August 21, 2023 • 52 mins
On today's episode we jump back to May's Southern Adirondack Homesteading Festival and the talk I gave called "What Is Homesteading".
Enjoy!!
Brian
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
I'm your host, Brian Wells, andI'm a fourth generation
homesteader.
Since 2008, my family and I havebeen homesteading here.
Beautiful upstate New York.
In 2019, I launched thehomestead journey podcast.
To help people just like you getstarted and find success.
On their journey towardsself-sufficiency self-reliance.
(00:25):
And sustainability.
This is the homestead journey.
And this.
His he's in for.
Well, hello everyone.
And welcome back to thehomestead journey podcast.
Excited to be with you onceagain.
This is of course, season four.
(00:46):
This is episode number 165.
And my name is Brian Wellscoming to you from.
Three beef, farm and homesteadhere in beautiful upstate.
New York.
Now this episode is going to bea little bit different than
episodes past.
And in part that's because thisweek was the big week for us.
(01:09):
When we took our son, Brian.
Junior to college.
We just got home late lastnight.
I've spent a lot of the daygetting ready for the wonderful
Washington county fair that isgoing to be taking place this
coming week.
And so instead of recording afull episode, like I normally
(01:29):
would, what I have done isreached back into, well, not so
much the archives, but I've beensitting on a couple of
recordings from the SouthernAdirondack homesteading.
And festival that took placeback in may.
Of this year.
And so this week and next week,Are going to be episodes where
(01:52):
I'm going to be sharing withyou.
Uh, a couple of the talks that Igave at that event.
And so today's episode, if youare someone who normally follows
this on.
Odyssey rumble, uh, or YouTube,uh, Basically any of the video
platforms.
Eh, unfortunately, you're notgoing to be seeing my ugly mug
(02:13):
in any of this.
I am recording this audio onlybecause, well, I only recorded
audio when I was at the.
Uh, homesteading festival.
So I am so sorry that you willnot get to see my wonderful
looking face, but you will getto hear the sultry tones of my
voice.
And so that will have tosuffice.
(02:35):
For the next couple of weeks.
I just, before we jump intotoday's episode and we're not
going to have a homesteadhappenings, but I did want to
let you know that we did getBrian Jr.
Dropped off to college, uh,successfully.
Uh, everything went well.
And honestly, I did not shed asmany tears as I, I thought I
(02:56):
would, but we will save all ofthat for another episode, when
we do a little bit of afollowup.
Uh, in our series.
Uh, on empty nest homesteading,but for today, we are going to
just go ahead and jump right in.
This is the talk that I gave atthe, uh, Southern Adirondack
homesteading festival back inmay of this year.
(03:19):
And it was called, what ishomesteading?
This is probably a talk thatyou've heard me give many times
before here on the podcast, atleast bits and pieces of it.
But I do hope that you willglean something from it and that
you will find it enjoyable.
And then next week we are goingto be following up with a
(03:40):
chickens 1 0 1.
Talk that I gave as well.
So you're not going to want tomiss that, but right now let's
jump right over to this.
Week's charting the course.
What is homesteading?
Let's find out.
(04:02):
Today we're going to start outby trying, or I'm going to try
to answer a couple of questions.
What is homesteading?
Why is it important?
And then we're going to talkabout some reasons why people
maybe get scared to start theirjourney.
And then we're going to wrap upwith how to get started.
So that's a lot to cover andI'll talk really fast, but, um,
(04:27):
let's jump right into it.
So what is homesteading to me?
Homesteading is something thatit's, it's a, it's a word that's
really morphed in meaning overtime.
And I don't think there is astandardized definition of what
constitutes homesteading anylonger.
My guess is if I were to ask.
For your definition ofhomesteading.
(04:48):
I would probably have as manydefinitions as there are people
here.
We all see homesteading.
I think a little bitdifferently, but I think a lot
of times when we think abouthomesteading, we have a tendency
to define it from the standpointof where someone lives.
And what someone does.
So, someone might say, well ahomesteader is someone who lives
(05:10):
on the country on 20 acres ofland.
And on that land, they're doingall of these things.
They're raising and growingtheir own food.
They've got a large garden.
They're processing that food.
They're maybe canning,preserving, uh, freezing, freeze
drying, fermenting, dehydrating.
They're raising animals for meatand other products.
So, maybe they're raisingchickens for meat and eggs.
(05:32):
They're raising.
Uh, cows for meat and milk,goats for meat and milk, sheep
for meat and wool, they've gotducks, geese, guinea hens, maybe
they've got the odd donkey, emu,ostrich, um, and the list could
go on and on.
They're maybe cutting their ownfirewood and chopping it and
they're, they've got a composttoilet.
(05:52):
They live off grid.
They homeschool their kids.
I mean, the list goes on and onof ways that we would say.
A homesteader is someone wholives here and he does, or he,
she, they do this.
What if it's less about whereyou live and what you do, and
it's more about how you liveyour life and why?
(06:17):
To me, homesteading is ajourney.
It's not a destination.
And it's really a journeytowards three things.
It's a journey towards selfsufficiency, self reliance.
Now, those words are words thathave, again, I don't think
necessarily have standardizedmeanings.
(06:39):
A lot of times we'll use selfsufficiency and self reliance
kind of interchangeably.
And sustainability has kindof...
In recent days become synonymouswith environmental impact,
right?
I look at these a little bitdifferently.
So to me, self sufficiencyspeaks to stuff.
The things that you can raise,grow, produce, and or process on
(07:02):
your homestead or on your farm.
So eggs and meat and jelly andjam and those kinds of things,
stuff.
Self sufficiency speaks tostuff.
Self reliance speaks to skills.
Do I have the skills necessaryto raise, grow, produce, and or
process the stuff that I need orthat I want?
(07:23):
And then sustainability speaksto systems.
Do I have in place systemswhereby with minimal to no off
farm or off homestead inputs, Ican use my skills To raise,
grow, produce, or process thestuff that I need.
So let me illustrate this alittle bit.
So let's say from the standpointof self-sufficiency, I want to
(07:44):
be 100% self-sufficient withregards to chicken, meat, and
eggs.
Now, for our family, we have notbought eggs in the store for
ourselves since 2008.
2008 was the last time we boughteggs in the store.
And the reason why we did that,It's because we flew to Texas to
my brother's wedding and wedecided to do a Vrbo out there
(08:06):
and I couldn't take eggs with meon the plane.
And so I had to go to the storeand buy eggs.
That's the last time I boughteggs in a store until about a
month ago when my, maybe it wasa couple of months ago, my aunt
had COVID and she asked me if Icould go to the store and get
some things for her.
And on the list with eggs and itbroke my heart, it crushed my
(08:26):
soul to go in there and buythese eggs.
But at this point we were a halfhour from our house and I wasn't
driving all the way back to geteggs to take them to her.
But that was when I realizedthis eye opening experience.
Eggs were 5.
69 a dozen.
I was blown away.
But that's a side note.
Anyhow, so for our family, weare 100% self sufficient with
(08:50):
regards to eggs, haven't boughteggs in the store for our family
since 2008.
And as far as chicken meat goes,we are probably 50, 60% self
sufficient that we, through themeat birds and whatnot that we
raise.
So self sufficiency speaks tostuff, the chicken and the eggs.
So the.
(09:10):
The idea of self reliance wouldbe, okay, do I know how to take
care of chickens?
Do I know how to raise them upso that they stay alive, that
they don't die, that they don'tget eaten by predators, that
they don't, you know, getchilled, that they don't eat the
wrong thing.
Do I know how to take care ofthem?
And then once I have them raisedup to, you know, a good size, do
I know how to process them?
(09:31):
Okay.
So that would be self reliance.
Do I have the skills necessaryto raise, grow, produce, and or
process the stuff that I need?
So sustainability in my ideahere with regards to systems
then comes in to play like this.
