Courtney – Page 6 – Your Homestead Journey

For those of you who want a quick answer, here are 3 easy homestead ideas off of the top of my head. 1. How about a garden? You can plant a garden pretty much anywhere and it is cheap to do. And believe it or not, it is really quite relaxing. I love going out to my garden and sitting outside in the peace and picking weeds. Don't call me crazy until you try it for yourself! Anyway, back to the point. Like I said you can plant a garden whether you have a lot of property or hardly any at all. If you currently live in the city but dream of a homestead...Stop dreaming! You can start your dream now. You will be surprised at how much you can do with just a tiny little area. And who wants to mow anyway? Turn your yard into food. All you need to do is grab some seeds and plant. Don't worry you will learn as you go. If you do get stuck and have some questions check out some of my other posts on gardening. 2.Fresh Eggs anyone? What about trying egg-laying chickens? This you will need a little more room for but still not that much! You just need enough room for a coop and ideally a little run outside of the coop for the chickens to have some room to run. You can either build your own coop, buy a coop new or buy a coop used. Basically, you will buy your chicks from a local mill or farm store, raise them in the garage or barn for about a month or so and then they are ready for the coop. I have had my chicken for a year now and am loving it. It is so great to be able to go outside and have my own farm fresh eggs. I have 2 acres of property but the chickens don't use hardly any of that. So you could totally raise chickens on an acre or even less. Again, if you have been putting off your homesteading goals because of lack of property STOP you can do this now! If you closer to the city just make sure you look into the laws for your area. Chickens will run in a little more money but it is totally worth it. Once you put in the initial money for the coop you are basically just paying for food. Which by the way I have figured out how to raise my chickens for basically nothing. Be watching for my post about how I do it! 3.Getting rid of chemicals. Yes, please! This one might seem strange as a homesteading idea but just hear me out. As I will allude to in the next section modern homesteading is about becoming self-sufficient. And also taking care of the environment. This idea is probably the best because you can do this no matter what. If you live in the country and have hundreds of acres on your homestead or you live in the city and just have a "dream" of homesteading, you can apply this idea. Over the last few years, I have done my best to rid my home of chemicals. As I learn more and more about how harmful they are to me, my kids and the environment I can't stand having them in my home. I have tried many different products and brands and have loved different ones for different reasons. There are so many great brands out there! But my latest favorite way of cleaning is just with water. I know what your thinking. How in the world can you clean with just water? Well, let me tell you. There is this brand called Norwex. Their cloths are made with these tiny little microfibers that are 200th the size of a human hair. They are embedded with silver, the silver kills bacteria as soon as it touches bacteria. I know amazing. I have been using them for about 9 months and am in love. What's crazy is that you can clean your ENTIRE house with just water. For me, this is a lifesaver because even when I just had the "natural" cleaners my kids would still grab the bottles and either spray them on themselves or spray the bottle on random stuff. Even though it was "natural" I still was not sure exactly what they were getting on them. I am now in total peace of mind knowing I have no chemicals in my house. I don't personally sell norwex. Even though I should because I love it so much. But I have decided not to "sell" any certain brand because I want to share things I love with people without being bias on a product. But if you want to be able to clean your house with norwex I can hook you up! You can either grab it on Amazon. Or my friend sells it and this is her link. I know you will most likely get sticker shock but let me tell you it is worth it. Think about how much you spend on cleaners...I was looking into it and apparently, an average family spends $600 a year! What?!?! Crazy I know. With Norwex you will put in the money up front and then you are done. My one cloth has lasted me 9 months and it is still going strong. I swear they embed it with magic fibers. Okay, I will stop because I know the whole point of this post was not about norwex. but when I get going I can't stop. If you want to learn more you can read more on another post of mine here. Oops, I got a little carried away with my "short" idealist. Well, hopefully, you hung on and for those of you who want a few more ideas and to know a little bit more about modern homesteading keep on reading, friend! What is Modern homesteading? Good question. A lot of people think of homesteading and think of people who got free land from the government or are old