The Spirit of Homesteading - its not about the land

 

Recently many people have turned to more traditional ways of living, such as raising crops and livestock, preserving and storing food, and making things by hand. People crave this more simple lifestyle, they want to escape from all the chaos to a piece of land that they can make a refuge. I too have fallen prey to this ideal, daydreaming of gardening and baking bread. It really sounds so lovely and such a huge contrast from most of our lives today. 

Unfortunately I think a lot of people feel like they can't have that dream. House and land prices have skyrocketed and many people are living in situations that aren't conducive to cows and crops. I live in an apartment and probably will not have a house of my own for several more years and this can sometimes be discouraging. However, as I've pondered the idea of a homestead, I've begun to realize that it's not just the land that makes a homestead. 

It's Not About The Land

A homestead is made up of certain principles and values, things like resourcefulness, self sufficiency, and simple living among many others. Without these principles it would just be a piece of property. Its these ideas that most people crave, not just the animals and the land. These principles make up the ideal and the vision of what a homestead FEELS like.  The beautiful truth that I have realized is that those values and principles can be captured and cultivated in any circumstance, you don't necessarily need land to bring them into your life. In other words, you don't need a homestead to have a homestead lifestyle. 

This means that anyone can have a "homestead" of their own without waiting for land. Whether you're in an apartment, living with your parents, or in a home with a tiny yard, you can create the homestead feeling now. 

Goals for the future

There are other reasons to start living the homesteading lifestyle now. If animals and land are a goal for you, then living a homestead lifestyle now can help prepare you for your future goals. You can get your expectations straight, gain some of the skills you need in advance, and practice and cultivate homesteading values now so that there isn't as much of an adjustment when you do reach your goal of having a physical homestead. 

I feel like many of us probably romanticize some of the homesteading tasks, such as caring for chickens, gardening, and milking cows. We haven't done them before and can really only imagine what it would be like. I think that many people if they were to jump head first into the world of livestock may find that they really don't enjoy it as much as they thought they would and it wouldn't live up to their expectations. 

I think that applying the principles and values we see in homesteading now before we have land and animals can help us determine what we really want from our "homestead". We may discover that we are totally content making food from scratch and caring for house plants and decide we don't actually need a massive garden. We may learn to can and garden and realize that we wouldn't have time for animals and would rather keep our focus on the garden. Or we may realize that we hate working in the home and homesteading would feel too restricting. Testing some of these homesteading skills and ideas out before putting a bunch of money into it can help save you a lot of money and heartache. 

Another thing that happens is that when people do get the land and animals they've been dreaming of they get in way over their heads and end up overwhelmed and lost. They've spent so much time planning and dreaming but still have no experience, so they are learning to make bread, have baby chicks they're trying to keep alive while learning to milk and cow and trying to figure out how to build a chicken coop all at the same time!

Think about how much better you'll feel if by the time you get your land you already know how to tend plants, bake bread, and make jam. If we can take the time we have now to learn and apply the principles and values we want to see in our homestead then we will be much more prepared when that next step of owning land becomes available to us. You can't just sit and dream of becoming a pilot and then one day jump into a plane and take off, that would be suicide! You would learn about weather patterns and wind currents, the way the plane works, the way the airport and air traffic control works, and you would practice all these things before actually flying the plane yourself. 

I think that the values you see in a homestead are almost harder to jump into than the projects and activities. You can find a YouTube video to teach you how to dry herbs, but you can't find anything online that'll give you a good work ethic. There are many habits and values that go into the feeling of a homestead that you can't just put on like a pair of work boots. Things like work ethic, family time, and slow living are hard to jump into, like a seed they need to be cultivated and given time to mature. 

If you jump into homesteading head first after working at a desk job from 9-5 and then watching tv the rest of the evening then you will have a really hard time adjusting. The land and the animals doesn't just give you the values you need, buying a cow won't necessarily give you the will power you need to get up early in the morning to milk it. If you can work on building those values and habits in yourself now, then you will be more prepared when you do get your land and animals. 

Starting now to implement the ideas, principles, and values you want in your homestead can help you prepare for the future. It may teach you what you do and do want in your homestead, and it can also help you be more ready to take on the challenges that come with homesteading. Plus, there should be no reason for you to have to wait to reap the benefits of homesteading. If you want to homestead because you like the feeling of being self reliant, you like hard work, you want more family time, or any reasons like that, who's stopping you from having that now? You don't have to wait til you have land to have those blessings in your life. 

What does it feel like to you?

I've talked about the benefits of starting your homesteading journey before you get the physical homestead, and I've mentioned a lot of what those benefits and goals may look like, but I feel like a lot of it depends on what you want to get out of homesteading. What is your why? Why do you want a homestead? What is your vision?

