Our Homestead

Struggling With Overwhelm?

December 3, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Steel Raven Farms

Struggling With Overwhelm?

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If you are struggling with overwhelm, you are in good company, everyone deals with overwhelming situations. Whether it is stress from a job or homesteading, everyone struggles to juggle everything that needs to be done. While this post is not specifically for homesteaders, it is where my focus is. Below, I am going to share my tips for dealing with overwhelm as well as how to keep it from happening.

Struggling With Overwhelm

Overwhelm is not a new phenomenon. In fact, people have been dealing with and struggling with overwhelm since the dawn of time. However, right now, we are so overwhelmed as a culture and society that we don’t know what to do with ourselves. We are constantly being touched, either physically or digitally, that we are about to lose our minds. Our to do list is 8 miles long and there’s always more being added to it. And “They” say there are all these things we can do to reduce stress and overwhelm.

**They Say “Learn To Relax“**

I don’t know how you were raised, but I was always taught, you can go outside and play once all your schoolwork and chores are done. And now, as an adult, my work and chores are NEVER done, so I don’t really get to relax. This has caused a TON of guilt and shame when it comes to trying to take a break.

The gurus out there will tell you, just relax! Find something that you enjoy doing and do that.

Well, that’s great! But I’ve spent the better part of 15 years taking care of everyone else, and if I’m being honest, longer than that, that I’m not really sure how to take care of myself. I don’t know HOW to relax! I don’t know what I would do for self care and relaxation.

Sure, I read. But there are days and weeks were I won’t pick up a book…. because I’m either too busy or too exhausted. The idea of going to get my hair done sends my anxiety through the roof. Or getting a mani/pedi is not only out of the budget but pointless with the amount of time I spend in the garden.

**They say “Reduce Your Stress“**

How in the world do you reduce your stress when you are constantly bombarded with things that require your attention? If you work and homestead, the idea of reducing stress is even more ridiculous. Throw in homeschooling and by the end of the night, you can’t keep your eyes open but your brain is zinging a million miles an hour.

We are expected to do it all, sometimes with little support, and never with all the skills, tools, and supplies to get whatever IT is done. Including the tools to reduce your stress. Because I don’t think our culture wants us to reduce stress. At least not in truly healthy ways. They want us to consume, in whatever form, their antidotes to reduce stress.

**They Say “Ask For Help“**

Asking for help is the first sign that you need help, right? Wrong. For years, as a culture, we have been begging for help. No matter the problem or difficulty level, when we say “I need help“, we are usually met with some version of “You got this“.

So we have learned through the years that asking for help doesn’t lead to getting help. It leads to an unhealthy mindset of, “Well, I got through it last time. I can do it again this time.” Or the “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” mentality. Both of which are incredibly unhealthy and totally normal.

**How To ACTUALLY Overcome Overwhelm**

If you ever figure out how to overcome your struggles with overwhelm, leave me a comment, because I am just winging it here. I have figured out things that I can do to HELP with overwhelm, but this is not an exhaustive list. In fact, this may not help a single soul. But if we can gather a list between all of us, maybe we can all help each other.

How I Relax

While this may sound unhealthy to some, the biggest way that I have found to help with overwhelm is to completely ignore my responsibilities for a time. Let me explain.

There are many, many times, where I just sit in the garden. I know that 8 mile to do list is standing just outside the garden gate, raging at me that I need to do all these things. But I flip the list the middle finger and just stare at my garden beds. The wayward thoughts of needing to weed, replace plants, and cut back the grass, get thrown over the garden fence to hang out with my to do list. They can rage at me all they want but I’m not doing it….right now.

Other times, I pick up my crochet hook and yarn and just go. It doesn’t matter what I’m making, or not making. It doesn’t matter if the stitches are too big or small, or missed completely. That is not the point of my crochet. It is to give my brain something small to focus on that just doesn’t require a lot of brain power to actually run.

I know that my kids, animals, and land are safe, happy, and relatively well cared for. If I take an hour to myself, it’s going to be ok.

How I Reduce Stress

I would laugh at this if I could… it would be a completely maniacal laugh just so we are clear. There are not many ways to reduce stress when you work full time, run two separate businesses, work two part time jobs, and homeschool your kids. Not to mention being the main planner for your entire family, businesses, and property. It takes a TON of brain power and physical labor, but there are ways to reduce stress.

The first way I reduce stress, and therefore the struggles with overwhelm, is to let it go.

Dogs tore up the couch? Let it go.

Laundry overflowing the baskets? Let it go.

Floors need to be vacuumed and mopped? Let it go.

Garden needs to be weeded? Let it go.

Leaves need to be blown off the walk ways? Let it go.

Cat puked in the bathtub?… Ok, maybe don’t let that one go.

But I have become the master of let it go. In fact, I’m pretty sure there is a whole song about it. But I’ve never heard it.

Letting It Go

At the end of the day, it’s just not worth the stress, headache and mental gymnastics to worry about every single little thing. I tell my boys all the time, does it interfere with what you are trying to accomplish? No? Let it go. It’s just not worth it!

This has a round about effect on reducing stress. It’s a long game because you will still need to do these things. But most of the time those things can wait until you are not stressed to get them done. We have daily chores for each part of the property.

Sundays are for goats, decks and yard.
Mondays are for bathrooms, laundry, chickens and ducks.
Tuesdays are for kitchen, dining room and pigs (which we don’t have anymore).
Wednesdays are for living room and dogs.
Thursdays are for trash, gardens and greenhouse.
Fridays are for the basement.
Saturdays are for bedrooms and closets.

This means that if it’s not Wednesday, I am NOT cleaning the living room unless something catastrophic has happened. Sure, seeing that the floor needs to be mopped will stick with me, but I fully understand that I just don’t have the time or brain power to deal with it right now. And that’s ok!

Another thing that reduces my stress is letting Jared be my brain. There is a lot of controversy around this one that I really don’t understand. There is something absolutely amazing about not needing to worry about ANYTHING when he’s around. I don’t get my door, I don’t pay, I don’t worry about safety, NOTHING!

How I Ask For Help

My version of asking for help is actually delegation. I have spent years begging and pleading for help. Now? You have your chores to get done. If they don’t get done, I’m not doing them. Rarely, will I ask for help, though it does still happen. But in my case, my kids are teenagers, so that helps a lot.

Recently, I asked Jared to handle the laundry for me because we were running out of clothes. But I was going in for a 48 hour shift and wasn’t going to be able to get it done. Plus, who wants to come home from being at work for 2 days to a pile of laundry. He handled it. Then for the next several weeks, he did all the folding and hanging, all I had to do wash, dry and sort. PS: it’s still going on as of this writing…. SCORE!

Adjusting Your Mindset

Both the American culture and the homesteading culture, has implied or “forced” this idea that if we are not constantly pushing the needle, we are terrible, awful, lazy people. If we don’t work constantly we will never reach our goals! If we dare to not grow tomatoes, we are no better than big Ag who is trying to poison us. Or if we buy bread from the store, we are killing our family with preservatives.

While the last one may be extreme, because I don’t know any homesteaders that are going to tell you that, it is an unspoken judgement. There is this idea that you have to do all the things. You have to cook from scratch, grow huge gardens, raise 100% of your own food, and must homeschool your kids.

The entire time you are driving yourself crazy because you just CAN’T DO IT ALL!

I am here to tell you, be kind to yourself and your family. Learn to let it go. Because I live by this one thought that has served me VERY well over the last year: If I die tomorrow, it’s not my problem.

Talk about freeing!

Stay with me here!!!!!!

Can’t get the garden in according to plan? Okay. If I die tomorrow, it’s not my probelm.