farmers living off-grid someplace. From the research, I have done modern homesteading is kinda more about becoming self-sufficient and taking care of the environment. You can really start homesteading anywhere you are. To me, the pressure is off and you are free to do what you want and are able to. When I think of modern homesteading I think of smaller scale gardens, preserving food, feeding our families well, and doing all that we can on our own. I do what I can but I don't pressure myself to be 100% self-sufficient. I realize that there are still things I need to buy and that's okay. Each year I am learning more and understanding how to take care of my family more and more on my own. Modern homesteading is going to look different for everyone. I personally am taking it slow and adding a few things in each year. My husband works full time and I have my kids who I homeschool. So we don't have the time to go for it full force. But some of you may have more time and can add things in at a faster pace, and that is awesome! Why I love Modern homesteading... I guess I don't have anything to compare it to since I was not a homesteader back in the day, but I really love homesteading today. The resources I have online and the people that I know are invaluable to me. I love being able to become more and more self-sufficient and not having to rely on the government for everything in my life. Being able to teach my kids and the next generation skills that they might not otherwise have learned is such a joy. Being on this journey is so fun and I am so grateful for it. Small ways you can get started... Okay, So for those of you who want a longer more detailed lists here are 9 simple and affordable homesteading ideas for you... 9 Modern Homesteading Ideas 1. Raising Chickens I mentioned this idea at the beginning of the article but I want to give a little more depth and touch on raising meat birds. When you think of raising chickens as egg layers you know you don't need much room, right? I mean get a chicken coop and you are all set. But what about meat birds? If you want to raise them on pasture don't you need a large area? WRONG! I raised 75 chickens on my 2 acres. My husband built a chicken tractor. ( Which is basically a movable chicken cage that lets them eat the grass) and we kept them in there the whole 12 weeks and would just move them to fresh grass each day. Crazy huh? I thought for sure we would need way more room then we have. So why not raise some birds for meat? I was seriously blown away at how simple it was. I felt like the chicken were less work then my dog! And the benefits are awesome. If you want to buy good organic chicken at the store you will be paying about $5 an lb. If you have a decent sized family and eat chicken a couple days a week you are looking at spending $2,340 a year on chicken! That is crazy! I did the math for raising them myself and it came to about $5 per chicken! And because you raised them yourself you know that they are raised exactly the way you want them to be. If you are interested in learning the in and outs of raising meat birds I have written an entire post about it. You can check it out here. 2. Gardening Some might think that they have to have the perfect situation to garden. A big area of land, great soil Etc. Well, That is not the case! I was shocked that you really only need a small space to have a good sized garden. If you don't have any room at all in your yard you can build raised beds and put them on your porch/deck. No matter what your situation is you can have a garden! If you need a little more details when it comes to gardening check out my article on how to plan a garden. Another idea I wanted to mention is planting fruit. We sometimes only think about veggies when it comes to gardening but you can plant fruit and in turn, save yourself a ton of money. strawberries and raspberries are probably the easiest things to start with. I mean once you plant them you don't have to do a thing. You can try to keep the rows cleaned up but if not they will just keep multiplying and you will get more and more berries. You can then make jams, jellies, pie filling, fruit syrups and freeze the berries for smoothies and shakes. Fruit can cost so much at the store and if you have space it is so worth doing on your own. You can also plant apple and pear trees and make lots of yummy applesauce. Or Pear/ applesauce, which is amazing by the way. Or your own homemade apple cider Etc. You can plant peach trees, blueberry plants and so on. I am a huge fruit lover and could go broke buying it from the store! 