Yup. That’d be me.
I found myself deep in thought last week as I was walked back to the house from doing barn chores. I had just assessed our garden, barn, and chicken coop, and was struck with a rather profound thought, which went something along the lines of,
“I really suck at this.”
Ya’ll. If there was a prize for the World’s Worst Homesteader, it’d be MINE.
As I surveyed our operation that night, my findings were this (among other things):
- I currently have two laying hens. TWO. Between coons and our overzealous pup, it’s been a rough year for chickens, and I’m currently rationing eggs… Yay.
- Between our traveling, homeschooling, home-businesses, and everything else we have going on, I have hardly been milking the cow at all. (I just leave her calf on her.) And when I do milk, she’s holding back the good stuff for her calf, so I get the watery foremilk and pretty much zero cream.
- My most productive yield in the garden this year (other than my garlic) was the cabbage. I got around 10 heads of small, half-grown cabbage. Whoop whoop. And because I pretty much quit working in my garden this year (after everything else was such a fail), the bugs mowed through many layers of the outer leaves, since I wasn’t spraying my homemade garden pest repellent spray any more.
So yes. The “homestead blogger girl” is pretty much chicken-less, garden-less, and raw milk-less. Pretty inspiring, huh? 😉
I’ve been doing this homestead thing for 7ish years now, and I’ve come to the realization homesteading truly ebbs and flows– at least for me.
During some seasons I’ve felt like homesteader-of-the-year… And other seasons? Well, I pretty much keep the animals alive, get semi-nourishing food on the table, and that’s it.
But you know what?
I’m OK with that.
Like I’ve said before, homesteading isn’t an all-or-nothing thing. As modern homesteaders, we still have one foot in the modern world– which means we can’t always spend 12 hours a day preserving food and sometimes weekends must be spent doing something other than homestead projects.
So for this season? I’m choosing to celebrate what I CAN do, even in spite of everything else I have going on. Things like:
- Having a supper of eggs and sausage last week. It was nothing fancy, but the eggs and sausage were both grown on our homestead, and were garnished with fresh chives Prairie Girl picked from the garden and chopped all by herself. Prairie Boy cooked the eggs (almost) all by himself, too.
- Turning one of our meager heads of cabbage into a parmesan-covered side dish that even made even cabbage-hating Prairie Husband ask for seconds.
- It looks like both twin heifers got pregnant on their first attempt (will do a blood test in the next week or so to confirm). I’m excited to sell one next spring and keep the other as a replacement milk cow.
- Our second year of homeschool is going well, and I truly am enjoying it. (Even though some days are smoother than others.)
- For the first year ever, I’ve actually kept turkeys alive and away from predators until butchering time. That, my friends, is an accomplishment.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last few years of being a business owner, it’s that failure isn’t a bad thing. In fact, I’ve learned the only people who don’t fail are the ones who aren’t really trying. (Which if that is the case, I must be trying really, really hard….)
Failure is an opportunity to pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and keep going. Therefore, I think I’m going to apply this life-lesson to my homesteading efforts too.
Here’s how I’m brushing myself off this year:
- I’m going to dry-off Oakley the milk cow earlier than I normally do so she has a longer period to rest and recover before her next calf is born. Her body condition has been OK this past year, but I think it could be better. I’m not milking much right now anyway, so it’s the perfect time to allow her to put on more weight.
- Since our current chicken flock is almost gone, I figure it’s the perfect time to start with a brand new breed I’ve been interested in for a while– Black Laced Silver Wyandottes. I’m done with having a mix-matched group of random chickens, and would like to invest in a high-quality heritage chicken and begin breeding them for quality and breed-type.
- I figure there’s no better time than now to pull the trigger on our plans to build raised garden beds. We are still working on a design that’s affordable and fits our space, but I’m actually pretty darn excited to have a fresh start with my garden. (And yes, I’ll still be incorporating mulch– as long as I can find unsprayed hay.)
So no. It’s not Little House on the Prairie 24/7 up in here. Some seasons are awesome and everything works perfectly, and others are colossal disasters.
But that’s just part of the journey, amen? Someone once said, “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” So don’t worry– my enthusiasm isn’t dampened. I’ll take the failures as learning experiences to allow me to figure out how to do it better next time.
So is this just me? Or can y’all relate? 😉 Share your biggest homestead FAIL in the comments so we can all commiserate!
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” –Henry Ford
Along these lines, listen to the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast episode #63 titled “I’m Not Hiding Anymore” HERE.
Leave it to the homesteading life to keep you humble! We’ve had a very similar year – we lost all but three of our chicks that hatched this spring, we moved and ended up spending the entire growing season living with family and were only able to plant a handful of sad tomatoes plants that we could barely find time to care for. Overall, not our year in the homesteading department! But, like you said, it has really taught us that being a homesteader is about so much more than how your garden and your animals turn out! It’s a lifestyle… And one that I love even during the most difficult of years! Thank you for sharing your story- it’s something we all need to remember ??
Jill-
I so love this post! I think we all have those moments. For me what comes to mind is the time I didn’t heat enough canning jars when I was making pickles and I tried to just run one under hot water and then stick it in the water bath canner and it ended up breaking in the water bath canner and making a big mess. Or the time I planted a bunch of starter plants and hardly any of them survived. It’s life- you just keep doing what you’re doing. You educate and inspire people and that’s really important.
We have raised garden beds and we use the stuff that we take out of our chicken coop (yep, poop and all) in the fall – we cover our garden beds with it and in the spring we end up with wonderful rich soil. I don’t know if you’ve tried that before.
Love your blog!
Chicken litter is a wonderful soil amendment! But if it’s too fresh it can burn your plants. You’re smart to put it on in the fall.
Boy oh boy i needed to hear this today! You just made my day.
I echo this comment! Our garden didn’t do as we had hoped yet we were able to get a decent variety of things to can. It was great to hear we’re not alone!
Ditto! Ditto, ditto. Sounds like it was a year we need to focus on what DID work. I successfully learned to pressure can…without even blowing the house up ;).
Oh girls!!!! I’m so thankful I’m not the only one- big dreams & a HUGE new pumpkin patch.. grew over 50 seeds into baby plants on my porch… moved the blasted things- transplanted them- sprayed, watered, mulched, and weeded—- those plants grew – got huge, were covered in flowers and became the aftermath of the largest squash ambush ever deployed in Kentucky. I got 3 small pumpkins. THREE! Arg. Stupid squash bugs. Don’t even get me started on the fox.
I loved this…looking forward to homesteading in a year or so.
Oh man…I can so relate!! We’ve been homesteading for 6 years–and I feel like failing is all we do! We lost 50% (50-some) of our meat chickens this year. And it’s our 4th year raising them! But then we had about 150 onions that grew succcessfully in our garden…which makes me want to stay on the farm…haha! Thanks for being honest!!
150 onions!! Way to go girl!