Can’t get the house remodeled? Okay. If I die tomorrow, it’s not my problem.

Didn’t get the dogs to the vet? Okay. If I die tomorrow, it’s not my problem.

We have been conditioned for our entire life that we MUST handle everything because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. You have to tell your family EVERY DAY that you love them. Don’t put off tomorrow something that can be done today. You can’t let your family down!

Um, I hate to break it to you, but if you die tomorrow, not one single point above is going to be YOUR problem. It doesn’t matter what your religious, social or other belief is, you won’t BE HERE! It’s just the harsh, logical reality.

This mindset shift has been the one single thing that has really helped my struggles with overwhelm. Because I was trying so hard to do all the things: working 90+ hours a week, gardens, animals, homeschool, clean, plus, plus, plus. FOR WHAT?

But when I shifted my thinking to remember that the only thing that really matters is myself, my family, my animals, and my land? It broke something in me that allows me to find the joy, relaxation, and happiness from what is around me. I stepped out of the race and entered the slow lane. Because it doesn’t all have to be done today.

While the idea of it won’t be my problem may sound like you’re passing the buck, and you are to a point. It is also reversing an idea that has caused a TON of mental health issues for a lot of people. The idea of getting everything done today has caused an entire generation to not be able to enjoy the things they are work towards. And that is not the point of living.

Be Kind and Give Grace

If there is no other take away from this post or even this blog, it is be kind and give grace. Not just to others, but yourself. You don’t have to get everything done. It’s okay to push back when you are struggling with overwhelm. It’s okay to say, I can’t do this.

But always remember, you can always take the minute you need. Even if it causes a ton of guilt and shame. Take the minute and flip the middle finger to your stressors. You’ll feel better.

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Building Your Legacy: Leaving Your Mark On YOUR World

October 25, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

When I was in school, there was this hype of “You can be anything you want to be”. I had thoughts of being President of the United States. Or maybe an astronaut. But I never really figured out what I wanted to do. Even now, in my 30’s with a great career, I just want to retire. I want to leave the rat race and homestead full time. Over the last handful of years though, the thought has shifted from what do I want to be when I grow up to asking myself: How are you building your legacy?

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Building Your Legacy

I think the first step in building your legacy, is to look at the definition of legacy. I pulled this definition from the Oxford dictionary.

noun

an amount of money or property left to someone in a will. “my grandmother died and unexpectedly left me a small legacy.”
the long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life. “he left us a rich legacy of buildings that are both innovative architectural creations and genuine works of art”

For some families, the legacy is being in law enforcement or military. For other families, it’s cycling addiction and abuse. And for me, it’s the dreaded 9-5 and grocery stores.

What Was Passed To Me?

The legacy that was passed to me is the typical American legacy. It was working 40 hours a week in a job that you like just enough to keep going to. Or the feeling of being stuck in a job because you don’t have the time, money or education for something different. It was going grocery shopping at a big box store with labels, directions for cooking, and packaging galore. It was sending your kids to school to get an education that they could take to their 40 hour a week job. It was expected that I get a job at 13 and work as much as possible, or as much as my family could get me to that job.

Beyond the typical legacy, my love of creating came from the women in my life. I learned how to sew from my mom. I learned how to crochet and knit from my grandmother. My love of photography came from my aunt.

But I’ve never been one to do what I’m told. I’ve been accused of not listening or following direction on MANY occasions. And most of the time, it wasn’t in a good way. I am pure frustration for anyone “in charge” of me or any rule follower teaching me how to do something. Being a rebel has a lot of up and downsides. So those skills I picked up from my mother, grandmother and aunt were expanded upon by going further down the rabbit hole on my own.

Wanting Something Different

I’m an observer. I see what other people do, how they do it, and most importantly, how they LIKE it. Then I take that observation and pull it into whatever I’m doing. I saw what the 40 hour work week was like and knew I didn’t want to work 40 hours a week and only see my kids and husband a few hours at night. Being stuck inside 4 walls, without the ability to escape when I need it, causes HUGE amounts of anxiety. There HAD to be something better than packaged food from the grocery store. I wanted something different.

I am a VERY independent 4 year old trapped in a 34 year old body…. with access to the bank cards.

The legacy I want is handed down recipes. I want second and third generation cast iron. I want generational knowledge of gardening, canning, animal husbandry, and working WITH nature. And I KNOW it sounds spoiled but I desperately want to learn these things at my family’s knee instead of the internet.

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So we started building our legacy

Building your legacy doesn’t always start with a radical shift. Sometimes, it’s just one thing. It’s prioritizing family over work. Or making family meals every Friday night. Sometimes something small is enough to get you moving in the “right” direction for you to build the legacy you want.

Your Legacy Is In Your Hands

We definitely broke the mold over the years.

Since we were a young family and Jared was in the Army, I stayed home with the kids. My cooking skills grew and I no longer had to buy Bisquik to make pancakes. I got a job where I could work two days a week and bring home a full time paycheck. A job allows me to homestead and homeschool while earning a paycheck.

Jared broke the cycles of addiction.

We are creating a legacy of skills, hard work, and independence that our boys can take to their own families.

Do I expect them to be paramedics? No. In fact, I don’t want them to be paramedics. This job is HARD. But I will support them no matter what they decide to do.

Do I expect them to go into the military? No. Again, I don’t want them to. But if that is what they decide, I will support them.

Do I want them to have a homestead? Yes. Because then I know they will be able to take care of themselves and their families. But if not? That’s okay too.

Do I want them to homeschool their kids? Meh. It’s what worked for us.

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So What Is My Legacy?

I don’t know, yet. I know what I want my legacy to be. I want my legacy to be a person who is supportive of not only my family’s endeavors and decisions but my own. I want to raise boys who are good and capable men. I want my family to be able to grow their own food, raise and butcher their own animals, and be good stewards to the resources they have been entrusted with. Whether they do those things or not is irrelevant.

I want my children and grandchildren to know that I will pass down second or third generation cast iron. I will teach them how to cook from the heart and not a book. I will always be willing to teach them the skills that I have learned so they don’t have to learn them from the internet. They will learn how to raise and butcher animals. They will know how to put in a garden.

But most importantly, when I die, I know that I did everything I could do to raise a family that doesn’t roll over when things get hard. I know that I have taught the next generation skills that will help them thrive no matter where they find themselves.

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Review Of: Dirt to Soil

September 18, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

As always, when I do a review, I am going to give you my honest opinion of every book, tool, and product that I do. Reviews do no good if they are not real. I recently reached out to a homesteading Facebook group in search of a couple books about building good, healthy soil. Man, did they deliver! The first book is Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown.

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Why I Read It

I absolutely love all things soil and biology. We are also working with Georgia clay in our gardens which is causing a far amount of issues with it. The soil in our big garden is very compacted in the areas that we haven’t covered it. We’ve had a ton of issues with the soil this summer between soil and water run off, compaction, and stunted plants.

So my goal was to spend this winter learning as much as humanly possible about soil. My first question is why is my soil not great. The second was what can I do to fix it. So off I went in search of a book that could answer those questions but also the more technical questions about the biology of soil.

I already knew we had clay soil, but…

I didn’t realize that I could “fix” it so quickly! I thought it would take years and years to properly build up my soil. I had considered that we were going to have to bring in a lot of inputs to get the soil back to a place where it was healthy.

But after hearing a ton of horror stories about toxic compost, I am really leery of bringing in soil or compost from outside sources.

I already knew that we could use the animals to work with us to bring our 8.5 acres back to life. But I wasn’t sure how to do it exactly. I knew that we could rotate the pigs through areas to root the soil and break it up. Doing this would allow organic matter to get into the soil. We could also seed the areas that they had worked and pray that we could keep the chickens and goats out of the seeds.

