It is a learning experience, a journey that you really should never take alone, and one that may have you rethinking the lifestyle. But do not give up! In the end, the rewards are significant but only go into homesteading if you are ready to pay the price!
Having Realistic Expectations
We realize that we came into this homesteading project with far too ambitious expectations and that we are only human. Instead of feeling rested enough to take on such a lofty project, we are mentally drained from working on our business for three months straight (with eating and sleeping breaks only), our tools need TLC, and we feel that we are spread very thin among the various projects we wish to get done this year.
In the past couple of weeks, we’ve had to admit to ourselves that we need to slow down. We’ve had to remind ourselves that we aren’t superheroes and we simply can’t get everything done that we want to get done on our property within a single year… it could take five to ten years! This is a very hard swill for overachievers and workaholics such as ourselves to swallow.Remembering Why We Are On This Journey
We have had many heart-to-hearts over the past couple weeks on why we decided to start an off grid homestead in the first place. Some of the reasons were that we wanted to live a slower-paced life, not be tied up in the rat race, have the freedom to use our time to learn the skills to build our home rather than our wallets, and enjoy life a bit more than when we were stuck living in the city.
While we have fears like the next person about not having a better roof over our heads, having more water storage on our property or having a garden that supplies a small village with enough food, we have accepted that we can only move so fast and if we push harder than our bodies are capable of, it could have some tragic consequences and even slow us down.
Alyssa and her family are now moving forward with “positivity and acceptance”, which is vitally important for any first-time prepper and homesteader. To read more go to Mother Earth News.
You may walk into this lifestyle with your eyes wide open but never think everything will fall into place. It is great to have a timeline and if you can stick to it that is great.
But, like Alyssa, don’t beat yourself up if it takes longer than expected. As one wise person once said, Rome was not built in a day!
Featured Image via Alyssa Craft
Most People like the idea but will not put the necessary work in.
I live in an off grid area in Montana. The hardest thing your first year is to have everything ready for when your first winter arrives. This takes precedence over everything. If you live in a cold area, you will probably freeze if you’re not ready for it. If you’re starting from scratch, it will probably take 2 to 5 years to get it together. And if you are relying on help for your projects, don’t plan on your help or workers to show up when they say they will. You’re off the grid and hard to get to. Live with it, but also plan for it!