We lost 50% of our meat birds last year too! A damn raccoon. And of course it happened right before I started a new, stressful job and my husband was doing an out of town stint for a few months. I had a bit of a breakdown and got rid of most of our animals at that point (we had mismatched layers anyways, so it was a chance to rethink the breeds we had). My lowest point was when I went crying to my old Ukrainian neighbour because I was so overwhelmed with my job and having to butcher the rest of the chickens myself. I’m sure he lost all respect for me (though has given us lots of free hay this year, so maybe not) but he came over and did the chopping for me- the part I hate the most. The rest of the processing I did myself, and that was manageable.
My garden tanked early this year, so the only thing that came from it were the two diaper boxes of tomatoes that I had to pull out of the garden while they were green due to the first snow of the year in northern Wyoming. Just sold all my milk goats because no one except for me will drink the milk and no one locally wants to pay for it. Did add registered miniature Herefords to our place this year, but the hers is small and with any luck we will have 2 babies on the ground in the spring. Added meat rabbits, but we are a long ways off from being able to butcher and I only have one doe old enough to breed.
I totally get the ebb and flow, and I totally appreciate that you share the good with the bad.
Ugh– I totally feel your pain re: those early WY snows!
This year I planted so many plants in my veggie garden and it wound up a weed pit. I didn’t can a single pickle or jar of salsa. It does make you think about what is important. I think we can get in a rut of thinking the way we have been doing things for so long, is the best way. I am eager and pleased to try again with new techniques, plants, and critters next year, and I hope to continue to feel that excitement every year.
Yes– I really think an open mind, and flexibility, is so key!
Love the quote about success! Thanks for being real!
The quote is attributed to Winston Churchill. One of my favorites.
This year we’ve had failures, and success. Even with my husband’s crazy busy schedule, we managed to raise and butcher 12 red Rangers without losing one to predators. But the 12 sex link chicks we bought were sickly and we ended up losing one in the first week. The rest have survived and eventually ended up with our flock. We still need to find the time to cull some of the older hens that aren’t laying. We got our garden in earlier than we usually do, but it was such a hot year nothing really produced, until now. We also expanded our garden area, but didn’t expand our deer netting, soo, they got in and ate all my peppers, my only cabbage that survived the heat, my cucumber plants…. Now we have our winter garden planted around my greenhouse. We have arbors made of cattle panels attached to the sides of it and under those is my fall and winter garden. All we have left to do is put some plastic over the arbors, but that won’t be happening this weekend. This weekend we have the first big storm of the season blowing in, lots of wind and rain. Here’s hoping the fall planting won’t get too waterlogged.
I always say that God teaches me something each year. This year I lost most of my squash to powdery mildew. I learned and next year I am going to plant them so they grow up on a pole and have plenty of room to breath. I call it my stupid tax. But the good thing is once you learn it , you don’t repeat it. Was blessed with my tomatoes this year and beets. It all is working out. I am in the city and I am trying to find a way out. Want land and a home way. but for the time being, this is where God has me so I will continue to learn and grow
Hi Kimberly,
Prior to moving to our “homestead”, I was “stuck” in the city for 17 years. However, that time was not all wasted. Those are the years I dreamed, studied and learned how to garden in a space 1/6th the size of my current garden. I leaned I needed far more gardening space than I had to grow enough produce to feed my family for a year. I learned how much produce I needed to grow to feed our family for a year. I leaned how safely to freeze, water bath and pressure can our harvests. I also learned how to consistently keep chicks alive for butchering and eggs. I learned how to effectively raise meat rabbits. I developed a realistic idea of how much time and physical work is involved in homesteading. Thus, the most difficult transition for me when we moved 45 miles away from a grocer and 65 miles away from a WalMart or fast food restaurant was the driving distance – nothing is a convenient quick trip. I quickly learned all errands need to be planned and coordinated; because who can afford an hour and half or two hours drive time into town several times each week or even once a week?
Yes– it’s all a learning experience, huh?
Excellent attitude
I’m right there with you and everyone else…..Squash bugs decimated every type of squash plant we had, except the 1 pumpkin plant that came up where we tossed an old one from last Halloween. I didn’t even realize it was there! The green beans go chewed up after the first couple pickings, the spinach only came up in spots and the tomatoes were a disaster. Didn’t help that I didn’t get them all in cages either! Too much rain drowned them and my raised strawberry bed. I had to drain the about 8 inches of water off of them and half of them died. I really hope this fall and winter keeps me sane and rejuvenates me so I want to keep going next spring! Glad I’m not the only one that has had disasters this summer.
Ugh, squash bugs are the worst!
Squash bugs got tired if squash and ate my rhubarb. No Jill I deserve the award for worst gardener. Sorry, maybe next year. I love your attitude. I bet that our skills would improve fast if our families really depended on a garden for food as opposed to supplementing an available abundance. Thank God. Not sure how you got a picture of my cabbage. Lol
Ha! Here’s to a better year next year for both of us! 🙂
So only a handful of tomatoes grew in my whole city, in my naiborhood we didn’t even get enough tomatoes for one jar of salsa.
We lost a goat last month and today one of our lambs. We got the wrong breed of dog for farm life that we will probably have to rehome because it loves chicken. But the greenhouse is doing well with all our October tomatoes and green beans, the kale grows year around. We had so many tomatillos and zucchini we were glad the season was over. Last year there was no garden because of 6 weeks of bronchitis. Guess we are all in the same boat one time or another.
Yeah, dogs can be tough on farm animals sometimes!
I’m a city homesteader, and my only livestock was a lovely beehive. I had to give them back to my cousin after they swarmed and the neighbor complained. Homesteading AND blogging fail.
Ah, darn it!
This is definitely the same on our homestead here in Brazil. In fact, with all the bad publicity that farmers get, my heart goes out to many of them. People who are sitting in a comfy armchair, in the suburbs have no idea about they are talking about with regards to farming, and this lifestyle we have chosen.
I too feel like a fraud but I have read many autobiographies from people in all industries who seem confident on the outside but inside, are filled with doubt.
I can see how many people throw the towel in but if I had to live in a city again, I’d feel like a caged animal.
Hang in their girl, because when you’re on the ground, the only way is up.
Yep– I think most all successful people would admit to seasons of doubt sometimes. It’s a part of the process, I think. 🙂
I watched you walk at Gala and it was so inspiring. I read this post and that just tops the cake. Doing a home business that fits right along with what you believe in seems so great, and it is! But keeping up the being a mom and a wife and a homesteader too, we’ll that’s no work for wimps for sure! I’m not nearly as far along in my journey as you are (business or homestead) but you truly give me the courage and insight to keep going. It’s so nice to see other people can’t do it all either, but it’s worth it to keep trying! I’m right there along with you, and I certainly feeling all the emotions that come along with that.
Amen! We got this, girlfriend!
Thanks for sharing this! I live in Cody, WY and understand how difficult homesteading in this state can be! Coyotes took out over half our layer hens a few weeks ago and mice ate a bunch of our starter seeds in our greenhouse. But on the bright side, we have freezers full of chicken and pork meat that we raised ourselves.
Amen– you totally get it, then! WY homesteading isn’t for the faint of heart.
Hello from Southern Ontario, Canada. Great to hear I’m not alone this year in the poor garden section. We had extreme heat and very little rain this year. We collect rain water for the vegetable garden. Every vegetable we planted was hit and miss. Too small, too many holes like your cabbage. Slugs, beetles, grass hoppers, snails ate, and ate, and ate. Tried different organics but to no avail. However, as bad as it was we are planning next years garden and what we are going to do different. Thanks for sharing.