But nothing we were doing actually worked. We really struggled to hone in on the finer points of building soil.

While the book doesn’t offer clear, concise, step by step instructions on HOW to build soil, Gabe DOES give his 5 soil principles as well as a very thorough recounting of what he did. He even goes in depth about how he has made his farm profitable. Giving a little bit more interest and insight on how to make a homestead or farm profitable.

Where To Purchase

I purchased my copy from Amazon because it’s what’s easiest for me. However, I found it at Barnes and Noble for close to the same price. Sadly, we don’t have bookstores that are local to us, so Amazon tends to be where I get the majority of my books.

How The Book Reads

I love the style of the writing in this book. It’s very conversational and Gabe walks through how he got started on his farm. As the book moves through, he not only tells you how he did it, but gives the basic foundation for what you can do.

There is an amazing compilation of science, experience, and options for you to try as well. But the foundation stays the same. Follow these principles, experiment, and watch your soil grow.

One of the things I didn’t like was the constant “you can do it too”. Now, I understand completely that the book is not necessarily meant for the small homesteader. It ABSOLUTELY applies to us, but I am already interested in regenerative farming and hearing again and again that it can work for us was slightly annoying. Not enough to discredit what he was saying but enough for it to be redundant.

My Take Away’s From Dirt to Soil

There are 4 main points that I took away from Dirt to Soil, though they aren’t in any specific order.

Cover Crops

I knew the importance of cover crops, but couldn’t wrap my head around exactly how to do it. Do I plant things I can harvest? What if I still need that space? Which crops do I plant? Isn’t the soil still going to be bare in the winter when the plants die back? Won’t I have to remove the cover crops when I plant for spring/summer? Gabe answered most of these questions in his book.

Tillage Kills

There is a lot of satisfaction when tilling because you can see that beautiful soil (or clay in my case) break up and see the bed take shape. Except, I always struggled because I knew earthworms are GREAT for a garden, but I was rending them into pieces every time I tilled. So how do I create beds that don’t require tilling but keeps the soil healthy and beneficial critters happy? Simple answer? Stop tilling, start using cover crops, limited to no inputs.

Building Soil Is…. Easy?

I figured this out when I started using our animal bedding as compost. Within a few months of using the animal bedding, I noticed that had actual soil in my beds. Now, I had added top soil to my beds when we created the kitchen garden. But I found actual soil when I started planting for fall!

Use The Animals

We have been using the pigs and the chickens to work the soil and it’s been working pretty well. But one of the things we have been “struggling” with is that we let the goats and chickens free range. We had not truly been practicing rotational grazing. Sure, we rotated the chicken tractors through the gardens but we never really did much with them or the goats.

My Garden Process After Reading Dirt to Soil

My garden process now is actually quite simple: animal bedding to compost over time, a couple inches of compost or top soil, plants, then mulch. When the bed is done producing, we cut all the plants down and lay them to the side. If we are “done” with that bed for a season, we add a cover crop then put the plants we cut and put them over top as mulch.

Once the cover crop has been established, we let the goats go through and eat down an area. Then we put the pigs through, and finally the chickens. This process has been amazing because the goats cut down and tamp down the crop. The pigs tamp it down more, and eat closer to the ground. Finally, the chickens come through and peck through the poop and spread it. They also eat all the bugs and parasites. This has GREATLY dropped our need for dewormers.

The following season, when we are ready to plant, we chop and drop the cover crop. Usually, we will use the cover crop as mulching until it fully composts down.

This process has been working well for us and I’m excited to see what happens in this summer when we plant the big garden!

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The Real Homestead

September 17, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

As the years have progressed, there has been a huge influx of people wanting to homestead. Which I am ALL FOR! I think it’s absolutely fantastic that we have people rushing out of the cities and onto land. Or turning their lawns into food, either for themselves or pollinators. I love the fact that we have people that are wanting to grow their own food, preserve it, and get away from the overprocessed life. But I’ve got a really big problem when I see the content that people are making and it’s these carefully curated posts or reels. It’s not a real homestead!

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Why Is It Not Real?

This blog post has been on my mind a lot over the last couple of months. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to write it without sounding judgmental and nasty. While that is not my intent, I feel like I am seeing so many more posts about “I can’t do that because… insert reason here” and it absolutely breaks my heart. And I’ve had enough.

While I know it’s not great for my sleep habits, I scroll TikTok and Instagram at night. I have seen a ton of these carefully curated reels of homesteads and gardens. I see women and little girls in these prairie dresses picking vegetables from the gardens or collecting eggs. Men and little boys working a tractor or building a barn in perfectly crisp wranglers and a pearl snap button down shirts.

Or I see designer chicken coops with perfect eggs and chickens that don’t escape their run. A beautiful garden that has not a single pest, bruised leaf or dropped veggie. Perfectly cropped lawns with beautiful houses.

And I want to scream from the roof tops, IT’S NOT REAL!

Go check out my Instagram feed, I’ll wait.

What you see on my profile is the real stuff. Sure, I try not to get the trash pile from clearing the land or burn pit in the pictures because who wants to see my amazon addiction. But I will gladly tour my homestead and show you the REAL homestead. The one where the chickens have pooped on the deck and I’ve not had a chance to get it cleaned off.

Or the real homestead where Jared is building my greenhouse and there is paint EVERYWHERE. There are piles of scrap wood that needs to be close to the greenhouse for some reason or another.

The fallen trees that we won’t take care of in the summer but will work on in the fall or winter. The goat barn or hay shed that is absolutely not designer. It’s REAL!

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy those reels because it’s visually pleasing to watch. It’s amazing to dream. But if THAT reel is why you want to homestead, keep reading.

Why Does It Make Me Mad?

It absolutely infuriates me when I hear new homesteaders that are upset that they can’t start their garden because they think they have to have perfect garden beds. Or they give up hope because they saw a TikTok that showed an obviously manufactured chicken coop and run, and they don’t have enough money to buy one.

Content creators are taking the spirit of homesteading out of it and creating this world where people don’t want to try because they think they can’t afford to homestead the way they see on reels. Or they are making people believe that what they are showing is what homesteading is. And people give up before they even start. And that breaks my heart.

I could spit nails when I see someone say they just popped out to harvest a couple things from the garden in their white linen dress. They are making a from scratch meal with their fresh bread made from their sourdough starter.

Let me tell you this, that is not what homesteading looks like.

Not a single person would be caught dead wearing WHITE LINEN in their garden, at least not to harvest anything.

I can just imagine wearing a white linen dress, dodging the pigs that have found a mud pit on my way to the garden, dogs playing and the chicken poop on the walkways. While in there, I am having to hold my dress up so it doesn’t get caked with Georgia red clay and trying to harvest a couple of tomatoes, squash or melons. All while knowing I should have brought a basket (and I always forget one) because my dress doesn’t have POCKETS! It’s freaking hysterical! Mainly because I don’t even own a dress.

Let’s not mention that my fresh bread rarely looks Insta-worthy, though it’s pretty delicious. And my sourdough starter jar is NEVER clean. In fact, it’s usually caked in starter residue from it overflowing the jar.

But you know what my homestead is? It’s the place that I don’t have to pretend. And I am honored by that.

What Is A Real Homestead?

So if those reels are not entirely accurate, what is a real homestead?

It’s a spirit of self sustainability. A person or family that simply wants better, not just for themselves but for their food, animals, community and the earth. It makes you FEEL every time you step outside.

It’s a perfectly ripe tomato on a hot summer day.

