Beep, Beep, Beep.
My phone is going off at 6 a.m. I can feel my eyes heavy, but the day has already started, and everything is awake and moving with or without me.
Everyone is much more pleasant with a cup of coffee already pulsing through my veins. Without my coffee, everyone is much more scared!
I try to get up half an hour before my kiddos. I need my coffee and devotion. I need the quiet—okay, there is the Rooster already crowing and my sweet pot-bellied pig Bently slowly stirring and scratching on his door.
The first thing I do is feed Bently the pig. I start my coffee, give the dog Jake his food, and read my devotion.
Then, the cat in the garage, who has five babies, starts meowing. I go out there to feed her and get lost in the kittens.
The girls are up, asking if they can come down. Why? They do this every day, and why I say yes every day is beyond me.
When you become a simple living homesteader, aka someone who constantly has to tend to someone and something routine, it is your best friend.
Breakfast begins for the little sweet girls, the other cat on the front porch, and then the 23 chickens outside. The five ducks get fed, and all the meat chicks also need their goods. If you don’t make it right on time with those meat birds, they may turn into zombies and completely eat your entire hand.
It’s a good day if you make it to the coop to let the chickens out without stepping in poop. Now that our mini pig is preferring to go outside, it’s become one more obstacle course of dodging crap.
And that’s just in an hour’s worth of time.
We have a long day ahead of us. But I love it.
Homesteading is much like blogging. There is ALWAYS something to be done.
Did I mention that if you are homesteading, you don’t get to leave? That’s right—all the tasks you need to get done that can’t get done, and the animals that drive you mad—aren’t going anywhere—and neither are you.
Vacations are a rare luxury.
Listen, you can take vacations—I’m being dramatic—but they do require more planning. Here’s how we took short vacations with chickens when we didn’t have a chicken sitter.
Death is Constantly Present.
You are going to have to kill something or watch someone kill something.
From your dog chasing a fox away to your husband running and chasing a raccoon, to dead raccoons being shot and falling through the floor of your second-story barn two inches in front of your face, to your barn cat being hit by a car, to the time for your chickens to get up in your freezer.
Death is part of it—much more so than when you aren’t participating in a homestead lifestyle. It’s not always easy, but it is necessary.
But there is also so much life! New babies born on the farm are one of my favorites. We had one really hard kidding season, and I wanted to give it all up. This next one will be hard, but it will also bring joy.
FAILURE IS PART OF THE GAME
Start now if you struggle with pride and haven’t tried homesteading to cure it. Failure is part of the game. First-time experiences can go bad. You can lose money on the plants you just fried or scream at that super crazy spring frost you forgot to cover up because you stepped on your kiddo’s Barbie high heel and went screaming, holding your toe while you slipped down your way to a steep farmhouse steps.
Expect to have some hard failures, but remember that with every failure comes an opportunity to improve, learn, and grow.
If you want to gain a little control over your homesteading journey, grab my homesteading planner or my popular chicken planner here.
SIMPLER DOESN’T GET SIMPLE
There’s something about this simple living that really isn’t so simple at all.
Sure, making all your own food from scratch is healthier and usually cheaper, but sometimes it feels extremely good to throw a frozen pizza in and call it a night. There is no shame in giving yourself a break every once in a while.
If you want to have chickens for delicious, more nutritious eggs that are cheaper, think again. Chickens are addicting. I don’t know what it is, but there is something about creating art when you look out at your flock. This can, in turn, add up to more expenses if you make one of the major chicken-raising mistakes and don’t build your coop large enough.
YOU MAY STILL WANT MORE
Simple living or homesteading sounds ideal but can lead you down a path of constantly wanting more. So don’t be fooled if you think that you decide to live simply and raise animals and grow your food that you won’t want more. You’re still attached to the good old mobile device, that influences us 24/7.
More land, more accessories, more animals, more, more. The thing I love about living out in the country is just being still. Standing outside and feeling the creation around me, I know there is more than what we have here on earth.
If you can stay consistent, you will be a successful homesteader and blogger- Okay, blogging is just sneaking up in here because it’s what I do, and it’s crazy similar. You may want to start a blog instead of a homestead!
The one thing I love about meeting you, the ones who are like me, is that we will all have a bond- something that binds us together because it’s part insanity to start your homestead.
We live in America, where convenience is convenient.
Yet some of us still want to work hard, never take a vacation, step in poop daily, and take care of more animals than we have friends.
It is what makes us unique. It’s what makes us content.
It brings about pride and pure joy. It’s something we can all hang on to.
So, if you are thinking about starting with chickens or any of the more homesteading lifestyles, know that it’s about the journey and your soul. It’s not easy and takes hard work, but the payoff is indescribable. It brings you to the center of yourself and helps you find joy.
I wrote this essay when we first started our homesteading journey, and we still love it eight years later. There are some major mistakes you don’t want to make, but I would do it repeatedly.
Must-Have Tips to Get Started
- Have a support system: Whether it’s family, friends, or an online homesteading group, you’ll need people who “get it.”
- Start small and scale up. Raising a few chickens or planting a modest garden is a great way to test the waters before investing.
- Plan for breaks: It is possible to take a vacation even when you have chickens.
There are SO Many good things that come with homesteading.
The joy of harvesting your first meal: There is nothing like bringing in food from your backyard and enjoying it with your family. Significantly when the kids have picked or grown it themselves. It makes meal planning easier.
Teaching your kids valuable lessons: Homesteading teaches kids responsibility, resilience, and gratitude—something so many parents appreciate.
Grab my Homesteading or Frugal Living Binder here if you want to start this homesteading journey.
If money is tight you need to read my blog post on How to Start Homesteading on a budget.
At the end of the day, homesteading isn’t about perfection but persistence. It’s about embracing the chaos, learning from the failures, and finding joy in the smallest wins, like a fresh egg in the coop or the quiet stillness of an early morning. It’s hard work, yes, but it’s also life-giving.
You’ll step in poop, you’ll lose sleep, and you’ll question your sanity more times than you can count, but the beauty of this lifestyle is that it strips life down to what matters: growth, gratitude, and connection. And when you pause to take it all in, you’ll realize that the simple life—ugly truths and all—is the most beautiful.
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