Let's say I no longer want to goto the feed store and buy
chicks.
I don't want to order themthrough the mail.
I don't want to work with abreeder.
(09:52):
I don't, I want to make surethat I have a perpetual supply
of chicks.
And so I'm going to get arooster.
And some hens and the roostersgonna do the roostery things and
the hens are going to do thehenny things and then they're
going to lay these eggs andmaybe we'll have a broody hen
that she's going to sit on theeggs and they're going to hatch
or maybe I've got skills and Iknow how to put them in an
(10:14):
incubator and so I move on tothe self reliance piece where
I'm hatching these chicks out.
I'm not hatching them out.
The incubators hatching thembecause I couldn't sit still for
that long, but there are in theincubator.
I'm applying my skills.
They hatch out.
I take care of them.
I raise them up.
I've got the skills now whereI'm producing the stuff, the
(10:36):
chicken and the eggs that Ineed.
And we have this perpetual loophere where now I don't need to
worry about anything off myhomestead.
But I have this perpetual loopwhere I'm supplying myself with
chicken and eggs.
Now, I'm not necessarilysuggesting this morning.
That's how we do it on our farmbecause we don't.
And I'm not necessarily sayingthat's the most economical way
(10:57):
or the best way.
There's lots of ways to raisechicken.
I'm just using this as anexample.
So you can see howsustainability, self reliance,
and self sufficiency worktogether.
And again, keep in mind, this isa journey.
It's a journey.
It's not a destination.
We're on a journey towards selfsufficiency, self reliance, and
(11:18):
sustainability.
None of us here are ever goingto be 100% self sufficient, self
reliant, and sustainable.
We're always going to needoutside inputs.
We're always going to need help.
And the size and the scale.
Um, which you can homestead isgoing to definitely be impacted
(11:38):
by where you live.
Okay.
But homesteading, it's ajourney, not a destination.
And so when we start thinkingabout it like that, no longer am
I constrained by where I live.
Oh my goodness.
I don't live in the country.
I don't have five, 10, 15, 20acres of land.
Oh my goodness.
I don't have all of theinfrastructure.
(11:59):
Oh my goodness.
I don't know how to do all ofthe things.
Instead of looking at what Idon't have.
We now can look at it from theperspective of what do I have
and what can I do with what I dohave.
And so when we start looking athomesetting from that
perspective, to me that opens uphomesetting to an entirely new
(12:20):
group of people.
Because now I don't have to waituntil I've got 5, acres of land
to get started.
If it was, if I had to do that,I think I told you I'm 2.
16 acres.
Fail.
I'm not there, right?
But when we look at it from thejourney perspective, we start
(12:42):
right where we're at.
So if I'm in a townhouse, great.
We're going to talk aboutsomeone who lives in a townhouse
and is doing some homesteadingstuff.
If I live in an urban area,great.
I can still get started.
If I live in a suburban area, ifI live in an HOA, you're going
to have to get creative.
You're going to have to work atit.
You're going to have to work outa little harder than somebody
(13:04):
who has the five to 10 to 15, 20acres of land, but you're no
longer constrained by the ideaof where I live and what I do,
but we start this journeytowards those ideals of self
sufficiency, self reliance andsustainability.
Why does homesteading matter?
Why are we here this weekend?
(13:24):
It's a great question.
I'm glad you asked it.
Thank you so much.
To me, homesetting is good for awhole lot of reasons, but there
are four key ones that came tomy mind.
First of all, homesetting isgood for you.
And what do I mean by it's goodfor you?
Well, homesteading definitelyleans more towards an active
(13:45):
lifestyle.
If you're going to be successfulas a homesteader, sitting on the
couch, eating Cheetos andgetting fat and Netflix and
chill every day, all day is notgoing to be.
A successful recipe for being asuccessful homesteader.
So as a homesteader, it leadsto, and I'm not against every
once in a while a Netflix andchill day.
(14:06):
I'm not, I'm not, every once ina while we need that.
Okay.
As a homesteader, it's more ofan active lifestyle.
It gets us off the couch.
And I, I, in fact, the, uh, my,my buddy, Andy Defoe, the full
family farm that I mentionedearlier, he used to own a gym
and he sold the gym and he's nowdoing the homesteading thing.
But I used to say to him all thetime, Andy.
(14:27):
The homestead is my gym, youknow, shoveling out this or
moving, you know, a ton and ahalf of feet or moving bales of
hay or whatever, like you'll getin a good workout, right?
So it definitely leads to a moreactive lifestyle.
So in that regard, it's good foryou, but it's also good for you
because how many of you haveever had a homegrown tomato
(14:50):
right out of your garden?
Yeah, I've got lots of handshere.
How many of you have ever had atomato from the store?
How many of you would 100 timesrather have the tomato from your
garden?
Yeah, there's no comparison.
When you stand in the middle ofyour garden and you bite into
(15:11):
that tomato on those warm juicesare dripping down your chin.
There is no better tomato whenall of tomato them than that
tomato that you're eating atthat moment.
And my point is if you raisegood food, you're going to want
to eat good food.
And if you eat good food, that'sgood for you.
So homesteading from thatperspective, in my opinion, is
(15:33):
good for you, but it's not justgood for you.
It's good for your family oryour family unit.
So if you're doing this togetherwith your family, what better
way to teach your kids someresponsibility than to have a
homestead and learn how to takecare of some animals and learn
how to do some, you know, maybesome things they don't want to
do, but to fall in love withsome things that they do want.
(15:55):
To do.
And I like to think, this is alittle cheesy, but I should get
shirts up that say this.
The family that grows together,grows together.
Now, maybe that's a littlecheesy, but there is something
to be said about workingtogether as a family towards a
common goal.
(16:18):
Growing food together.
Understanding when you butcheran animal, what that means.
The seriousness of that.
Your kids growing up toappreciate food.
In a way that a transfer ofdollars will never ever give
them appreciation.
And so, homesteading is not justgood for you, it's good for your
(16:41):
family.
And if it's good for yourfamily, then it's good for your
community.
Because if we've got healthy,well adjusted kids, and we've
got nice families that areworking together, That's going
to benefit the community and notonly that, but homesteading
thrives, in my opinion, withinthe context of community because
(17:01):
you might like to do somethingthat I don't like to do and I
might like to do something thatyou don't like to do.
And so maybe we work together,we collaborate and you do the
thing that you'd like to do andI'll do the thing that I like to
do and then we kind of.
Swap things back and forth, ormaybe you know how to do
something that I want to learnhow to do.
And so I go, hey, could youteach me how to do X, Y, or Z?
(17:22):
And you say, sure, come on over,and I'll teach you how to do X,
Y, or Z.
I've got a buddy, Jack Rollin.
Uh, he lives about an hour southof here.
And, uh, he's the vice presidentof the American Guinea Hog
Association.
And when I got into AmericanGuinea Hogs, I didn't know how
to castrate pigs.
I wish I still didn't know howto castrate pigs.
(17:45):
That is, by far and away, myleast favorite thing to do.
I would rather shovel out ahundred chicken coops than
castrate pigs.
I absolutely hate that day.
I dread it.
But my buddy, I didn't know howto do it.
And Jack Rowland said, well hey,I'll come up and I'll show you.
And he came up and he showed me.
(18:05):
And then later on I had anotherfriend who he got into pigs and
he was like, Hey, I don't knowhow to castrate pigs.
And so guess what?
He called me up and he said,Hey, Brian, how to castrate
pigs.
So guess what I did?
I went to his house and I showedhim how to castrate pigs.
And I think he still doesn'tlike to do castration.
Uh, anybody that likes you thatI don't know, but, um, yeah.
I'm not sure, we might need tolook over our shoulders.
(18:29):
Sleep with one eye open.
Um, but it's good for community.
You get to learn, you know, donew things and interact with new
people and meet new people.
It's good for community.
But it's also good for theenvironment.
