There is no hard fast definition for what homestead means. For some people a homestead means completely off grid with no reliance on anyone but themselves. Others believe that homesteading means growing their own vegetables. But as time goes on, the meaning changes for those people as well. Regardless of what this means to others, I am going to tell you what homesteading means to me and what it has come mean as well.
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What Does Homestead Mean
Well, the formal definition of homestead I pulled from Oxford Dictionary is:
“A house, especially farm, and outbuildings.”
The good thing about that definition is that it’s as broad and vague as how homesteaders, or aspiring homesteaders define homesteading.
Really, any piece of property can be a homestead! You don’t HAVE to have hundreds of acres. You can homestead on a city lot or out in the country.
What Does Homestead Mean To Me?
At first, homesteading meant a way to take care of my family without relying so much on others. The thought of being at the mercy of grocery stores to have my food was slightly worrisome. If we couldn’t get food, where would we be? Not having access meat, veggies, fruit, dog or cat food, has the potential for disaster. There were a ton of holes in our food security.
It meant learning skills and building a legacy for my children. Things like building barns, fences, and gardens. It meant learning how to cook from scratch.
Learning Skills Ma Ingle Would Have Been Proud Of
From scratch cooking is surprisingly easy. I wonder if we were raised to believe that it was so much harder so that there was more reliance on boxed and canned meals. Since being on the homestead, we have learned a ton when it comes to cooking, canning, and other food related skills.
Homesteading can mean bringing animals into this world, learning how to milk and make cheese and processing animals. It means learning to depend on yourself in ways that you never really valued or thought you could do.
I learned that if I can raise my own hens, I can get eggs that I don’t have to go to the store for. I could raise my own meat birds and rabbits to help save on meat costs. Also, I learned that if I learn to preserve those things, I can have them on stand by and make everything easier.
Sometimes meanings change
But as time has gone by and the continued strain on our supply chain, homestead has come to mean other things as well. It means being prepared and stocking up on items that we use a lot of: coffee, tea, noodles, canning jars and lids, and other necessities. Making sure that we have enough supplies if another snow storm hits. Will we have plenty of firewood, canned food, and fuel for the chainsaws and other equipment?
If you are a farmer/ homesteader and looking for a way to track your income and expenses, I highly recommend our Schedule F Tracker! We have been using it for years and it is the easiest, fastest and best way that we have found to keep track of the money spent on the homestead.
Homesteading means community. We realize that we are stronger together and we stand with our neighbors when times are good and we help pick them up when they have hard times. It’s knowing that they will stand with us in our hard times too.
It has also come to mean finding random eggs in the hay barn, playing with goats, and impatiently awaiting the arrival of Champ’s babies.
Update: She gave us a beautiful doeling that we named Stella.
It means caring for the new chicks that will not only give us eggs but also lay our next meat chickens. Homesteading means learning new skills, facing challenges, and not giving up. It means doing the things you thought you couldn’t, only to realize that you are more than capable of building fences, buildings, and fixing all the things.
What Homesteading Doesn’t Mean
I can tell you that homesteading doesn’t mean judging others. Whether you have a quarter acre in the city or a hundred acres in the country, you are still homesteading regardless of if you purchase your food from a grocery store or farmers market, or if you grow your own.
It doesn’t mean being unaffected when creatures die or need to be butchered. For some people, taking the life of a chicken is okay, but it still affects them in some way, even if it’s only gratitude.
The Hay Calculator:
If you aren’t math-y (don’t worry I’m not either), check out our Hay Calculator. It literally does ALL of the math for you and gives you totals based on what you want your goals.
On the second page, you can track where you’ve bought hay, what you spent and how long it lasted.
Homesteading doesn’t mean easy. There is no part of this life that is easy. If you are hauling lumber for a barn or feed to your animals, homesteading is hard work. It can be heart and back breaking when you have to put down your favorite bottle baby because she got sick.
You can’t be lazy and a homesteader. There is simply too much to do. Gardening, canning, working with livestock and more, there is not a ton of downtime. But when you see the fruits of your labor? It’s worth every aching joint, pulled muscle, cut and bruise.
What Does Homestead Mean?
I don’t know that homesteading has a meaning. I think homesteading is a spirit. It’s the spirit of being less dependent on the power grids, grocery stores, and other commodities. These people who want to homestead do it because they want to be independent. Whether that is a completely or partially independent, is not the point. Homesteaders simply want to take care of themselves and their community. Which is what homestead means to us.
I think that as long as people want to take ownership of their little plot of land, we will keep the spirit of homesteading alive. I think as long as people desperately want to learn the skills of their ancestors, they will lead a full and productive life. And I think that as long as we are here fighting for our community and independence, we will see the resurgence of a way of life that mixes the old with the new. And we will be better for it.
What does homesteading mean to you?
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