When my husband and I first moved to our homestead, we had a picture in our minds of how it would be. For the most part, we have achieved our goals but it's not been without lessons, challenges and compromise. Here are a few of the lessons we've learned.

Raising Animals For Meat

We told ourselves that the farm animals will have a great life and only "one bad day" with us. The animals we raised for meat (pigs, chickens, quail) did only have one bad day (for the most part). They had lovely, wonderful lives here. We did have one disaster when the baby quail we hatched died horrifically in the night because we didn't realize there was a draft coming in from underneath the door.

We did not truly understand how profound and painful the process of raising and killing animals can be. For some, it gets easier with time, for others its no big deal and for some, it's quite am emotional roller coaster.

We've learned that we aren't all cut out for all things when it comes to homesteading. I love having animals here, I do not like having them die at our hands. My husband has mixed feelings about it. It's changed our approach to adding livestock to the homestead.

Gardening and Crops

We've done well with growing large amounts of food, saving seeds and expanding our perennial food gardens. We just didn't know how hard it would be to prepare fields for growing. Our soil is clay and it's been super challenging and backbreaking to work. I had visions of crops in various fields and had big plans to become a "garlic tycoon" but its been REALLY hard! Potato bugs, drought, floods, we've seen it all. It can be disheartening to see a weeks worth of work rotting away from soggy feet.

We've learned to take smaller chunks and focus on smaller areas. Scaling up gradually is more realistic than trying to do it all at once. I've also learned to embrace the things that work well for us, like raised beds.

Old School VS Mechanical

I thought we would be doing most of the work old school with just our muscles. There were visions of how fit we were going to be. Maybe we would eventually get a mule or horse and work like the Amish.

The truth of the matter is that a wheelbarrow and 10,000 pounds of manure or gravel...takes a long time to move and is really inefficient. It also depletes your physical energy fast and is quite punishing. When you have acres to get around, it's also inefficient and jobs can take "too long" to be feasible. My husband picked up a used Kubota with hydrolic dump box and an old Massey Ferguson tractor. They've really become treasured tools saving us weeks of valuable time. they've made it possible to achieve things in a day that would have taken weeks to do by hand.

We've learned that there is a place for mechanical and physical work on the homestead. I still use human power as much as I can, a broadfork for example can be used in early spring when a tractor would just compact the soil. There is a place for both in our lives.

Eating Like A Pioneer

We've done well with growing a lot of what we eat, preserving food for winter and keeping a well stocked pantry. We've learned how to can foods, freeze, dehydrate, ferment and brew. Our skills keep growing and this is an area where we've become really strong. It's hard work growing and preserving all that food. I spend a good six weeks in front of that stove just canning food. For dried goods we shop in bulk, store food properly and cook with raw ingredients. Our way of eating has really changed, I really like where we are going with our food efforts, but it is a lot more work that I had originally imagined it to be.

We've learned that it takes a heck of a lot of food (and work) to feed a family for a year. We probably won't ever be fully self reliant when it comes to food, not without sacrificing "comfort".

Wood Heat

It's easy to have romantic notions, maybe even a little "Little House on The Prairie" esque type of imaginings about heating your home with wood. A home heated with wood is really quite cozy and nice. It's also a lot of work. We've burned through five cords of wood so far this year. It's been a particularly cold winter here. I swear to you, I've held at least half of those logs probably five times. From lifting moving and stacking them into the Kubota, to stacking them in the wood sheds, to hauling them to the wood furnace, or fireplace in the house.

With 90 acres of woods to manage, we also do a lot of work cutting up and hauling out fallen trees from the woods. Wood heat is really physical. You can't have "too much" wood on hand.

we've learned that to be properly prepared, we need a LOT more wood on hand that we realized. We need wood for the year plus wood for the next year stacked and seasoning.

We love this life and wouldn't change it for anything but it is far from a "simple life". Every day we learn new things, face new challenges and this is a good thing. It keep us sharp. We are apprentice mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, woods(wo)men, gardeners, food producers & innovators. The freedom to grow and develop skills in so many areas is quite frankly AMAZING! I am so glad that we are homesteaders.

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