Some days I kick ass at homesteading. Some days, I’m all like: let’s bake bread from scratch, hang our clothes to dry, make a salad from the garden, sew the holes in my socks, I want a milk cow, and 4 goats, and 3 beef cows, and 4 pigs, and so on. Other days, I’m all like: I’m going to bake frozen bread (hello, Mrs. Rhodes), dry the clothes in the dryer (damn dog won’t leave the clothes alone on the line), make a salad from the grocery store (lettuce went to bolt), toss my holey socks (1 mending is enough), and forget the milk cow and all her friends (ain’t nobody got time for dat). But here’s the truth about homesteading…
All of that is okay!!!!
Because I’m not a pioneer!
I’m a homesteader.
And you probably are, too!
While I do enjoy eating entirely from my garden, that isn’t always possible. (Thank goodness for grocery stores). I do enjoy hanging out my clothes, but sometimes it rains. Raising and hunting animals is a luxury, not necessarily a necessity (and I’m so thankful for enough money to buy groceries). I’ve never learned to sew, so making our own clothes is not really an option, and I’m okay with that, too!
My point is that not one of us does the “homesteading” thing better than one or another. You do your homesteading thing the way that works best for you, and I do my homesteading thing that works best for me and my family. And that’s the truth about homesteading.
Homesteading is never a one size fits all! It’s a make-it-work-for-you-size.
I love that our version of homesteading is always changing and evolving as we do (and it probably will for you, too). “Homesteading” for us simply began with homemade laundry detergent. That’s it. It has evolved immensely from there into cooking mostly from scratch, raising chickens, being frugal with our money, making own own salves and soaps, prepping, and so on! I pray that it will continue to evolve. I can’t wait for a wind turbine, solar panels, hand pumps on our water well, all the animals, learning to sew and crochet (maybe).
It’s such an exciting time for us, but it’s all about what we make it!
If you are wanting to homestead, I want you to start with just one thing. Bake one loaf of bread from scratch. Make yourself some body spray. Grow a little container garden. Start small. Take it day by day. Add in another small thing when you’re ready. Rinse and repeat. Before you know it, you’ll be much more self-sufficient, too!
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Happy Homesteading! (:
P.S. have any thoughts or questions? Tell me all the things in the comments! Also, you can contact us if you’d love to collab!
I don’t know where this pressure comes from, but man, it can get heavy sometimes. Especially when there’s livestock, it feels like it never ends. In the spring and summer there are weeds to pull and whatever actually grows. Eggs to get, hay to put out, feed to load and unload and distribute…. it’s always something. And while I love canning and gardening and all that… Man… sometimes after I deal with the farm and the kids and my second job, I decide to not even make dinner for myself and let the kids eat ramen. Thank God for my wife is all I can say, haha.
i do think it’s important to have help! that’s what our ancestors did; and teamwork makes the dream work is how the cliche goes, after all! i am regretting not having about 6 more kids though!! lol