If you’ve decided that a homestead lifestyle is something you’d like to pursue, there are a few things you definitely need to know before you start homesteading. The homestead life is not always what it appears, and there are some key factors you’ll need to know before you start your own homesteading journey.
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It’s easy to romanticize a simple life on a homestead. To earnestly wish for a time gone by and to feel like you’ve been born in the wrong century. It’s easy to imagine a world where growing your own food, harvesting your own animals, and living off the land as being an ideal life, one of worth and depth.
And to be honest, I believe this to be true. I believe wholeheartedly in a homestead lifestyle in which you can sustain yourself as much as possible. I believe in the traditions of old; of the value placed on relationships and a partnership with nature. I yearn for a community of others that share that lifestyle, such as was had by the early pioneers.
Yet, there are some things that definitely need to be addressed before you pack up, leave the city, and start your own homesteading adventure.
1. Homesteading Shouldn’t Be Romanticized
When thinking about homesteading, few people can contemplate the idea without reverting to a thought of the pioneers of the 1800s. Thoughts then turn to the dream that life could be living this way. People’s imaginations begin to create the lifestyle images in our heads: A woman rocks on a front porch as she watches the sun begin to rise. She knows of the work ahead of her, and she is ready and willing to work hard for her family. She heads back inside, ready to start the day. Quickly, she lights a fire in the fireplace and begins to tend to her work preparing breakfast for her family. As she works, her husband heads outside to do the morning milking and other chores, and the children join him. After breakfast, she begins her work for the day. Today’s task: baking bread for the family and churning the butter. As she heads outside to use the outhouse after breakfast, her bare feet feel the cool damp dew beneath them. The chickens happily peck away at the ground, and the day’s work begins.
It is so easy to imagine homesteading life this way. But looking at it through this perfect lens is false and wrong. Though there are absolutely beautiful and wonderful gifts each day on the homestead, the reality is that homesteading is challenging, exhausting, and filled with challenges and frustrations.
I came across this article from Northern Homestead, and to be honest, it stopped me dead in my tracks. In this article, the author, named Anna, recalls what life was really like for her as she grew up on a homestead.
The Homesteading Dream? Anna’s Story
Anna grew up on an almost self-sufficient homestead. And while she didn’t grow up in the late 1800s, her life mirrors a pioneer homestead life.
She begins her article talking all about the homestead itself. It sounds like a dream with its fruit trees, garden, cow, pig, and chickens. She details her life growing up, sharing about the home built by her father’s hands, the use of the outhouse, the daily chores and duties, and the food growing and preservation. As I read it, I grew more and more entranced, eager and excited to hear more about this wonderful homestead that she grew up on. It sounded exactly like I imagined my ancestors living; it sounded beautiful and wonderful and like the perfect way to live a full, happy, and healthy life.
But after she finished sharing what the homestead was like, she ended with this:
With so much homegrown, home raised, and homemade food you would think that we were the healthiest and happiest people around.
We were not.
My childhood memories include lots of nausea, throwing up (especially after butchering parties), as well as recurring colds and other health problems. My parents (also not healthy) were always busy doing everyday chores. And a big portion of our tight budget went for buying in feed for animals.
I do not recall seeing any of our domestic animals as pets, or even as being cute. They caused a lot of hard and unpleasant work. Butchering them was a normal cycle of life, we used them for food. Considering if they had a happy life or not, would not have crossed my mind. Our cow was stiff every spring and our pigs never saw sunshine. We cared for them in a way to get the most out of them. Still, our domestic animals did have a better life and care than most farm animals of today do.We ate mostly from the garden, not because we wanted to, or thought that was healthier, no it was what was available and what our family could afford. The more products became available, the less self-sufficient we became.
How People Lived Simple Yesterday by Anna, Northern Homestead
What Anna’s story teaches us
Anna’s story changes that dream vision that many hold about homesteading. This is a huge dose of reality of what it really looks like to live on a homestead, what people go through as they homestead, and what it was truly like for those early pioneers of the 1800s.
The longer we live this lifestyle, the more I find this to be true. Things go wrong more often than not, and hard choices are going to need to be made. The milk cow might be down one morning and you might open up the chicken coop to find a hen dead. There’s a chance that the garden won’t give you enough food. There will be a never-ending list of projects to complete, and you’ll never catch up on them all. Life on a homestead will not be exactly like the dream you were picturing before you began.
What does this mean for your homestead dreams?
This isn’t meant to scare you or dissuade you from living a homesteading lifestyle. In fact, I am a huge promoter of simple living and absolutely believe you can live simply in today’s modern world. We ourselves our living our own “dream” on a modern day homestead.