Yes! Thank you! This is just what I needed to hear after losing our cabbage, kale and broccoli to cabbage worms this year. We only got 10 lbs of potatoes this year, versus 75 lbs last year. My husband and I are from Northern Alberta, Canada and have had SO. MUCH. RAIN. that everything was rotting and getting drowned. On the plus side, we managed to preserve more corn and zucchini than years past. This our first year with laying hens (Rhode Islands) as well as our first year with meat chickens which we will be butchering soon.
Thank for writing this open and honest post!
Hooray for your corn and zukes! Also, I’ll take some of your rain, if you don’t want it. 🙂
I really needed to hear this today. My phone is is only internet service we get and its hard to blog from a phone. We lost all but one chicken and a turkey in a move several months ago due to stress and heat strokes during the move. Our news hens aren’t comfortable enough to lay yet. And I didn’t have time to start a fall garden. I feel like my dream is a fairy tale I’ll never reach. This post kept me from feeling like a total failure. Thank you for sharing.
Nope– definitely not a total failure. Just part of the learning process. 🙂
Now we have SNOW! I would gladly send it anywhere but here! I am not quite ready for winter yet. It has been a hard year for farmers in this area too. Most of fields around us are not yet combined (last year most farmers were done harvest by end of September!) and snow covered.
I so agree! Some years I do much more than other years, but that’s part of life and even in the years we do less, we still have fresh eggs, canned goods and free range meat in the freezer. I think it’s harder to be a homesteader in this modern world because we still have all the extra things like taking a kid to therapy, driving to appointments, and for me having a business. We are downsizing this year…. making the pasture smaller, getting rid of some animals, putting more land into hayfeild, and some into woodland and wildlife habitat. We have made our garden smaller (I love my raised beds) and put some of my flowerbeds back into yard. We have relied that too much of a good thing is too much and we have found enough to be just right…. and the benefit is still a homemaking lifestyle with less upkeep and cost and more time to relax! PS. After having chickens for 10 yrs and never losing one to a preditor, this year a fox got all of them…. I’m buying eggs again. But we are adding better fencing and I will start out with a new flock next spring!
We have had a similar year over here in Yorkshire, England. The weather has been cold and wet, all Spring and Summer. Everything in our veg plot was extremely late germinating and then the slugs decimated and rampaged, even, out witting our efforts of elimination. The weeds would overrun seedlings hourly and then the pigeons joined in for fun.
But, being a homesteader, which we cannot claim to be on the scales in the US. (We have a couple of small plots, a few hens and use of pig housing for fattening a couple of weaners’.) We do try to produce as much as we can, from bacon, sausages, cheese, butter, bread, clothes, laundry powder and cleaners, repair and re-use most things. It’s the ethos behind our life and not the levels of success we attain, we are lucky, we try, we sometimes fail, we carry on but we always appreciate what we have because in the blink of an eye things can change.
At least we do have 4 enormous pumpkins for the grandchildren 🙂
Well, hooray for pumpkins!! 🙂
Thank You for your honesty and all the other people for their comments. I am not alone and will keep on keeping on. From Fort Wayne, Indiana
Thank you so much for your honesty when some thing doesn’t work out. Knowing that other people have those “oh crap” moments helps me go easier on myself when I have mine.
THANK YOU. Yep, I’m crying just a little right now. This was my first year trying out homesteading– I’ve been a city girl my whole life, married a country boy, and we just got our first home (and first land). We live high in the mountains in Utah, and this year was nothing but a waste of money. The deer, elk, moose and hares ate my garden to the nubs before anything could really grow. My chickens were eaten by a mountain lion (and the neighbors complained about having it drawn to the area– which is okay, because it scared me a bit too). The herbs I tried growing on the deck were doing well….until my 2 yr old decided to throw them OFF the deck in an afternoon of destructive delight. I inadvertently chose a lot of produce that doesn’t actually grow well in my area (we’re in a cold spot that’s different from the surrounding area, ugh).
Okay– enough complaining!! THANK YOU again. I’m going to do it again next year. I’ll spend this winter making a game plan. I needed to know that even you can have off seasons!
Yeah… 2 yo kiddos and plants are a bad combo, ha! Here’s to a better year next year for all of us!
Hello from Tasmania, Australia. This year I have lost 3 of our meat lambs all around 5-6 months of age, due to either snow enduced pneumonia, or hard going because of drought. As they are one of our only source of meat we butcher,the other being beef, it leaves a hole in the freezer but that’s the way it goes. the mumma sheep are poorly so I’m giving them time to get condition on them before breeding again – we couldn’t win this year, but will keep going, after all, it’s what we do.
Ah, so sorry to hear that. 🙁 But yes, just keep going– it’ll be better next year. <3
Amen! So grateful for this post. Baby #3 is 5 weeks old and I’m feeling pretty good about motherhood but a total mess as a Lady Farmer/Homesteader! Hah. I feel like a failure on that front on a regular basis… almost nothing growing in the garden at the moment. I let everything go at about mid July when the heat gets unbearable in Texas and it all wants to die anyways lol also about the time I hit the third trimester! We are also down to 8 chickens from about 15 a few weeks ago due to coyotes and Bobcats of all things! And somehow only getting AN egg a day right now lol! But you are so right it is okay. So glad I’m not the only one! It’s a lot easier to feel like it’s okay when you know it’s normal! Thanks for being REAL with us Jill!!
Well, at an eye per day, you’re still doing better than me, HA! 🙂
I’m happy you’re not beating yourself up too bad about your year. I have learned that homesteading goes in cycles. Most days our efforts are rewarded by plentiful crops and happy producing animals while others mean the bugs eat your cucumbers and the drought kills your tomato plants, a pack of wild dogs kill all your favorite laying hens and your husbands job keeps you managing the farm all by yourself. It’s called life and you have your hands full with many blessings. Nothing jump starts a homestead better than a new batch of baby chicks and a seed catalog!
Amen– already looking forward to the seed catalogs this year!