I think that everyone's vision of a homestead is a little different, so it is important to do some pondering and figure out what a homestead is to you. Try picking apart your daydreams, what are you doing in them? Who is with you? Think about what your lifestyle would involve, what kinds of activities and ideas would you have? You have to look past the animals and the land and see what the core of your vision is. 

Knowing these things is really important for when you do have a physical homestead, but also now as you prepare to have a homestead and begin creating the feeling now. What you want could be totally different from someone else. Some may really like the idea of having organic food, others may really want to work with animals, everyone's view of what a homestead means could be different, even if we're all using the same word. So it is important to know your vision, know your why. 

My Vision

I want to give you a little example of what I mean by sharing my vision and how I might implement it now. These are the things I see in my homestead and the reasons I feel driven towards homesteading. Beyond the animals and beyond the land, its the root of the feeling of homesteading in my mind. 

For each section, I'll explain what the principle is and why I want it, and then I'll write out a few ideas of how I can implement it now. 

Manual Labor

This might sound weird for a lot of people, but I love manual work. After being in college for what feels like decades, I'm anxious to get off my butt, away from the screens, and get my hands dirty. I love working with my hands, its so therapeutic. I love feeling exhausted at the end of the day feeling like I worked hard. When I work with my hands, my mind is able to wander off and I have some of my best, most meaningful learning moments with God. I work through a lot of my problems when my hands are distracted but my mind is open. I also think it teaches good work ethic, both to kids and adults. Laziness can only be cured be knowing the value of hard work. Plus, a lot of my fond memories from my childhood are of working on projects with my family. 

We are surrounded by opportunities to work so this principle isn't hard to implement without land. There's always work to be done around the house, and I have found many of the same benefits I mentioned above in doing chores and cleaning. I get the same satisfaction in deep cleaning the bathroom as I would weeding the garden. I've also found that making bread gives me the same joy. As I mentioned I love working with my hands, so just working the dough and letting my mind wander is very calming. 

Being Outside

One of the things about homesteading that I CRAVE is all the outdoor space! The times I've lived on a farm, I have thoroughly enjoyed just being outside, wandering around the property, being in the garden, sitting on the porch, just being in the fresh air and nature. That has been a bit of a struggle for me living in an apartment, I feel like I can't be outside without being in view of the public eye (not that I want to do anything I don't want the public to see, I just like my privacy). I love the outdoor life of the farm, as kids we had so much fun exploring the woods on our property, building forts, collecting bugs and salamanders, and just the freedom of being outside. 

It will be pretty hard for me to replace the outdoor privacy of having your own land, but I can still find ways to enjoy the outdoors. To achieve this I'm envisioning picnics at the nearby park, going for evening walks, frequent hiking and camping trips, and just using every excuse I can to be outside. We have a small patch of grass outside our apartment where I could lay out a blanket and read a book for a while. While it's not a perfect solution, I do think it'll give me that fresh air and outdoor time I've been missing. I think that if I were to just wait until I have my own land, I might be so used to being inside all the time that I won't spend as much time outside as I had hoped, so I want to incorporate that habit now. 

Food from scratch

I think it is so cool to take something that we eat every day and take for granted, and break it down to the very beginning and see how it's made. The show "How its Made" was my favorite as a kid, I just love knowing how things work! I think that knowing how to make things like cheese and yogurt from the start is so fascinating! If I could I would make everything from scratch I just think its so cool! It's also a lot better for you. I've realized recently how many things have added sugar, salt, or other random chemicals that we don't really need, and while I don't believe it'll kill us I do think we would feel better eating things that don't have that stuff in it. Also, it usually tastes SO much better! I don't know about you, but I will take something homemade over store bought any day hands down! It is also really good for us and our kids to know where things come from. Like meat, those chicken nuggets are in fact from an animal. Making food from scratch helps us and our families to not take it for granted so much because they know the work (or the life for the sake of animals) that went into making it possible. 

I already mentioned making bread, so that is one way I have begun learning how to make things from scratch. The process and principles behind sourdough bread are so so cool I recommend everyone look into it. I've also started learning how to make yogurt, which is super fun and actually not that hard. I already make most of our meals from scratch, I am really enjoying learning how to can jam with my sister in law, but I would like to do more baking and try new recipes. I would also love to learn to make cheese, but I think that will have to wait until I have to money and maybe my own cow since it is a bit more involved. 

