Homesteading What It Is All About

Homesteading is about connection to the land and finding a natural path more than anything else. To many that means eco-friendly while to others it is about rediscovering skills from the past that are in danger of being forgotten.

First and foremost, it is about raising a family in the most physically and emotionally healthy way manner… near the land.

Homesteading is self-reliance regarding food, clothing, and other goods that can be made at home as an example of minimalism. Instead of buying it from a store, homesteaders, mainly for agricultural purposes, grow their own food or cotton and even rely on wind and solar panels as alternative to produce their own source of life.

Many homesteaders have begun growing their own gardens, planting orchards (fruit and Nuts) and raising livestock animals such as chickens, pigs, cows, sheep and goats. For homesteaders, owning land and raising their animals creates a connection with the land. It is privilege to work the land and teach these homesteading skills to the next generation of children.

Homesteaders usually live away from the cities, choosing rural areas where larger pieces of land are easier to come by. But the truth is…. you can homestead ANYWAY including in the city! Homesteading is a state of mind rather than a location.

A key aspect about homesteading is that people have a deep desire for seeking ways to learn skills that help cut ties with the consumerist world…. in different degrees. Adopt the independence concept of living life with a reduced dependency on processed materials and food can be difficult and may take a long period of time.

Raising livestock animals is hard daily work that can be a rewarding is so many ways.

Some livestock animals such as chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys lay eggs and eventually meat.

Sheep, llama and alpacas have wool and hair that can be sheared and eventually meat.

Cows (dairy and beef cattle) and goats can be milked and eventually meat.

Bees create honey and help pollinate garden fruit and vegetables, flowers and fruit trees.

Dogs, donkeys and llamas are great homesteading guard animals that are very protective of the other livestock animals from predators.

Horses are good for traversing long distances and carrying heavy items.

While other livestock animals such as pigs and rabbits are raised to be reproduce for meat purposes.

Many homesteaders also choose to hunt for wild game such as ducks, turkeys, deer, bear and elk.

Fishing is another way to supplement a homesteading family’s food supply.

An added bonus of raising your own livestock animals is manure and making into natural fertilizer for soil for the flowers.

Butchering livestock animals is a part of the circle of life on the homestead.

Canning is a way to preserve garden harvest for long term food storage.

Homemade Cooking from scratch is all about getting back to the basics.

Homesteaders know how to make their own goods, all homemade, such as hand soap with goat’s milk, dishwasher soap based from citrus, homemade beeswax and coconut oil candles, as well as old fashioned lye soap with the ashes of wood. Speaking about beeswax, homesteaders also learn how to be beekeepers, raising their own colony, and creating their own natural honey for various use.

What about dealing with weed killers and those pests that affect plants? Homesteaders learn how to make their own natural chemical free weed killer from vinegar and table salt. Of course, all of this is with manual labor.

Baking mixes and cooking with a Dutch oven is common in homesteading, less reliant on electricity and more for firewood and natural cooking.

It is a massive contrast in lifestyle compared to the suburban and city life. The land is expansive and the population is smaller.

The amount of independence is simply relying on what a homesteader grows and sells for financial support – many homesteaders have a second mainstream job to pay the bills.

Standards of living can be lower because fancy stuff is superficial.

Many who have converted to a homesteading lifestyle find themselves happier in living away from the stress of city life and “Keeping Up with the Jones” (debit and materialist possessions) standard of living…