Now, initially I said withregards to sustainability, I
look at it from the context ofsystems, but I don't want to
(18:52):
throw in being environmentallyfriendly out the window, because
in my opinion, homesteaders arethe original environmentalists.
And the reason being is becausewe understand that what we have,
A, it costs us a lot of money,B, it's not easy to replace, and
so we need to take care of it.
(19:13):
We want to make sure that we cancontinue to use this year in and
year out.
So kind of the old idea ofreduce, reuse, recycle, right?
Um, you kind of get creative.
If you go to the poultryprocessing, uh, demonstration,
you will see two of mycreative...
Um, endeavors, shall we say.
Here in, I live on Bald Mountainhere in Greenwich.
(19:34):
Anybody that knows, uh, BaldMountain, Um, there's a guy that
I used to work with, uh, Um, hewas a, a math teacher here in
Greenwich.
But he said when he first movedto Greenwich, If you jerry rig
something, you know, as a cobjob, they refer to it as a bald
mountain hookup.
And so I have fully embracedthis idea of the bald mountain
hookup.
And so if you go into thepoultry processing
(19:56):
demonstration, you're going tosee a stand that the scalder is
sitting on.
If I look underneath that...
You're going to see that that isa potty chair, you know, one of
those chairs that you put overthe toilet.
You're like, yeah.
So I got one of those for free.
I put a piece of plywood on topof it.
Now I have something that's aperfect height.
I can adjust it up and down andit works great to hold my
(20:18):
scalder.
Some of that, uh, you know,reduce, reuse, recycle kind of
mentality.
There's an old server rack therethat's now got a kill cone on
it.
Um, and so again, environmentalimpact.
We try to feed our soil, right?
So instead of going out andbuying a bunch of You know,
fertilizer and stuff like that.
If you've got chickens, youallow that manure to age.
(20:40):
And then you put that onto yourgarden or you get some cows, you
put that on, you know, manureand you, not cows, cow manure,
and you put that on your gardenand you know, pigment, like
whatever it is, but you'refeeding your soil.
And that's very, veryenvironmentally friendly.
And if you go to some of richGiordano's classes, you know,
he's going to talk to you aboutsaving seeds and things of that
(21:03):
nature.
Homesteaders, in my opinion.
Uh, I'll need Originalenvironmentalist, maybe not the
original environmentalist, but,uh, definitely we're right up
there at the tops and in myopinion, homesteading matters
because it's good for you.
It's good for your family.
It's good for the community andit's certainly good for the
environment, but what keepspeople from homesteading?
(21:25):
If homesteading is such a greatthing, what keeps people from
getting started?
Let me keep an eye on the timehere because I could talk all
day, so I don't want to do that.
We've got a great session comingup here on, um, Getting started,
getting started with mushrooms.
Mushrooms 101.
So I don't want to, um, get inthe way of that.
(21:47):
Um, but what keeps people fromstarting?
Well...
I think there's a few things,but a few things, there's a lot
of things, but a few things thatcame to my mind were these.
First of all, the idea that youhave to have a lot of land.
Um, and again, it goes back tothat definition of defining
things from the standpoint ofwhere someone lives and what
someone does.
(22:07):
So you have to have a lot ofland.
You need to do all of thethings.
Um, self doubt.
Can I really do this?
Or imposter syndrome.
Am I really doing this?
And then worrying about whatother people think.
Well, am I a real homesteader?
Am I like so and so?
Do I do it like so and so?
And oh my goodness, my familythinks I'm nuts and crazy for
(22:30):
doing this thing.
All of that.
And my opinion keeps us fromgetting started on our
homesteading journey.
I've got, now I get way offscript here, so hopefully let me
catch up.
Ah, so for a few minutes, let mejust talk about these things and
(22:52):
try to debunk them a little bit.
Do you have to have lots of landin order to be a homesteader?
I don't like looking at that,that from that perspective for a
number of reasons.
First of all, as I mentionedearlier, it's exclusionary.
If you have to have 5, acres ofland.
And you have to wait to get tothat point.
(23:14):
I'm not there.
2.
16 acres.
Hashtag fraud.
Hashtag phony.
Hashtag not a real homesteader.
But how many of you haverealized that land is kind of
expensive?
And has it gotten more or lessexpensive since COVID?
Yeah, more.
And how many of you have gone toHome Depot or Lowe's or Curtis
(23:39):
Lumber lately?
Anybody been to any of thoseplaces?
Building supplies, are they lessexpensive or more expensive?
Like way more expensive.
How many of you have everrelocated your family?
That's not easy.
It's complicated.
And so, if we have to do thesethings, if we have to say, well,
(23:59):
I can't start my homesteadingjourney until I get the 20 acres
of land, and maybe the cheapestplace I can find land is in, I
was going to say Colorado, but Iknow Colorado, I don't even know
where there's cheap places tofind land anymore, but we're
just, North Dakota, okay, sowe're good.
Let's say we got to go to NorthDakota.
That's a complicated situation,and you're going away from all
(24:23):
of the things that you know, andthe families that you know.
Do you need to have 5, 10, 15,20 acres of land to to be a real
homesteader?
No, I don't think you do.
But the other thing I would sayis this, be careful what you
wish for.
So there's someone I know.
I actually interviewed her on mypodcast.
She and her family got allexcited about Homestead.
They went out and they bought a40 acre farm.
(24:45):
They hadn't grown, I don'tthink, maybe they'd grown a
little bit in their suburbanbackyard, not much.
But they went on to a 40 acrefarm and they started doing all
of the things and it didn't workout real well and they ended up
selling and moving on.
So be careful what you wish forbecause bigger isn't always
better.
You see, in my opinion, learninghow to take care of land and
(25:08):
learning homesteading skills andlearning how to take care of
animals.
All of those have learningcurves.
And if you're trying to do itall in one fell swoop, all at
the same time, be careful whatyou wish for.
I'm not sure that's necessarilya recipe for success.
And certainly with more landcomes...
(25:30):
Greater temptations to do all ofthe things and raise all of the
things and grow all of thethings.
Do you have to have 5, acres ofland to be a homesteader?
Well, that's a great question.
Thank you so much for asking it.
As I said, our homestead 2.
16 acres.
(25:52):
I've given up trying to figureout what percentage of food we
grow on our, it's a lot.
I don't know.
Percentage wise, I don't know.
It's a lot.
There's some areas, like I said,with eggs, 100% self sufficient,
uh, tomato sauce, tomato,crushed tomatoes, jams, jellies,
like, like all that stuff, 100%self sufficient.
Other things, maybe not quite somuch, but it doesn't matter.
(26:15):
We're doing the thing.
We're raising food and we'rehaving fun doing it.
My mom and dad, I think theyhave exactly an acre.
If you go down into theirbasement, into their pantry, you
will be amazed at the jars offood that they have put up off
of one acre of land.
They've got chickens.
My dad has bees, although that'sbeen a bit of a rocky, uh, and a
(26:36):
sore subject, but, uh, my daddoes bees.
Uh, he's raised meat birds.
One acre of land, but do youneed an acre of land?
No, there's this guy I knowfarmer Greg urban farm check him
out got a great podcast greatYouTube channel urban farm
farmer Greg He for many yearslived in Phoenix, Arizona Now
(27:00):
Phoenix, Arizona is not a placethat I would necessarily say is
well known for homesteadingbeing homesteading friendly Yet,
from one third of an acre,Farmer Greg estimates that he
was growing 30 to 35 percent ofhis food from one acre of land
in Phoenix, Arizona, but youneed to have a third of an acre
(27:22):
of land.
Well, no, no, you don't.
I wish I could go.
I wish I could go to thesepeople's house and sometimes,
you know, you have to be carefulwhat you read on the internet.
So I wish I could go and improvethis, but there is a family who
lives in Australia that claimthat out of An 800 square foot
(27:43):
backyard.