Self Sustaining

This kind of goes with the previous one, but along with making things from scratch I would love to already have all the ingredients on hand in my yard. I love that when you have a homestead you can just go into your yard and pick the produce you need for dinner, collect eggs for breakfast, and get the cream you need to make dessert! It's like having a grocery store in your yard, and I hate grocery shopping so this is really appealing to me haha. Along with this comes the idea of preservation. I really love the idea of producing enough food to feed your family for the year, and then preserving it to make it last the year. I think it would be really fulfilling. I love seeing people's cold storage rooms or cellars where they have their winter quash, their garlic and onion harvest drying, their racks of carrots and potatoes, and all the canned and dried goods they've prepared. I think it is really beautiful, and also really useful obviously. Being self sustaining also means that if something were to happen you wouldn't have to rely on the support of others (stores, companies, the government, etc.) to support you, and you could even help others in need. 

The first thing I can do that comes to my mind for this one is have a food storage. Keeping a store of things we use frequently will help us be more self sufficient if there is some kind of disaster, and means we have to go to the store less often. I've been thinking about trying to go to the store only once a month and stocking up on EVERYTHING we would need for the month, and freezing the stuff that would go bad (like milk and bread). Obviously there would still be little trips here and there to get some fresh produce, but I think that would be a good practice for homesteading and could potentially save us money. I still need to think it through some more but I think it might be fun to try. Another thing I already mentioned is canning, I make jam every year with my sister in law and it almost lasts us the whole year, but I would love to try canning some other things too like apple sauce. Another thing I could do is grow herbs indoors and dry them for future use. 

Slow Living

I'm not sure of another way to word this idea, but its the idea of just stepping back from the world. There is so much hustle and bustle around us, everyone is so busy trying to make money and impress other people, we're surrounded by news and media and so many screens, I just want away from it all. I want to be present in my life as its happening, I want to enjoy the little moments throughout the day and not feel a need to always be making money, multitasking, or distracting/entertaining myself in some way. Our current way of living is exhausting honestly, what ever happened to sitting on the porch with some lemonade watching the storm roll by, or sitting around the fire reading together in the evening? We surround ourselves with a fake reality so now real life has become boring to many people, but if we remove the distractions we begin to see that the little moments are really so precious and beautiful, they are really what make life worth living. 

This is one I think anyone can do regardless of life circumstance. I think that both idleness and multitasking are a big hinderance for me with this goal. They're each at one end of the spectrum, one is the need to always be productive and always going, and the other is doing literally nothing but distracting ourselves. Both are unhealthy and keep us from really enjoying life, at one end we're too busy to allow ourselves to enjoy any one task or moment, the other we are distracting ourselves and keeping ourselves from seeing life and its beauty. To combat this I've been doing my tasks without something like a podcast or video going, I fold laundry and do dishes in silence where I used to need to have some background noise to help me feel productive (which sounds super weird now that I say it). I also try and have goals and a to do list to keep me active during the day and keep me from being idle. Though I think that the real cause of idleness is distractions. If I can remove things like my phone from the situation then I am much more active and present. Leaving my phone in the other room rather than having it on me all the time really helps with this whole goal. This has been hard, the draw of the phone is so so prevalent, we're addicted to our screens. I'm also trying to allow myself to do nothing. When I notice a beautiful moment, I try to stop what I'm doing and just be in it. When its raining outside, or the sun is coming through my bedroom window in the morning, or I'm sitting with my husband, I try to just remove the distractions from in front of me (usually by putting my phone down) and from out of my mind, and just being in the moment. 

Community

I love the farming and homesteading community. I love the idea of trading with your neighbors, talking over the fence or just having people over for dinner or dessert. People don't do those things as much today, we're so disconnected and almost afraid of each other. I think that having a strong community is what gives us a safe place for our kids to grow up, people for them to play with, support during difficult times, fun memories, and so many other things! We need each other! A strong, tight knit community is such a beautiful and helpful thing to have. 

I've found this through my local church group. A lot of my neighbors go to the same church as me so we have gotten to know a lot of them that way, but even those who don't go to our church we try to meet. Meeting your neighbors is a really good way to start building community. I am also part of some community Facebook groups like Buy Nothing (which is a place where you can give and get things for free from people who live in your area). This has helped me feel a sense of community because if I need something I can ask on there and usually someone will be willing to help. There are also a lot of opportunities in the bigger community. The city usually has a lot of resources and efforts going on to grow community. I love our local library and try to go often, they offer a lot of classes and such that I want to try out sometime. There's also a community garden where you can buy a garden bed for really cheap and grow stuff there which I think is great! Volunteering in the community could also be a good idea, like at the food bank. 

There are many many other things that are part of my vision and idea of homesteading but I think you get the idea. I love the idea of homesteading and while there are some things I may have to wait on there are also many things I can do now to give me the feeling I want from homesteading. We don't need to limit our growth or happiness by our circumstances, our life is what we make it. We can't always change our circumstances, but we can change our actions and our mindset, which I think is our most powerful tool and one of the keys to happiness. 

Let me know what you want in a homestead in the comments! I would love to hear your ideas of bring the homestead feeling into our lives!