This was good information thank you. We have only 1 acre so it feels like I’m creating a demonstration garden rather than homesteading. I’m at the very beginning of establishing small food forest and small livestock projects. We both also have nonfarm careers and work from home. This finances my hobby. My husband is not as involved physically in these projects. I like the task variety of switching between client video calls, gardening, animal care, herbalism, infrastructure planning, harvesting and kitchen processing & storage. I also like the slow pace where I can take breaks to go to the nearby beaches. At my age, I have learned not to take on too many projects at once or I burn out. I like to imagine taking on dairy goat projects. And a pig ( to forage an existing bumper crop of acorns). And making youtube channel videos. But I’m hesitating. It’s a huge time and energy commitment for me. I would rather occasionally contribute to someone else’s farmers market stand when I had extra produce , or process the harvest into long term storage, than run my own farm stand. For now my focus is my own learning curve, our own resiliency.
@helenloughrey7660 there is a ton that can be done on an acre of land. My best advice is to very slowly add in the different types of animals. It can become quite chaotic to try to juggle life, and the demands of livestock, without getting burnt out or needing to scale back. I hope to start creating more content about homesteading on a smaller plot of land. If you have any topics you'd like me to cover, I'd love to hear about them :)
First way to make your homestead "pay" for itself is a mix of eating what it produces and putting the animals to work so they make less work and feed themselves in the process. Surplus to sell regularly is secondary. Chances are that even just feeding your family you'll have some surplus kids, chicks and such here and there that will cover costs or some barter. Enough surplus to cover stuff like insurance, taxes, internet, car, i.e. livingexpenses is a much bigger challenge unless you really have a certain production and market along with minimum expenses like only taxes and a phone/internet bill. That can be done, but requires adapting diet, resources already in place and a fair bit of luck. Getting a small job and a manageble amount and number of animals works way better, and leaves room (energy) to enjoy what you have. The method of outside income and the other makes it enough to live on is a time honered succes option. Not everyone fits the entrepeneur mold or has such skills and that is fine. Be proud of what you are good at.
This was good information thank you. We have only 1 acre so it feels like I’m creating a demonstration garden rather than homesteading. I’m at the very beginning of establishing small food forest and small livestock projects. We both also have nonfarm careers and work from home. This finances my hobby. My husband is not as involved physically in these projects. I like the task variety of switching between client video calls, gardening, animal care, herbalism, infrastructure planning, harvesting and kitchen processing & storage. I also like the slow pace where I can take breaks to go to the nearby beaches. At my age, I have learned not to take on too many projects at once or I burn out. I like to imagine taking on dairy goat projects. And a pig ( to forage an existing bumper crop of acorns). And making youtube channel videos. But I’m hesitating. It’s a huge time and energy commitment for me. I would rather occasionally contribute to someone else’s farmers market stand when I had extra produce , or process the harvest into long term storage, than run my own farm stand. For now my focus is my own learning curve, our own resiliency.
@helenloughrey7660 there is a ton that can be done on an acre of land. My best advice is to very slowly add in the different types of animals. It can become quite chaotic to try to juggle life, and the demands of livestock, without getting burnt out or needing to scale back.
I hope to start creating more content about homesteading on a smaller plot of land. If you have any topics you'd like me to cover, I'd love to hear about them :)
First way to make your homestead "pay" for itself is a mix of eating what it produces and putting the animals to work so they make less work and feed themselves in the process. Surplus to sell regularly is secondary. Chances are that even just feeding your family you'll have some surplus kids, chicks and such here and there that will cover costs or some barter. Enough surplus to cover stuff like insurance, taxes, internet, car, i.e. livingexpenses is a much bigger challenge unless you really have a certain production and market along with minimum expenses like only taxes and a phone/internet bill. That can be done, but requires adapting diet, resources already in place and a fair bit of luck. Getting a small job and a manageble amount and number of animals works way better, and leaves room (energy) to enjoy what you have.
The method of outside income and the other makes it enough to live on is a time honered succes option. Not everyone fits the entrepeneur mold or has such skills and that is fine. Be proud of what you are good at.
@hillockfarm8404 Thank you for your comment ❤️