Starting a Homestead

In today's culture and economy, it seems like more people than ever are wanting to move "to the sticks" and create a homestead. The idea of a bit of freedom and independence is appealing. Being able to raise their own food free from chemicals and contamination, lower their overall cost of living possibly homeschool their kids is like a dream to them!  For me, I dreamt of waking up to the sounds of sheep bellowing from the fields then running to me with bells jingling around their necks. I imagined roosters crowing and chickens frantically pecking the ground, while I sat in a hammock in the sunshine sipping my morning coffee or worked in my garden with my hands and bare feet in the dark, rich soil. 

I'll be honest, we did it ALL wrong! We jumped in head first and ended up way OVER our heads. We were working with someone local who made us feel like in order to be a "proper" homestead", we HAD to do all these things.  We had to have a big garden, chickens, sheep and pigs. We had to clear pastures and start some meat chickens. We needed to can our garden goods, learn to can chicken and to preserve meat by hanging it for months at a time. We needed to DO it all to HAVE it all. And so we tried. We jumped in and go the sheep, got a couple pigs, lots of chickens and meat chickens. And we struggled and felt like we were suffocating in our new way of life that was supposed to be freeing and peaceful. We spent massive amounts of money on feeding these animals and caring for them, digging ourself a bit of a hole both financially and emotionally. We were exhausted! 

But what is involved in creating this dream of owning and operating a homestead? In this article I'm going to walk you through the first steps we SHOULD have taken! Learn from our mistakes. 

1. Dream 
Dream small. Dream big. Dream of all the possibilities. Dream of what could be. Dream in fantasy land and also in reality. But dream!  Start to create ideas of what you think you might want on your homestead. Visit Pinterest and Instagram and start imagining your life in your new homestead and land. And then come back to reality and prioritize...

What are your "must haves" on your homestead?  Do you want a big white farm house with gardens and a river and maybe a big red barn? Classic! Do you want a cabin in the woods where all your animals and garden are kept close on just a couple of acres close to the house. Cozy! Or do you want something somewhere in between? Do you want gardens and animals? Do you want to live on or off grid?  Find out what you are wanting and then prioritize it.  This is an area we did all wrong! We tried to get everything started at once. We got a few laying hens from a friend, started our garden and were convinced by someone else that we needed sheep right away! She told me that they'd be great for meat but also that I could use the wool. My dream of spinning wool failed when I realized I don't know the FIRST thing about it and I simply didn't have the time to learn right now in my life with working full time and all the events that go along with 4 kids in college and one in a music program at college. Games, concerts and activities overtook my time to learn spinning and knitting. But it was too late...I already had the sheep. Then someone convinced us we needed goats.  The milk alone would be great, right? WRONG TIMING again! We threw up some quick shelter and fences and got our goats. They were phenomenal except for the doe got pregnant and no one told us that male goats STINK!  But we were doing what everyone told us to do instead of taking the time to prioritze what WE wanted with our property and homestead. 

Now, I always tell newbies to start with one thing and perfect it. We didn't do this! Remember, we jumped in head first!! Start with a garden. Keep it to vegetables and produce that you actually will eat, not just items that think you should grow. For me, I HATE zucchini and squash but for some reason, I continue to grow it. And when I'm overwhelmed with piles of them and giving them to every person I come across, I yell at myself for planting them.....and next year do the same thing! Don't be me! What vegetables do your family like and eat the most often? I grow tons of corn because we eat it often from our garden and it cans well for the future. Potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, onions and garlic are also must haves in my garden space. I've done brussel sprouts several years in a row but haven't perfected them...YET! I've tried peppers and this was the first year I'd succeeded with them and will tell you all about that in another post. Learning to prioritize will help keep you sane on this journey!

3. Get to know other homesteaders and gardeners in your area. 
These can be a huge resource for you as you learn. They also will have things that they do really well and you can purchase those things from them instead of doing them all yourself. I don't have time right now to learn soap making, so I found a local lady who I buy all my soap from. I also don't have time (or energy) for a dairy cow at the moment so can purchase my milk from someone local as I choose. Creating a community is important when you are learning and living this lifestyle. I know that many people who move to a homesteading life want some isolation and solitude, and you can have that, but community is also important and finding just the right people will create so much more joy on the journey you are embarking on.

Start your garden or start raising a few chickens and perfect it before moving on to something else. Spend time researching your chickens and how to raise them, what breeds you want, how to keep them healthy and what do if they get sick.  Make this like a job and do it to the best of your ability, before moving on to the next thing. And when you move to that, do that well too! You will find that if you jump from thing to thing, creating more and more work for yourself, you will NOT be happy. 

The one thing I learned early on is that things would NOT go according to plan. No matter how much I planned and prepared or tried to control everything, there would still be setbacks.Predators would attack. Animals would have still births or get bloat and pass away before you ever even knew they were suffereing from it. Parasites some years will be hardert o control than other years and that Animals WILL escape!  Sometime I'll have to tell you about my sheep escaping and being a mile down the road at a junk yard! A garden will be destroyed by deer or rabbits or an early frost. An entire batch of canning will be ruined.  The sooner I admitted that this is part of the process, the better was I was able to plan, but to also accept that we did the absolute best we could.  If you are a perfectionist, you need to lay some of that down and understand that there will be things that happen that are 110% out of your control.

I believe that learning is a life long process and when I first started learning various ways of being a bit more self sufficient around my home, I felt like I was in over my head. If I'm going to be honest, I still have days I feel that way. The more time spent learning and researching, the better the overall project and outcome usually goes.  If gardening is going to be your first step, start doing some research on your area, your gardening style and the types of vegetables and flowers you want.  If chickens are your first priority, learn as much as you can before you buy that first baby chick. This will save you so much hassle. 

Over the next few weeks we will be going more in depth on actual things you can do to get started with your homestead and make the process as seamless as it possibly can be. I'll see you soon with more info on how to get your homestead up and running!