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James's awesome award-winning beard!

Happy Homestead is a great name that encompasses our goals, hobbies, lifestyle and mindset very well. We are by no means experts in any homesteading field, but we enjoy experimenting, making mistakes, learning and exploring what works best for us in our aims to establish a sustainable and easy going life.
​

However, I have to be honest, when we first started documenting the journey towards a more self-reliant life back in autumn of 2016 I didn’t think anybody would follow us along as we are such a small family with very little to offer when compared to the larger homesteading channels. This is why I am very surprised and deeply humbled to learn that not only we have a small community interested in us, we also have a larger community who warmly welcomed us!
​
Let me tell you a story: Tom, one of the YouTube homesteaders from the Whistle Thicket channel has decided to hold a beard competition asking the community to nominate and vote for various people cultivating the best “face gardens”. James has been sporting an awesome beard for over two years and has always been known in our local community as “the one with the beard” so it was no surprise to me that he entered this awesome beard competition!
We didn’t expect much of it though as there are so many formidable beards sported amongst the YouTube homesteaders - just look at Tom himself or Dough (from Off-Grid with Doug and Stacey). Yes, we thought it’d be awesome to get a mention in someone else’s video and whilst James’s beard is indeed the longest on the whole island of Eday we thought there was certainly no chance of actual recognition on the internet - it was just a bit of fun! ​
​
A couple of weeks later the results were in and we were stoked to learn that not only James’s awesome beard was mentioned, it actually won an award!
​
Here is the video set at the exact time of this awesome announcement!
It was an awesome award titled “Viking’s Beard - The Pride of Orkney” to recognise the longest beard amongst all YouTube homesteaders. The award came with a custom made certificate - how many people can say the have a certified award-winning beard? This was such a proud moment for James and we both felt really honoured. It was definitely a great time to blow the horn of victory and make more blaand and mead!
​
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My award winning Viking beard!
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Orcadian Viking's beard!
This experience has made us feel that despite the lack of real homesteading skills, we do indeed belong to a very welcoming, loving and friendly community of YouTube homesteaders who are forthcoming in sharing tips, ideas, methods and inspiration with newbies like us. We are so happy to be a part of such a large and knowledgeable family! We would also like to thank Tom for an awesome idea, great execution and most amazing certificate ever!
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  • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • Wine List & Recipes
    • Banana Wine Made Simple
    • Blaand
    • Blackberry Mead
    • Christmas Pudding Wine!
    • Easy Rhubarb Wine
    • Gorse Flower Wine
    • Gutsy Ginger Wine
    • Liquorice Wine
    • Mead Making Made Simple
    • Mint Wine Recipe
    • Mushroom Wine
    • Nasturtium Leaf Wine
    • No Boil Rhubarb Wine
    • Pine Needle Wine
    • Pumpkin Wine
    • Rose Hip Leaf Wine
    • Red Kidney Bean Wine!
    • Rose Petal Wine
    • Seaweed Wine
    • Spiced banana wine
    • Turnip and Red Cabbage Wine
    • Wine Making 101
    • What is a country wine?
    • ​Can I use bread yeast to make wine?
  • Homestead
    • Dee's Corner >
      • Military wife blog
      • First Time Pregnant
    • Projects >
      • SmallholdersUK
      • Beard Award
      • #Eday on Twitter
    • Recipes >
      • Homemade Cheese
      • Pickled Quail Eggs
      • Simple Bread Loaf
      • Banana Ice-Cream
      • Rhubarb Chutney (Old)
      • Making Sea Salt on the Log Fire
      • Shepherds pie for the dogs
    • Our Island >
      • Homestead or Smallholding
      • 18 days until we move!
      • 10 days until we move
      • 2 Days to go!
      • We are here!
      • Waterworks!
      • Location is not the answer
      • Remote Living Challenges
      • The Caves
      • Reason to waggle (caves)
      • Sea Fishing in Eday
    • Duck >
      • Duck shed
      • Duck 1: Incubation
      • Duck 2: Imprinting
      • Duck 3: Outdoors
      • Duck 4: Attached
    • Quail >
      • Quail 1: Reasons
      • Quail 2: Incubation
      • Quail 3: Brooding
      • Quail 4: Raising
      • Quail 5: Suicidal
      • Quail 6: Permaculture
      • Quail 7: Environment
      • Quail 8: Setup
    • Chickens >
      • Chickens Fancy vs Warren
      • Ebay Eggs
      • Our Egg Hatching Plan
      • Nursing Chickens 1 - 2018
      • Brooding Chickens 1 - 2018
      • Hatching Chickens 1 - 2018
    • Home & Garden >
      • Baby Starling
      • Spider Plants
      • Aloe Vera
      • Fuel for winter
      • Peat, Coal, Wood
      • Hoarding Supplies
      • Coffee grounds
      • Brewers Hops
      • Brewers grain
      • Teabag compost
      • Essential oils
      • Eco Toothbrush
      • No Fridge?
    • Other articles >
      • The best and the worst of dog food!
      • Random acts of kindness
      • Bristol No Foraging
      • Philosophy on Raising Children
      • Close encounter with Bulls
      • Blog