It’s the cry from you and a brand new baby goat that you had to pull from momma.

It’s humanely butchering an animal that has been loved and taken care of from birth.

It’s watching your kids come to you, absolutely filthy, holding a frog, snake or lizard they found.

It’s sitting at the dinner table, talking about your day with those that share what you hold so dear.

It’s creating a legacy were you previously didn’t have one.

It’s slow dancing with your partner in the kitchen while dinner cooks on the stove.

It’s watching your sons learn how to be capable men.

It’s watching your daughters learn to be capable women.

It’s working with nature to bring forth the harvest.

It’s freezing nights in a barn with a momma who is scared.

It’s bringing animals into the house because they are hurt or sick.

It’s NOT asking why there is goat vomit on the ceiling, a duck in the bathtub, or a chicken perched on the shower rod.

It’s syringes by the sink and hay in your hair.

It’s flies in the house, poop on the deck, broken eggs and hearts.

It’s a tearful good bye to a beloved animal.

But most of all, it’s this soul soothing, living and breathing thing that brings us back to nature in a way that a weekly hike or walk through the park just can’t do. It’s something that no content creator can make you feel.

It’s a deep breath and a weight off your shoulders when you realize that more doesn’t equal better.

While I am not a country fan, like at all, because heavy metal is life in this house. I have to appreciate what Zack Bryan said in Fear and Fridays….

“I’ve learned that every waking moment is enough and еxcess never lеads to better things, it only piles and piles atop the things that are already abundantly in front of you like breathing and chasing and slow dancing and love making, fighting and laughing“–Zack Bryan (Fear and Fridays)

My Dearest Homesteader In The Making

I beg you not to look for your life on social media. It doesn’t matter if you are a homesteader or not. The internet is not honest. It’s brief snippets of life, whether real or created. But YOU are real, your dreams are real and you will create YOUR real homestead.

So buy that property, make it YOURS. Make mistakes and learn from it. Dig into the dirt, and feel. Feel every single possibility and make it YOURS.

“Save it with the blame game
I’ve heard it all before
Ain’t nothing holdin’ you down
‘Cept your own feet on the floor
So go on, roll your sleeves up
Put your hands down in the dirt
It’s alright to follow your heart
And take what you deserve” –Charles Wesley Godwin (Here In Eden)

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4 Ways To Reduce Food Waste

August 24, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

The simple answer is get a couple pigs or chickens. That’s it. End blog post here. But that’s not an ideal answer. If you can’t have pigs or chickens, or you don’t like or want livestock. What are your other options? How can you reduce food waste?

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Can It!

Sometimes reducing food waste is as simple as making a larger batch and canning it. For example, beef stew is literally the easiest meal on the planet to can. Make a big batch of it and can the left overs. You will need a pressure canner. Though it’s not absolutely required, it is strongly recommended.

If you don’t want to make a large batch but still want to get a couple jars of left overs canned? This little canner is a great option. It’s a little pricey but for the ease of use and not having to lug out one of the big canners? I think it’s definitely worth the investment.

Canning can be pretty nerve-racking to start. Especially, if you are teaching yourself how to start canning. But I promise, the old days of pressure canners exploding are WAY less likely to repeat themselves.

Dehydrating To Reduce Food Waste

I talked here about my new love for dehydrating and I have to say it’s one of my favorite ways to not only reduce food waste, but also to put up food for a rainy day. I love the “set it and forget it” ability with dehydrating food. With a couple hours of prep (for large batches), I can fill up my trays and be done. One of the ways that I work my dehydrator schedule is to cut a large batch of a veggie while prepping/cooking dinner and then fill the trays. Usually, by morning it’s done and ready to be put into jars.

If you are only cutting a cup of carrots but have another pound that will go bad? Just cut all of them and throw what you don’t need in the dehydrator.

When it comes to using a dehydrator to reduce food waste, I mainly use it when I find great deals or sales. Or when my garden is over abundant. I have two dehydrators, one that is a DIY that we picked up from our local Habitat For Humanity and our Excalibur. I have to say the mac daddy one that we picked up? Absolute favorite because it is MASSIVE.

Can You Feed Food Scrap Your Livestock

Another fantastic way to reduce food waste is to feed it to your animals! This goes for ALL animals on the homestead but is only where applicable. We have a 5gal bucket on our back deck that is strictly for our chickens and pigs. Every evening fill the bucket about half way with feed if it’s not full and throw it on the ground for them.

By feeding kitchen scraps to your livestock, you can effectively reduce not only your food waste but also your feed bill! In fact, we have a whole section of the garden that is for livestock fodder. Another cool hack is to bring a small covered bucket to work and have your co workers fill the bucket with their food scraps! We have been feeding our pigs and chickens for months like this.

A word of caution though, not all animals can eat all food scraps. So be aware and prepared for that. Goats can’t eat meat. It’s taboo for a chicken to eat chicken. Cows shouldn’t have large apples. Etc. So just be cautious when feeding your livestock out of your kitchen scraps.

Meal Prepping To Reduce Food Waste

Lastly, meal prepping will help you reduce a lot of food waste. I talked here about how to stretch your meals out to reduce the stress of cooking after a long day of work. When you have a plan of what you are going to eat for the week, it really helps to reduce food waste and stress!

If you are working towards reducing your need of processed foods, that not only feed your family but the scraps go to your livestock, I talk about cooking from scratch here. Because buying the non-gmo, no corn/soy feed for your meat animals doesn’t make a lick of sense if you turn around and feed them a box of mac and cheese.

Bonus Tip: Compost!

The reason why this wasn’t included in the main group is because composting has some “rules”. The general rule of thumb for compost is to put in organic matter. Things like leaves, grass clippings, garden waste, and most kitchen scraps. BUT!

You really don’t want to put meat scraps in your compost. You can put meat or bones in your compost, but you chance predators or the meat going rancid and causing problems in your compost. Another problem is using things like oil, butter, etc can also go rancid. But if you have left over carrot caps, watermelon rinds, etc? Abosultely put them in the compost.

What I Wish I Knew Before Starting A Homestead

July 10, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Oh, the things I wish I knew. “They” say that hindsight is 20/20 and they are absolutely right. There are so many challenges that we have faced over the years. If someone would have told me, before starting a homestead, that it would have been this hard? Well, I still would have done it….. and I probably wouldn’t have listened. But if I can help you avoid some pitfalls, I’m going to do it, even if I’m wasting my time.

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What I wish I would have known before starting a homestead

Set Goals, Make A Plan, And Stick To It

This seems to be the hardest thing for people to do. There is so much excitement in buying a piece of property and you have all these ideas of how you want to do things. Only to realize half way through a project that it’s not working or you don’t need it. But if you can spend some time thinking about all the things you want, how you’re going to accomplish it and putting it in play? You will be ahead of the game.

Paralysis By Analysis

This is the next part of the planning process and it happens to EVERYONE. Don’t get so caught up in making plans, that you don’t execute them. Yes, there are a million ways to do something. But don’t get so tangled up in the best way, that you don’t do anything. Sometimes jumping in with both feet is the best way to learn. Sure, it can be an expensive lesson. But imagine the pride that comes with learning how to build a coop, a garden bed, or canning? Imagine if you were to put aside the “best” way to do something and just did it? Those lessons are far more valuable than the loss of a couple dollars.

To give you an example, if we had waited to build our goat barn, they would have died that first winter. If we had waited until we knew exactly how to build it, proper plans, location, materials, etc, it wouldn’t have gotten done that first year. We would have had to bring them into the house when we got 4″ of snow and ice. Sure, it’s in a bad spot and doesn’t look pretty but my goats are happy.

