Who Is Keeping It Riel?

Hi!  We’re Steve and Marilyn Riel, two Swamp Yankees from Connecticut.  Most people know us as photographers who own and operate a portrait studio and boutique but may not be aware that when we aren’t working on our business, we are working on our homestead.  Our true love is the self-reliance you gain from gardening, preserving, foraging, making tinctures and salves and other survival preparations that we do every day here at our little cabin in the woods.

Our Why

We started journaling the daily chores that we never thought were out of the ordinary until friends and family said that we should teach them, document what we were doing or create videos formatted like how-to’s.  Apparently, some of what we thought of as “everyone knows how to do this” wasn’t as common as we thought.  We started by documenting how we gardened – what we planted and when… Then we started taking pictures of useful plants found around our property and what they were good for and how to use them.  Then we moved into making videos on YouTube.  At first, mostly for our grandkids but then we found that other people were actually interested.  We decided that this would be a great platform for us to document useful information so that other people may be able to benefit from it.

What To Expect

Moving forward, we would love to create more videos documenting the things that we may take for granted but others might learn from.  Our world is changing and we believe that the most important thing you can prepare is knowledge and skills that will allow you to take care of yourself and those around you when some or all of our modern conveniences may no longer be available.  We will endeavor to create quality content in order to help spread awareness and knowledge about preparedness and self-reliance.  We are also hoping to learn from our community through the feedback and comments left by you and others that have knowledge we may not.