They are producing 80% of theirfood.
Now they're having to getcreative.
They're doing successionplanning, doing vertical
gardening.
They're bartering with people,but from 800 square foot, 800
square feet, they're raising.
80% of their food.
But do you have to have 800square feet?
Well, no, thank you so much forasking that question.
(28:05):
Let me introduce you to myfriend Claire on Instagram at
start underscore smallunderscore homestead.
Now, this is Claire excitedabout harvesting some things
from her community garden plot.
You see, Claire started herhomestead journey three years
ago.
This is her bio on Instagram.
(28:28):
I have 500 square feet of rentedgrowing space and I'm
homesteading.
I even have some livestock.
Two years ago, I had 80 squarefeet.
Some dreams start small.
This is where she started.
And I know it's hard to see.
I wish this was a betterprojector just for this, this
(28:49):
picture.
But this was where she startedon an 8x10 patio.
She's got totes.
Another tote over here.
She found a pool ladder by theside of the road that she turned
into a trellis.
80 square feet.
And then she said, you knowwhat?
I can do more.
(29:10):
And so she went, she got quail.
She can't have chickens, butshe's got room back there
somehow on an eight by 10 patioto raise quail.
And she's generating eggs forher family.
Last year, she decided toupgrade.
She got two 10 by 16 foot plotsat the community garden.
(29:35):
And then this year, she said,you know what, I can do even
better.
And she got an 8 by 10, I think,square, uh, uh, another plot.
So she's now got three plots atthe community garden.
Now, her dream is to buy her ownplace, and in fact, they thought
they had a place, and kind ofthings, uh, fell, fell through
(29:55):
on them.
But she's not waiting to getstarted.
She's doing the best she canwith what she's got to work
with.
And she's getting super creativeand she puts me to shame with
the amount of food that she'sable to generate and grow out of
that small area.
But the point is folks, youdon't have to have five, 10, 15,
20 acres of land to get startedon your journey towards self
(30:16):
sufficiency, self reliance andsustainability.
If nobody else is proof of that,Claire, in my opinion, sure is.
And not only is she raising andgrowing food, but she's learning
how to can.
She's making bread.
I mean, you go to her, um, page,you will be amazed.
Check it out on Instagram.
Start underscore smallunderscore homestead besides
(30:42):
thinking that you have to havelots of land people think you
need to do all the things Youdon't have to do any of the
things What I mean by that isthis Obviously you have to do
some things if you're gonna be ahomesteader sit down the couch
eating Cheetos getting fat isnot a homesteader Okay, but what
(31:03):
I'm saying is means something toyou may not mean anything to me
and that's okay What is selfsufficiency to you?
The things that you need, thethings that you want to raise,
grow, produce, and or processprobably are going to be
different than the things that Iwant to raise, grow, produce, or
process on my homestead.
And that's okay.
That's the beauty of this.
(31:25):
Now, I've heard people say,well, you can't be a real
homesteader unless you havechickens.
Well, I love chickens.
I don't ever want to not havechickens.
But Claire's doing just finewith quail.
She was doing just fine withoutquail.
So do you have to have chickensin order to be a real
homesteader?
No, you don't have to.
Do you have to grow beans?
(31:46):
You don't like beans.
Don't grow beans.
Do you have to grow tomatoes?
No.
If you don't like tomatoes,don't grow tomatoes.
You don't have to do.
What everybody else is doing.
One of the things that drives menuts, I should say drive me
nuts.
That's probably a little bit ofan overstatement, but when
people will say, you know,they're all excited about
gardening.
What should I plant?
What do you like to eat?
(32:09):
I'm not going to tell you toplant what I like to eat because
maybe you don't like to eat whatI like to eat.
So what do you like to eat?
Do your thing.
You do you figure out what selfsufficiency means to you.
You don't need to do all of thethings.
You don't need to do any oneparticular thing.
Do what brings you joy.
Do what brings meaning to yourlife.
(32:34):
But certainly there's atemptation to do all of the
things.
Is there not to grow?
All of the things.
To raise all of the things.
I mean, people talk aboutchicken math.
Chicken math is real.
Duck math, that's pretty realpig math.
Um, I've had some unplanned pigpregnancies.
What did we determine that was UP P P?
(32:54):
Yeah, that's what he determinedthat was, uh, Rich and I last
night, I think it was your PPP.
Um, but yeah, I've had unplannedpregnancies.
I think I've got a couple ofthem right now, but that's a
story for another day.
Um, there is a temptation to doall the things and raise all the
things and grow all the things.
And I'll tell you folks, itdoesn't matter whether you're on
year one or you're on year ten.
(33:16):
I think that temptation nevergoes away, but don't try to do
all the things and raise all thethings and grow all the things.
That's a recipe for disasterbecause it's going to overwhelm
you.
It's going to overwhelm youphysically.
It's going to overwhelm youmentally.
It's going to overwhelm you.
Uh, financially, um, it's justgoing to bog you down.
(33:39):
So do the things that you wantto do.
Don't worry about what anybodyelse is doing as best you can
put a break on it.
Slow your roll a little bit.
Be realistic.
And don't try to do all of thethings.
But the other reason why I thinkit's not a good idea to do all
(33:59):
of the things is becauseremember we're talking about
community and there's thingsthat someone else might like to
do and I might not like to dothem.
So if I try to do the thingsthat I don't like to do, then I
miss out on that communityaspect of working with somebody
who might like to do the verything that I don't like to do.
And so I.
At the end, achieve the sameresult, but on top of achieving
(34:22):
the same result, I've builtcommunity.
And I don't know about you, butsometimes you can feel a little
bit alone in this thing.
And so when you start buildingthat community and working with
people.
The joy that that brings and thevalue that brings to the idea of
homesteading.
(34:42):
Another thing that keeps peoplefrom starting their journey is
self doubt.
I can't do this.
I just can't do this.
I could never kill an animal.
I can't, I've got a black thumb.
I could never raise anything.
Well, what was it the other dayI ran across something trying to
remember exactly how it was, butit was like a baby doesn't know
(35:04):
how To, to do roofing.
Yeah, flat roofing.
Yeah, there was some more to itthan that.
I'm not gonna, not all of itwas, uh, but the point was,
nobody is born knowing how to doanything.
All of us have to learn skillsas we go along, and so maybe you
do have a black thumb.
Unlearn it, or learn how to havea green thumb.
(35:26):
And if you, maybe if you justsuck at it and you're like, ah,
that's them for me, then maybethere's something else that
you're good at.
Maybe you're good at raisinganimals.
Maybe you're good at sewing.
Maybe you're good at quilting.
Maybe you're good at bakingbread.
Like, you don't have to, again,you don't have to do one
particular thing, but selfdoubt.
Put that out of your mind.
In my opinion, everybody can getstarted on their journey towards
(35:48):
self sufficiency, self reliance,and sustainability.
I don't think homesteading isfor everyone.
Think that everybody has thisdesire, but I think if you want
to, you can do it.
But then there's this idea ofimposter syndrome.
People get started and they'relike, well, am I a real
homesteader?
Am I doing this right?
(36:10):
Am I a real homesteader?
I mean, have you ever seen,anybody of you part of Facebook
groups?
Have you ever heard, seenanybody like, I don't do X, Y,
or Z, does that mean I'm not areal homesteader?
Have you ever seen people asklike that kind of a question?
Well, let's switch off fromhomesteading for a moment to
something else, basketball.
Now, I honestly am not abasketball fan.
(36:32):
I don't watch basketball, butlet me ask you this question.
Who is the best basketballplayer to ever play the game?
Shout it out.
Alright, so if you said anythingother than Michael Jordan,
you're wrong.
Now, we're not talking about hiswizard days.
(36:52):
We'd rather forget the wizarddays.
But...
Many of us, and there's someyoung folks here that never had
the opportunity to see MichaelJordan play in the prime of his
career.
