10 things I wish I knew About Homesteading BEFORE I started...

i had no idea what homesteading would do for my life when i started it i didn't even know that's what i was doing was something that was called homesteading and there are some things that i really wish that i had known before i ever started i think it would have helped me along on my journey so i'm going to share those with you today the first thing that i wish i had known about homesteading before i started was the difference between simple and easy a homesteading life is a very simple life it's very simple in that it makes sense you put your seeds in the ground they grow you harvest them they go on your plate or they go into some tea to help you health wise and so in some ways it's so incredibly simple but that does not mean that it's easy it's very easy to picture a homesteading life is this idyllic life where you're sitting on the porch and drinking coffee and the roosters crowing in the background and you're watching your children play out in the garden and yeah there are elements of that and there are moments of that but the reality is that homesteading is really hard and it's a lot of work and it takes a lot of energy and commitment it is definitely not for the faint of heart it is for people who really want to be involved in their life they want to be here now and they want to make things better for themselves and their family even if it means a lot of work i think when i started i had a little bit of an unrealistic picture of the difference there between simple and easy yes it's a simple life but it's not easy the second thing that i wish i had known about homesteading was that taking on too much at once will always come back to haunt you i know a lot of people especially right now are feeling a lot of intensity a lot of urgency around doing more getting more systems in place creating a lot of food but the reality is there is a learning curve with every single thing that we do and every new skill that we learn on the homestead and you have to be prepared for that [Music] things can be really easy to get started but once they get into full swing say a garden it takes less work to start it than it does to do all the harvesting and all the preserving on the other side and so you just have to remember that taking on too much all at once will always come back to haunt you start slowly start methodically and do a little bit at a time adding on new skills as you go little bits at a time but make sure you don't take on too much at once because that is the surest way to burn out to frustration wasting money to wasting time and to really not having a successful homestead year [Music] the third thing that i wish that i had known is the amount of bonding that takes place with friends and family members when you work really hard together towards one certain thing anything probably but definitely in homesteading and then you get to celebrate the fruits of your labor together that bonds together people in a way that is rarely seen in modern culture when you've struggled through bad weather when you've worked out in the hot sunshine when you've had to deal with problems together and you've all labored together towards something and then you can sit down at the end of the day and enjoy that thing on your plate whether it's from your garden or from your barn wherever it's coming from you can sit down and look at the end result of that product that just cements the experience in a way that makes you all feel part of something that's bigger but together the bonding that i've seen in my family amongst my children with josh and i and the kids together like it's something that's really hard to even describe and it's something that i feel so deeply moved by and so thankful for just a really deep sense of gratitude in this because i don't know that we would have had the relationships with our children that we have now if it wasn't for working together i think that if i'd known that in the beginning it would have helped me get through the early hard days especially when i had the little kids with me those days where i kind of just wanted to throw in the towel and say you know what grocery store food's not that bad i can go get some food at the grocery store i don't need to grow it all i didn't realize that there were so many benefits that weren't the physical product that i was creating but instead were these like family benefits and relationship benefits that that our whole family got out of it that's something that i really hope you can walk away with it's worth every moment of the struggle and of the work and of the hard things just because of that part alone the next thing that i wish that i had known is that a little bit every day goes a really long way it's actually more powerful to spend a few minutes a day doing something than to do it all at once in one big rush and you can get a ton done if you'll just dedicate a little bit of consistent time every single day whether it's taking care of a garden or the animals or even a project in the house if you can find 15 minutes a day 30 minutes a day and you just consistently work on that thing you are going to find that you get so much done and you can fit it in you can kind of squeeze it into your schedule a little bit better than you can one big chunk and it's actually setting the habit of working on things by doing it every single day so in the long run a little bit every single day is going to get you a whole lot further than just having a big chunk of time for working on something all at once maybe once a week or every other week [Music] the fifth thing that i wish that i knew was the importance of managing my own home and getting my home systems down while i'm homesteading if your household is not functioning on a basic level then you're going to have a really hard time adding on things like animals or gardens or preserving or anything like that spend some time and make sure your household systems are functioning completely before you add too many things on the homestead once you get your household running really well kind of like clockwork then you're going to be able to add so much more into your homestead schedule get so much more done and it's going to be a lot more gratifying because at the end of the day you're going to come in and your kitchens will be clean your laundry will be done and you're going to feel a lot better about the whole thing hey piggy piggy piggy piggy the next thing that i wish that i had known was the absolute amazing flavor and taste of something that is completely home grown i knew that i was going to save money i knew that my food was going to be healthier and more nutrient dense i had no idea that learning how to cook traditional food learning how to raise my own food how to grow it in the garden how to preserve it i had no idea the flavors that were going to come out of that and how good they are we can barely go to a restaurant now even a high-end restaurant and we usually look at the plate and we know how much we're paying for it and we think our food that we eat on a regular weekday night is 10 times better for this and it costs