What’s the 1 thing you should do till you get your dream!???
I run a homestead. There are 50+ chickens running around downstairs in area 1 right now. They are happy and well fed with little numbered tags around their right leg.
There are apple and plum trees currently all loosing their leaves as winter is coming closer. A fresh layer of bark around their roots to protect the ground from fully freezing.. but not close enough that a Vole can scurry up and eat the bark off the trees without one of our fur cats finding and destroying them.
Running a homestead has been my life for almost 9 years now. We started with a dirt plot of land and after much research we carefully placed every building and drilled wells and planned where the septic tank was best to be placed.
I often hear people dreamy eyed tell me that they someday want to live on a homestead just like we do. They work full time jobs and this is all they dream about to get them through the week.
It’s usually followed up with me asking them what they do on the weekend?
To which they respond:
Oh we are busy heading to the beach or going up in the mountains or hanging out with friends. Living the dream!
They seem dumbfounded when I reply asking them how much research they have actually done on it?
Their comments are usually on how they will do the research on raising chickens when they move to the country. Or how hard can it be? For the moment, all they can dream about it moving to the country and getting their as fast as they can…
If this is you…. I want to help you move their as soon as you can. Because it is a dream. And I want you to have your dream! In reality, It is a lifestyle and it is HARD!!!!
The number one thing you can do before you reach that dream….. is research! Talk to people and check out blogs and posts and Facebook groups and watch them. Study up on the type of gardening you want to do and how to successfully do it in your area.
Take classes!
Watch video’s of people living that dream… The real ones that have problems and not just selling you the dream!
Trust me. Rome wasn’t built in a day… and the more studying you do on the area you are moving to and weather and conditions the better prepared you will be.
It’s really not EASY.
I know people make it look really easy. But there will be problems.. I was laughed at in the community because I overbuilt my chicken coop. Trust me… I have only lost 1 chicken in the near 7 years we have had them.. and that was our error. (We stayed late at a dinner party… don’t think I don’t feel guilty about Mr. Gray Man loosing the battle to the racoon while protecting his girls!).
But it was the studying before hand…. The research before we even moved to our land.. that has saved us time and time again. Some of the research was hands down WRONG!!!! But much of it was timely and perfect knowledge for us to have.
That time when I had to perform emergency surgery on several chickens during a rain storm to save their lives! My only saving grace was I had taught myself before-hand on how to perform surgery on said chickens…. before it was needed. And I had taken notes before we even had the chickens on the land on what I would need to have on hand for emergencies like this.
If this is truly your dream…. get a notebook and start taking notes… because you won’t have the time to do the leisure research once you are on the land. And it could mean the difference between a dream…. and a nightmare!
The Bettencourt's 