Jill,
So glad you can see the positives in it all. God has you right where He wants you to be at this point in time. Things fail….I tried growing carrots this year in three different mediums (straw bales, compost and plain ‘ol dirt) from three different seed packets and not so much as a germinated seed. However, I found a place to buy raw carrots for 42 cents a pound, and a two-pound bag makes 4 pints of canned goods….that’s 10.5 cents per meal. The green beans and lima beans grew; the beets did not. The tomato plants were mislabeled at the store, so was only able to can a whopping 3 pints of regular tomatoes, but was able to give a ton of non-acidic cherry tomatoes away to a retired couple. I was able to purchase squash at a wonderful price right after I read your blog about how to can pumpkins. I tried that with the squash and it worked wonderfully. I am constantly looking things up on your website for more things to try. I canned navy beans for soup, kidney beans for chili, and pinto beans for burritos, re-fried rice, etc. I had so much fun canning all of that stuff that I ended up with around 250 pints of food. Mind you, I don’t like to cook, (and I get home late from work) so I absolutely LOVE having this stuff already made. Recently, God gave me the land of my dreams: wooded land on a small private lake. (In thankfulness, all I can sing is the second half of the song Mercy: May I never lose the wonder, oh the wonder of Your mercy; may I sing Your Hallelujahs, Hallelujah, Amen!) So, in addition to my city garden, I can start some fruit trees next year. I spent the summer fishing, and have around 75 meals put up for the winter, which is about 33 cents a meal from what I spent on wax worms at Walmart. I know the purist would say I should dig earthworms, but time is precious as well. We DO homestead in the modern world and it is so very refreshing to have you leading us on this journey and teaching us along the way. While some things may seem like a downer and a failure, you are certainly thankful for the blessing you do have. Through it all, you graciously continue to use ALL of your stories to enrich our lives. I began this journey almost 4 years ago when I “stumbled” upon your e-book, Your Custom Homestead. I say “stumbled” because I believe it was God-given. I’ve re-read that book several times. Thank you so much for teaching me in my homesteading journey and for having such a wonderful impact. You have most definitely touched my life, for which I am deeply thankful. Thank you for your honesty, even in the frustrations and failures. God has blessed you richly! Janna
Thanks for your kind comment, Janna– I’m honored to have folks like you along on this journey!
Well when you think about it, Laura Ingalls Wilder had her fair share of worst honesteader seasons too. Thanks for sharing. It’s really encouraging to know I’m not alone!
I was going to say something similar! The Ingallses had some pretty terrible years, which is part of the reason they moved around so much trying to get a fresh start.
My biggest homesteading fail this year? I decided to take part in the local farmer’s market. I planted lots of stuff and it all grew gangbusters. Then about the time it all started coming to maturity, I figured out I had to go back to work at an off the farm job. We have tons of produce still coming in but I can’t get it to market. I’ve preserved what I can. I’ve sold a little and given what hasn’t rotted on the vine or the shelf away to friends and neighbors. Some of it went to the rabbits…our only livestock.
I don’t see it as a failure though. It’s just flowing with the changes. I have to work off the farm. It’s okay. Next year, I’ll adjust. And I probably won’t plan on going to the farmer’s market.
“Flowing with changes” <---- love that!
It’s nice to know that others don’t have the Instagram-perfect life either! I would for sure invest in some puppy training and a secure pen for the chickens, especially if you’re going to focus on expensive breeds! Or better yet, train the dog to watch over them. Have a wonderful winter – each spring offers us all a new start, that’s for sure!
Nope– no Instagram-perfect life at all! 😉
Thank you for this. We have also had a very rough year for our chickens. 3 new chicks died within the first two weeks, and then our dog got to 3 of my laying hens and one of the new pullets. We’ve had chickens for a year and a half and I just barely stopped buying eggs last month because my new girls are finally laying. It can be very discouraging. But even a small garden harvest and a few eggs is very rewarding.
As for the wyandottes.. I have one in my mixed flock and she is so pretty. People always point her out and tell me what a beauty she is. I’m not sure if she is laying yet, but she is a nice hefty bird with vibrant back and white coloring.
I just got caught by the frost this year. It came a little later than usual, and I didn’t prep my garden as well as I would have liked for it.
Thank you, even though I am not homesteading yet, I do enjoy looking in your site and as others have said, boy did I need an ‘it’s not just me’ moment today. We can do this!
Ahh! This post stirred something inside me! I lost heirloom zucchini plants to deer, flea beetles got the turnips, cucumbers didn’t do well, had pea weevils in the heirloom seed I harvested (and lost), beans came down with a fungus, missed the dry season for uprooting the root vegetables and potatoes, had an early and hard frost take out some squash and tomatoes. Lately I’ve been battling that sense of failure. So I appreciate your honesty. It’s reassuring to know everyone struggles with the land and life at various times. Thanks for this reminder!
My husband was very proud of our garden this year, and was boasting to a friend about how productive our soil was. Yup! He even took a picture of me (5 feet tall) to prove it . . . next to our 10 feet tall WEEDS!!! Miraculously, we found 5 spaghetti squash dangling from vines that had grown up the weeds. Talk about perseverance! Now the weeds have been cleaned up. Our huge garden patch is bare and calls to me . . .
I think the money aspect does weigh on homesteaders. My family thinks of the food we grow as part of our income, and it hurts when we “lose” money because the garden doesn’t produce. But there is so much value in what we’re doing – health, well-being, connection, preservation, stewardship, worship . . . – it’s worth the “loss”. And we’ll just have to eat a lot of beans this year because that’s what grew!
Well, at least you’ve successfully mastered growing weeds! But seriously, I can relate. 🙂 And isn’t it amazing how resilient some veggies are? Even with neglect.
I found out I was growing milk thistle…. total accident! 😉 that’s how good (weedy) our garden was this year…. back to raised beds for next year… trying to get all the weeds pulled up and the boxes put back and filled with composted poo to ferment all winter… ready to shove my seeds into in the spring… all while homeschooling 2! This is the first year milking cows, but I miss my goaties… but I love buttah…. no room for both… and I let her baby out in the middle of milking… I keep my hand on that one slobber free teat and then she lets her good stuff down! 😀
I enjoyed your honesty, so many times we only hear the glory of homesteading and it’s not always wonderful. We’ve had our rough moments on our farm and there have been times when we had to step back, evaluate and make changes. Later what looked hopeless became inspiration followed by hope. Always a blessing in disguise. My husband says if you’re not enjoying the process it’s time to change things up. You’re going to LOVE single breed chicken flocks, it’s so much better than mixed and the garden thing will figure itself out, start small and add new beds to your space each season instead of trying to get it all complete at once because really what’s the hurry? I think the biggest mistake homesteaders make is they forget it’s a lifestyle not an identity. Hugs!!
Thanks for your words of encouragement, Carole! 🙂 I’m super excited about the single-breed, too.
There’s a guy here in Ohio who raises Black Jersey Giants…. I am going to be purchasing a small flock in the spring…. looking for heritage birds who will raise their own chicks! 😀
I’ve been homesteading since 1989. Seems like I’d have it down pat by now but ehhh…not so much. I’m hiring a vegetable farmer next year to grow most of our veggies. I need to get control of the weeds in my garden, and I just plain need a break from it. Life happens, right? Your honesty is inspiring and encouraging.
Well I’m growing a commercial orchard and consider a 50% mortality rate a success. I’d say I’m the worlds worst farmer but…half of them are alive so…success!
I’d say 50% (especially in WY!) is an awesome success!
