Your Homestead Is What You Make It
If you are like us, you have subscribed to a great many YouTubers that emphasize homesteading. Each highlight varying aspects of homesteading life but the main focus is their specific homesteading experience. Depending on who you watch, you would believe that every waking moment of a homesteader’s life is packed full of chores: take care of the chickens, then the cows, feed the rabbits, weed the garden, relocate some animals, and fix whatever broke on the homestead in that past 24 hours. All of this while trying to figure out how to find 10 minutes to eat.
Homesteading shouldn’t make you miserable
In our experience, we have found that this is just not true. There are spurts of chaos and, of course, there are daily chores that need taking care of. But the vast majority of the day is open. Now, we don’t have cows to milk, or flocks of meat chickens to move in our own permaculture operation. However, we do have rabbits, chickens, a garden, and projects that require our time and attention.
I mention this because I personally thought that maybe I was doing something wrong because my day was not monopolized by a list of tasks that required that I get up a 0400 and go to bed at 2330 everyday. “Am I really a homesteader?”, I would think to myself. I have time to spare… I make time to workout… I make time to play video games… I make time to nap!
The mistake I was making is that I was comparing my homesteading experience to the people on YouTube. It required me to stop and remember that what those people are showing their viewers is a condensed snapshot of their homestead life that is intentionally edited and framed for entertainment value. I say this as a grateful viewer and subscriber.
There is a tension that exists in the nearly 10 minute videos we watch on YouTube. Will they get their chores done before that storm moves in? Did their vegetable garden survive the crazy heat from this past week? Did those pesky rabbits destroy their sweet potatoes? How will those pigs do on that new area of wooded property? Not to mention the clickbait titles that are designed to get us to watch.
It’s not that these concerns or stressors are not real, it’s that the reality is they are not stacked on top of each other to the point where there is no time in the day to sit down and relax.
If you are Joel Salatin and are running a money-making permaculture operation that is the envy of every homesteader in the world, I can see how you would have to manage your time like a business. The vast majority of us are not. We are people that are sick and tired of being sick and tired of fake food that is more likely to bring us to an early grave than nourish us.
There is a saying that goes, “homesteading starts with raising chicks.” I do think that is one step, but I would argue that homesteading starts when you make the decision to remove yourself from the machine of the fast-paced, processed life.
If you have cows, pigs, chickens, rabbits, goats, a garden, are running a CSA, and are a source of produce for local businesses, I bow to you in reverence and respect how hectic your life must be.
If you are like the rest of us and are just trying to seek some level of food independence, eat healthier, and lead more productive lives… relax just a bit.
Please don’t get caught up in the drama of entertainment homesteading. At the end of the day, this is life. If you are miserable on your homestead like you are at your job, in my opinion, you are doing it wrong.
If your day is scheduled in 15 minute increments and you are stressed out because you are 10 minutes late moving the pigs to the next paddock because Susie the cow wasn’t cooperative during the milking session, I respect your hustle but I ask, are you happy?
The goal of homesteading is to remove the chains of servitude, not to become a slave to your property and animals.
As you progress on your own homestead, I ask that you remember that your homestead is yours! Don’t compare it to the YouTuber who is posting videos everyday about how crazy their life is. Be happy with your homestead, whether that is an urban operation you are running on a quarter acre, or if you are making things happen on five acres or more.
Your homestead is what you make it. Whether it’s heaven or hell will depend on you.
