The homesteading lifestyle is filled with seriously amazing highs and also some pretty heavy lows. It’s not a lifestyle for the faint of heart, and at some point in your homesteading career, you’re going to find yourself muttering one of these quotes.
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When we first started our homesteading journey, I was completely and 100% naïve to the reality of what living the homesteading lifestyle actually would look like. In my mind, I would be living a life of perfect harmony with nature. The wind would blow my hair beautifully as I walked my perfectly trained milk cow into her beautifully clean stanchion. Chickens would cover the landscape, pecking away at all of the wood ticks and other annoying bugs, leaving none left behind. Our garden would be booming with the overabundance of crops, and our Ruth Stout method of gardening meant we would never have to deal with weeds again!
Ok, so I wasn’t quite that naïve as I’m playing myself out to be. I knew it would be worth the hard work it was going to take to build up a homestead, and I knew that things were bound to go wrong. But, I really didn’t have a clear understanding of what the homesteading lifestyle actually looked like until I started living it every day as a lifestyle. That really is true of many things, though. You can’t really imagine what labor and delivery is like until you’ve gone through it yourself. Until you’re walking the path, it’s hard to imagine what raising that same child will exactly look like in the years to come. You have dreams and ideas of how you think and want it to go, but you can’t really fully grasp what it will be like until you live it yourself.
This is what the homesteading lifestyle is really like
If you’re considering the homesteading lifestyle, consider this a gift. You can see firsthand what to expect to say at least once sometime in your homesteading journey.
If you’re a long time homesteader, I hope you enjoy these quotes and they bring you to thought provoking (and maybe funny) memories. We’d love to hear some of them and would so appreciate it if you’d leave us a comment below.
Without any further ado, it’s time to jump right in.
“Seriously…how did she manage to get poop there?”
Yep, we’re going to start right away with a poop quote. You know why? Because the homesteading lifestyle is completely filled with dealing with poop. Where do you put the poop? Your clothes will have poop on them. And, the animals will surprise you with where they find to be the perfect place to lay their manure.
Do you have a family milk cow on your property? Well, this quote becomes even more relevant! Your cow will poop and then lay down in it. She will poop on her tail, then hit you with it while you milk. She will poop on her calf’s head. You might even find poop on her own head! How did it get there? You’ll never know…. But, what you will know is that poop is a completely normal part of the homesteading lifestyle.
“Well, that didn’t work. What now?”
This one is going to be said a lot. As a homesteader, you’re going to have lots of ideas and dreams. You’ll find yourself coming up with new ideas, trying them out, and then facing that sheer disappointment when they absolutely fail miserably.
Example A: Failed Chick Hatching
Here are some prime examples. We were so excited for our first broody hen to start sitting on about a dozen eggs on her nest. She sat and sat for 21 days….and then the first chick hatched! She abruptly left the nest and her killed her new chick. That was definitely not what we were expecting! We desperately tried to save the remaining eggs by putting them under another hen. In the morning, we found another chick had hatched and died. Talk about more disappointment. We then brought the remaining 3 eggs into our garage and placed them under a heat light, hoping for the best. The best didn’t happen- the eggs were rotten and exploded everywhere all over our garage.
We found ourselves saying, “Well, that didn’t work at all.” But, we did the most important thing we could do in that situation- we asked “what now?”
Mistakes are going to happen. What you do with them is what matters.
You are going to make some mistakes while you learn how to homestead. What you do with those mistakes matter. To start, we realized that we should have done our research better to see how to care for a broody hen. We learned that you can candle eggs to see if there are viable chicks far before the eggs turn into rotten time bombs. We also learned that sometimes mama hens can get scared off the nest when their eggs start hatching, especially when they’re not isolated with their eggs and are first time mothers. We learned a lot from that experience in general, and we put that new knowledge to use. A few weeks later, one of our other hens hatched out two healthy babies. Everything is a learning game in the homesteading lifestyle. The key is to not give up once you experience the initial defeat.
“We’re going to need a better fence.”
You can try to keep animals in, or, you can try to keep animals out. Odds are, you’re going to struggle at some point. You might walk outside in the morning to see your garden crops have been completely demolished by a hungry deer in the night. Or, perhaps you’ll find yourself being stalked by a massive pig on your walk to pick apples. Or, maybe, you might look outside one afternoon to see your heifer happily trotting alongside the outside of the fence while the other cows trot along with her, wondering her secret exit. Whatever the situation may be, there will come a time when you are going to need to evaluate your fencing situation. Odds are, you’re going to need a better fence.
“Is the fence on?”
Speaking of fencing….
If you have an electric fence, you’re going to find yourself asking this question all. the. time. You might need to go into the pasture for a quick minute, so you holler to your husband near the barn, “Is the fence on?” He’ll shout, “No!”, but it will be, and you’ll find yourself in a heated argument a few minutes and electric volts later. Oh, I’m only kidding…. that’s never happened here. Yet….