Oh, and here I was thinking I had the worst season ever. After 6 years of being garden-less we finally got our mini-homestead on April 1st. Maybe THAT should have been my clue. That and God saying, “be careful thinking you’re “all that”, I bring the rain, bugs, sun, well intentioned neighbors, etc, you know.” I had been reading and planning and telling anyone who would listen about how MY garden will be: no plowing, organic, deep mulch, blah, blah….. I mean how hard could it be to do a kick butt garden in Alabama with a 12 month growing season, right “Y’all”? This was our 3rd spring in the south (first year gardening here). So, I started looking for tons of organic mulch. On paper and on the ground I laid out my 100′ x 60′ garden. I planned where everything would be. I found a guy to deliver a truck load of mulch. And that’s where it all went “south”…lol. Farmer Cliff convinced me I HAD to plow the first year, that’s how it works IN THE SOUTH. I let, no, I paid him, to plow my lovely ground. Then he spread some compost around. And I planted that whole huge space with all my expensive, organic, heirloom seeds. And almost the only thing that came up (and took over the world) was grass. Lots and lots and lots of grass. Some of it taller than me. A well-intentioned neighbor came over with his plow and begged me to let him plow the grass. Oh, I had learned nothing! I LET HIM!! 2 weeks later I repented and promised no-one else will come near my garden with a plow. My wonderful husband hauled (tons) of pine straw from our forrest and I went through a mountain of cardboard. We did get a lot of tomatoes and a fair amount of winter squash. Otherwise an almost complete bust. But we did get to meet all the new neighbors as they stopped by to wonder what in the world those northerners were doing, and why they had chickens in the garden. My winter garden is less than half the space, while the chickens eat bugs, compost and fertilize the rest for spring. I will try again. I refuse to be defeated. I’m not Super-woman, but I have a Super God.
Hi Jill!
Your posts always seem to come at just the right time in my life! I know this doesn’t really fit in as homesteading flops, but it kind of does. 😉 I’m 19 and have wanted a milk cow for our family of 10 for a long time. However, while waiting, this pasted year I’ve invested at least 3/4 of my time to things other then the homestead. I’ve felt bad/guilty because I feel I was drifting away from my homestead dreams that I have had for such a long time. We get a call right out of the blue from some friends asking us if we want a family milk cow. Everything about the cow is perfect. She’s A2A2, Jersey, older (but not to old!!), been around people, etc. The timing? Not so perfect. At least that’s what I thought. We’re short on $$, we don’t have a shelter or any supplies, don’t know a whole lot about cows (though I’ve been around other’s cows for years), and honestly a little scared of the commitment. But God’s timing is perfect, so we decided after time and prayers that this was from Him and said yes to the cow. We are currently working on building a shelter and putting up fencing. I’m excitedly waiting for the cow and getting back into my homesteading gear! Jill, you are a HUGE inspiration to me and are my go-to when I feel I’m drifting to much into the modern world. Thank you for what you do!!!
No guilt allowed, girlfriend! 😉 And CONGRATS on your cow!!
Thank You! Just a simple Thank You sometimes Says it all!!!
Thanks so much for this post!! I subscribe to so many blogs and I have been mostly skimming past the “good” stuff because it feels so far away and impossible to attain. But yours caught my eye today, and it is PERFECT! Thanks for the reminder to just keep putting one foot in front of the other toward my dreams.
My homesteading (for now) is limited to the hydroponic tower garden in the tiny patio of my townhouse. And even that modest project has been greatly neglected. 4 Chard and 4 kale are still going strong, but the other 20 plants have pretty much given up for this season.
Our search for property and skill building have ground to a halt now that family and works demands have ramped up, so everything feels even more unattainable.
So I really appreciate the encouragement.
Oh, I don’t feel so bad now! We have been meaning to plant our gardens for the last FIVE years we’ve lived on our property! We have our 18 chickens. Been really looking into a milking cow, that’s how I found you, but hubby is against it. Because we like getting away as well, once in awhile and finding trustworthy ranch sitters is a bit hard. But our biggest hurdle with the garden is WHERE to out it! Sounds funny, huh? When we lived in town it was easy! Didn’t have much space, so we just did it! Now, we have soo many options we have a hard time agreeing and we don’t want to have to do it twice if we pick a not so “smart” spot. BUT, we are determined for this year coming! Love reading about your adventures and I made that Apple Puff pancake last year… yummy! Making it again! Thanks for reminding me!
Happy Homesteading!
Amen to your post, Jill! My brother jokes that it’s Green Acres here because I try to be the handy homesteader but sometimes I just lean back on the modern way of life.
This was our first year with egg layers. Like you it didn’t go well. We started with 5 hens and in the 6 months we’ve had them I’ve dealt with scaly leg mites, cuts, and shell-less eggs. We lost the first one to a predator and then the second almost…I rescued her in time and though she almost perished from the shock, she came around. Unfortunately in our effort to find a solution to the predators we got our first dog (never having had one). It was the adventure of a lifetime for one week and then we gave the dog back. In the end, this dog unintentionally frighted this same hen to death. So then we got a rooster as guardian. He’s a lovely fellow but because he’s young he’s not much of a manly guy yet. Hopefully he’ll man up and do his job when the hormones kick in but in the meantime, we lost another hen. I had to disassemble the temporary run while I built the permanent one which will get closed in over winter, so they were free ranging. Alas a hawk grabbed one of the hens and although she came out of it alive and standing, she was so horribly injured I had to perform my first mercy killing. I’ve never killed a chicken before. It didn’t go as planned. What was supposed to be a quick and humane effort to put this chicken out of her misery, ended up as a panicked series of bungled attempts that left me traumatized for about 2 days after. The job got done but I think I now know how to do it proper next time, which I hope will never happen again! And now with only two hens, I’m also rationing eggs. So I’m on the hunt for some replacements.
About the only thing that did go well was our garden. After 3 years of failures in the garden we built the raised beds and this year we can claim success. Not only did the raised beds save my back and knees (I made them high enough to sit comfortably on the edge while I weed and such), it made it easier to water and control the weeds and bugs. We started with 4 large beds and I plan to add a couple more next year. Our best year ever in the garden! And despite the frosty temps I’m still trying to harvest everything! I think what also helped was the addition of a beehive on the property. I think that increased the level of pollination because we have tomatoes, berries and apples coming out of our ears.
Homesteading is definitely and ebb and flow kind of thing. It’s a nice idea to say we’ll bake and cook everything from scratch, grow all our own food, make our preserves and clothes etc. etc. If all we were doing was just that , it would be fine but when you have to juggle home business, family, etc. it’s just impossible to do it all. Sometimes something has to give which means letting something go this year and maybe doing that next year while you let something else go. And it’s fun learning a new skill even if you don’t make it part of your every day life permanently. Rock on, homesteaders! 🙂
Yes, yes, yes!!
I’ve been gardening for more than 30 years and homesteading for almost 15 of them. I’ve found that gardens and animals have seasons; some good and some not so good. I can sympathize about the loss of poultry to dogs and raccoons. One year I had 100 chicks I was raising for layers and eventually noticed that my flock count was down significantly. A quick head count showed 60 birds. I was finding signs that the culprit was a coon, so I did some midnight hunting (night vision goggles and a shotgun). I killed several coons that approached the coop about an hour after sundown. Thought I’d solved the problem, but there was another dead chick the next day. More hunting and I found that there was a 2nd shift coming in around midnight, and shot a few more. There was also a 3rd shift of coons around 3AM. Eventually I shot 2 fox, 13 coons and a couple of possums. Cleaned out the neighborhood and haven’t had a serious problem in the last 5-6 years. Oh, there were some issues with a very large red tailed hawk and two owls. That’s a whole nuther story for some other time.