But, Michael Jordan was anawesome basketball player, and
in my opinion, sorry, Larry Birdguy.
Uh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, um.
(37:15):
The best basketball player toever play the game.
But the point is not whether ornot Larry Bird or Michael Jordan
were the best basketballplayers.
The question I want to ask iswhen did Michael Jordan become a
basketball player?
Was it when he was recruited bythe University of North
Carolina?
(37:35):
No, he was a basketball playerbefore then.
Was it when he played highschool basketball?
No, he was a basketball playerlong before then you see some
point in his life, MichaelJordan picked up a basketball
and he dribbled a few times andthen he took a few shots and
(37:56):
then he got into a game and hestarted playing basketball and I
don't know, I really don't know.
Like his youth.
level stuff, but maybe he gotinto a youth league and I don't
even know what travel league wasa thing back in those days, but,
uh, somewhere along the line,the point is Michael Jordan
became a basketball player.
(38:17):
When was that?
I don't know.
Why do I care?
It's like a crazy question toask and yet people sit around
and they worry about, well, whendo I become a real homesteader?
I don't know.
I don't care.
Pick up a basketball, play abasketball and start dribbling,
take a few shots, start doingthe things.
(38:38):
And as you start that journeytowards self sufficiency, self
reliance and sustainability,somewhere along the line, I
don't know where it is, I don'tcare, you become a homesteader.
But stop the self doubt and theimposter syndrome.
Just start your journey towardsthose things.
(39:00):
Anybody here ever think thatyou're crazy for doing this?
I got a lot of nodding headswith a lot of emphasis here.
Anybody have family and friendsthat look at you kind of cross
eyed or when they see you comeand they kind of turn and head
the other way because it's like,oh, here comes that crazy
chicken lady.
Or I don't want to hear aboutwhat's going on in the garden.
(39:23):
Yeah, what we're doing here,folks, is way outside the
mainstream.
Now it's become a little bitmore acceptable, I think, uh,
since COVID.
But as COVID has gone on and I,man, I hate to say that word.
I almost feels like a curseword, but as we kind of get
beyond the other side of it, youknow, people are going back to
(39:44):
the ways that they used to livebecause homesteading, it's not
the simple life.
I hate it when people refer toit as a simple life and I know
what they mean by the simplelife.
But to me, the simple life isgoing down to Haniford and
picking up a styrofoam tray withsome meat on it.
That's the simple life.
(40:05):
Raising a chick up throughadulthood, moving the chicken
tractor, dealing with thechicken poop, um, lugging feed,
butchering the chickens.
That's not simple.
That's not easy.
Very rewarding.
The end product is much better,but that's not the simple life.
(40:29):
People look at us like we'reweird.
Part of the joy of an event likethis, look around.
Look around.
There's a lot of weird peoplehere.
You're in good company.
(40:50):
You're in good company.
And so, I hope that as you gothrough this weekend, that it's
not just about showing up toseminars and hearing people like
me blather on, but it's alsoabout forming relationships and
building community.
With other individuals becauseat the end of the day we need
(41:10):
that when we've got peoplelooking at us cross eyed Like
we're weird.
We need to have that communitythose other people maybe they're
a weirdo, but you know whatwe're weirdos together We're a
good company.
We get to meet other weirdpeople.
(41:32):
That's awesome So, how do youget started?
How do you get started on thisjourney towards self sufficiency
self reliance andsustainability?
Well, the thing I would say isstart small, just like Claire.
Start small.
Start with one skill.
Master that skill.
(41:53):
And then move on to somethingelse.
And as you start small, youmight get in to something that
you thought you really, reallywanted to get into.
And then all of a sudden yourealize this really sucks.
I hate this.
And you know what?
You don't have to keep doing it.
You can move on to somethingelse, but learn skills on a
(42:13):
small scale so that if you everget that five, 10, 15, 20 acres
of land, you can scale up andyou can hit the ground running
and you can keep doing thethings.
Be creative.
You saw, Claire had that pool.
I would have never thought ofusing a pool ladder as a
trellis.
She saw that by the side of theroad and in her mind, she
(42:34):
thought, trellis.
Now, like I said, I've got apotty chair over there as a, uh,
uh, stand.
And, you know, my mind generallydoes work that way, but...
I would have never thought of apool ladder as a trellis, but
she was creative enough to seethat.
So be creative again.
Don't focus on what you don'thave.
(42:54):
Think about what do I have andwhat can I do with the things
that I already have before yougo out and spend a lot of money
on something that later onyou're like, bro, this really
sucks.
Why did I spend money on this?
Focus on what you have insteadof what you don't have and do
the best you can.
(43:14):
with what you have to work with.
Don't let great get in the wayof good because if you let great
get in the way of good enough,you're never ever going to get
started.
Now, my brother, um, Keith, wholives down in Tennessee, Um, he
couldn't hack it up here in thegreat northeast, so he turned
tail and ran.
No, I'm just kidding.
(43:35):
Um, but we moved to Tennesseeand he jokingly refers to, uh,
whenever he does some kind of aproject around the house as good
enough contracting, like that isgood enough.
Just have to do.
And then he got into, uh, didsome landscaping and so he says,
uh, it'll do.
So it's landscaping companies.
(43:56):
It'll do.
And his contracting company isgood enough.
But folks, what's the point?
Do the best you can with whatyou've got to work with and
don't let this ideal of havingall of the things and the best
of everything get in the way ofgetting started and learning how
(44:16):
to do the skills and learninghow to do the things.
As you journey towards selfsufficiency, self reliance and
sustainability.
I also want you to keep in mindthis.
Homesteading is a marathon.
It is not a sprint.
(44:38):
It's also not a competition bythe way.
Sometimes I think people can geta little bit caught up in Trying
to keep up with somebody else.
Walk your path.
Walk your journey.
What is your journey?
The things that are important toyou are probably not what is
important to me.
You're wrong.
No, I'm just kidding.
(44:58):
But no, it's it's it's not acompetition.
It's not a marathon.
It's a marathon.
It's not a sprint.
So don't try to do too much atone time.
Don't try to go too big toofast.
You don't have to do anything.
Grow, raise and do what bringsyou joy.
Walk your path.
You don't have to do it all.
(45:18):
It's okay to hire others to dosome things, barter with others
to do some things that you can'tor you don't like to do.
There's no shame in that at all.
But I want to tell you this,know when to quit.
Just because you get intosomething, you might enjoy doing
something for a while, butthere's a season for that.
And then maybe you need to moveon to something else because
(45:38):
your needs change.
Or your life situation changes,or you decide, you know what,
I'm tired of doing this, or Idon't need this any longer in my
life.
So give yourself permission toquit stuff.
You try something and it didn'twork out.
Do you want to keep try again?
(45:58):
And if you want to try again,great, try again.
But if not, give yourselfpermission to quit stuff.
It's okay.
Life has ebbs and flows.
Right now, my wife and I aregoing through a big transition.
We have one son, and, uh, he'sgetting ready to go off to
(46:19):
college.
And that scares me.
That's a big change.
That's going to be a big changeon our homestead.
And, uh, as we go through thisseason of life, now we're trying
to understand, okay, what do weneed, what do we want out of
(46:40):
life, and as we get into thispost Brian J.
I hate to say post Brian J.
World, but you know what I'msaying with the little snot nose
brat snot at the end of thehall, um, what's life going to
look for us?
Our needs as a family are goingto change.
The same holds true inhomesteading.
(47:01):
As we go through ourhomesteading journey, there are
going to be ebbs and flows.
There are going to be times whenwe need, need tomatoes and there
are going to be times when wedon't need tomatoes.
And if you don't need tomatoes,don't plant tomatoes.
Plant something else, plantsquash, plant cucumbers, plant,
rich by the way has got a reallygreat squash he's going to tell
(47:21):
you about in the seed savingclass.
So definitely don't miss out onthat, but plant what you need,
right?
