The Decision To Homestead

The decision to go back to the land, to do it all yourself is one that you should give careful consideration to. It is the ideal way to live for many people and full of satisfaction. However, there are always two sides to every story.

On one of the groups I belong to someone wrote that they were giving up their dream of homesteading because – gasp! – they found out it was hard work! WOW! Imagine that!

What did they think it was going to be? A romantic, back to land vacation. Hmm, where did that idea come from? Oh yea, Hollywood.

We’ve been working on the dream for five years and let me emphasize the word WORK. There has been fencing to run – and of course, some animals just seem to know where to find the weak spots, stalls to build, land to till, weeds to pull, stalls to clean – shall I go on?

There is nothing quite like chasing an escaped animal through traffic or going into a neighbor’s yard to retrieve your chicken, especially when that neighbor hates animals. We have been lucky that we have only had a couple incidents, early on, of escaping animals. We found that by tying metal conduit to the top and bottom of the chain link fencing the animals would not challenge the fence. This may not work in every case, but in our case, it did.

Is homesteading worth it? Every minute is an adventure. Do I get sick of this life? Yeah, sometimes, a vacation would be really nice, but who would take care of the plants and animals? Finding someone you can trust your livelihood too is not an easy task.

It is time to get Beauty the horses’ hooves trimmed again. That is a task I just do not look forward to. We have a great Ferrier and Beauty, once caught, does well when he trims her, but scheduling can be an issue with so much going on here.

Angora goats are cute but the hair can get tangled or caught easily. I look forward to getting two batches of mohair from Leonardo per year. I am planning to spin it so it will be ready to use when I find a suitable project I wish to use it on.

Come spring I will need to get the Leicester Longwool Sheep, Pearl and Johnny sheared. Their wool is so curly and thick. Underneath it is shiny and oh so soft. This year I am thinking I may hire someone with electric shears. Last year I used scissors and did it by hand. It took several weeks to get everyone sheared, not to mention the fact that I had sores on my fingers from the scissors.

Spring will bring many changes here at the farm as well. Two of the goats, Sugar and Spice, will – hopefully – give birth to babies. I will be so happy to have fresh milk again and be able to make cheese and butter! I did not breed Darla or Tulip this year. I may have baby lambs if Johnny and Pearl breed. We have not had lambs yet, so that will be a new experience.

There are plans underway to put in more raised beds. Some of the herbs and strawberries have already been moved into raised beds. I like growing plants in raised beds because it makes it easier to cultivate the soil. The fruit trees will be another year older and that should mean more fruit.

The goal is to grow all of our own herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables as well as raise some of our own meat. The less money I have to spend at the grocery store, the happier I am.

Soon February will be rolling around again and it will be time to tap the maple trees. We tapped the trees last year but did not get the maple sap boiled down. I really hope this year we accomplish this goal. I would love to have my own maple syrup.

Spring will also bring the birth of new chickens. The hens we have now have figured out how to hide the eggs. They hatched a couple bunches of baby chicks this past year. They were so cute. Not all of them survived, but sometimes that happens.

Would I do this again? YOU BET! Is this the right decision for you? That depends on your outlook on life and how hard you want to work to acheive your dreams.