When David and I were newly married we talked about one day being homesteaders. Back then, the term for us meant being as self sufficient as possible. We didn't really define what that meant but we had that homesteading goal. This was 10+ years ago, so social media was a lot different then. I'm sure homesteading communities online existed, but I didn't know about them. Over the years I would plant my veggie gardens, mostly for something to do, and make the occasional jar of jam, but I didn't consider myself a homesteader. When we got chickens and expanded the vegetable gardens I still didn't use that term.
To be honest, by then I was aware of the online homesteading communities and felt like I didn't deserve to be part of them. So I kept telling myself that one day I'd be doing enough to be worthy of calling myself a homesteader. From what I could see, a homesteader raised their own animals for meat, grew all their own food and preserved it, used renewable energy to power their home, made their own soaps and lotions, etc. Some of those weren't even possible for me!
I've been growing vegetables in some capacity since spring 2013. We have had chickens since 2016. I'm sure some of my family and friends, and maybe even online followers would have called me a homesteader but I still didn't feel like I could call myself one.
But things changed for me when the pandemic happened. Suddenly, more people wanted to grow their own food and have backyard livestock. Seeds and soil and animal feed were very hard to find. As were gardening tools and accessories. Even lumber and building materials were in short supply. Of course, grocery stores had issues keeping things stocked due to shoppers panic buying. I decided to make more of an effort to be self sufficient. Well, I should say that David and I decided! But up until then the bulk of the chicken care and all the gardening was my job. So he supported me but ultimately it was up to me to decide. I wanted to grow more, preserve more, and really work on seed saving so I no longer had to rely on stores. In 2021 I canned 100 jars of food, but in 2022 it was over 200. I took over flower gardens for vegetables, and our basement storage ("catch all") space is now filled with canning supplies.
Over the last few years I have been using the term "homesteader" to describe a lot of the work I do. This includes gardening, preserving food, cooking from scratch, making sourdough bread, keeping chickens, using firewood for heat, sewing my clothes, and knitting. I don't think I am more worthy of the title now. I think I always was, but just didn't have the confidence. After all, so many people have been doing this for A lot longer! I like to say David and I are first generation homesteaders. Our parents didn't grow food or keep animals (throughout our childhoods our mothers had vegetable gardens but neither did it for survival), and our grandparents lived in urban cities (I'm sure we could do some digging and learn that our great grandparents, and further generations, lived off the land more). The skills we have now been learned through trial and error, and a lot of research!
I think most groups of people with special interests and hobbies, such as homesteading, can be pretty strict about what is and isn't allowed. Maybe that is why I didn't feel like I could previously call myself a homesteader. As I get older I spend less time comparing myself to others. There are lots of reasons why I will not ever be like some of the "big names" or "celebrities" of homesteading, and I'm fine with that.
To me, homesteading means doing the best you can with the resources available. There are many ways to live self sufficiently in small spaces, large spaces,with big budgets and small budgets. It doesn't have to look a certain way, and you don't need to complete a checklist to be a real homesteader.
In a future post I will share some ways to get started in the homesteading game.
Until then, thanks for reading!
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