3. Canning Let me warn you canning is addicting. Once you start you won't stop. I LOVE IT! I used to only use the water method but in the last year have started pressure canning. Oh, my word it is awesome. You can preserve seriously anything. I have canned fruits, veggies, broth, meats, Jams, and my list keeps growing. I used to freeze things but I have found that canning is so much better. First of all, you don't have to thaw anything out. Plop it in the pot and you are good to go. Second You don't have to use up the freezer space. Which is great because if you have a large family you are gonna need multiple freezers to store food for your family. Third, you can organize it better so that you know exactly what you have. I'm sure most of you have heard of canning fruit and veggies that is a fairly normal practice. But I bet a majority of you saw the meat and got grossed out. And maybe even the broth. So let me expound on that a bit. Let me start by saying I am not making spam. I like good meat and there is no way I am eating that stuff. No, I am canning good quality meat. I have canned my husband's venison, sausage, chicken, and beef. When you are putting it through the canning process it is cooking the meat as you can. So basically you are making the meat for 8-10 meals all at once. It is a Godsend for a busy mom like myself. So just like you would plop your veggies in the pot to warm them up for dinner you are doing the same thing with the meat. A few things we have used the meat for would be Tacos Stroganoff Fajitas Swiss Steak Soups/Stews And it makes the meat so tender. Trust me once you start it you will want to can enough for every meal of the year! The other thing is broth. I have been making my own broth for a while now and will never go back. You will again save so much money and the health benefits are crazy good for you. I know your probably thinking that making broth must be hard work. Well, would you believe me if I said all you have to do is throw leftover chicken bones in the crockpot and turn it on? I actually have a whole article written on it. Just giving a little more detail on the benefits of it and guiding you on using a pressure canner if you are nervous about that. If you want to check that out you can find that here. Oh and Don't let my crazy over excitement over meat and broth over shadow fruits and veggies. I am still totally in love with having all my tomato products ( pizza sauce, diced tomato, salsa etc.) green beans, Jams, Corn and such ready for the entire year. I love having a stocked pantry with all of my homegrown goods in it. 4. Dehydrating While I am on the subject of preserving I wanted to tell you about dehydrating. I recently got a dehydrator and have had so much fun trying different foods in it. This is another great way you can save money on the homestead. One of our favorite things to make is our own homemade jerky. You can use venison or beef and it is amazing. Depending on if you buy jerky often you could potentially save yourself quite a bit of money. I mean you can pay $8 for a little bag of jerky. Another thing we love to dehydrate is fruit. Oh, my word dried pineapple and bananas are so good. Not only that but they are a good healthy snack for you and the kids. And once again if you buy dried fruit you can spend $8-$10 a bag. And surprisingly You can get a good dehydrator for under $50. You can also go all out and get a huge one with lots of trays. I personally have a big one that is a little pricier but our friends bought it for us. But if I was to buy it myself I might not have spent quite that much. I have an article talking a little more in-depth about dehydrating if that is something that is of interest to you. You can check that out here. 5. Hunting & Fishing This is something you can do if you have your own property but also if you don't have land you can look into hunting on state land or maybe a friends land. When it comes to fishing look into the rivers around you and the laws. Most likely you can find areas to fish close to your house. I personally don't hunt or fish I leave that up to my husband but I love the benefits of it. I mean you can buy a license and potentially get 3 deer a year. If I remember correctly we have to pay about $80 for the license here in MI. But if you get 3 deer it comes to $26 a deer. If your deer weighs in at 75 Lbs you are looking at $.35 an lb. That is unheard of! You can't get good organic meat like that in the store for less than $5 an lb. The same goes for fishing. I won't do the math for you but you can see from my venison example that when you do the work yourself you can save so much money. And from what I hear hunting and fishing is very relaxing. So I would encourage you to check it out. 6. Essential Oil Blends I am a big advocate of using essential oils for preventative health and for medical purposes. But they can get a bit pricey. I actually just learned something recently...It turns out that we don't need near as much oil as most of us have been using. It seems that our body can't even handle the amounts we have been using. So I have been making my own blends with a carrier oil. I just take a bottle fill it up mostly with a carrier oil. (coconut, avocado Etc. a fatty oil is what you are looking for) and then add 10-12 drops for the entire bottle. I can't believe how much money that saves. I mean before I would take the oil straight and use 3-4 drops per time. Now I just use my blender bottle and my oil goes so much further. You can either use the oil individually or you can add different oils together for different things...Here are a few I made up. You can buy special bottles or just save your old essential oil bottles and refill those. I have written a little more in depth on the subject if you want to