When living on a homestead, one of the jobs that’s a must is preparing for winter! The whole point in homesteading is to be self-sustainable. What this means is that we work hard to rely little on what’s outside of our homestead. If 2020 has taught Mike and I anything, it’s that we can’t continue to be sheep and follow the crowd. This means we have to stand on our own 4 feet and be resourceful. There is no promise that the way of life this world has come to know, will ever continue the way it is. This year is proof of that. In the beginning of the pandemic, we struggled to get the food that we absolutely need. Living with many chronic immune illnesses, there’s only certain types of foods that I can have. These foods became scarce during the beginning part of the pandemic and honestly, it’s continued to be somewhat of a struggle. One HUGE reason our garden was so very important. This allowed me to not have to worry quite so much! As a result, I have a freezer full of healthy foods from my garden, along with 92 quarts of canned food.
Along with our food storage that we are working, there’s many more projects that’s going on and will continue to happen. This year we plan to build some cold frames for winter growing of certain foods, along with building an area in our basement to get the Spring plants started for the garden next year. This will include custom built shelving made by us, and some grow lights. Next Spring we will be building a bigger, permanent chicken coop where our egg layers will be moved to and with hopes, meat chickens will be placed. We just have to see how things go. There will also be a permanent greenhouse built, by us of course, where I can grow year round and always have plenty of healthy food for my family. Either next year or the year after, a root cellar will be put into place as well. There’s loads of plans for the homestead over the next years and we’ll document every step.
Our hopes are to help show other’s that this lifestyle can happen if you want it bad enough. Other plans we are working on are getting our at home business built, making our homestead a place of tranquility, get some of our own clothes made and products such as quilts and blankets. We want to make our homestead a place where we don’t have to worry what’s going on out there, because we are safe, happy, and healthy right here!