Instead, hopefully this insight to help you realize that homesteading is not easy. It’s not the romantic dream we sometimes put into our heads after reading Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. There are parts of it that are beautiful and wonderful, and truly dream-like. But it’s not the whole reality. Homestead life is going to take strength and grit, and it’s important to know that before you start homesteading.
2. Starting a Homestead from Scratch is Expensive and Difficult
When I reached out and asked over 200 homesteaders what they wish they would’ve known before they started homesteading, many noted the expense that homesteading actually involves.
Though homesteading can be done very cheaply if some factors line up in your favor, there are always going to be expenses with the homesteading life. If you’re starting out as a brand new homesteader, land will need to be purchased. A house will need to be built or purchased. If you’re planning on adding animals, those will come at a cost as well.
Once you’ve got a spot to live, building up your homestead is going to take time. There’s not shortcuts to it; it simply will take time. Trees will need time to grow. Land will need to be cared for and soil amended before gardens can take off. Fences will need to be built for animals. A beautiful, bountiful, and well producing homestead will not happen overnight, and it will take a lot of time and effort to get it to where you want it to be.
And even once you’ve established your homestead, there will still continue to be costs. Animals will always need to be fed. Important tools and equipment are going to break. Projects will need to be completed, maintained, and repaired. It’s all a part of living a homesteading life.
We built our small home in 2020, amidst the COVID pandemic. Luckily for us, we were able to buy and purchase most of our lumber before the huge price increases that we are seeing today. Nevertheless, even a small home build in which your husband does much of the work comes at a very high price. It’s important to recognize this before starting a homestead of your own. Know that if you plan to build a new home on your property, it will cost money, and most likely, a lot of it.
3. Homesteading with Small Children Can Be Challenging
A homestead is a wonderful place to raise a child for so many reasons. It encourages them to learn to love and appreciate nature, understand where food comes from, and teaches important life skills and character qualities. However, before you start homesteading, understand that there are challenges to homesteading with small children.
Training up children to be responsible means bringing them along as you do the work of homesteading. It means allowing them to carry the grain and spill half the bucket as they try to help. You’ll have to move at a much slower pace as you do your chores so that they can tag along with you. There will be days that they don’t want to be out in the field fixing the fence or out in the garden as you pull weeds. Things you thought you’d be able to get done in a day won’t get done because they’ve now taken longer than you’d anticipated.
Give yourself some grace. If you’re a homesteading homeschooling mother, then there are even more items on your plate. But, there are so many beautiful and wonderful gifts to give your children from living this lifestyle that this shouldn’t stop you before you start. Once the children grow, they’ll be a greater help. And someday, your homestead will not have children any longer. Before you start homesteading, know that homesteading with small children will test your patience and slow your productivity, but know that it is still worth it.
4. Things Can and Will Go Wrong
Remember that homesteading life is just that: life. Things can and will go wrong on your journey, and it’s important to recognize this before you start homesteading. Being proactive and planning for mistakes, understanding that they’re going to happen, and having a mindset that recognizes mistakes are opportunities for growth is critically important for homesteaders to be successful.
When your garden doesn’t produce enough green peppers to sustain your house for the winter, what will you do? If you wake up one morning to see the cows have jumped the fence, what will your next steps be? When your chickens get attacked by a fox in the night, how can you learn from it? Take each day as an opportunity to grow as a homesteader.
5. Despite the Hardships, Homesteading is a Beautiful Journey
As you may have felt throughout, even though there are hardships, homesteading still is a worthwhile, beautiful journey. Before you start homesteading, it is important to realize that it’s not the magical, simple life that you might dream it is, but even so, it’s still a life worth living.
So if you’re ready to start homesteading, be ready. Be prepared. And be encouraged. It won’t be an easy road, but there are others like you out there who are on the same road as you. Find them, and embrace the beautiful journey that is homesteading.
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More posts on starting a homestead and simple living:
- 6 Simple Steps to Living a Simple Life
- Why is Simple Living So Hard in Today’s Modern World?
- What 200 Homesteaders Wish They Would’ve Known When They Started
- HOW TO BECOME A HOMESTEADER: HOW THESE FAMILIES STARTED THEIR OWN MODERN DAY HOMESTEADS
- MODERN DAY HOMESTEADERS: WHO ARE THEY?
- READY TO START HOMESTEADING? LEARN HOW HERE.
- WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT HOMESTEADING? | ENCOURAGEMENT ON THE HOMESTEAD
- Encompassing the Homesteading Lifestyle: Top 10 Quotes Every Homesteader Has Said At Least Once
- Here’s What You Need to Know about Homesteading in Wisconsin
- More simple homestead life….
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