learn more you can read about it here. 7. Stocking your Pantry This is something I have been working on for the last few years. And what is nice about it is you can work on this wherever you are. You don't need anything special to have a stocked pantry. And it is so important to have. Did you know that is something happened the grocery stores would be out of food in 3 days? and most people don't have enough food in their house to last more than a week. My husband and I try to keep our pantry stocked for the whole year. But we make sure to fill it with the things that we use so that if nothing happens we will still eat the food like normal but then if an emergency does happen we are good to go. We have gone back and forth because my husband is more of a prepper and I am more practical. I did not want to spend a bunch of money on things that we would never use and would just go bad. So we have a stocked pantry of our normal everyday used foods. When you think about stocking a pantry for a year it can get very overwhelming and the task can seem out of reach. trust me I know. So to simplify the job for you I have taken the time to break it down in to easy to do chunks. If you are wanting to stock your pantry for the year I suggest you check out that post. 8. Water Filtration This is one area that slips most peoples minds. We kind of take water for granted and think that we will always just have access to clean water. I know I am getting a little prepper on you here but I do think having a good water filter is a good idea. Even if nothing ever happens you still need good clean water. And most tap water or well water is just gross. We have a Reverse osmosis system put into our sink which is great but I would also recommend having a system that is more portable. If an emergency ever did happen and you have to leave your house or your water was turned off you could still use your system. If you want my recommendation you can see that here. (Link product page!) 9. Make Beauty Products Okay, enough of the prepper talk lets focus on something a little less heavy. Health and beauty products. I personally don't wear much makeup but if you do I would recommend looking into the products that you use. First of all, you are most likely spending a lot of money and if you are not buying good brands you are coating your body with chemicals. Did you know that the products you are using tough your bloodstream in 20 seconds? That being said do you really want to be covering your entire body in chemicals? But on the other hand, do you want to spend hundreds of dollars on good clean beauty products? Most likely you are going to say no... So I would encourage you to start doing your research. Start looking into ways you can make things yourself. I will share a few of the things I have changed but You will really have to start the journey for yourself and playing around with the things that work the best for you and your family. My main concern is my kids. I hate covering them in chemicals. And they have been pretty easy to convert over. The best thing for kids it just getting kids castile soap. Oh, by the way, castile soap will become your best friend when making your own soaps and cleaning products. For myself, I have not done much because like I said I don't wear makeup so I did not have to do anything there. ( But if you do look into making your own. My friend has made her own makeup and loves it.) As far as a body wash I don't use any because I use my Norwex cloth and water. So really the only thing I needed to change was my shampoo and conditioner. That one is a little tricky because you have to work with your type of hair and figure out what works best for you. I am gonna be honest here and tell you that I still buy my shampoo and conditioner. I found a little company run by a family and their product is amazing. So until I can figure out a better recipe I will just support them. Oh and I guess the other thing would be lotion and if you know anything about health and beauty you probably know what I am going to say...coconut oil. Seriously though it works! Try it! Becoming self-sufficient My main goal in all of these areas is to get closer and closer to becoming self-sufficient. And I wish I could do the work for you, but this is YOUR homestead journey so you get to experiment and try things to see what works for you and your family. I hope that this list will inspire you and give you a few basic Ideas on ways to get started. Final Thoughts I hope that you are excited to try some things on this list and grow closer to becoming self-sufficient. Whatever you do don't let it overwhelm you. Do what you can and add in a few things each year. Take it slow and just be consistent. You will be blown away at what you can accomplish if you just go at it slow and steady. I am learning just like you and am just sharing the things that I have tried. Some things work and something are a total flop. But that's okay. That is part of the journey. You never know until you try right? As always please leave me a comment with things I might have forgotten or some of your successes and failures. I love to connect with all of you. Happy Homesteading! ~Courtney