us almost nothing it really changes your world view about what good food is and how much that has to cost i really wish that i had known that back in the beginning that would have really encouraged me along when i had a few failures [Music] the next thing that i wish that i knew was that learning a new skill takes four times as long as just practicing that skill day in and day out if you're learning something new and you feel like oh my gosh this is taking so long that's okay because it is learning that scale is really challenging but once you do it several times and it starts becoming routine it takes way less time so if you're thinking about starting to grow a garden or maybe growing a different crop or starting with a different animal or maybe it's even something like making soap just feel a little bit of hope that just because it takes a really long time and a lot of mental effort and energy and a lot of learning and a lot of researching right at the beginning doesn't mean that it's going to take that forever which is another really good reason to learn one skill at a time or to slow down and not try and do it all at once because that initial learning takes a lot of energy but you'll be able to do that skill over and over again at a much faster speed with way less mental energy later [Music] the next thing that i wish i knew right from the very beginning is that good infrastructure can save you so much daily work it's really important to realize that setting things up the right way on your homestead costs money up front it really does it can cost money it definitely costs labor but in the long run it is going to save you so much time every day so what kind of infrastructure things am i talking about things like hose bibs barns out buildings stuff like that the location of your garden maybe if you're orchard things like that can cause expense and labor to get set up but in the long run they are going to save you so much daily energy if you have your animal's feed housed all the way across the barn from the animal that ends up well it may be just a minute or two a day that it takes you to be able to handle that distance but over a year that adds up a lot and you really really want to make sure to think through your systems when you're creating them and put in as much good efficiency in your infrastructure as possible right at the very beginning the ninth thing that i wish that i had known before i started homesteading was the character trait that it would teach my children when you're homesteading and when you grow up on a homestead as a kid and you're responsible for little lives animals when you're responsible for gardens you learn a level of responsibility that is very rarely seen in today's world my children have become such incredibly responsible and capable people not only just responsibility but they've also learned the skills of growing their own food and have taken care of themselves and of other people they know how to cook they know how to raise animals they know how to garden they also know how to problem solve which is a really really important thing to learn being on a homestead has created those opportunities for them to be able to learn every single one of those things it's taught them how to work together well how to be disappointed how to view life and death and how to deal with loss and it's just made them very very capable and strong people and i am again so grateful for that and so thankful for that and i wish every parent could have that experience of seeing their children learn these skills and become amazing capable wonderful people because they lived on a homestead the tenth thing that i wish that i had known about homesteading before i started was the need for community sometimes homesteading can feel lonely a lot of times us homesteaders are doing what we're doing because we feel really passionate about it whether it's about health or about you know producing our own things or being more resilient more self-sufficient we feel very passionate about it but that doesn't mean that the people around us share that same enthusiasm so if you start talking to your good friend about the latest thing that you made and they kind of gloss over just know that you're not alone a lot of us experience that and it's so important to get hooked into a homesteading community where people can support you you can feel not alone and weird but rather supported and together with people you can ask questions you can get answers that is something i really underestimated i feel like i'm a fairly self-sufficient person and so you know emotionally i didn't really feel like i needed that i had no idea how important that aspect of homesteading was going to become just being able to sit down and have a good conversation with somebody about something that you enjoy and you're passionate about that's so encouraging all by itself [Music] you guys if you're ready to start living a simpler more connected and more fulfilling homesteading life one that is filled with satisfaction and really great food then i'd like to invite you to join my homestead kitchen membership this is your shortcut to successful homesteading not only will you learn the skills that you need but you'll get the support of a like-minded community where you're learning in this membership you get access to every single one of our classes classes like the art of homemade bread the abundant pantry canning the herbal medicine cabinet colds and flues and the practical homemade dairy master class and about 12 other classes you are going to be a homesteading master you will also get access to our membership exclusive video vault filled with videos on just about every subject on homesteading you get weekly live videos with me where you get to ask me any of your homesteading questions i give special talks on certain subjects and we get to connect every single week but maybe the best part is the community you guys there are thousands of other people just like you learning the same things you're learning and they're ready to help encourage you along your journey the community is also where we host our quarterly skills challenges to help you learn and level up your homesteading skills as we tackle one new skill at a time all together we've just opened up the homestead kitchen membership for just a few days and then we're going to be closing it to get ready for the upcoming canning challenge so don't miss your chance right now to grab your spot before we close it back down click the link in the description to learn more

Channel: Homesteading Family

Views: 116,724

Keywords: Homesteading, Homesteading Family, how to start homesteading, homesteading idaho, modern homesteading, homesteading for beginners, how to homestead, how to start a homestead, beginning homesteading, start homesteading, homestead for beginners, grow your own food, how to homestead for beginners, homesteading how to, how to get started homesteading, getting started homesteading, how to be a homesteader, self sufficient living, homesteading lifestyle

Id: nRES0Yeymh8

Length: 16min 43sec (1003 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 09 2022