Give yourself permission toquit.
It's all good.
The last thing I want to tellyou is this.
You don't have to wait to getstarted.
There are so many people to say,I can't wait to get started on
my homesteading journey.
(47:42):
I can't wait till I get 5, acresof land and really get into
homesteading.
You don't have to wait.
If homesteading is a journeytowards self sufficiency, self
reliance and sustainability.
Anybody can get started today,and if Claire isn't proof
positive of that, I'm not quitesure who would be.
(48:02):
I love to say, and I'm sureyou've heard it, the journey of
a thousand miles begins with asimple step.
And so this weekend, if youhaven't started, take that first
simple step towards selfsufficiency, self reliance and
sustainability.
And if you've been on thisjourney for a while, take the
next right step for you towardsself sufficiency, self reliance
(48:25):
and sustainability.
I don't know what that's goingto look like for all of us.
That's probably going to look alittle bit different, but each
one of us this weekend can starttaking that next right step in
the direction of selfsufficiency, self reliance and
sustainability.
So I have got five minutes left.
(48:48):
Did anybody drop a question inSlido or was I so enthralling of
a speaker that you didn't evenhave time to think about it?
Let me look here.
Pulling it up.
Work for me, please.
(49:09):
Here we go.
Any questions?
And as that's coming, no, noquestions there.
So anybody have a question?
Anybody have a statement?
Anybody say, Brian, you're agreat, you're wrong.
Question.
Statement.
(49:37):
Oh, that's a good point.
Well, that's a good point.
And thank you so much for thatplug for the Homestead Journey
(49:59):
podcast.
Um.
Definitely.
Check it out.
No.
Um, certainly.
I, and that's one of the thingsin not trying to pound myself on
the back here, but I really dotry on my podcast to keep things
as positive as possible becauseI want to encourage people.
If you've tried and failed, getback up and try it again.
(50:21):
You know it in, you know, if itdidn't work one way, it might
work another way and that's allright.
What works for one persondoesn't necessarily always work
for another person, butcertainly seeing success, what
do they say?
Success breeds success, right?
And so certainly we want to be,um, positive ambassadors.
Thank you for that.
(50:48):
Well, I do hope that you didenjoy that episode.
And if you have any questions orcomments as always, you can
reach out to me, Brian, at thehomestead journey.net is my
email address.
Or you can follow us on all ofthe social media accounts.
Did want to quickly remind youthat home is, quickly
approaching the, fall gatheringof home setters in the England
(51:08):
will be taking place.
September 9th and 10th inGreenfield, New Hampshire.
So you're not going to want tomiss that homesteaders of
england.com is where you canfind out all of the information.
Get tickets.
You'll be able to beat me andBonnie.
But of course, more importantpeople, more knowledgeable
(51:29):
people like Jack polner, Morgan.
Gold from gold Shaw farm alumnafrom lameness acres.
Try McClung from red tool houseand the pastured pig podcast.
He's also going to be there.
Don Bradner from little mountainlife will be there.
So just a lot of great people.
You're not going to want to missit.
(51:51):
And if you are interested incoming, hurry up and buy your
tickets because September 1st,the price is going to go up.
So if you're thinking aboutcoming.
Save yourself, some dose ski bygetting your tickets now.
That's it for this episode, Ihope you've enjoyed it.
And next week, chickensone-on-one.
Here on the homestead journeypodcast.
(52:11):
Until then as always.
Keep up.
The good work.
I'm your host, Brian Wells, andI'm a fourth generation
homesteader.
Since 2008, my family and I havebeen homesteading here.
Beautiful upstate New York.
In 2019, I launched thehomestead journey podcast.
To help people just like you getstarted and find success.
On their journey towardsself-sufficiency self-reliance.
(00:25):
And sustainability.
This is the homestead journey.
And this.
His he's in for.
Well, hello everyone.
And welcome back to thehomestead journey podcast.
Excited to be with you onceagain.
This is of course, season four.
(00:46):
This is episode number 165.
And my name is Brian Wellscoming to you from.
Three beef, farm and homesteadhere in beautiful upstate.
New York.
Now this episode is going to bea little bit different than
episodes past.
And in part that's because thisweek was the big week for us.
(01:09):
When we took our son, Brian.
Junior to college.
We just got home late lastnight.
I've spent a lot of the daygetting ready for the wonderful
Washington county fair that isgoing to be taking place this
coming week.
And so instead of recording afull episode, like I normally
(01:29):
would, what I have done isreached back into, well, not so
much the archives, but I've beensitting on a couple of
recordings from the SouthernAdirondack homesteading.
And festival that took placeback in may.
Of this year.
And so this week and next week,Are going to be episodes where
(01:52):
I'm going to be sharing withyou.
Uh, a couple of the talks that Igave at that event.
And so today's episode, if youare someone who normally follows
this on.
Odyssey rumble, uh, or YouTube,uh, Basically any of the video
platforms.
Eh, unfortunately, you're notgoing to be seeing my ugly mug
(02:13):
in any of this.
I am recording this audio onlybecause, well, I only recorded
audio when I was at the.
Uh, homesteading festival.
So I am so sorry that you willnot get to see my wonderful
looking face, but you will getto hear the sultry tones of my
voice.
And so that will have tosuffice.
(02:35):
For the next couple of weeks.
I just, before we jump intotoday's episode and we're not
going to have a homesteadhappenings, but I did want to
let you know that we did getBrian Jr.
Dropped off to college, uh,successfully.
Uh, everything went well.
And honestly, I did not shed asmany tears as I, I thought I
(02:56):
would, but we will save all ofthat for another episode, when
we do a little bit of afollowup.
Uh, in our series.
Uh, on empty nest homesteading,but for today, we are going to
just go ahead and jump right in.
This is the talk that I gave atthe, uh, Southern Adirondack
homesteading festival back inmay of this year.
(03:19):
And it was called, what ishomesteading?
This is probably a talk thatyou've heard me give many times
before here on the podcast, atleast bits and pieces of it.
But I do hope that you willglean something from it and that
you will find it enjoyable.
And then next week we are goingto be following up with a
(03:40):
chickens 1 0 1.
Talk that I gave as well.
So you're not going to want tomiss that, but right now let's
jump right over to this.
Week's charting the course.
What is homesteading?
Let's find out.
(04:02):
Today we're going to start outby trying, or I'm going to try
to answer a couple of questions.
What is homesteading?
Why is it important?
And then we're going to talkabout some reasons why people
maybe get scared to start theirjourney.
And then we're going to wrap upwith how to get started.
So that's a lot to cover andI'll talk really fast, but, um,
(04:27):
let's jump right into it.
So what is homesteading to me?
Homesteading is something thatit's, it's a, it's a word that's
really morphed in meaning overtime.
And I don't think there is astandardized definition of what
constitutes homesteading anylonger.
My guess is if I were to ask.
For your definition ofhomesteading.
(04:48):
I would probably have as manydefinitions as there are people
here.
We all see homesteading.
I think a little bitdifferently, but I think a lot
of times when we think abouthomesteading, we have a tendency
to define it from the standpointof where someone lives.
And what someone does.
So, someone might say, well ahomesteader is someone who lives
(05:10):
on the country on 20 acres ofland.
And on that land, they're doingall of these things.
They're raising and growingtheir own food.
They've got a large garden.
They're processing that food.
They're maybe canning,preserving, uh, freezing, freeze
drying, fermenting, dehydrating.
They're raising animals for meatand other products.
So, maybe they're raisingchickens for meat and eggs.
(05:32):
They're raising.
Uh, cows for meat and milk,goats for meat and milk, sheep
for meat and wool, they've gotducks, geese, guinea hens, maybe
they've got the odd donkey, emu,ostrich, um, and the list could
go on and on.
They're maybe cutting their ownfirewood and chopping it and
they're, they've got a composttoilet.
