You want to start a homestead! You want to get started growing your own food! But where do you start? Do start by growing chickens? Do start by raising ducks? Do you start by growing a garden? Where do you start? Today you and I are going to go over a few questions you need to ask yourself about starting this journey of becoming a Homesteader! Let's get growing!
Today we are going to dive in, here in Season 3 Episode 1, (yes, we are starting a new season), and talk about the question you should be asking yourself about homesteading.
You want to start a homestead. You want to start growing your own food. You want to venture into this idea of being more self-sufficient. But where do you start?? Do you start with chickens, a garden, ducks, or a pig? Or do you just perverse food and produce from the grocery store? Where do you start??
I think these questions can be answered through a few more questions. Today I have a list of questions you need to ask yourself, that can help you lay down some groundwork and think about whether you have time to do all the things you want to do. These questions are going to help you set your goals but also give you some perspective. And most importantly give you and your family some ideas about what you are even willing to handle.
Let’s dive in and get growing!!
Top Questions To Ask Before You Start Your Homestead
But I want to give you a small tip. Don’t answer these questions on your own, including your family. If you are going to grow as a family then you need to plan as a family!!
What Is Your Purpose for Starting A Homestead??
Why do you want to break away from the norm of running to the grocery store to fulfill your family’s food needs? Why do you want to take on the work, because it is going to take work to grow your own food? For us, it was about choosing healthy and finding a way to eat healthy on a budget.
You have to find your purpose. Because my purpose may not be why you want to grow your own food. You need to find the reason, that is yours and your family’s, you want to do something that is going to be hard. I am going to tell you right now that there are going to be failures and there are going to be triumphs. But when you have your purpose, that idea, of exactly what is diving you, it will give you purpose! Yes, you read that right. Your purpose is going to give you purpose during those hard times.
And knowing your purpose is going to help you create your vision. For example, knowing that I want to put a healthier version on my family plates gives me a guide to follow. Like my family loves eating a good hamburger. Using my purpose, I can decide to grow our own beef or if I want to start out small I could make a conscious decision to buy beef from a local organic farmer. Both put a healthier version of a hamburger on my family plates. Your purpose is going to help you define the next question: your goals.
What Are Your Goals?
Are your goals to provide all of your food? Are your goals confined by your living space? Are your goals to provide 25% of your food? Your goals are going to come off of your purpose. Your goals are where you break down your purpose. Like if your purpose is to grow 25% of your fruits and vegetables then your goals are going to be how you accomplish that. You know how much garden you will need to grow. Or that you need to take the Seedling Master Class from the Red Ridge Farm School of Growing so you can gain the knowledge you need to start growing seedlings for your garden.
Your goals are where you are going to make your purpose come alive!!
Your goals can also define how your family is going to help. If your purpose is to grow healthy food and your family loves the idea of starting with a garden then starting a garden is going to be your first main goal.
Goals can be any size. A small tip for you is that big goals can be broken down into smaller bit size goals. And remember that everything just needs to be 1% progress. Don’t get overwhelmed, just take each goal one at a time and you will have your homestead in no time!
What Does Your Dream Homestead Look Like??
Not just what your purpose is or your goals but to think your dream homestead will look like? Does it look like just a garden in your backyard? Does it look like a plethora of animals? Does it look like your family working together and eating your harvest together? What does your dream homestead look like?
Does it have rainwater barrels that store your main water source and solar panels so you can be completely off-grid?
This is where you tie your goals and purpose together to make your dream homestead. But you need to define what your dream homestead is before you can make your dream come true!
How Self-Sufficient Are You Willing To Be?
Want and will are not the same things. Maybe you want to have rainwater as your main water storage but are you willing to shower and do dishes with low water pressure? Or if you are wanting to grow your own food are you willing to do the hard work of learning a new skill, planting, and growing? Are you willing to take the time to preserve your harvest so it will last a year?
This is why it is important to figure out what you are willing to do or willing to give up to accomplish your dream. Because many want to start a homestead to save money but many find it hard to give up the ease of food from the grocery store or going out to eat. You “want” can never come to fruit if you are not willing to pick and grow the fruit.
How Much Time Do You Have to Give to the Homestead?
Everything is going to take time and effort. Sadly there are only 24 hours in a day so that means you are going to have to give up something in your schedule, not sleep, to do the chores, projects, and even time to educate yourself to have a successful homestead. So are you as a family willing to spend 30 minutes morning and night to care for chickens? If you want to start a garden you are going to have to take the time to plant, weed, water, and harvest. Oh, don’t forget about preserving your harvest. It is said that the harvest is at least 50% of the work of growing a garden.
