A sort of 'roll call' topic came up on a back to basics list I'm on and it got me thinking and reflecting on our homestead journey. It isn't anything overly deep in insight or anything, but here is a nutshell of our homesteading testimony.
What is yours? If you share the testimony of your homestead journey on your own blog, please leave me a comment so I can join along in your thoughts and reflections!
My husband and I, and our 9 children have been moving toward the self-sufficient, God-sustaining homestead for about 8 years now...not really started with the Y2k stuff, but that was a bit of a catalyst I will say.
We have always lived rural, some homes far more than others, but always in the 'country' at least. About 10 years ago, we started looking at having some animals and I got a bit more serious about a garden than 'just a few tomato plants around the fence line.' We moved from a rented 400 acre farm to a near-perfect set-up of home and 5 acres, rented also with the hopes to buy it. On those 5 acres, our dream goal of a homestead sort of took off. We didn't have a huge garden, but it filled out larder well enough for a family of 5 (later 7) quite well at 70x40 and an herb bed of a little 5x8 space. We built a coop to house our 6 little egg ladies and off we went into animals on the homestead.
Over a 7 year period, we fed ourselves off those 5 acres nicely. The garden was a cross between a raised-bed sort of plan and square foot gardening. We followed a lasagna-style method...lots of newspaper, mulch, grass clippings and very layered. We had such rich soil up there it practically grew a garden without needing me much at all. We moved along from those first few egg ladies onto raising 100 meat birds each year and generally kept anywhere from 40-70 layers going for our own use, plus selling now and then. We started gathering milk goats, ended up with a couple of miniature ponies, a handful of rabbits and just about every cat to be found within several miles living in our barn. It was great, and we certain learned alot.
As Y2k moved through the boards and folks started talking more about the pure common sense aspects of practical day-to-day living when our normal life routines might be upset terribly by events, we started to re-evaluate the homestead and what our true goal should be. It was rather obvious (suddenly...one of those 'duh' moments) that we needed to look at the more obvious things on the homestead as well. We started feeling somewhat unprepared for the eventualities of living in a money-based, material-based society. We had a well, but the pump was electric; we had access to a waterway just beyond our property edge (came in very handy the week or so we were without electricity when the July 4th storms ravaged north Illinois a few years back!), but not a practical method of utilizing it. We had animals, yes, but what of their feed needs if that became unavailable? Our home was heated with wood, and we could cook, a bit primitively, on the woodstove if the propane tank emptied, but still...long-term usage?
We were unprepared in some rather necessary areas. Then again, we were certainly ahead of the game compared to most folks. We just needed to fine-tune the game plan a bit and smooth out the rough edges. Thought we were set and ready to go, then The Lord moved us from our cozy little homestead and life-long area of the country down here to Mississippi and showed me how truly unprepared we really are.
We are learning all over again how to maintain the basics on the homestead. My chickens don't thrive nearly as well as they did up north; the garden, well, the garden is way more of a dream than a reality in the thick muck and clay I have here. I am totally lost and ignorant down here it seems. We have a couple of goats, but they are boer-crosses and more of a rescue than anything of practical use (one is blind and the other has poor hoof development). The chickens have a much better coop in terms of enclosure, yet raccoons have enjoyed most of my chickens this past year.
So, long-winded and without any obvious direction here, I guess our testimony of homesteading would be that we are in the stages of re-learning everything. We are still moving in the self-sufficient direction, just at a very slow, deep learning curve kind of pace. We know where we plan to be...that is the main key to homesteading in a real sense, I think.
Our goals are simple at this point: provide a safe and secure homestead for our family where we can live, learn and grow together as the world around us moves to and fro with the tides of society. Grow our own food needs and provide for the many things that arise on a rural homestead full of children. Supply for our practical day to day needs, and even a few wants from time to time. And, when the time comes that we are called to open ourselves more to the friends and family The Lord moves in our pathway, that we are prepared with both practical and spiritual offerings.
I wrote on this about 2 years ago. I am going to go through my archives and compare then to what I think now. Great topic!! I can't wait to see others responses. We truly do come full circle. I remember when Glenda was washing by hand and I thought it was the grandest thing. I don't know that I would think it so grand now if that was my only means of washing.
Blessings,
Trixi
~Always Planning for Whatever May Come... Mrs Survival site
~Sewing and baking, of course
~write letters
~Pasta made, dried and stored away
~barn repairs, on-going
~bush hogging & timber clean-up, on-going
~List books at BookMooch.com
~build a new mailbox post
~monthly quilt blocks
No indulgences of self will can be trivial, no denial unprofitable; Heaven or Hell depends on this alone. A parent who studies to subdue it in his child works together with God in the renewing and saving of their soul. The parent who indulges it does the devil's work, makes religion impractical, salvation unattainable, and does all that in him lies to damn his child, soul and body, forever.
Susanna Wesley
At The School Desks
We are a Christian family desiring to raise our children with the primary focus of Training their Hearts!
I have no greater joy, than to hear my children walk in truth... III John 1:4
Train up the child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it... Proverbs 22:6
Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!... Deuteronomy 5:29
Our mission in life is not to go to some far-off foreign land, but to work at home and in our churches and home communities. Our goal should not be to leave behind riches and possessions, farms and homes for our children, but a priceless heritage they will cherish enough to work fervently to pass along to their children. It has been done for generations and with God's help it can still be done. In teaching our children, we are striving toward a deep understanding of who they are In Christ. I am . . . a child of God, a gift to my parents and my country. I'm a person of great value because God made me. I can . . . do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God has made me able to do everything required of me. I ought . . . to do my duty to obey God, to submit to my parents and everyone in authority over me, to be of service to others, and to keep myself healthy with proper food and rest so my body is ready to serve. I will . . . resolve to keep a watch over my thoughts and choose what's right even if it's not what I want.
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