(05:52):
They live off grid.
They homeschool their kids.
I mean, the list goes on and onof ways that we would say.
A homesteader is someone wholives here and he does, or he,
she, they do this.
What if it's less about whereyou live and what you do, and
it's more about how you liveyour life and why?
(06:17):
To me, homesteading is ajourney.
It's not a destination.
And it's really a journeytowards three things.
It's a journey towards selfsufficiency, self reliance.
Now, those words are words thathave, again, I don't think
necessarily have standardizedmeanings.
(06:39):
A lot of times we'll use selfsufficiency and self reliance
kind of interchangeably.
And sustainability has kindof...
In recent days become synonymouswith environmental impact,
right?
I look at these a little bitdifferently.
So to me, self sufficiencyspeaks to stuff.
The things that you can raise,grow, produce, and or process on
(07:02):
your homestead or on your farm.
So eggs and meat and jelly andjam and those kinds of things,
stuff.
Self sufficiency speaks tostuff.
Self reliance speaks to skills.
Do I have the skills necessaryto raise, grow, produce, and or
process the stuff that I need orthat I want?
(07:23):
And then sustainability speaksto systems.
Do I have in place systemswhereby with minimal to no off
farm or off homestead inputs, Ican use my skills To raise,
grow, produce, or process thestuff that I need.
So let me illustrate this alittle bit.
So let's say from the standpointof self-sufficiency, I want to
(07:44):
be 100% self-sufficient withregards to chicken, meat, and
eggs.
Now, for our family, we have notbought eggs in the store for
ourselves since 2008.
2008 was the last time we boughteggs in the store.
And the reason why we did that,It's because we flew to Texas to
my brother's wedding and wedecided to do a Vrbo out there
(08:06):
and I couldn't take eggs with meon the plane.
And so I had to go to the storeand buy eggs.
That's the last time I boughteggs in a store until about a
month ago when my, maybe it wasa couple of months ago, my aunt
had COVID and she asked me if Icould go to the store and get
some things for her.
And on the list with eggs and itbroke my heart, it crushed my
(08:26):
soul to go in there and buythese eggs.
But at this point we were a halfhour from our house and I wasn't
driving all the way back to geteggs to take them to her.
But that was when I realizedthis eye opening experience.
Eggs were 5.
69 a dozen.
I was blown away.
But that's a side note.
Anyhow, so for our family, weare 100% self sufficient with
(08:50):
regards to eggs, haven't boughteggs in the store for our family
since 2008.
And as far as chicken meat goes,we are probably 50, 60% self
sufficient that we, through themeat birds and whatnot that we
raise.
So self sufficiency speaks tostuff, the chicken and the eggs.
So the.
(09:10):
The idea of self reliance wouldbe, okay, do I know how to take
care of chickens?
Do I know how to raise them upso that they stay alive, that
they don't die, that they don'tget eaten by predators, that
they don't, you know, getchilled, that they don't eat the
wrong thing.
Do I know how to take care ofthem?
And then once I have them raisedup to, you know, a good size, do
I know how to process them?
(09:31):
Okay.
So that would be self reliance.
Do I have the skills necessaryto raise, grow, produce, and or
process the stuff that I need?
So sustainability in my ideahere with regards to systems
then comes in to play like this.
Let's say I no longer want to goto the feed store and buy
chicks.
I don't want to order themthrough the mail.
I don't want to work with abreeder.
(09:52):
I don't, I want to make surethat I have a perpetual supply
of chicks.
And so I'm going to get arooster.
And some hens and the roostersgonna do the roostery things and
the hens are going to do thehenny things and then they're
going to lay these eggs andmaybe we'll have a broody hen
that she's going to sit on theeggs and they're going to hatch
or maybe I've got skills and Iknow how to put them in an
(10:14):
incubator and so I move on tothe self reliance piece where
I'm hatching these chicks out.
I'm not hatching them out.
The incubators hatching thembecause I couldn't sit still for
that long, but there are in theincubator.
I'm applying my skills.
They hatch out.
I take care of them.
I raise them up.
I've got the skills now whereI'm producing the stuff, the
(10:36):
chicken and the eggs that Ineed.
And we have this perpetual loophere where now I don't need to
worry about anything off myhomestead.
But I have this perpetual loopwhere I'm supplying myself with
chicken and eggs.
Now, I'm not necessarilysuggesting this morning.
That's how we do it on our farmbecause we don't.
And I'm not necessarily sayingthat's the most economical way
(10:57):
or the best way.
There's lots of ways to raisechicken.
I'm just using this as anexample.
So you can see howsustainability, self reliance,
and self sufficiency worktogether.
And again, keep in mind, this isa journey.
It's a journey.
It's not a destination.
We're on a journey towards selfsufficiency, self reliance, and
(11:18):
sustainability.
None of us here are ever goingto be 100% self sufficient, self
reliant, and sustainable.
We're always going to needoutside inputs.
We're always going to need help.
And the size and the scale.
Um, which you can homestead isgoing to definitely be impacted
(11:38):
by where you live.
Okay.
But homesteading, it's ajourney, not a destination.
And so when we start thinkingabout it like that, no longer am
I constrained by where I live.
Oh my goodness.
I don't live in the country.
I don't have five, 10, 15, 20acres of land.
Oh my goodness.
I don't have all of theinfrastructure.
(11:59):
Oh my goodness.
I don't know how to do all ofthe things.
Instead of looking at what Idon't have.
We now can look at it from theperspective of what do I have
and what can I do with what I dohave.
And so when we start looking athomesetting from that
perspective, to me that opens uphomesetting to an entirely new
(12:20):
group of people.
Because now I don't have to waituntil I've got 5, acres of land
to get started.
If it was, if I had to do that,I think I told you I'm 2.
16 acres.
Fail.
I'm not there, right?
But when we look at it from thejourney perspective, we start
(12:42):
right where we're at.
So if I'm in a townhouse, great.
We're going to talk aboutsomeone who lives in a townhouse
and is doing some homesteadingstuff.
If I live in an urban area,great.
I can still get started.
If I live in a suburban area, ifI live in an HOA, you're going
to have to get creative.
You're going to have to work atit.
You're going to have to work outa little harder than somebody
(13:04):
who has the five to 10 to 15, 20acres of land, but you're no
longer constrained by the ideaof where I live and what I do,
but we start this journeytowards those ideals of self
sufficiency, self reliance andsustainability.
Why does homesteading matter?
Why are we here this weekend?
(13:24):
It's a great question.
I'm glad you asked it.
Thank you so much.
To me, homesetting is good for awhole lot of reasons, but there
are four key ones that came tomy mind.
First of all, homesetting isgood for you.
And what do I mean by it's goodfor you?
Well, homesteading definitelyleans more towards an active
(13:45):
lifestyle.
If you're going to be successfulas a homesteader, sitting on the
couch, eating Cheetos andgetting fat and Netflix and
chill every day, all day is notgoing to be.
A successful recipe for being asuccessful homesteader.
So as a homesteader, it leadsto, and I'm not against every
once in a while a Netflix andchill day.
(14:06):
I'm not, I'm not, every once ina while we need that.
Okay.
As a homesteader, it's more ofan active lifestyle.
It gets us off the couch.
And I, I, in fact, the, uh, my,my buddy, Andy Defoe, the full
family farm that I mentionedearlier, he used to own a gym
and he sold the gym and he's nowdoing the homesteading thing.
But I used to say to him all thetime, Andy.
(14:27):
The homestead is my gym, youknow, shoveling out this or
moving, you know, a ton and ahalf of feet or moving bales of
hay or whatever, like you'll getin a good workout, right?
So it definitely leads to a moreactive lifestyle.
So in that regard, it's good foryou, but it's also good for you
because how many of you haveever had a homegrown tomato
(14:50):
right out of your garden?
Yeah, I've got lots of handshere.
How many of you have ever had atomato from the store?
