Why do we want to Homestead?
Homesteading can be a number of things when you break it all down. From raising animals to growing food to living a sustainable life, homesteading in itself is a very wide range of skills on your own or even in some circumstances borrowed land. Homesteading has been all the talk in the media spotlight over the last few years but it has always been a way of life. Our ancestors were natural homesteaders because back in the day, farming and gardening were not a choice they were a skill needed to survive. So why are so many people turning "back the their roots" these days if large companies and manufacturers can do all of these things and save us time? It could be the cruelty the animals face when in large production farms, or perhaps it's the GMO tasteless vegetables shipped, in an unripe state, halfway across the world for the consumers satisfaction. Well as for everyone else I can not answer but I can explain why we choose to homestead.
If you had asked me as a child, or even a mere ten years ago if I knew this is where I wanted to be in life I probably would have answered differently. I am twenty eight years old with a husband of nine years and three beautiful daughters. We have lived life as well as we could with what we have. In this world, with the prices of renting a home or buying healthy groceries for your family, it nearly always takes both parents to work to scrape by with the bare minimum. Now don't get me wrong there are many high paying jobs out there and if you are one of the lucky ones to snatch one up you may have plenty of extra cash to toss the stores for that organic grass fed beef that is "deemed" better for us as consumers. We on the other hand did not and still do not have that luxury.
Having three children who were not of school age meant either one of us had to stay home, send our children to a sitter or daycare or even work opposite shifts meaning we would practically never see each other anymore. We tried the child care option in the beginning but the prices were not cheap so by the time our third daughter came along we made the risky decision for me to become a stay at home mother. I love staying home and being able to raise and teach my girls but I feel like a failure in the income department because all of the bills now fell on my husbands shoulders. I know, I know, you are all thinking... (well there are always work from home jobs out there). I did search around and tried a few different options that I found online in an attempt to bring in some extra money but none of them were working. Not bringing in an income to help with bills and groceries has always been a big stressor to me. I beat myself up all the time because my husband has to figure it out himself as I sit back helpless.
I have always been somewhat of a frugal person sense I have never had much money and I became a parent at such a young age in life. So couponing, savvy shopping and second hand shops made their way into my everyday life. Anything I could do to help bring down costs. That being said the larger our family grew the more unhealthy we had to start eating. It is very sad but the truth. The healthy food at the store costs so much more than the boxed food (if you can call it that). The older we and our children got the worse it became. We started out eating as healthy as we could afford and by the time our third daughter was old enough to start eating the healthy food option was out the door (for the most part). Our daughter then had an allergic reaction to cows milk and had to see an allergist. We were forced to really start looking at labels to make sure she would be able to eat the food we bought. This unhealthy food had words on the packages that we couldn't even pronounce. We had no clue how bad these animals were treated in their processing, how many antibiotics were being given to the animals we were then eating. It was an eye opening experience to say the least.
Being a parent makes you want the absolute best for your children. When you realize that you can not afford to buy the healthy food it really hits you hard. I knew something had to change. We knew something had to change. We had already been on the hunt for a house of our own with at least one acre of land. This way I could have a garden to grow food for our family that we couldn't afford to buy and my husband could hunt so we could have meat as well. We were tired of the bills. Renting a house was practically throwing money away and our electric bill was outrageous. How could a company charge that much for you to have heat for your family? When you have a bill so high that you can't pay it, that's when you know you have to make a change. A BIG change!
The day came that we finally were approved for our house and land. That was the beginning of a means to an end of this monstrosity of a life we were living. Once we moved in we began to plan a garden (small but still it grew food that we ate), hunting and we have been looking into a way to collect rain water as well as the cost of solar panels or wind turbines to account for our electric cost. We began learning how to save our seeds so we could grow more the following year as well as preserving our own canned goods. Sure we still have bills but we are one step closer to lowering those bills and being more sustainable. The first year was us just beginning to settle into our new life. Our small garden of forty square feet and clearing some land to get things built and pasture area made. The second year is when we raised the stakes. Our garden is now 1600 square feet and we have just begun our endeavor into meat rabbits. We are getting more clearing done as well as learning all we can about foraging, animal husbandry and building our own animal pens and enclosures.
We have major plans for our future and for our children's future. We will no longer let the commercial farms and monopolized grocery stores determine what we can and can not eat. If we can not grow it here then, and only then,, will we get it from a store. We want to eventually grow and raise nearly 100 percent of our food ourselves. We have never farmed or gardened before, so it will take time to learn all of the tricks but we will get better with time as well as teach our children (at their young ages) to have these skills so that they will not be in the situation we were in. We want to teach our children how to survive off of their own skills and not have the need to rely on commercial stores for their food. We want our children to know where their food came from and the importance of raising their animals in a humane way. To be thankful for the animals and the land that their vegetables came from. To put use to each and every part of the animals they raise as well as the plants they grow. We want them to respect the way our ancestors lived and to remember to give back. So when you ask why we chose to homestead I would say, to have a better, more sustainable, simpler life and to keep the basic survival skills going on in our genes. If you like this article and would like to see more about our journey come check us out on YouTube and Instagram. Thanks for reading and as always don't forget to have a good time! Bye guys!
