and hardy for those of us up in the skinny part of Idaho.
Best,
Tricia
Hi Dave, I found your page trying to find some videos about keeping American milking devons as a family milk cow. I’ve been in touch with a breeder off the coast of washington, but I’m super fascinated by your amd/jersey cross! Just the other day I was wondering if doing an amd/mini jersey would be a good idea down the road.
We are up in the Palouse and just starting to research cows, gardening, etc. as we are moving onto some acreage (small, but big for us—8 acres!) Do you breed any of your cows to sell heifers? If not, where did you get your Amd’s? I love that they are tri-purpose and hardy for those of us up in the skinny part of Idaho.
Best,
Hi Tricia,great to hear from some folks up here in the neighborhood! Right now we have two and x jersey heifers. One is set to calf around December and the other is a yearling. We’re pretty excited to see how they come out. We got our AMD’s from some folks over in WA, but are down to just one cow now. We sent our bull off to greener pastures over in North-Eastern Oregon so that might be another option for you aside from the WA folks. We might be willing to part with the yearling cross if you are interested, BTW.
Hi! You mentioned a year ago that they might start the Latin Mass in Lewiston, do you know if that’s happened yet?
No news on that front at this point. We’re still working on that front, but it’s slow going!
Good afternoon! I was wondering if you had any information or could help me on figuring out how I can do an off grid solar array. Most of the people I speak to are into grid/solar which in my opinion negates the reason to do solar. I don’t really need to offset my bills I need to do it to prepare. I was recommended to check you guys out and ask. Can you guide me in the right direction?
The very first step is determining how much energy you are going to need to keep things running and then go from there. You’ll want a couple of days reserve capacity in your battery bank. Your batteries are going to be your least durable part of the system and will need to be replaced sooner than anything else(as long as you purchase quality charge controllers and inverters…if you go that route). We went with nickel iron batteries as part of our system, but there are a few other options that might be better these days. Really there are a ton of variables in designing a system though. Shoot me an email dave@traditionalcatholichomestead.com and we can discuss this a little more I’d you would like.
Hello Dave,
I saw your video on YouTube with the Grass-fed homestead and really like the setup you have.
I have been doing some research on the Milking Devon and was interested to see your Devon-Jersey cross.
Have reposted the video here: https://rainwaterrunoff.com/the-milking-devon/
My website http://www.rainwaterrunoff.com was set up to cover issues for homesteaders just like yourself as well as to promote the work they are doing.
All the best,
Ivan
Hi Dave! My family and I are traditional Catholics and looking to start homesteading. We want to remove ourselves and our children from the secular world as much as we can and see so much value in homesteading. With that being said, we are currently in Michigan and are interested in relocating anywhere in the US where there is a large community of catholic homesteaders. Do you have any suggestions on areas that you’re aware of where this kind of community exists? God Bless you Dave!
Elizabeth, I’m familiar with the community up in Post Falls Idaho. Lots of like minded folks up there. I also hear really good things about Eastern Oklahoma (Tulsa area).
+PAX+
Dave
Are y’all hiring?? email me greg@uwcatholic.org
Hi! I just stumbled upon your blog…I pray you are still up & running. I live in Palmer, Alaska & want to find other like minded folks.
A group of us share a very similar vision. It follows the command to “go forth and convert all nations.” Consequently, our Catholic Homesteading vision includes the addition of a business incubator. Many Traditional Catholics want to live this way but will need jobs. This provides the jobs. https://nicodemusventures.org/CLM.pdf … A short video describing the origin of Christendom being regenerated in this way. https://nicodemusventures.org/A.mp4