Dec 27, 2017
When Jennifer McGaha (@Jennifer_McGaha) discovered that she and her husband owed back taxes―a lot of back taxes―her world changed. Desperate to save money, they foreclosed on their beloved suburban home and moved their family to a one-hundred-year-old cabin in a North Carolina holler. Soon enough, Jennifer's life began to more closely resemble her Appalachian ancestors than her comfortable upbringing. But what started as a last-ditch effort to settle debts became a journey that revealed both the challenges of living close to the land.
McGaha never expected to own a goat named Merle. She didn't expect to be buying organic yogurt for her chickens. She never thought she would be pulling camouflage carpet off her ceiling or rescuing opossums from her barn and calling it "date night." Most importantly, Jennifer never thought she would only have $4.57 in her bank account.