Homestead life is something many are seeking to learn more about in today’s present age. But what does homestead life really look like? If you’re considering homestead living, come along with us to get a glimpse into daily homestead life.
When we were first thinking and dreaming about starting a homestead, one of the things I really wanted to know more about was what daily homestead life actually looked like. So I tried my best to figure it out with books, videos, and historical fiction, and I did learn quite a bit. But what we learned from our firsthand experiences on our own homestead weren’t always like what the books and videos depicted homesteading to be. My goal with this post is to give you a real accurate glimpse into what homestead life looks like throughout the seasons. This is our homestead life, filled with hard work, adaptability, resourcefulness, and even heartbreak, too.
Table of Contents
- Homestead Life in Spring
- Homestead Life in Summer
- Homestead Life in Fall
- Homestead Life in the Winter
- Big Takeaways About Homestead Life
- Save and Share this Post
- More on Homestead Life
- Our Homestead Journey
Homestead Life in Spring
Spring homestead life is all about bringing new life on the homestead. At our little homestead, spring is the time to start seeds for our garden, bring new meat birds and laying hen chicks onto our homestead, bring pigs to raise onto the homestead, and start watching our cows as they prepare to have their babies. It’s also time to make maple syrup, which is another big project. As you can see, spring is a busy time!
To give you a better glimpse at what homestead life looks like in the spring, let me walk you through a real week on our homestead in March.
A Week in Our Homestead Life in Spring
Let me take you along for a real week in our homestead life in spring.
Livestock
My husband, Dan, is outside doing the morning chores. He moves a bale of hay from our pile to the cows using our tractor and works to clear snow from the recent snow fall. Inside, I work on our weekly baking; preparing breads and snacks for the week while getting breakfast ready for the family. The baby is strapped onto my chest in her wrap while the bigger children play together downstairs.
As he’s clearing the driveway of snow, Dan notices the cow in the pasture has a bloody discharge and is squatting. He comes to get me and we realize that she’s in labor- 6 weeks early. This isn’t good, and though we both know this is bad, we try to remain optimistic.
Dan gets the cow into the barn, and we watch her deliver the lifeless, premature calf. It’s awful- nothing that we were prepared for on that cold March morning. We feel both sad and disappointed; sad for the loss for our cow, sad for the loss of a new calf, and disappointed in the circumstance all around. And, we’re unprepared. Without a baby to keep up with the milk, we are now tied to milking twice per day everyday. We discuss what our options are now moving forward.
We call around to other local famers, and we find out that there’s a week old calf available that we could buy. This is a blessing as she won’t let down for us to milk her out and milking every day, twice per day, isn’t something we are looking to do. Dan heads to the farm and brings home a Holstein steer, which the cow thankfully accepts.
Soon enough, we come to another problem, as the cow still won’t let down and one calf can’t keep up with our cow’s milk supply. And so, we find another calf from another farm to add into the mix- a little Angus heifer calf. She’s spunky and cute, and once again, our cow accepts her. Now, we need to continue to watch the cow to make sure she cleans (passes her afterbirth) and stays healthy.
Garden Prep
We’ve got all of our seeds ready to go, and we’re starting the indoor planting process of our peppers. In a plastic cup or saved plastic pot, we put 3 little pepper seeds, labeling each as we go. We give them a quick drink of water, then place them in our window with a supplemental grow light. Now we wait and hope that these little seeds will germinate and grow, providing food for our family. In the next few weeks, more seeds will be planted, and our garden season will begin inside the warmth of our home.
Outside in the garden there’s not much to see. But in late spring, the rhubarb and asparagus will start to show up, giving us something from the garden to eat once again! We all look forward to being able to harvest fresh food from the land soon.
Maple Syrup
Though we’ve been eager to get out to tap our trees for our small batch maple syrup operation, the snow has proven to be too much and the weather too cold for the trees to start giving us enough sap for cooking. Just in March alone, we’ve gotten around 18 inches of new snow. For now, we get our supplies ready, making sure we have enough bags, bag holders, and taps. Dan heads out to the hardwood hill to start plowing the path that we’ll walk up many, many times in the upcoming weeks. With temperatures expected to rise into the high 30s and 40s over the next few weeks, the trees should finally start running well.