Garden Before Livestock

This idea tends to be a forgotten thought on most influencer’s platform. Every single one of us know that you are going to get chickens before you have a way to feed them. Or goats before you have the best practices in hand. It’s just the way this lifestyle works. Sure, you’ll have a few people that will learn everything possible before taking the leap. But a lot of us don’t.

It’s easy to have the mindset of just going to the feed store for food. A bag of non gmo, corn or soy free feed is about $15 for a 50# bag by me. That doesn’t seem like a lot, right? But it is when you buy 6 bags (or more) of chicken feed, goat feed, pig feed, and alfalfa pellets per month …. Then you have to buy hay, supplements, and medications. The feed alone is $360+ a month.

OR you can learn how to grow their food.

Live There For A Season

So many times, new homesteaders want to get straight to work. While that is an amazing attitude to have, sometimes living in the space for a season will give you the best possible look at what is going to happen. For example, we waited a whole year before we put in gardens. Why? Because I didn’t want to waste a ton of time, money, resources, etc on putting a garden in, only to have it be in the wrong spot.

Another example is the goat barn. If we had waited a season before putting that in, we would have seen that the water runs right into the barn after a big storm. Now it’s a constant battle to keep them and their bedding dry.

If You Want It, Get It

Not everything needs to be so utilitarian that you can’t have pretty things. But you will realize very soon that utility and practicality are far more valuable than a pretty face. My gardens are a prime example of wanting something pretty vs totally utilitarian.

My kitchen garden has raised beds in rows, with arched trellises, decorations on the fence, and figurines tucked throughout. Yes, it is pretty and fussy. Yes, we sank over a thousand dollars into it. And by the time it’s finished, we will dump another couple thousand. But it is hands down my most favorite spot on the homestead. I’m in there for hours every single day I’m home. That means it gets weeded and watered regularly. The bugs get picked off more often. It’s better taken care of.

Before we get too far into this post, I wanted to give a suggestion about keeping a garden journal. A digital garden journal is a fantastic way to keep track of past, present and future gardens. Our Digital Garden Journal is a great way to keep up with everything without getting too overwhelmed.

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My big garden? I walk through it to check on things. I’ll weed occasionally. But I’m not hanging out in there. Why? Mainly, because there is just so much more work that needs to be done in there. Also, because my kitchen garden brings me indescribable joy.

Just Because It’s Cute, Doesn’t Mean You Need It

The flip side of idea above is: you don’t need to waste money on garden statues if it takes away from your seed budget. Just because you love llamas, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to get one. Unless you plan on selling fiber. But the point is that whatever it is you want, it needs to fit in with your budget, plan, and goals.

Before Starting A Homestead Define What Success Is

This is really hard for those that aren’t goal orientated or those who don’t really have a goal in mind. But for some of us, we want to have this successful homestead. But what does that actually look like? I ask myself a lot, “At what point will I consider this (whatever it is) done and a success?”

To give you an example, my gardens will be a success when they provide 75% of the food needs of the entire farm. This includes livestock and humans. My homestead will be successful then.

Infrastructure Is Not Build In A Day

So many times we want everything done right now. But it’s important to realize that unless you have a TON of capital, you won’t get all of your infrastructure built right now. Not only does it take time, your plans change! Initially, we didn’t want a greenhouse. Our spring/summer growing season is about 200 days and usually we can grow frost hardy crops straight through winter. In theory, we can grow year round. But we realized after the second failed attempt at starting seeds inside, we need a greenhouse. Blu loves to look out the windows and she doesn’t care if the seedlings are in her way. To protect our seeds, we need to get the away from the 110# fur missile.

Invest In Good Tools An Equipment

This is probably the most important thing you could possible do. Do not waste your money on tools or equipment that aren’t worth anything. I’ll be posting a garden guide (coming soon) of the tools that we have bought and love, and those that I wouldn’t waste your money on. But at the end of the day, spend the few more dollars for tools that work well and will last you a long time. A lot of influencers have a list a mile long of tools that are amazing, and tools that we will tell you to stay away from. Obviously, it’s biased, but walk into large purchases with your eyes wide open.

In that same category, don’t waste money on courses that you don’t need. YouTube, Instagram, and blogs like this one are all great resources of information that is FREE!

Before Starting A Homestead: Grace

The absolutely most important thing that you should keep in mind when starting a homestead, is grace. Grace for yourself when you screw up. Understanding when your spouse screws up. Joy when there is success. All of these things are so important. You won’t be successful every time, with everything. And that’s okay. It’s the best part of learning.

Cow Sharing: Purchasing Beef In Bulk

April 27, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I almost broke my brain trying to figure out the actual word for the process of purchasing a whole, half or quarter cow. It’s called cow sharing if you aren’t familiar with the term. But it’s not just beef that you can do this with! Pigs, chickens, goat, lamb, you name it, you can buy animals by the whole instead of by the cut. Today, I wanted to discuss what this process is and why you should do it.

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WHAT IS COW SHARING

Cow sharing is when you purchase a butchered animal from the farm. Every state and farm does this differently so bare with me here. In Georgia, you contact a farmer that has a cow for sale for processing. They take the cow to a processor, you pay the farmer for the cow and the processor for processing the meat. Depending on how the farmer has set up their farm, you can just pay the farmer for the whole deal.

You can purchase a whole, half or quarter cow. Some places will even go down to an eighth of a cow but it’s not common. The meat processor will call or send you a cut list. This list is what you want out of the cow, if you want all ground beef or all steak and ground beef, that’s what you would put on the cut list. When you pick up your cow, you are getting steaks, ground beef, roast, ribs, etc. whatever you put on your cut list.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF COW SHARING?

Oh, let me count the ways. Literally, there are so many great things about cow sharing but I’m going to limit my excitement to my top three reasons to cow share.

SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL FARMERS

We hear all the time to support local businesses. But when it comes to our farmers? The vast majority don’t pay attention. We have been trained to go to the grocery store for our food. Meat comes from the meat case at the store. Fruits and veggies from the produce section. Dairy? It doesn’t come from the farm, it comes from the coolers at the back of the store.

To quote Joel Salatin, “The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests.”

Our farmers, no matter how big their operation, are the backbone of this country. If you aren’t 100% self sustaining; without a farmer, you don’t eat. Period.

When you purchase meat, produce, or dairy from a local farmer, you are supporting your local community in a direct way. Because that farmer is going to take those dollars, and put it back into the local feed store for feed or seeds. They will then go to another farmer for hay, chickens, etc. Or they support the local dance studio when they send their kid to lessons. Those dollars stay pretty local.

VOTING WITH OUR DOLLARS

You can have whatever political preference you want. That is not what I mean with this section. When you buy food from the local farmers or farmers market, you are taking money away from the big corporations. Those corporations that have huge tax breaks and profits. You are telling that corporation, government and anyone that will listen, that you want THIS type of product.

Because you wanted grass fed, humanely raise beef with no antibiotics or vaccinations, you went to a local farmer.

Because you wanted non sprayed, truly organic produce, you went to the local farmer.

Because you wanted free ranged eggs, with zero soy or corn fed to them, you went to the local farmer.

You vote with every single dollar you spend.

COW SHARING SAVES A TON OF MONEY

Speaking of dollars, when you cow share, you can save hundreds of dollars. To give you an example, the farm we buy our beef from charges $4.50/# hanging weight. My cut weight price was about $6.95, though this varies greatly by how many pounds of meat I take home and the total I pay. I’ll explain what hanging weight and cut weight is further below. What this means is my ground beef is $6.95/# and my bone in ribeye is $6.95/#.

