The first thing you Should do on your New Homestead

You’ve waited and waited to find the perfect homestead, and you finally found your country home where you can raise animals, grow your own food, and become more self-sufficient. But what should you do first?

Pretty much anywhere across the internet you can find articles, videos, and podcasts romanticizing the homesteading life. And I understand why – it’s a beautiful, fulfilling life. But, it’s also insanely hard work, things go wrong all the time, and its extremely messy and dirty. Animals die, gardens wilt, and equipment breaks.

It’s so very easy to get in over your head. And, if you are new to homesteading and feel overwhelmed and like things are failing, it’s easy to look at it and think homesteading maybe wasn’t what you thought it was going to be.

I don’t want to see that happen to you after you’ve possibly spent years dreaming of homesteading. So, let’s talk about how to avoid that, and what the first thing is that you should do after moving into your homestead.

Just a month ago we moved into our second homestead. Our first one was about 8 years ago, and after 5 years there we moved 8 hours away to a different home right in the middle of town. No land, no animals, and no homestead.

It took us three years to find our new homestead in the area. And now that we finally did we feel like we can start our homesteading journey a little better this time around knowing what we know now – what we didn’t know the first time we became homesteaders.

THE FIRST THING YOU SHOULD DO ON YOUR HOMESTEAD

So, what IS the first thing you should do? The first thing you should do is…

Make a plan.

I know, I know. You were hoping I was going to say the first thing you should do is to buy 100 baby chicks, or 10 baby goats, and all the seeds for your garden.

That point will come, trust me. But you need a plan.

What is the plan, and what should it look like?

This is going to vary from person to person. Your plan should start with:

A vision for your homestead

In ten years, where would you like to see for your family and your homestead? What do you want to see happening on your land? Do you want to make some money from it? Do you want to mainly use it to become more self-sufficient for your family?

Do you want to pour most of your energy in growing your own food, or would you prefer focusing on dairy or meat animals? Do you want a mix of both? If you get a milking animal, do you want cows or goats? Is it important to you to have various colored eggs from your chickens or a certain breed?

Once you decide that, you’ll want to do some research and get an idea of:

What kind of Money you need to achieve your homestead dream

Here’s something that I think is not talked about enough when we discuss homesteading and it’s how much money it can cost, especially in the early years.

Yes, you can save money growing your own food and raising your own meat, but there is also a cost to it, and initially it can be quite a bit. You won’t necessarily be saving money in the beginning.

For example, for animals you need fencing, shelter, feeders and waterers, possible heat sources to keep the water from freezing depending on where you live, and more.

For a garden you might need to buy or rent a rototiller, fencing to keep animals like deer and rabbits out, seeds, and seed starting products.

It can add up fast! Of course, there are ways to save money on many of these items, so please don’t be discouraged. Just know it’s something you need to make a plan for.

In your plan, I would encourage you to:

Decide on a few projects to start with

Remember, the vision you have for where you want your homestead to be in the next 10 years takes time to get there. It’s not an overnight thing. So think about a few projects you want to start with, and leave the next ones on the list for when those projects are done.

For example, we’ve decided we have three priorities for this coming year which is the first year at our new homestead. The first is to build a chicken coop and get chickens because chickens are easy animals to start with, and eggs will feed us.

The second is to get our garden started. It won’t be a full scale garden at first. Each year we will probably build on or extend it a little. But we will be purchasing our own rototiller and deciding what to plant for year number 1. While it’s hard to control yourself when looking at all those pretty vegetable varieties in the seed catalog, I encourage you to start small.

Pick things to grow that you know your family will eat.

The third project we have planned this year is to get electricity and heat to our garage. This will give us a space on our homestead to work on equipment that needs a little help, and to store things properly that can’t freeze. Our house is small and so indoor storage is a commodity.

We have so many more ideas and dreams for the land we have just acquired, but we know how quickly we can get burnt out, and run out of money. And so, if there’s anything we learned from the first time around, it’s to pace ourselves.

The level on which you need to pace yourself will vary on what season of life you are in as well. Currently I am a mom of two teenagers and one almost teenager whom I homeschool. While you’d think I’d have more time as they got older, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It is definitely harder for me to add things to my life now then it was when they were smaller.

Therefore I can only add so much. At least until they start moving out (which will be here before I know it!)

Your season of life may look a little different. But when looking at what is going on in your life, can you fit in early morning milkings for a dairy animal? Do you have extra hands to help you weed a very large garden? Do you need to be able to get away from your homestead and need it simple enough for someone to farm sit for it while you are gone? Or do you feel like there is a lot of time you can dedicate to your homestead?

It’s normal to want to just jump in with both feet, but creating a plan with a vision and asking yourself the hard questions will set your homestead up for success.

And isn’t that what we all want? A homestead that feels like a blessing and not a burden in our life?