Everyday Homestead Life
We have been spending many afternoons outside walking together through the woods before the snow starts to melt and our trail becomes soggy and muddy. This is one of my favorite parts of the day; I love the chance to walk through the silent forest.
I brought home some s’more supplies from the store, and we made a small campfire in the yard towards evening. While we sat around the fire, an owl flew in and landed in the tree beside us. We stared at the owl and it back at us for a few minutes before it left. The stars began to shine brightly in the sky and the coolness of the night sent us back inside soon after.
Spring is a pretty magical time of the year for us, as the world starts to come alive once again. Soon enough, there will be puddles to play in, spring peepers to listen to, and a warmth in the wind. There are many hours spent outside in spring. The busy season is just beginning, and spring eases us into the work that is to come ahead.
Homestead Life in Summer
Homestead life in summer is filled with food! The Earth has come alive once again, and the gardens are in full force. Homestead life in summer looks a little different than in spring with the longer days and warmer weather providing time for more to grow and to be done.
Livestock
The homestead is filled with life in the summer! Calves run around their mothers in the pasture as they graze. Chickens walk around the yard, happily scratching and eating bugs. The meat chickens are out in the pasture too, and are moved each day to new grass to enjoy. In the pigpen, the pigs are starting to get used to their new home and are rooting happily. They enjoy the extra garden scraps thrown over the fence to them each day.
Speaking of fences, those will need to be repaired and fixed after the spring and winter. Though the animals have plenty to eat now from nature, it’s always necessary to plan ahead. You’ll need to make hay for the animals for winter, and if you can’t, you’ll need to find someone who can do it for you. Homestead life is all about living in the moment and season while planning for the future.
Garden
Much of homestead life in the summer is revolved around the garden. Planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting are all a part of the daily routine. Plan to be in the garden everyday. In the early summer, you’ll find yourself in the garden often weeding your newly planted garden, doing your best to give the fragile plants you started back in March a chance to survive in the open world.
As the summer moves on and the plants get more established, you’ll find yourself weeding less and harvesting more. First will be the greens, peas, and radishes, followed by strawberries and blueberries. Then, in the middle of summer, the beans will come, along with cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers. Potatoes will start to be covered with potato bugs, so along with the children, you will find that picking them off will become part of the nightly garden routine. The raspberries will start to ripen in July, followed by blackberries in August, which means lots of time picking berries. We’ve found a wild patch on my grandpa’s land down the road, so almost every evening in the summer, we drive the four-wheeler deep into the woods to the patches of wild berries. Many nights, our bellies are fuller than our buckets, but the experience of it makes memories that will last forever.
As the crops continue to produce bountifully, it’s time to start preserving for the off season. Roasters filled with tomatoes will cook all day on the front porch. You’ll find yourself snipping beans almost every night, but the task done with others gives an opportunity for good conversation. Canning will continue late into the night, as cucumbers will need to be pickled, carrots picked, cleaned, cut, and canned. Peppers will need to be cut and froze. Fried zucchini will be part of your meal every day, along with fresh tomatoes and salad greens. Summer is a time of abundance and a great opportunity for gratitude.
Everyday Homestead Life
When there isn’t something to be canned or plants to be weeded, driving to the nearest lake for a swim is a fun way to spend an afternoon. Camp fires with friends give opportunities for connection. And I really love to sit on the front porch to listen to the sounds of summer when I have the chance. There are so many sounds; so many animals singing with all their might into the evening light during the summer. Then the stars come out, provoking thoughts of wonder. It’s a wonderful time to be outside.
To get a better glimpse of our life in the summer, check out this post on our homestead summer tour.
Homestead Life in Fall
As the fall rolls around, homestead life continues to be focused on preserving for the off season. It’s a busy time that’s filled with change and work as changes with the livestock will start to happen and fall crops will need to be preserved for the winter months.