My local grocery store (Kroger) has regular beef at $5.99/# and grass fed (which is what mine is) at $8.49/#. They have bone in rib eye for $14.49/#. Again, my price is $6.95/# all of it.

Over a year, that saves me hundreds of dollars. My family of 4 will consume approximately 800# of meat a year. When we have people over, that amount goes up even more. Between the beef we purchase and the pigs and chickens we raise, we save a ton of money.

DOWNSIDES OF COW SHARING

While there are a ton of good things about cow sharing, there are a few downsides. And man, they are BIG ones.

STORAGE

Depending on your beef, pork, chicken, etc. usage, storage can be a huge issue. We have 2 18.5cu ft chest freezers and 1 15.7cu ft upright freezer. Plus, the freezers attached to our refrigerators. Yes, we have 2. If you don’t have space for a freezer, cow sharing may not be an option.

But if you really want to buy whole or half cows, then you will find the room. I’ve lived with freezers in my living room, kitchen, and dining rooms. Is it great? No. I hated it. But it saved me a ton of money, so fine.

COST

The upfront cost of cow sharing is steep. And if you are not disciplined enough not to save a little bit every month, that yearly expense can be overwhelming. To give you some perspective, our first half cow cost us $1800ish. Our last whole cow, was just over $3,600. Not to mention the costs of the freezers.

When we purchase processed pigs, we are looking at another $400-600. Since we raise our own chickens, the cost is spread out a little more but it’s still expensive.

HOW WE STARTED COW SHARING

We had been looking into purchasing a half cow prior to the pandemic, but just never did it. It was easier to head to the grocery store every week or so and by meat. During the pandemic, it was a struggle to find meat and be able to purchase our normal amounts every coupe of weeks. Our local store had limits on two packages of the same type of beef, chicken or pork. For example, you could only buy two packages of chicken breast or ground beef. But you could purchase two packages of ground beef and two steaks and two chicken breast and two chicken wings.

While I understand why this happened, it was a struggle to get enough meat for our family. So I reached out to a couple local farms and purchased half a cow. The meat was absolutely delicious. It was even better than store bought.

THE SAVINGS

When we purchased our last cow, I was talking to some of the college students I teach about dropping $400 at the grocery store before coming into teach. I told them, “I can’t imagine having to buy meat on top of spending that much money.” I realized that, as a whole, people rely solely on the grocery store for their food. All of it.

They told me that they spend about $100-200 a week in meat, depending on the cuts, availability, and sales. Do what now? I didn’t realize that I was that far removed from “real” Americans. Those that don’t have access to gardens to raise produce, pastures to raise dairy, and local farmers for meat. It makes me so angry. But that’s another post for another time.

HUMANE

There are a million videos about CAFO’s, what they are, how they operate, etc. A CAFO is a Contained Animal Feed Operation and it’s just about the saddest thing I have ever seen. These animals are crammed into these muddy, feces and parasite infested lots. They are fed a steady diet of GMO grains. They get sick and it spreads through each lot like wildfire. But they are still butchered, despite being sick.

Pigs are crammed in concrete cells until it’s time for them to be butchered. Piglets have their tails (and sometimes ears) removed to avoid cannibalism, which happens anyways.

Chickens houses have hundreds, if not thousands of chickens in one house. When they are butchered, they are snatched up and shoved into tiny crates and taken to slaughter houses. If the chicken arrives dead, they are still processed.

When you buy from local farmers, you can go to the farm and see the animals. They are out on pasture with plenty of room to move and eat. All the sunshine, shade, water and grass they could want. Chickens have all the bugs and grass they could ever want. Pigs can root around and eat all the scraps.

As a consumer, if we are going to eat meat, we should at the very least know where it comes from and how it was treated. But most of us turn a blind eye to it. And I think that discussion needs to change too.

SHOULD YOU COW SHARE

I think that everyone should cow share. But I also completely understand that it’s not possible for everyone. If you are struggling to figure out if you should purchase a cow, I wanted to give some options.

The smallest option would be to find a butcher that fits your ideals. If you are looking for grass fed, hormone free, etc, find a butcher that caters to that.

Another option would be to split a cow share. If you don’t have the storage or wallet for a whole or half cow, split it with friends or family. That way you can still get the meat you want without spending or storing hundreds of pounds of beef.

UNDERSTANDING TERMS

Hoof weight is the weight of the animal before processing.

Hanging weight is the weight of the animal after head, hooves, organs, etc has been removed.

Cut weight is the weight of the meat that you get once it’s packaged.

Understanding these terms are important when you are looking at the cow sharing process. If your farmer is charging by the hanging weight (which is most common), you will be paying for the meat and bones of the animal.

Your butcher will charge you by cut weight. But regardless, buying local is always going to be the best option, no matter if you are buying from a farmer or butcher.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

You have to make the right decisions for you and your family. That’s all any of us can do. If you’re curious about cow sharing, or any other animal, a quick Google search can point you in the right direction for where to purchase a cow, pig, sheep, goat, or chicken.

Goat Milking System: An Honest Review

March 24, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

For the last couple of years, I have hand milked our goats. A machine seemed frivolous when our girls only give us about half gallon of milk at a time. It was about $175 that I felt wasn’t necessary to spend right then. But we have issues with consistency on our farm, which I will explain further down. This leads to goats not being milked out effectively or routinely. So I bought a goat milking system and here’s what I think so far.

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Our Homestead Milkers

As of this writing, I have three girls in milk and by the end of the day I have about half to three quarters of a gallon of milk. Jade and Bailey are the stars this go around, while Bella is struggling to give me even a half cup. While that’s not a lot of milk, it is plenty for fresh drinking and bottling the twins below.

Human Error

There are a lot of reasons that we decided to go ahead and buy a machine. By the end of the milking, my hands are shot. I’ve got psoriatic arthritis in my right hand, specifically my ring and pinky fingers. While it doesn’t usually stop me from milking, it does hurt.

Jared and I work 24 hour shifts. I milk the morning of work and then Jared milks the evening and morning before he goes to work. Then I milk the evening I get home, the next morning and evening, then the next morning again. When I milk, I can usually pull about a quart each of both Bailey and Jade. Jared is lucky to get a pint combined.

The boys needing to milk. Sometimes we need the boys to milk. While this doesn’t happen a lot, it does happen. Since they don’t do it that often, the girls don’t like to sit for them. This creates a lot of stress for them because usually I have to go down there anyways and milk them to give them some relief.

Stress On The Girls

One of the biggest issues with the human error above, is that there is very little consistency. Well, there’s actually a lot of consistency, but it’s a long game. There is no daily consistency. Because of this, the girls just don’t let their milk down for Jared or the boys.

Here in just a few weeks, we are going to have another girl in the rotation for milking. This is going to add another round of milking that my hands may not tolerate or that Jared will have to try and milk.

We are looking to streamline the process in hopes that we are consistently getting a half gallon a day out of all the girls, regardless of who milks them.

The Goat Milking System Review

Now to the meat and potatoes. This is going to be an ongoing review because we are still very new to this machine and so are the girls.

First Impressions

Jade kicked once and Bailey didn’t care at all. The suction was a little difficult to get dialed in but did work pretty well. Both girls milked almost completely out within about 2 minutes. We did have to finish them off by hand, but there was maybe a quarter cup for each girl left in the teats.

Cleaning is a little bit of a hassle but not terrible. After talking to several goat owners, they suggested this method. Fill a bucket with warm, soapy water and used the machine to suck everything through. Then rinse the bucket, hoses and teat cups, and run warm water through everything. This worked pretty well and I would imagine that there is a need to pull everything apart once a week or milking, and do a thorough scrubbing. But we’ll see.