My gardens are usually a mix of success and failure, but this year success was a failure for me. I grew butternut squash for the first time. I thought they would climb a trellis, but no, they spread. First they attacked and vanquished the potatoes. Then they attacked the tomatoes, but the tomatoes fought back to a draw for much of the season, but butternut squash is persistent and eventually took over half the tomato patch. I have snow fencing around the garden to discourage the hens pecking the tomatoes, and the squash attacked the fencing, too. My wife has been using the lawn mower to trim any squash vines that grow beyond the snow fence. I have more squash than you can shake a stick at.
By the way, baking soda in water sprayed on vines and leaves with wilt will take care of wilt
Ray
Jill, It’s so refreshing to hear your honesty, but mostly I love that you are so compassionate with yourself. I think that’s something we could all practice more. Even in your “failure” you are still an inspiration.
I can SO relate, I’m in central SC & our summers are brutal, but last 2 have been exceptionally bad, no rain & temps over 110*, everyone’s gardens didn’t do well, even the truck garden farmers didn’t do well, so all we can do is hope & plan that next year will be better. This is what homesteading/farming is, some years are great, some aren’t, you learn to accept it, make adjustments & move on. I love this life & wouldn’t trade it for anything.
This post totally is me today. Even though my garden did pretty well, I’ve lost so many of our birds to coyotes this year. They got 10 ducks last night and those ducks never made a sound. They got one of our broadbreasted bronze tom’s a couple weeks ago that was supposed to be Thanksgiving dinner for the guys that work for my husband. I wanted to bawl this morning when I saw that all my ducks were gone.
Oh no… I am so so sorry to hear that! 🙁
Oh yes, we are truly kindred spirits 🙂
I tell my hubby all the time that I learn from making mistakes. I think I am the most extensively educated homesteader in history. Just say’in
My biggest fail happened just this past spring. I put my new baby chicks in totes rather than cardboard boxes like usual. After a week or so I noticed that a handful of my girls had curled up toes. Not knowing what this was I did research. This condition goes by the oh so technical name of “Curly Toe”. And is caused when you put young chicks on slippery surfaces and they are forced to curl their toes trying to get their “grip”. Even though I had a nice layer of wood chips in the tote, the pieces were too big and their little feet simply stepped between the chips. Thankfully it’s not life threatening and the girls are thriving today but they look awful!
Lesson learned. Cardboard boxes it is.
Here’s to better seasons ahead 🙂
Oh goodness… that sounds like something I would do! 😉
Thanks so much for your honesty. I like reading your blog because you share both successes and failures. It really helps encourage me when I have to take a weed-whacker and lawnmower just to battle my way into my garden only to find the rabbits have chomped every growing thing that the slugs didn’t want and the voles didn’t already kill off. Knowing other people don’t have picture perfect gardens makes me feel better.
Oh girl– I’ve totally been there!!
Oh Jill, chin up girl! You are an inspiration to me and now your readers are reaching out to inspire you! We have learned so much from you, and I, for one, can attest to that. Living in south west Wyoming, the ever present wind and unpredictable snows take a toll on my small back yard garden. Last year, my hubby bought me a greenhouse! Using your tips, celebrating your successes and learning (and commiserate with) your less than desirable results, my little garden did the best it has in years. So, I thank you for sharing a part of your life by writing this blog!
Yes, you know exactly what it’s like, then! I’m slightly jealous of your greenhouse. 😉
Thank you for being so painfully open and honest. We have been homesteading for just over 10 years, and sometimes I feel like it is more famine than feast. What keeps us going is the overwhelming urge to be self-sufficient. Thanks for the encouragement. It IS okay to fail!
Yes indeed!
Thank you for posting this! I have been following your blog for a long time and have tried to incorporate as much homesteading into my family’s life, but this year was a failure in many ways to me. I had baby #4 this winter and life exploded. My garden was a complete failure, too. We are lucky our chickens are still alive for all the attention they got. I was wondering how you seemed to keep everything perfectly together and not collapse into a weeping heap of misery between kids and business and blog and homeschooling because I was a weeping heap of misery this summer with only a couple of those things. Well, success is diligence! I am trying again next year, and have just completed a certification for goatkeeping in my city! Good luck, and I hope next year is better for you, too.
Jill, Thank you for being a blogger that tells the whole truth! Our world of social media has turned into a brag fest on so many levels. Am I encouraged and inspired when I follow all the suggestions and mine never looks like the picture…not. Thanks for being worth following! Trust is earned. You’ve earned many follower’s trust by telling the whole story.
Yes, social media definitely can create these pretend worlds, can’t it? Thanks for your kind words Lisa. 🙂
I can so relate to this post. We have been gardening , living simple., homesteading for many years , and sometimes it is up and sometimes down. This year we could not get any kind of squash to grow except a volunteer. smile! Keep at it! Everyday is a new day. I love your book on natural concoctions. Your posts are interesting and often delightful and always useful.
So many have offered inspiring words of encouragement that it hardly seems necessary to chime in.
However, the advice I ever hear was, it is not that you fail, but how you deal with the failures that counts.
And I have failed bunches in our homesteading journey. It is tough to keep the light burning in your heart when so much seems to want to quench it. But another day dawns and surprisingly, you still want to do what you’ve been doing. Maybe differently or better, but still plugging away.
Thanks for keeping it real Jill,
Pam
It takes a brave girl to admit her homesteading failures, but all of those who homestead or garden or whatever it is we choose to do, know exactly how you feel. And we are all probably smiling right now because we know that we are not alone! I’ve been homesteading for 7 years and gardening for countless more. Every single year we have successes and failures. This year was my best ever for strawberries and raspberries. This year was a good year for onions and jalapenos…and a few very late tomatoes. But I did not get even ONE carrot, cabbage, broccoli, or sweet pepper, not one! I got a handful of melons, but they don’t count since they were tiny and pale and went straight to the goats and chickens. Things may have been better all around had I not had a mouse wintering in my greenhouse and feeding on all of my starts as they popped up their little heads from the soil. This, of course, took me much longer to notice than it should have….I just kept replanting the seeds and he just kept nipping them off as soon as they came up. So, you see, we all have our ups and downs. Just think Jill, now you are due for a really fantastic year! And who knows, maybe it will be next year! 🙂
I forgot to say that I love the silver laced Wyandottes that I got a few years ago. They are lovely to look at And good layers. WE also have had raised beds for a number of years. I like to be able to sit on the side and weed especially since my knees are bad.
I have lived on a ranch and pretty much live off the land. Its deep in the mountains with mountain lions bobcats coyotes coons opossums just to name a few predeters. I recommend catahoula leopard cur dogs. I have had them all my life. The thing about these dogs is that if it lives in the same space it’s family. If it intrudes it dies. I had one fight with and kill a buck in the garden. On the other hand they will round up your chickens children cattle or anything else and keep it safe. Its their job and they take it very seriously. My niece was losing chickens and ducks to coons. She had a chance to get a catahoula/mountain cur and has not lost anything since. These dogs can be a handful until they know their job. But once they learn what you want they take pride in doing it . I thinkmthey are the ultimate ranch dog and would have no other dog
I love catahoulas!