Livestock
Any animals due for butchering will leave the homestead in the fall. Pigs, beef cattle, and meat birds will all be butchered and put into the freezer to feed the family in the winter months. This isn’t an easy thing, and you’ll probably feel the heaviness of the reality of some animals leaving the homestead. Helping to remember that the animals had a happy, healthy life, can help make it easier, but the truth is that it is probably always going to be hard to butcher animals that you’ve so worked with so closely. It’s an interesting thing raising and caring for animals that will one day become food, and I can say that it’s something that I still am not very good at readily accepting.
In addition to home harvested meats, Dan will head out into the woods to hunt, bringing home venison meat for the winter. We are thankful for any meat he harvests because it is meat that has been tended to by Mother Nature instead of us.
The chickens will start to lay less eggs as the daylight hours grow shorter. The wild animals will start to change, too, with many leaving for warmer places. Many of those staying will be busy putting up a food supply for winter. Squirrels make stockpiles of food and mice search for warm places to make home.
Garden
The garden has started to slow down somewhat, and now your focus is on root vegetables and winter squashes. Onions will cure on the porch and potatoes will be picked. What a fun treasure hunt it is to look for potatoes! Pumpkins will be picked, roasted, and turned into pumpkin purees for pies and muffins in winter. And then come the apples. Late into the evening, you’ll probably find yourself busy making applesauce or cutting up apples to freeze for the off season. It seems so wasteful to leave any food out to rot; each fruit and vegetable truly is a gift from God. Homestead life during fall is still quite heavily focused on preserving foods.
Everyday Homestead Life
When there’s free time, walking in the woods in search of beautiful leaves and food for foraging is a wonderful way to pass the time. But honestly, there isn’t as much free time now…so much time is spent on preparing for winter. Hunting, canning, and harvesting are big parts of this busy season.
Homestead Life in the Winter
Finally, rest for the weary! Homestead life in the winter mimics the natural world: a time for rest. Though there is still work to be done, it is a slower paced time in general. Life feels different on the homestead than it does any other season. The nights are dark and cold, and many days are filled with gray skies.
Livestock
Livestock chores become more challenging in winter time as you have to worry about water freezing, a warm shelter, and food and bedding for the animals. Keeping the water thawed and available for the animals is the biggest challenge for the livestock in the winter. Then there’s also managing the bedding and hay. Animals won’t be able to forage for their own food in winter, so they’ll need a good supply to keep them healthy. A lot of energy goes into making body heat during this time. The chickens will lay less eggs, and overall, the animals are more focused on surviving than sharing during this time.
Garden
The garden is asleep now, and there isn’t anything to pick from outdoors. Instead, you’ll find yourself making hearty meals from the food you’ve worked so hard to preserve in the fall. Root crops like potatoes, carrots, and onions will fill your meals, along with meats and other preserved vegetables. The only fruits available from the homestead are the ones you’ve preserved, like the berries and applesauce.
Everyday Homestead Life
Life is quiet in the winter, leaving more time for projects and baking. I like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, baking for family and friends. It’s also during this quiet season that I’m able to pull out my paints to paint pictures or do one of my sewing projects. It’s restful and family centered, which is really special.
On the days when it’s not too cold, we venture outside to walk in the magic of the frozen landscape. It’s a truly beautiful time of the year that often isn’t as appreciated as it should be!
Big Takeaways About Homestead Life
The biggest thing to remember about homestead life is that it’s going to look different for everyone. We live in a world where we have the ability to go to the store if something fails or if we choose not to grow something. Modern homesteaders have the choice to be as self-sufficient as they’d like to be, which makes modern homestead life a lot less stressful than it was for our pioneering ancestors.
Another big thing to note about homestead life is that it looks different in each season. Every season has a purpose and holds importance, and homestead life changes and adapts to match the needs of the season. Homestead life in winter will look vastly different than homestead life in summer because the seasons give and require different things. It’s a beautiful way to live, in-tune with the changes of the Earth. The changes of seasons helps remind us all of the passing of time and that nothing will last forever.