The milk was easy to get out and everything is clean now. For goats giving small amounts of milk, I don’t know that a goat milking system would be worth it. If your hands aren’t arthritic, you only have one goat, they aren’t producing gallons a day, etc. Then hand milking may be a better option. But when you’ve got several girls to get through, or they produce a lot of milk? I think the machine is definitely a good investment. Especially with a smaller price tag like $175 ish dollars.

There is a learning curve to this machine and the little stickers on the hoses will come off, but if you can work around those things? I think it’s worth it.

Updating This Post

I will come back in a week, month, year, etc and keep doing updates because while reviews are awesome, I want to know about the longevity of something. So keep checking back!

Goat Milk System: 3 Month Update

Jared doesn’t like the milk machine. He says it takes too much time to get it put together, on the goat, and then strained and cleaned. I don’t disagree. The most time consuming process is the cleaning of the machine. It’s a little more worth the effort in the actual milking process because the milk machine will empty a goat about 95% of the way in about 2 minutes. But the amount of clean up work at the end? It’s not really a time saver.

Another problem that we have run into is the cleaning of the machine. No matter how often I scrub it, hang it to dry or even let it suck out most of the water, moisture still remains in the lines. This leads to mildew or mold in the lines. Despite ALL efforts to eliminate it, it’s still a problem. I have found it to be easier to rinse it well after use and then clean it before using it again. This means that it’s getting cleaned out about 4x a day. That’s a lot of effort for a couple of minutes of saved time on the stand.

6 Month Update

Well, the machine is collecting dust in the basement. The only thing used from that machine is the bucket. I’m glad that we bought the machine because now there is no doubt in my mind that it is a waste of time an money FOR US.

Time saving: there is literally not one second of time saved. In fact, it takes more time, energy, and effort to use the milking machine than just going out there and hand milking. Sure, it can milk out a goat in about 2 minutes. But the amount of time it takes us to get it cleaned is absolutely ridiculous.

Arthritis pain: The pain has shifted. Instead of pain while milking, the pain comes because I have to spend 20+ minutes cleaning the machine.

Clean Milk: This one I have to give to the machine. We do not pasteurize our milk, we filter it through a strainer and coffee filter to get the nasties out. But I noticed that when we used the machine, there was no hair, debris, etc in the milk. There was also the added bonus of when the girls kicked, they don’t shove their hoof in the milk. So that’s one point in the machines favor.

I won’t be doing any more updates to this post simply because we don’t use the machine anymore. I may end up trying a different machine but as it sits now, it’s easier for us to hand milk.

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How To Build A Successful Homestead

March 18, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

This is a loaded question that is personal, individual, and can only be answered by you, your family and your land’s capability. At the end of the day, every single homestead is going to look different. You may not want a lot of animals or you may not want huge gardens. You may have to work off farm or on a fixed income. There are so many variables to building a successful homestead. But here are my thoughts on how to build your successful on the homestead.

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What Is A Successful Homestead?

Before you start the first project, buy the first piece of land, or anything else, you need to determine what will make your homestead successful to YOU. Is it being 90% self reliant? Raising 100% of your own meat? Surviving or Thriving? It’s so important to have a definition of your success so you can measure your progress. And it’s okay if that definition changes or evolves. But if you cannot figure out the benchmark for your successful homestead, you won’t be successful.

Defining A Successful Homestead

If you already know what your successful homestead looks like, congratulations! You are ahead of the game by a LOT. I didn’t really understand that I needed to define what my vision of success looked like until I had been homesteading for a couple of years and realized that I was spinning in circles, getting a lot of things done, but nothing that was moving us towards “success”.

So Jared and I sat down and really thought about how would we define the success of our homestead. The question we needed to answer was, “What is THE thing, that when it’s done, we can say we were a success.”

For our homestead, we define success as growing 75% of our food and our animals food, that means meat, dairy, and produce for us. It also means fodder like corn, oats, BOSS, squash/pumpkins and other veggies. Success also means building as much of our infrastructure ourselves whenever possible. Finally, I will deem the homestead and this blog a success when it not only supports itself financially but also allows us to retire early.

Measuring Against Your Definition Of A Successful Homestead

Every single goal, project, expectation, or purchase needs to be measured against your definition of success. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do that project, set that goal, or make the purchase. But the KNOWING is the most important thing.

To give you an example, I want a greenhouse so badly. I want to grow coffee, citrus, and other heat loving plants that my zone gets too cold for. Towards the bottom of the blog post, I have listed out our definition of success, but one of the big ones is growing 75% of our food. Measuring the want of a greenhouse against growing 75% of our own food, the greenhouse would be a good purchase and project. If I build a greenhouse, we could start our garden plants in the greenhouse which would greatly improve their chances of surviving Blu. It would limit the amount of citrus and coffee we purchase from the store. Win.

Another example would be buying a milk cow right now. This would definitely help us with grow/ own 75% of our own food because we would save a ton of money on dairy products and potentially meat. But if we do it now, before we have solid pastures set up, we would not be working towards success because of the amount of hay we would have to purchase. Lose. BUT it’s something that can be done later.

So before you start doing things to or for your homestead, make sure it’s getting you closer to success instead of further away.

Setting Expectations For Success

A long time ago, I heard someone say that the #1 relationship killer was unmet expectations. I thought it was a crock, because everyone knows it’s communication, right? But when he explained it further it makes total sense. Let’s say you expect your spouse to always do the dishes, but you never said “this is your chore” and they never agreed. They can’t meet your expectation. Or if you have told your spouse a million times that you can’t stand roses. But they get you roses all the time, you have the expectation that they will not buy you roses because you don’t like them. That expectation is not met. Overtime it causes immense frustration and anger that ultimately can kill a relationship.

It’s the same for homesteading. If your expectation is to have all of your infrastructure in place within one year, and it doesn’t happen, you’re going to be upset. If you keep failing to meet your expectations, you could hit burnout and give up.

Unrealistic Expectations

One of the things that every single homesteader is guilty of is setting unrealistic expectations. We think that we have to have everything done, RIGHT NOW! The reality is that unless you have the capital to buy a farm that is already where you want it, it’s going to take years of work and a ton of capital to get you where you want to be. And if you don’t have a ton of capital, it’ll take even longer.

It’s saying I’m going to buy a cow with absolutely ZERO grass to raise them on. Or I’m going to heat only with the trees harvested from my land and there isn’t a single tree on your property. Or my favorite, I’m going to grow 100% of my yearly food needs in an unproven garden with no experience.

These unrealistic expectations will not be met. Sure, you can get a cow, but you will be buying TONS of hay. You can’t heat with only wood from your farm if you have zero trees on your land. And trust me when I say, you won’t grow a year’s worth of food in an unproven garden if you have zero experience.

Realistic Expectations For A Successful Homestead

Setting your expectations for a successful homestead should be in line with your definition of success. For example, if you’re definition of success is for the homestead to feed you and your animals, maybe don’t get animals before the garden. Which ALL of us do, no matter how many times we say we won’t.

Your expectations should be worked into your goals. There is a huge difference between a goal and an expectation. A goal is something you are striving for, while an expectation is something you expect to happen. If your goal is to grow 75% of you and your animals feed, the expectation is that you are going to put in a garden.

Having a realistic expectation of what you are able to do, the capital available to do those things and a clear set of goals will set you up on the path to a successful homestead.

Your Land’s Capability

I feel like this is very important when it comes to homesteading, that you really look at what your land is capable of. I mentioned that if you have an expectation to heat with only wood harvested from your own land, but you have zero trees on your property, that is unrealistic. But I wanted to take it one step further because I don’t think new homesteaders truly understand what they are getting into.

