Happy Homesteaders

 Several years back Kelli and I quit selling our farm produce. We sold the roadside farm stand and scaled way back to just raising food for our selves.  Once we stopped trying to raise enough to sell to the community the stress level went way down and we became happy homesteaders here once again.  

If that was all we were doing I don't think we would have felt as much stress. In essence we were running 3 different businesses. The garbage business, cabin rental and the farmstand/produce sales. Now there is something to be said about being diversified, and I like the idea of that ,but we were getting too far behind on everything to try to keep up with it all. And we weren't as young as we used to be either.  

This last season the only gardening we did was right out our back door in containers and a couple raised beds. This was wonderful and we both thoroughly enjoyed having a kitchen garden, just stepping out the back door to harvest what ever we might want for lunch or dinner.  

We raised one batch of meat chickens and one batch of new laying hens.  Starting way too early with the meat birds, with snow still on the ground we lost more birds than we ever have in the last 22 years of living this homesteading lifestyle.  We ordered the birds way earlier than usual because we heard about people buying up chicks due to the state of the nation earlier this year.  So we didn't want to miss out. It was a mistake to try and raise up the fragile meat chicks in the colder weather, even with 2 heat lamps going 24/7. They outgrew the brooder too soon and our moveable pens simply were not thermal enough for the cold weather we were still experiencing early spring. 

The layer hens which we got later faired much better because that was the time of year we used to get the meat chickens. We were down to a "skeleton crew" of old layers from when we were selling eggs so they badly needed to be replaced. So we have had plenty of eggs since late summer with this new batch of chickens coming of age.  

My parents went in on a freeze drier with us this year so we have been freeze drying the surplus eggs rather than selling them. So then when the egg laying tapers off this winter we will still be eating our own eggs through the winter.  

We are down to just the basics and it's much more manageable for us. We are getting caught up on repairing and rebuilding a lot of the old infrastructure that was getting in disrepair due to us being too busy with 3 businesses.  We have ducks, geese, chickens, sheep and livestock guard dogs to care for year round and now just the small back yard garden.  This is perfect for the two of us to take care of.   

Now the garbage business is just 2 days per week and the cabin is being rented very regularly. I handle the cabin bookings and all the correspondence that it takes with the guests and potential guests. Kelli primarily handles the home keeping, gardening, yard maintenance and now she is the resident freeze drier expert! And we both clean the cabin. I always say we don't have a cabin rental business we have a cabin cleaning business! :)  Our one daughter still living at home used to do a lot of the cabin cleaning, but she now has her own business, a coffee shop in nearby town.   

When we first moved here in 1998 it was easy to get in over our heads with everything.  We were like kids turned loose on a giant 120 acre play ground! We've had just about every kind of farm animal over the years and even horses in the early years.  Horses are a big commitment in time and money and we have steered clear of them for a long time now. I'd love to ride a horse around here again, but all I have to do is remember the commitment in time and money and I go back to excepting that things are just fine as they are now. 

We are living in uncertain times and this year just about takes the cake! Life is always uncertain to be sure but a lot of things are being orchestrated to come to a head this year for whatever reason. It feels like a kind of purging and kind of a separation of the sheep and the goats. Some people are reassessing priorities and what's really important in life.  Others are just embracing their evil side and going with it. It's getting easier to see who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. 

We just wait and see how the rest of this year will play out. I hope you are prepared for anything at this point.

Until Next Time