And lastly, it’s important to remember that while homestead life is fulfilling, intentional, and wholesome, it’s also filled with unavoidable heartache, hard work, and problems. What really matters is how one handles and faces those problems, and what they do to move forward. Each homesteader has to decide if the heartache, hard work, and problems are worth continuing to live the homestead lifestyle. For us, it absolutely is worth it.
What does your homestead life look like throughout the seasons? Share it in the comments!
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More on Homestead Life
Check out these other posts on homestead life!
HOW TO LIVE A HOMESTEAD LIFESTYLE- EVEN WITHOUT A HOMESTEAD
FARM CHORES ON THE HOMESTEAD: A FAMILY AFFAIR
HOMESTEAD CHECKLIST FOR STARTING A HOMESTEAD
WHAT LIFE LOOKS LIKE ON AN URBAN HOMESTEAD
TAKING ON HOMESTEADING AS A FAMILY
HOW TO LIVE IN HARMONY WITH NATURE ON A HOMESTEAD
GRIT AND SURVIVAL: LIFE AS A HOMESTEADER THEN VS. NOW
HOMESTEADING WHILE WORKING FULL TIME: CAN IT BE DONE?
THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START HOMESTEADING
WHAT 200 HOMESTEADERS WISH THEY WOULD’VE KNOWN WHEN THEY STARTED
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT HOMESTEADING? | ENCOURAGEMENT ON THE HOMESTEAD
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HOMESTEADING IN WISCONSIN
ENCOMPASSING THE HOMESTEADING LIFESTYLE: TOP 10 QUOTES EVERY HOMESTEADER HAS SAID AT LEAST ONCE
HOW TO BECOME A HOMESTEADER: HOW THESE FAMILIES STARTED THEIR OWN MODERN DAY HOMESTEADS
HOMESTEADING QUOTES | BEST QUOTES TO CAPTURE THE REALITY OF HOMESTEADING LIFE
Our Homestead Journey
Interested in hearing more of our homestead journey? Check out these posts and be sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter where I share updates from our homestead.
WISCONSIN HOMESTEADERS DIARY SERIES | SPRING UPDATE
MID-SUMMER WISCONSIN HOMESTEAD TOUR
WISCONSIN HOMESTEADERS DIARY SERIES | CHAPTER ONE: BEFORE THE HOMESTEAD
WISCONSIN HOMESTEADERS DIARY SERIES |CHAPTER TWO: LEAVING IT ALL BEHIND
WISCONSIN HOMESTEADERS DIARY SERIES | CHAPTER THREE: BUILDING UP THE HOMESTEAD
What a great post! A realistic view… I can’t wait until we are full time on our property!
Thank you, Barbra-Sue! I’m excited for you! Your patience will pay off!
Love this post! So poetic yet truthful. I’ve always wanted to know the day to day life of a homesteader before starting one and drank up all the books and articles I could find. And even though now I do have a homestead, this is still really helpful as I don’t have all the animals you do and it’s really fun to read about your family. You’re so inspiring with all you do!
Thank you, Marcie! I always find it interesting to see what’s going on at others’ homesteads!
My family moved and started homesteading at the end of 2020 when the world changed. While families were stuck indoors, we were outside working and enjoying our life. While some families were mandated to wear masks, we never had to go anywhere so we never had to wear a mask. The pure freedom of living away from all the craziness, producing our own food, and working our homestead makes all the work and occasional heartache worth it. I never want to move again!!
There definitely is a freedom that comes with living away from the business of the rest of the world! Thanks for sharing your story!
Helpful insight to what one can expect throughout the seasons on a homestead! Thank you for sharing your experience and inspiration!
I love how you cover all the tasks for each season! And wow~ what an incredible garden and harvest you get! What y’all are doing is a lot of work, but I’m sure so worth it!💕 How amazing to live off the fruits of your labor!
It’s definitely a lot of work! Sometimes I wonder if it’s all worth it, and if we’d be better off living differently. We always end up deciding to keep doing what we’re doing. It is pretty special to be able to eat from our own homestead, and the connection to the land always keeps me coming back 🙂