You’re bound to get a shock from the fence at some point in your life if you live around them. And once you do, you’ll understand why this question is asked so frequently. Getting a shock from an electric wire is not pleasant!
“I think she’s in heat!”
You will find yourself following the cycles of your female animals closer than you follow your own. Breeding your animals is very important on the homestead for many reasons. If you have a family milk cow or dairy goat, you need to breed her so she calves/kids and produces milk. If you have pigs, beef cattle, or rabbits, you need to breed them to produce offspring for meat.
Many homesteading families use artificial insemination to breed their animals, specifically cows, to avoid having a bull on the property. Bulls are notoriously known for being extremely dangerous and can even be deadly. So, no bull means you’re going to need a breeder to come and do the job. Like humans, cows and other mammals ovulate once per month. This means you’ll need to watch closely for signs that the time is right. If you miss it, you’ll need to wait another whole month before you can try again. Be ready for your kids to start happily sharing that the cows are jumping on each other in the pasture. It’s a big deal to not miss a heat cycle!
“Come on, why can’t you just cooperate?”
When you work with animals, you’re going to find that they really have a mind of their own. Just because you want them to do something does not mean that they will do it. You want to separate a few of the cows from the others? Nope, they are not going to make it easy for you. Don’t like that the chickens have decided that in front of your front door is their favorite spot to hang out? You’re definitely going to be asking yourself, “Come on, why can’t you just cooperate?”
“Don’t step in the chicken poop.”
Speaking of chickens. If you have free range chickens, they’re going to poop everywhere. You might not have thought about this fact before you let them wander and frolic freely. Now, as you walk through your yard barefoot, you’ll find yourself reminding your children and others to avoid the white lumps scattered all over. Instead of being able to walk freely, you will constantly be on alert for where the next chicken-snow-pile might be. And don’t think I’m exaggerating. You definitely will not want to step in chicken poop because it really is one of the worst smelling feces out there.
In this article, I talk about the pros and cons of free-ranging chickens, and the poop everywhere concept is definitely on the list of cons.
“I don’t think she’s going to make it.”
This one’s getting a little more deep.
Sometimes you’re faced with some tough decisions when you’re living a homesteading lifestyle. You’ll have to make the choice on when it’s best to end the existence of something else. That can be extremely difficult and emotionally taxing. It’s a hard decision to come to for many reasons, both emotionally and financially.
When you find yourself in the situation of dealing with a sick or injured animal, you immediately begin to empathize with their suffering. Deciding what is best for the animal sometimes means ending its life. Making these hard decisions is part of the homesteading lifestyle reality.
“What’s next?”
As you experience homesteading and all that has to offer, you’ll find yourself dreaming of what you can do next. The potential of this lifestyle is truly limitless and there are so many opportunities for you to grow. What will you add to your garden? Are you ready for new animals? How can you best meet the needs of your animals on the pasture that you have? Is rotational grazing a possibility? What can you make, create, and do with your hands?
In the beginning, starting small and mastering one thing is a wise choice. And once you do, the pride you feel from that one thing will begin to flow out of you until you can’t help but begin to wonder, “what’s next?”
“We are so lucky.”
This is the best one, truly. Every single night before bed, I share with God how extremely grateful I am for this life and the chance to live it. Even on the days when I have wanted to scream or curl up in a ball and cry, I still lay down each night and really think, “we are so lucky.”
The homesteading lifestyle is an amazing journey of highs and lows, of learning and lessons. It is a lifestyle that connects you deeply to the food that you eat, to the land that you live, and to the people that you love. It is an amazing gift to live life this way, one that you will truly feel absolutely lucky to live.
Do you have something to add to this list? Share it in the comments below!
We love hearing from you! What other quotes do you say on your homesteads?
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More Posts to Check Out:
- How to Become Homesteaders
- How Gratitude Can Change Your Life
- Best Homesteading Quotes to Capture the Reality of Homesteading Life
- Modern Day Homesteaders: Who are they?
- Six Steps to Living a Simple Life
- Ready to Start Homesteading? Learn how here.
Very amusing and true post! There are so many common words used among himesteaders!
“Well that didn’t work!” – oh my, a frequent life lesson, but a good one. I tend to lack patience with this one but I am definitely trying to be more accepting of failure. You have the choice to either “try try again”…or not. And I’m ok with not trying again on some things, too.
Yes…sometimes trying something again may not be the wisest decision! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I think I’ve said pretty much every one of these at least once… I grew up on a homestead and I even remember my parents saying these exact things!
I’ve also said, “What on earth are you doing?” to my livestock a few times… but they just keep on doing what animals do (get in trouble!). Lol!
Oh, yes! I’ve said that one too!
LOL these are so funny! Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you got a laugh out of them 🙂
Guilty 😃
These are great 😂 so relatable! I think my husband and I have said all of those. Thanks for sharing!
These are definitely things people need to take into consideration before adding the responsibility of animals. It looks lovely from the outside, but there are a lot of hard decisions. Great article.
Absolutely true! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
I’m so glad you liked them 🙂