Feature The New Growers
The Next Generation of Homesteaders
Trends, Motivations & Triumphs
By Kristina Guidroz, Guidroz Family Farm LLC
I was 18 and pregnant. I should have been a statistic; instead, I became a success story. Had you told me so many years ago that I would be running a thriving quail farm alongside my husband, I would have told you that you were crazy! Here I am at 43 years old doing exactly that. I’ m living dreams that I didn’ t know were dreams at that time.
Seasons of Life
I knew from a young age that I wanted to get married and have children; those things came to me sooner rather than later in life. This year we’ ll celebrate 23 years of marriage. We’ ve been living this homesteading lifestyle on and off for more than 15 years, mostly blindly flailing our way through, and now we spend our free time teaching others about the things we wish we knew. When we started this journey as young adults, the information wasn’ t as readily available as it is currently.
We’ ve raised children while being unemployed, employed and now I’ m happy to say, self-employed! I’ ve been a stay-athome mom and a working mom; both roles came with their challenges, but we’ ve managed to raise two wonderful adult children and we have one little bird still in the nest.
We were raising children who were active in school, sports and friendships, so our time was divided. We had to navigate through the seasons of life, which sometimes meant that homesteading went to the backburner. That’ s one of the great things about this, even if you must pause to live life; you retain that knowledge, which allows you to step back into it as fast or as slow as you’ d prefer.
15 Years of Homesteading
I was a 4-H and Future Farmers of America( FFA) kid growing up. This world wasn’ t new to me, so it came as no surprise to anyone when I decided that it was time for us to have a few chickens around the house. Those few chickens led to a few quail, which led to a full-blown business.
Fortunately for our family, when the pandemic hit, I had much of this knowledge already stored and I was able to put it to good use. Not only did it give everyone a much-needed distraction, but it also provided us with fresh eggs and
8 AcreageLife April 2026 AcreageLife. com