Episode 447 - Homesteading in a Hard Year

Jul 5, 2021

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Today we talk about what it is like to live the homestead life in a year filled with personal challenges and problems. This is a follow up on “what homesteading is really like.”

Canning Meat, July 24: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2021/06/28/meat-canning-webinar-july-24-at-2pm

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

Freeze drying beets for future salads
Spiralized zucchini
Odds and ends month for the freezer
Grocery Store Free Month

Operation Independence

Sad to report no Independence Day Pigs but she is very very close
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Main topic of the Show: Homesteading in a Hard Year

We had an open house and it was an eye-opening experience. My homestead once provided about 80% of my vegetable needs and 100% of my egg and chicken needs. I ate things in season as they became ripe. I preserved, dried and canned. My garden succession planting program was on point.

Then troubles crept in. Ones of the financial type, the relationship type, and the health vibrancy type.

Reality on a homestead is a far cry from the ambitious plans we have each spring when planting time comes. Even in the best of years, things will fail and the best approach seems to be fanatical variety.

You always ask me what living on a homestead is like and I have to admit - it has been pretty rough these past few years at the Holler Homestead. The saving grace has been my wall of tomatoes and aquaponics system.

For background: Transition has been in process here for several years. Transition from two people to one, transition from mostly off-site consulting work to building a coffee business, transition into the Holler Neighbor community. And there have been some family and personal health reminders. All these things take time and a homestead is a full time job. Many people manage the homestead demand with one person working and one person doing the homestead chores until enough business is generated from the land to enable the working partner to quit. Sometimes that never happens.

The benefit of having a consulting lifestyle with the homestead was that I would be gone for a whole week working my butt off, then home for 2 to 3 weeks with a light enough schedule that I could catch up on things.

But transitions are part of life, are they not?

Here are a few looks at the real homestead:

Dirt, mud, dust and hair (Shoes off story)
Growing food in the ground takes time. Lots of time.
Preserving food takes time, lots of time.
Raising animals for meat takes less time.
The pretty homestead with well-maintained, white fences.
Old country houses

But it is not all bad:

So much quiet and peace
Relationships with animals
Stability
Community of doers

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