If you had asked me as a child, or even a mere ten years ago if I knew this is where I wanted to be in life I probably would have answered differently. I am twenty eight years old with a husband of nine years and three beautiful daughters. We have lived life as well as we could with what we have. In this world, with the prices of renting a home or buying healthy groceries for your family, it nearly always takes both parents to work to scrape by with the bare minimum. Now don't get me wrong there are many high paying jobs out there and if you are one of the lucky ones to snatch one up you may have plenty of extra cash to toss the stores for that organic grass fed beef that is "deemed" better for us as consumers. We on the other hand did not and still do not have that luxury.
Having three children who were not of school age meant either one of us had to stay home, send our children to a sitter or daycare or even work opposite shifts meaning we would practically never see each other anymore. We tried the child care option in the beginning but the prices were not cheap so by the time our third daughter came along we made the risky decision for me to become a stay at home mother. I love staying home and being able to raise and teach my girls but I feel like a failure in the income department because all of the bills now fell on my husbands shoulders. I know, I know, you are all thinking... (well there are always work from home jobs out there). I did search around and tried a few different options that I found online in an attempt to bring in some extra money but none of them were working. Not bringing in an income to help with bills and groceries has always been a big stressor to me. I beat myself up all the time because my husband has to figure it out himself as I sit back helpless.
I have always been somewhat of a frugal person sense I have never had much money and I became a parent at such a young age in life. So couponing, savvy shopping and second hand shops made their way into my everyday life. Anything I could do to help bring down costs. That being said the larger our family grew the more unhealthy we had to start eating. It is very sad but the truth. The healthy food at the store costs so much more than the boxed food (if you can call it that). The older we and our children got the worse it became. We started out eating as healthy as we could afford and by the time our third daughter was old enough to start eating the healthy food option was out the door (for the most part). Our daughter then had an allergic reaction to cows milk and had to see an allergist. We were forced to really start looking at labels to make sure she would be able to eat the food we bought. This unhealthy food had words on the packages that we couldn't even pronounce. We had no clue how bad these animals were treated in their processing, how many antibiotics were being given to the animals we were then eating. It was an eye opening experience to say the least.
Being a parent makes you want the absolute best for your children. When you realize that you can not afford to buy the healthy food it really hits you hard. I knew something had to change. We knew something had to change. We had already been on the hunt for a house of our own with at least one acre of land. This way I could have a garden to grow food for our family that we couldn't afford to buy and my husband could hunt so we could have meat as well. We were tired of the bills. Renting a house was practically throwing money away and our electric bill was outrageous. How could a company charge that much for you to have heat for your family? When you have a bill so high that you can't pay it, that's when you know you have to make a change. A BIG change!
The day came that we finally were approved for our house and land. That was the beginning of a means to an end of this monstrosity of a life we were living. Once we moved in we began to plan a garden (small but still it grew food that we ate), hunting and we have been looking into a way to collect rain water as well as the cost of solar panels or wind turbines to account for our electric cost. We began learning how to save our seeds so we could grow more the following year as well as preserving our own canned goods. Sure we still have bills but we are one step closer to lowering those bills and being more sustainable. The first year was us just beginning to settle into our new life. Our small garden of forty square feet and clearing some land to get things built and pasture area made. The second year is when we raised the stakes. Our garden is now 1600 square feet and we have just begun our endeavor into meat rabbits. We are getting more clearing done as well as learning all we can about foraging, animal husbandry and building our own animal pens and enclosures.
We have major plans for our future and for our children's future. We will no longer let the commercial farms and monopolized grocery stores determine what we can and can not eat. If we can not grow it here then, and only then,, will we get it from a store. We want to eventually grow and raise nearly 100 percent of our food ourselves. We have never farmed or gardened before, so it will take time to learn all of the tricks but we will get better with time as well as teach our children (at their young ages) to have these skills so that they will not be in the situation we were in. We want to teach our children how to survive off of their own skills and not have the need to rely on commercial stores for their food. We want our children to know where their food came from and the importance of raising their animals in a humane way. To be thankful for the animals and the land that their vegetables came from. To put use to each and every part of the animals they raise as well as the plants they grow. We want them to respect the way our ancestors lived and to remember to give back. So when you ask why we chose to homestead I would say, to have a better, more sustainable, simpler life and to keep the basic survival skills going on in our genes. If you like this article and would like to see more about our journey come check us out on YouTube and Instagram. Thanks for reading and as always don't forget to have a good time! Bye guys!
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