What is a homestead? It is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency that might encompass raising animals, and growing and preserving food.
Here at Rockin W Homestead, we have some changes going on at home that have led me to contemplate the question “What is a homestead?”
One online dictionary defines it as a house, especially a farmhouse and outbuildings. Webster’s says that it’s a home and adjoining land occupied by a family. Most of these online definitions mention animals and crops.
Here in Texas, they even give you a “homestead” tax credit for the house and property that you live in. It can be located anywhere, – in the bustle of the city, in the uniformity of the suburbs, or on a nice quiet country lane.
Homesteading, on the other hand, is a philosophy.
It is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency that might encompass raising animals in whatever space you have available. It almost always includes growing and preserving food. Reducing your dependence on chemicals and taking care of the earth are also important to people who live the lifestyle.
Most people do not actually identify as homesteaders at all. Not in the Ma and Pa Ingles way.
In modern times, homesteading is about being as self-reliant as possible and doing as much (or as little) as you have the room to do.
So feel free to grow your own food or to buy it from a farmers market, go solar or just reduce your power usage… whatever your comfort level, it’s really about levels of sustainability.
I’ve briefly talked to my email list and they know that we decided not to build on our 11 acres of land and instead sell it. This past week we found a beautiful home on .22 acres in a subdivision. It’s going to give me plenty of room to have raised bed gardens, a compost pile, and a rainwater catchment system. It means reassessing my homestead dream.
Does that make me a homestead poser?
I’ve struggled with the notion of calling myself a homesteader without those 11 acres and I’ve decided that for me, it doesn’t matter where I live.
A homesteading life is anything that allows me to:
a) Provide for my family with my own efforts rather than running to the store. That might include from scratch cooking, growing some of my food and herbs, and preserving the harvest – even if I didn’t grow it all myself.
b) Explore ways to save money and keep learning new skills that will allow me to continue being self-reliant.
What does that mean for Rockin W Homestead going forward? I’ll be focusing on:
- how to grow the most food in the smallest space
- using raised bed gardening techniques
- vertical gardening
- composting to improve my soil
- saving money around the homestead
- making the most of the space you have available
What about you, do you call yourself a homesteader or are you just the self-reliant type?
Welcome to the first Farm Fresh Tuesday! I’ve teamed up with some terrific homesteading ladies for a weekly blog hop and we’re super excited.
What is a blog hop? It’s a place for bloggers to put their most recent articles about topics that interest you. It’s like searching for all the things you love about homesteading without having to scroll through a google search on individual topics. Each week you’ll find a new blogger and a few new articles that you’ll love.
My co-hosts for Farm Fresh Tuesdays are
Lisa Lombardo of The Self-Sufficient Home Acre read her latest article – Why Your Chickens Don’t Lay Eggs
Annie Lewellyn of 15 Acre Homestead read her latest article How to Care for Marigolds
Tamara Reid of The Reid Homestead read her latest article How To Freeze Berries
Shelle Wells of Rockin W Homestead (You’re here!)
Bloggers, thanks for stopping by! Feel free to add your family-friendly posts to this blog hop. Here are the rules.
- Homesteading, gardening, recipes, sustainable and green ideas, DIY, healthy living, and self-reliance posts are welcome. Share up to 4 family friendly posts.
- You may share older posts with ‘in season’ information, but please don’t share the same posts each week!
- This is a Roundup Party – If you share your posts in this party, you are giving permission for others to link to your posts….that’s a good thing because it helps get more eyes on your posts! 🙂
- Please link back to this party post so that we can feature you next week.
- Visit some of the other posts and leave a comment…let them know you found them here!
- Apply to our Farm Fresh Bloggers Roundup Page!
- Please do not link to other Blog Hops or Linky Parties.
What great changes are ahead for you and your family, Shelle! I’m excited to see where this new journey takes you.