I live in central western Wyoming and there’s definitely an ebb and flow to this lifestyle. I thought I’d comment on your chicken choice. I ordered White Wyandottes and Silver Laced Wyandottes in February and love the breed. I ordered them because of their hardiness for cold weather and gentle personalities. They are so much fun! All but two are docile, friendly, and great with my kids. I think you will fall in love with them too.
Makes me happy to know you’re enjoying the Wyandottes! I’m so excited to get them!
I always tell myself that there is next year to try again when it comes to gardening. For us, most things in our garden did well except for the potatoes, onions and cucumbers. I was milking our first time mama cow once a day and her calf was staying with her and I then went away for two weeks and haven’t gotten back into milking her. Glad to know I’m not the only one! We are slowly turning our land into a beautiful homestead, but there is always learning along the way with seasons of what seem like failures and seasons of good times.
Sliver laced Wyandottes are on our wanted chicken list!
Enjoyed reading and be encouraged, you are not alone. ?
Hello from sunny Queensland, Australia. Wonderful post! Thank you. Earlier today I was lamenting the loss of most of our citrus fruit to the birds. They just love those little developing fruits. Lots of land but it’s like concrete here, so we have raised beds and fruit trees in pots. I just re-potted all the fruit trees into huge pots and they are thriving, but because I moved them to a different spot in the garden the birds think it’s their new restaurant. And our favourite chook, Daisy, has been very sick from an “incurable bacterial infection” according to the vet. However, he did offer a very expensive service whereby sending away a swab to be analysed would enable him to give her exactly the right antibiotics. Quite a few hundred dollars later she has settled into his surgery having 5-star hotel treatment. She’s doing really well and they love her so much there they don’t want her to come home! We definitely don’t have the correct homesteading mentality according to my daughter-in-law, who thinks we are completely insane spending hundreds of dollars on a chicken! But I’m afraid our chooks have become our pets and we love them dearly. What other animal offers so much entertainment, lots of lovely fresh eggs, a reason to get up early in the morning, and gives heaps of wonderful chook poo for the vegetable gardens. They’re worth their weight in gold (er, dollars). Possums have eaten all the fruit on our passionfruit vines before they ripen for the whole three years we’ve been on our semi-rural property. Only one measly passionfruit in all that time, but we make up for it by having kilos of tomatoes for much of the year. We have a wonderful climate here. Despite all the hard work, and sometimes some very challenging failures, I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s a wonderful life.
I love your spark! And I must say, (although I’ve often lamented not living back in the old days where I feel certain I would’ve felt more at home) what fortune it is for modern homesteaders that an off year or season doesn’t translate into a starving family! Having “dry” seasons even with our modern conveniences, can you imagine the pressure and fearfulness at the thought of a failing crop or losing essential livestock back in the day?? Really helps put things in perspective for me when I’m feeling like I was born in the wrong century… ?
Exactly! So thankful we have options, and don’t have to starve!
Funny how we all seem to be in the same boat! You go though some great times and then it goes down hill. But as we all know God always has a plan for us. Don’t lose faith when things fail. It’s just a time to rest and sit back for a moment. Before you know it, we’ll be back on track with everything blooming!!!! I can’t remember where it is??? But even God said, that in the seventh year it is time to let our grounds rest. So when it is time to start another planting season, we will have a great harvest again. I went from 5 cattle to 1 cow and her calf, 12 chickens to 6 with one or no eggs a day. And the garden well not a great out come there. The blessing in this. We are health and come spring we will start fresh. Hoping to A.I. Sara-lu in Jan.2017 . Replacing the chickens with a new batch. I love your blog because it is so real !!!!!!! Keep up the good work and information that you pass on to us. Thank you so much.! ( God Bless to all )
Thanks for posting this! We started our semi-homesteading journey much later in life that you did and because of that our energies aren’t as high as a younger person. We’ve accomplished quite a bit, but it definitely gets overwhelming at time. We have 2 fenced garden areas to keep the deer out and they both get overrun with weeds even though we mulch. Like you said, we all still have one – or sometimes 2 feet in the modern world and it’s usually much more fun to go “do” something rather than sweat and toil in the garden.
I love planning my garden in the spring and getting it all ready and then planting. I love watching things grow, but when it comes time to harvest my enthusiasm has seeped away. I realized the other day just why that is, because digging, picking and pulling veggies is only part of the process. Then it needs to be cleaned, trimmed, shucked or popped out of pods. Then you have to decide what to do with it. It’s much easier to grab something out of the freezer or the pantry and be on my merry way. There is also the allergic reaction I have when reaching into tomato vines and cucumber and pumpkin vines. So, currently I have beets the size of softballs waiting to come out of the ground and zillions of cherry tomatoes that have frozen on the vines and will fall to the ground and plant millions of seeds that will grow millions of tomato plants next spring.
My chickens – I currently have 19 – are NOT laying and when they do lay, I have egg eaters and egg squashers and a lot of the hens are getting old. I might get 1-3 eggs a day. I’ve had to tell my customers there aren’t any eggs for them to buy. I would like to just let them free range 24/7 and let nature take it’s course, but that wouldn’t be nice, would it? AND I’ve never killed one and cleaned it – don’t really want to either. Definitely going to get a new start on chickens next spring.
Anyway, love your story and your honesty. You have made my day.
This almost made me cry. Besides the fact that I’m menopausal (BOY howdy), just seeing that you are NORMAL almost made me cry. 🙂 I’ve followed you for a couple of years now but ya know what? I kind of stopped because it seemed like you were just supermom, super-farm girl, super homesteader and I just got depressed thinking, “I’ll never be like that!”
We have 5 acres and we’ve tried it all, the animals, the gardens, the soap making, the chemical/preservative free cleaning and eating, along with homeschooling 7 children and I just couldn’t do it! As much as I loved reading how your homestead just seemed to grow itself, I felt like an abject failure.
I stumbled upon this post today and while I am NOT rejoicing in your bad year, (I feel for you SO much!!) it really helped me to see that it’s NOT just me! All these “perfect” home schooling, homesteading families are not as perfect as they sometimes seem. Everyone goes through the same good year/bad year cycles and it’s a matter of reassessing what works for each individual. I definitely don’t have as much energy or get up and go as you do but that’s ok! What this post did was help me take a look at what makes me happy, what helps my family, and go from there. So thank you! I truly hope next year goes better for you and your homestead. Hang in there Prairie Super Mom! 😉
Thanks lady! Big hugs to you, too! It’s NOT just you. 🙂 xoxo
With my preventive mastectomy this year (and all the trips back and forth to Denver and multiple surgeries that resulted from my decision) I feel like all I have been doing is playing catch up. The kids and hubby come first…and I’ve found that my blog, housework, garden, animals, landscaping and time with friends all have taken a back seat. When I took a big breath and learned to embrace this as “right now and not forever.” It became a lot easier. Glad to hear you’ve had little successes along the way and looking forward to hearing about more!
Amen girl! You’ve had one heck of a year– glad you aren’t being hard on yourself!
Great post, so true. Very hot and dry here, new puppy, culling the flocks and hutches, few eggs. With incredibly busy business(not complaining), not much time to care.