Before you can dive into building your homestead you need to figure out how much time you have to give to the homestead and plan accordingly!
Do You Have a Plan for Learning these New Skills?
Homesteading is going to take skills from the past. And sadly a lot of these skills are not being handed down like they used to. If you didn’t grow up on a farm or grow a garden as a family then you are going to have to find a way to learn these new skills. Are you going to watch YouTube videos, read books, or purchase an online course? Now is the time to find the resources you are going to need to not only start but also to grow and care for your homestead.
And the most exciting part of this question is that knowledge can be gained at any time. You can learn about gardening in the middle of winter when your yard is covered in 2 feet of snow. You can even gain knowledge before you even start your homestead.
What are You going to Grow?
And before you can decide on what knowledge you are going to need you to need to decide on what you are going to grow. Are you going to grow only fruits and vegetables that are hard to find at your local grocery store or all the fruits and vegetables your family is going to need? Are you going to add an orchard to your homestead or just a few fruit trees in a fedge?
What about animals? Do you want to supply all of your meat and dairy needs or do you just want a couple laying hens for eggs?
These lists can be as big as your dreams or as small as what can be grown on your kitchen counter. Take your time and find what aligns with your purpose and goals!
What are Your Land Needs Going To Be?
Every part of a homestead comes from the soil and without soil, you can’t grow. What are your plans for acquiring land? Are you going to buy more land, do you have enough land now, or can you lease land from your neighbor? Your list of what you want to grow is going to help you determine how much land you are going to need.
What Equipment Are You Going To Need?
If you decide to raise layer chickens they are going to need a home. Do you have a shed you can convert or are you going to build a mobile coop? If you grow a garden you are going to need tools. I hope you see how all of this has to come together. A homestead can be any shape and size but they all are going to need equipment and tools to run.
Do You Want to Save Money?
Maybe some part of the goals you made was that you wanted to homestead to save money. Or you found that before you start your homestead you are going to need to save some money to buy the land, the tools, or education.
One of the biggest struggles I had, when we as a family were trying to save money, was not the want but the realization of the sacrifices I would have to make. If I want to save money then I need to see it as a commitment and as a vision. Because saving money is easy when you know exactly what you are saving for. Let me give you an example.
I have just made our second bi-weekly trip to the town to get groceries and supplies. And I am tired and just want to pull into Wendy’s and get supper for the family. But I know that we have already spent the allotted budget for eating out, which means I would have to take money away from our savings to pay for it. I would have to take money away from me getting a new milk machine to go out to eat and that choice becomes easier. That sacrifice is easy because I see that my goal is greater than the convenience of dinner out. The same goes for any purchase that you could make that would pull away from saving. Instead of seeing the sacrifice, I see that I just made the choice to get a little closer to my goal!
I hope that makes sense to you. Saving money has to be a choice and it is a choice that you have to make daily with all of the little things.
Now I didn’t learn this by trial and error, but in fact from a great book on learning how to create a family budget. You can go here to learn more! *
Do You Want to Make Money From Your Homestead?
Knowing if making money is part of your goals before you start is going to give you a heads up. It is going to help you make decisions about what you are going to grow or even how much you are going to grow.
What Are You Going to Sell?
Making money on the homestead can be as easy as growing extras like instead of raising one beef you could raise two, and it can be more intricate like you make a product from what you produce. The options are endless. But knowing now before you start homesteading is going to give you time to get a leg up on the competition. If you visit your local farmer market every week and you see that several vendors sell goat milk soap then maybe you can plan to do something different with your goat’s milk if you chose to raise goats or may you decide that this is the reason you are going to raise sheep instead of goats. So if you are planning to sell something, what is it going to be?
Some Great Resources for Getting Started
We have lots of resources here at Red Ridge Farm! We have the blog, the podcast, several free resources on growing, and even a few online courses! Our mission is to help you grow please, look around our website and even contact me with any questions you might have.
Some other resources would be Joel Saltine’s plethora of books. Or the book the Backyard Homestead! If you are into more of a video format then Richard Perkin’s YouTube channel is amazing!
Recap
Finding your purpose, your goal, and your dream now before you start building your homestead is going to give you a path to follow. I know if I would have had all of this planned out when we first started homesteading I probably would have not had as many failures.
I want to thank you for joining me today and as always,
Don’t let the world hold you back, Pray, Just Plant!!
Quick Links
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ~ Lamentations 3:22-23
Timestamp
Intro 00:46
Question 1-5 02:17
Tips and Tricks - Water Your Compost 13:08
Question 6-10 14:48
Growing With God 20:53
Question 11-14 23:43
Homesteading Resources 27:45
Recap 29:59
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