If your land is steep hills, mountains, etc, it is not necessarily capable of supporting a cow. If your land is mostly trees, you are going to have to do some major work to get a garden in. I want everyone to homestead in SOME capacity where you are right now. But at the same time, you have to be realistic in what you can and can’t do base on what your land can do.

Neighbors may not want to listen to your goats scream all day. Local ordinances may not allow more than so many chickens. Before you start defining your successful homestead, you have to be aware of what land you are buying and what it can actually do for you.

Our Successful Homestead Plan

For Jared and I to feel like we have been successful in building our homestead, it has to have 3 key points:

The homestead grows 75% of the food for us and our animals.
We build, create, or source from our property as much as we possibly can.
Our homestead (and blog) would be considered a success if it can fully support itself and allows us to retire early.

Let’s break this down

75% Of All Food

This is a big expectation because it’s a lot of food. But I don’t expect that overnight or even in one year. We learned a lot in our first garden and we’ve learned even more since. But we have realized that we have to grow slowly so that we don’t end up packing too much work on ourselves. Since we both work fulltime, we have to be aware of how much we can actually do. This is where that homestead flexibility comes in.

We also have a ton of trees on our land. Which is great for heating the house, but sucks when it comes to sunlight and garden space. This year we installed a kitchen garden in this weird lawn space in between our driveways. It’s a lot of space and a great place to have veggie plants, flowers, herbs, and lettuces. We can even put in our potatoes, carrots, garlic and onions. But I forgot that in the summer, there are a ton of trees that block the sun. This isn’t a big deal because those trees need to come down anyways. But our garden may not thrive because of them.

Our gardens are a process and that’s okay. 75% of our food doesn’t need all be done right now.

Being Self Reliant

Jared and I are both city kids and we don’t have anyone teaching us how to do these things. Because of that, it’s really important to both of us that we learn how to do stuff for ourselves. I didn’t know how to make bread before I started this journey. Now, I can make sourdough!

Jared had never felled trees before coming to the homestead. Now? He’s really good at it. He didn’t know how to sharpen a chainsaw. Now, he does.

Leaving behind a legacy is really important to me. I’m not going to get my great grandmother or grandmothers cast iron pans. I didn’t get cooking skills from my mom, grandmother, great grandmother. Jared and I didn’t learn how to butcher animals or put in gardens from our family. And that’s okay because that’s not the life they lived. But because this is so important to us, we are also teaching our kids how to do these things. We are teaching them how to repair toilets, install light fixtures, build chicken tractors without plans, put in gardens, sharpen chainsaws, and so much more.

That’s a legacy I am proud to leave behind.

Financial Freedom

I started this blog and our homestead with one single end goal: Retire early. That’s it. We are putting in the work now, while we are young, so that we can have systems in place for retirement. When the homestead produces 75% of our food, that puts approximately $900/mo back in our pockets. When it produces 75% of our animals food? That’s $600/mo!

While this blog is not currently making a lot of money, the reality is that it is getting to the point of being self reliant. Thanks to you guys!

Walking into retirement with virtually zero bills or debt allows us to not worry so much about a crashing economy. Knowing that we can garden and sell the produce or sell goat kids? That brings more options to the table than praying my 401k and social security will still be there.

Building Your Successful Homestead

At the end of the day, your homestead is not going to look like anyone else’s. You’ve got your own hopes, dreams, capabilities, resources, and needs. But if you can define what a successful homestead looks like to you, and then start setting expectations and goals for it, you will get there so much faster.

Welcoming American Guinea Hogs To The Homestead

November 21, 2022 by Leigh Leave a Comment

About a month ago, we welcomed Bacon and Delilah to the homestead. We had talked about wanting to get pigs when we started the homestead, but I never really put a lot of thought into it. After a ton of research and a swift kick in the pants while at The Homesteaders of America Conference? We picked up two American Guinea Hogs.

Why We Chose The American Guinea Hog

When we started looking at adding pigs to the homestead, there were quite a few concerns that I had about pigs. I was told that they are mean, bite, root, escape and eat a ton of food. The trade off was that if you could keep them contained and fed for six months, you would have a pig at market weight. Well, I’ve got some problems with that.

Mean/ Biting

While I don’t normally mind animals that are…. difficult, I do have a problem when they are large animals that are potentially deadly. I’m not saying that pigs are deadly. But I am saying that aggressive animals have no place on our homestead…. except Blu….and Bella.

After doing a ton of research we were really leaning towards the Berkshires, Duroc and Kune Kune. These breeds have great personalities and are rarely aggressive. Plus they are heritage breeds which is really important to me.

Rooting

Another issue with pigs is the damage they can cause to the soil. Our soil is extremely compacted with red clay under it all. But the top? It’s all sand. We want SOME rooting to help break the soil barriers so that more organic material gets mixed up in the soil. But we don’t want them to root so much that the soil biome is ruined. Or worse, stay in one area so long that they compact it with wallowing. Also, I was wanting a pig that would graze more than root. But since I don’t have pasture or grass yet, I need them to root.

This is getting to be a tall order for pig breeds.

Escaping

When looking at various breeds and watching many videos, we learned that pigs are incredibly smart. They are also more than willing to use their brute strength to break down fences. The only one that wasn’t going to constantly try and break free was the Kune Kune. But the Kune takes a long time to reach market weight, like 14+ months. This is getting harder and harder to pick a breed.

Feed Bill

The faster you want your pig to reach market weight, the more they are going to eat. The problem is, I don’t want to buy any more feed than I have to. The Duroc will reach market weight in five months, but to do that, we would have to give it grower feed, which is expensive. I talked about the real cost of raising livestock here. I’ve already got a $600/mo feed bill. Let’s not add to that.

I really wanted a grazing pig that would eat table scraps and left overs but ultimately would eat grass if we didn’t have scraps to give them.

Enter The American Guinea Hogs

The American Guinea Hogs are amazing pigs and up until about 75 years ago, it was a staple animal on almost every single farm in the US. But with the rise of super markets and city living, they fell out of favor. In fact, up till recently, there were only about 100 on in the country.

American Guinea Hogs are grazing pigs that will get bigger than the Kune and do it faster. But AGHs are a small heritage breed of pig. That means that it’s not going to be one of the monsters that will yield hundreds of pounds of pork. But that’s okay. Because they are smaller, it makes raising and butchering a lot easier.

Bacon is extremely friendly, needing to have all the snuggles and scratches. If I come outside, he is at the gate grunting at me to come snuggle and scratch. Delilah is a little stand-offish but she is coming around. The good part about that is that they come when they are called. There have been a few rainy days here and the solar chargers have run out of juice. If they slip the fence, it’s not a big deal. I simply call them and they come running, no food needed.

Another great thing about the AGH is that I have bought two bags of feed in the six weeks they have been here. Between the table scraps and fermentation, they haven’t even eaten a whole bag yet!

American Guinea Hogs Care

So what do you need to care for American Guinea Hogs? Not much if you already have livestock. We have been soaking and fermenting everyone’s feed, so we needed a few 5 gallon buckets. We already had feed buckets to bring them feed so no added expense there. We also bought a couple of Premier 1 fences with a solar charger. I mentioned above that our other charger ran out of juice, I suggest highly getting the one linked above. It doesn’t run out of juice! We just bought ours and it’s been amazing.

You do need to make sure you have some sort of a shelter. Right now, they are in our old kidding shed and that is working out very well. If they out grow it, we will look for something else but for right now, it’s good. They can handle lower temperatures as long as they are dry and have deep bedding.

Our AGHs are doing great and I absolutely love them. Butchering day is going to be brutal but at least I know they had the best life possible.