Just one other thought. I’m thankful to have some extras in jars/freezer that we didn’t get to from last year, to get us through the lean times. I used to think I should plan more appropriately but now I see that it is important to put up MORE than I can use, if at all possible, to fill in when times are not as good. Thanks for the post – here’s to better years!
Amen! Iv’e been using up some of last year’s harvest as well. Thankful to have it!
I LOVE how candid and honest you are. This is exactly why I read your blog. I have learned a lot from you and find your posts incredibly educational. Thank you for being real. I especially appreciate how you are taking your “fails” and have a plan to to change and grow. Every year brings a new season. As a fellow homeschooler, I can assure you that alone is a HUGE undertaking. You can’t do it all every year. Choose your priorities carefully and do those well. Being a mama right now sounds like what you are flourishing at!
Thanks Carrie! I’m thankful to have you as a reader!
I’m joining the worst homesteader club. Having only moved to our new place in Italy this year, I had no idea what would appear on the many many trees around the place. But the worst is that I missed a walnut tree! I eat walnuts every day at breakfast, at some cost, and here they were growing free, though in hiding! Too late though as I have missed the harvest and discovered the tree and it’s rotting nuts on the ground! OUCH!! Next year I have it in my diary and promise not to miss a nut 🙂
I can’t seem to find any straw that hasn’t been sprayed. Anyone got any suggestions? (I’m in Mississippi) My greens have been fodder for some very large brown grasshoppers this year. I have harvested NONE!!! I work an hour away from my homestead and like some of the others, get a little over zealous come planting time. I’m going to try your “recipe” for your pesticide to see if I can get rid of the hoppers. They didn’t mind the garlic or the onions planted nearby. So far, everything is leaving my cabbage alone. Mind you, I said “so far”.
I hope they continue to leave your cabbage alone! 🙂
Girl, you are speaking so much truth in these words. Last summer, I pretty much let the coastal grass take all my tomatoes, peppers, okra, and nematodes enjoyed all my squash and melons. But, like any stubborn woman, I’m going back at it this year.
2017 hasn’t started great at all! My greenhouse was ruined in a bad storm with straight line winds and hail (goodbye yummy cabbages and lettuce and herbs) and our milk cow, Sally, got very sick with an e-coli infection that nearly killed her (one week after calving). She’s alive, but unable to provide us milk due to all the antibiotics that saved her life.
Nonetheless, I noticed when reading your post that you plan to sell one of the heifers and keep the other. Do you already have someone in mind to sell her to? If not, this lady is interested…
Well, here’s hoping your 2017 gets smoother as the months progress. Very glad Sally is still alive! We are selling 1 of the heifers later this year– I’ve had a ton of people interested in her, but no official commitments yet, so stay tuned. 🙂
I love that you’ve shared this. I also love that you say that you’re not giving up but instead investing your energy into other projecs – keep on keeping on as it were. I think this is the best way to be and found this post very encouraging as I’ve not been able to do any garden prep this winter/spring – 1 there’s several feet of snow on the ground and 2 we’re moving before any real gardening can be done so all our focus is on the move and what we will be able to do once we’re settled (prepping for 2018).
I think doing what you can, working with what you have, focusing on the future and not on the difficulties or failures – thats what this lifestyle is encouraging of.
Hi dear thank you for the beautiful article 🙂
About chickens I love my silver laced Wyandottes they’re gorgeous but I wasn’t impressed with them as a dual purpose they’re pretty little. So when I went to butcher the roosters there was t much neat there (most were under 4 lbs at over 6 months old)
I prefer my light brahmas they’re big girls so cold winters don’t faze them, they’re good consistent layers and good little mommies, the roosters generally are sweet little flock protectors (not attacking the kids or I but looking out for their girls). My friend says she doesn’t like their feed conversion rate and is switching to Delawares the original meat/egg bird. I love my brahmas and will keep them.
Cheers it’s spring! And spring is awesome because all old mistakes are gone it’s a new growing season and and a new slate. 🙂
I am a total newbie to this homesteading thing. I am a master gardener and have grown things (mostly house plants) my entire life, but got an urge one day to start growing my own food, about the time I found out about GMOs. I am raising two of my grandsons and supporting my family of 4 online doing transcription, but barely making it. So, I have decided to start a blog and have some fun with it. I have been following you for a long time. My garden did not do well this year at all. I am in Alabama and the dirt here stinks. It is rock hard if you don’t mulch and they charge you for loads of wood chips, so I have a pasture and the guy up the road cuts it, but only once a year, usually while it is in seed. I am using the rotten stuff from around the place to start mulching. I am going to set up the garden for next year. Come say hi sometime if you get an urge. Would love to hear from you.
Great article!
Here I thought I was the worst homesteader of the year. Due to life intervening my garden failed somewhat spectacularly this year. This was mostly due to irregular watering in my raised beds. Our “soil” is nothing but caliche so raised beds are a necessity.
Fruit trees: No nectarines. Peaches were plentiful but tasteless. Apples were decent but again, not much flavor. Plums were the hit this year. Lot of very tasty, juicy sweet fruits that–because I didn’t get the bird netting up–the birds mostly ruined.
We keep at it, learning from every failure.
We’re semi-suburban so we don’t have milk cows or goats (yet). Our chickens–the four surviving birds–are producing a couple of eggs a week, maybe because it’s winter and I haven’t installed a light in the coop. At least they seem to be healthy. One of the non-layers is headed for the butcher block this week.
Good luck with the Black and Silver Wyandottes. They are beautiful birds. Let us know how well they produce.
On the success side of the year, we did get our whole home solar system installed, and even here in December it’s producing 125% of our electrical energy needs. It’s grid tied for now, but we’ll get the battery bank put in sometime next year.
There is no quit in a homesteader.
Clearly I’m a little late to this 2016 party but I’ve definitely had my fair share of failures this past 2017. We moved to our first small homestead.We kept our ducks and chickens alive for a year and then just this past month, a hawk, a coon, and a weasel have all entered our territory, taking everything with them. The weasel wiped out 6 hens and our duck, Doug. We planted this huge garden, and got two green beans and 3 peppers. Obviously watering your garden with buckets of water don’t work. We’ll definitely be installing a water spigot to our house this year. And we need to really seal up our chicken/duck house before we think of bringing more home. But the rabbits, we’ve done really well with them!33% ain’t too bad, right?
SUPER RELATABLE; Still inspiring – let’s do what we can and find peace in what we do.
Halfway through this post I took a break to let the chickens out and found that something (raccoon or fisher most likely) dug under the run door and killed all my guinea keets and a partridge silkie hen. I needed to hear this when I came back in to finish reading. Thanks!
Oh no!! Sorry to hear about your birds! Timely though, I suppose since you were already reading this post 🙂
Hey Jill, thanks for being brutally honest! It’s nice to know that you have ups and downs with homesteading too. I started using old metal stock tanks for my garden and LOVE it. No rabbit issues, no bending over, no upkeep AND you can get them heap or even free. A leaky tank isn’t good for a farmer!
Put my chickens in a used 6 foot chain link fence and haven’t lost one. An instant pot AND an electric canner have been a huge time saver. Hope this helps. Hang in there!