5 Reasons to Build a Homestead
Today is a day that we prepare for our fall garden and a fresh load of horse manure means that it is time to plant. I can’t decide if I love #fall gardens more or spring #gardening more! They are both so great.
So why do we do this? Why do all of this work when we can buy food at the store?
Today, I will share some of my favorite reasons with you.
1). We embrace old skills and pass them down too. Our garden goes beyond just growing and eating the food. We preserve much of our food through canning and freezing and each season we learn how to preserve even more. These sorts of skills tend to get lost in today’s quick fix times, but I do feel like we are starting to see these skills come back. It allows us to learn how to take care of ourselves and not become reliant on the system.
2). Save money. It’s hard to say at this moment that my grocery bill is any lower because inflation is real right now and things just cost more. However I never have to buy eggs, vegetables or ground meat or sausages of any sorts. (Although I don’t care for deer sausage so I occasionally get the good stuff 😉). I strive to eat seasonally with our vegetables through fresh veggies; and with our freezing and canning, we have many preserved to last awhile.
We keep a lot of store canned goods and beans to help stay prepared. I never want my family to be without food. So while our grocery bill is still high with inflation, it would be even more if I had to buy these things!
3) It’s fun and it brings us together! #homesteading is so fun and we all enjoy it. The kids have helped us shovel in manure, pull weeds and pick veggies. These simple activities mean evenings together in the garden and moments of excitement together as we watch our work turn into food. It’s become a family hobby!
4). It’s a teaching moment! Our children are #homeschooled and in the #homeschool world we are huge supporters of life learning and realizing that learning is happening all around. It doesn’t always have to come from a book! Our children are learning how to plant and grow food and eventually will be taught how to preserve food. In today’s times, those are handy skills. Not to mention that simple planting days coincide with our plant life cycles studies. But this isn’t just for homeschoolers. Any child can learn so much from homesteading!
5. Preparedness! This somewhat goes along with the things above in all areas but I want my family to be prepared. We have seen so much in the last few years of our country that for some reason it just feels right to learn how to fend for ourselves a little more. It’s always a learning curve and there’s always more goals to keep in mind. Eventually I want to store seeds so seeds are always accessible to us. Even in times of natural disasters such as hurricanes here, it’s nice to walk into my backyard and grab carrots when the stores nearby don’t even have power.
6. Self Reliance. This is just a bonus for me. But I love that through some of the decisions we make such as homesteading and homeschooling, that I don’t have to depend on someone else to do it. Sure I have to buy some things at the store, but not all things. It’s a bit freeing to break away from the systems, especially when the systems aren’t always that great.
There’s so much good from it gardening as you can see. It’s a life skill that seems to be making a comeback but has also been lost within our times. We live in times where we depend on the system to get us by - grocery stores, online shopping, online delivery and so forth. These things are great when truly needed but sometimes it’s a blessing to just be able to provide for yourself.
Building a homestead is a slow process and it doesn’t happen over night. Our list of goals and plans is long, we just tackle it little by little. But I am so thankful for how far our little homestead has come.
What are some of your plans for your family around your home?
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