Homesteading: Start Where You’re At

If you are reading this and you want to homestead, but you aren’t there yet, I’ve got some great advice for you: Start where you’re at. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you are in an apartment, a townhouse or in a subdivision with a quarter acre lot. Start where you’re at. You don’t need tens of acres in the country to start a garden. You don’t need to be in the country to have a couple chickens. You can absolutely start where you’re at and start pushing the needle to get to where you want to be.

How To Start Where You’re At

One of the things I hear over and over from people who want to homestead is that they can’t start until they have X. Whether that is land, time, money, or any other made up reason. The reality is that they are excuses, however valid. I have yet to meet or talk to anyone that has a valid reason for not starting where they are.

In an effort to not have a million word blog post, I’m going to talk about the most common reasons that I have heard from people who want to homestead but have said they can’t. Those reason have ranged, but the most common ones I hear is: I don’t have the land. I don’t have the time. Or my favorite, I don’t know where to start.

I don’t have the land to garden

Let me tell you this: you do not have to have a lot of land to start gardening. When we lived in Texas, we lived on a quarter acre and had a small 20x15ft garden. It was tiny, but it provided fresh eating! But more importantly, it taught me how to start and grow plants!

I’ve talked here about when to start a garden, and yes, it’s based on an emergency garden. But I specifically talk about how gardening is a muscle. You have to use it to grow it. I have gardened for over 15 years, but every place that you garden is different and there is so much to learn!

If you don’t have space for a garden because you live in an apartment, start with containers. You can effectively grow tomatoes in a gallon pot (though bigger is better). Squash, cucumbers, beans, strawberries, and so much more absolutely love containers! You don’t need to put them in the ground to have a garden!

I don’t have enough land to have animals

I don’t know what kind of animals you want to have, but you can absolutely have chickens in a small space. Sure, the more space they have, the better but you don’t have to have a ton of acreage to have a couple chickens.

But you live in the city? Check your local laws and regulations and see if you can have chickens. Most places, especially now, are fine with a couple chickens. Check it out.

If you live on a small plot but don’t have to worry about laws and regulations, sheep are a great way to keep your lawn mowed. Plus, most of them are happy to stay put. I don’t recommend goats in small spaces because they will Houdini out of a space if they want into your garden.

Yes, you will need space if you want larger livestock like cows. But there is no reason why you can’t start where you’re out and start working towards something bigger.

I don’t have the time

Look, I get it. I don’t have a ton of time either and I HAVE a homestead. I work full time, plus have a couple part time jobs. Not to mention the homestead and homeschooling our boys. I understand the time crunch. But don’t let that get in the way.

There are a lot of ways to work gardening and animals into your life. For example, our kids take care of the goats and chickens while we supervise. We handle the gardens. If you don’t have kids, or they are too little, start small. Get the chickens in the winter when you don’t have much going on. Then expand as you have time.

Another thing that can be tough is harvesting and preserving the garden. The best way I have found to help with this is to dehydrate as much as possible. It really helps with storage space and it takes very little time to actually prep and put up.

I don’t know where to start

I think out of all the reasons that people give to delay starting a homestead, this is the most valid. The reality is that most people weren’t raised to know how to plant a garden, harvest it and then use it later. People don’t know how to take care of animals. And while that is sad, there is a way around it.

I talked here about setting homestead goals and here about a brain dump. And these are two exercises to really look at why you want to homestead. Is it because you want to garden? Or do you want goats for milk? Why do you want to homestead? Once you’ve figured out why you want to homestead, you can start looking for ways to start where you’re at.

If you want to raise goats for milk, but you live in an apartment, this is a challenge. But you can start talking to goat owners about how it all works. YouTube is a great way to get started too. Learning everything you can while you are working towards getting land is a great way to be prepared when the time comes.

If you want to homestead for a garden? Start working what you have now. Depending on the space you have, you could absolutely have a container garden on your apartment patio! It may not feed you through the winter, but it can feed you now. Plus, you get to learn all the nuances of planting seeds, growing plants and harvesting. And all of this is on a scale small enough that you don’t have to freak out if something goes wrong.

Don’t be afraid to fail

One of the biggest lies we have been told is that failure is bad. Failure is a teaching tool. It’s okay to fail, though sometimes the consequences for failure is death. We have lost more goats than I really want to admit. We’ve lost hundreds of chickens and ducks. The amount of food that has been “wasted” is kind of ridiculous. But at the end of the day, we are learning. We aren’t perfect.

We don’t have anyone to teach us how to live this life. No one to hold our hand and show us how to butcher animals, grow a garden, or any other skill that we have learned.

We plan for failure because that makes more sense than planning for everything to go right.

Taking the first step

I know that sometimes that first step is the hardest to take. I know that it’s terrifying. I know that the fear of failure keeps a lot of us on the sidelines. But I also know that this life is the hardest and most rewarding things I have ever done.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

Buy me a coffee