How many of you would 100 timesrather have the tomato from your
garden?
Yeah, there's no comparison.
When you stand in the middle ofyour garden and you bite into
(15:11):
that tomato on those warm juicesare dripping down your chin.
There is no better tomato whenall of tomato them than that
tomato that you're eating atthat moment.
And my point is if you raisegood food, you're going to want
to eat good food.
And if you eat good food, that'sgood for you.
So homesteading from thatperspective, in my opinion, is
(15:33):
good for you, but it's not justgood for you.
It's good for your family oryour family unit.
So if you're doing this togetherwith your family, what better
way to teach your kids someresponsibility than to have a
homestead and learn how to takecare of some animals and learn
how to do some, you know, maybesome things they don't want to
do, but to fall in love withsome things that they do want.
(15:55):
To do.
And I like to think, this is alittle cheesy, but I should get
shirts up that say this.
The family that grows together,grows together.
Now, maybe that's a littlecheesy, but there is something
to be said about workingtogether as a family towards a
common goal.
(16:18):
Growing food together.
Understanding when you butcheran animal, what that means.
The seriousness of that.
Your kids growing up toappreciate food.
In a way that a transfer ofdollars will never ever give
them appreciation.
And so, homesteading is not justgood for you, it's good for your
(16:41):
family.
And if it's good for yourfamily, then it's good for your
community.
Because if we've got healthy,well adjusted kids, and we've
got nice families that areworking together, That's going
to benefit the community and notonly that, but homesteading
thrives, in my opinion, withinthe context of community because
(17:01):
you might like to do somethingthat I don't like to do and I
might like to do something thatyou don't like to do.
And so maybe we work together,we collaborate and you do the
thing that you'd like to do andI'll do the thing that I like to
do and then we kind of.
Swap things back and forth, ormaybe you know how to do
something that I want to learnhow to do.
And so I go, hey, could youteach me how to do X, Y, or Z?
(17:22):
And you say, sure, come on over,and I'll teach you how to do X,
Y, or Z.
I've got a buddy, Jack Rollin.
Uh, he lives about an hour southof here.
And, uh, he's the vice presidentof the American Guinea Hog
Association.
And when I got into AmericanGuinea Hogs, I didn't know how
to castrate pigs.
I wish I still didn't know howto castrate pigs.
(17:45):
That is, by far and away, myleast favorite thing to do.
I would rather shovel out ahundred chicken coops than
castrate pigs.
I absolutely hate that day.
I dread it.
But my buddy, I didn't know howto do it.
And Jack Rowland said, well hey,I'll come up and I'll show you.
And he came up and he showed me.
(18:05):
And then later on I had anotherfriend who he got into pigs and
he was like, Hey, I don't knowhow to castrate pigs.
And so guess what?
He called me up and he said,Hey, Brian, how to castrate
pigs.
So guess what I did?
I went to his house and I showedhim how to castrate pigs.
And I think he still doesn'tlike to do castration.
Uh, anybody that likes you thatI don't know, but, um, yeah.
I'm not sure, we might need tolook over our shoulders.
(18:29):
Sleep with one eye open.
Um, but it's good for community.
You get to learn, you know, donew things and interact with new
people and meet new people.
It's good for community.
But it's also good for theenvironment.
Now, initially I said withregards to sustainability, I
look at it from the context ofsystems, but I don't want to
(18:52):
throw in being environmentallyfriendly out the window, because
in my opinion, homesteaders arethe original environmentalists.
And the reason being is becausewe understand that what we have,
A, it costs us a lot of money,B, it's not easy to replace, and
so we need to take care of it.
(19:13):
We want to make sure that we cancontinue to use this year in and
year out.
So kind of the old idea ofreduce, reuse, recycle, right?
Um, you kind of get creative.
If you go to the poultryprocessing, uh, demonstration,
you will see two of mycreative...
Um, endeavors, shall we say.
Here in, I live on Bald Mountainhere in Greenwich.
(19:34):
Anybody that knows, uh, BaldMountain, Um, there's a guy that
I used to work with, uh, Um, hewas a, a math teacher here in
Greenwich.
But he said when he first movedto Greenwich, If you jerry rig
something, you know, as a cobjob, they refer to it as a bald
mountain hookup.
And so I have fully embracedthis idea of the bald mountain
hookup.
And so if you go into thepoultry processing
(19:56):
demonstration, you're going tosee a stand that the scalder is
sitting on.
If I look underneath that...
You're going to see that that isa potty chair, you know, one of
those chairs that you put overthe toilet.
You're like, yeah.
So I got one of those for free.
I put a piece of plywood on topof it.
Now I have something that's aperfect height.
I can adjust it up and down andit works great to hold my
(20:18):
scalder.
Some of that, uh, you know,reduce, reuse, recycle kind of
mentality.
There's an old server rack therethat's now got a kill cone on
it.
Um, and so again, environmentalimpact.
We try to feed our soil, right?
So instead of going out andbuying a bunch of You know,
fertilizer and stuff like that.
If you've got chickens, youallow that manure to age.
(20:40):
And then you put that onto yourgarden or you get some cows, you
put that on, you know, manureand you, not cows, cow manure,
and you put that on your gardenand you know, pigment, like
whatever it is, but you'refeeding your soil.
And that's very, veryenvironmentally friendly.
And if you go to some of richGiordano's classes, you know,
he's going to talk to you aboutsaving seeds and things of that
(21:03):
nature.
Homesteaders, in my opinion.
Uh, I'll need Originalenvironmentalist, maybe not the
original environmentalist, but,uh, definitely we're right up
there at the tops and in myopinion, homesteading matters
because it's good for you.
It's good for your family.
It's good for the community andit's certainly good for the
environment, but what keepspeople from homesteading?
(21:25):
If homesteading is such a greatthing, what keeps people from
getting started?
Let me keep an eye on the timehere because I could talk all
day, so I don't want to do that.
We've got a great session comingup here on, um, Getting started,
getting started with mushrooms.
Mushrooms 101.
So I don't want to, um, get inthe way of that.
(21:47):
Um, but what keeps people fromstarting?
Well...
I think there's a few things,but a few things, there's a lot
of things, but a few things thatcame to my mind were these.
First of all, the idea that youhave to have a lot of land.
Um, and again, it goes back tothat definition of defining
things from the standpoint ofwhere someone lives and what
someone does.
(22:07):
So you have to have a lot ofland.
You need to do all of thethings.
Um, self doubt.
Can I really do this?
Or imposter syndrome.
Am I really doing this?
And then worrying about whatother people think.
Well, am I a real homesteader?
Am I like so and so?
Do I do it like so and so?
And oh my goodness, my familythinks I'm nuts and crazy for
(22:30):
doing this thing.
All of that.
And my opinion keeps us fromgetting started on our
homesteading journey.
I've got, now I get way offscript here, so hopefully let me
catch up.
Ah, so for a few minutes, let mejust talk about these things and
(22:52):
try to debunk them a little bit.
Do you have to have lots of landin order to be a homesteader?
I don't like looking at that,that from that perspective for a
number of reasons.
First of all, as I mentionedearlier, it's exclusionary.
If you have to have 5, acres ofland.
And you have to wait to get tothat point.
(23:14):
I'm not there.
2.
16 acres.
Hashtag fraud.
Hashtag phony.
Hashtag not a real homesteader.
But how many of you haverealized that land is kind of
expensive?
And has it gotten more or lessexpensive since COVID?
Yeah, more.
And how many of you have gone toHome Depot or Lowe's or Curtis
(23:39):
Lumber lately?
Anybody been to any of thoseplaces?
Building supplies, are they lessexpensive or more expensive?
Like way more expensive.
How many of you have everrelocated your family?
That's not easy.
It's complicated.
And so, if we have to do thesethings, if we have to say, well,
(23:59):
I can't start my homesteadingjourney until I get the 20 acres
of land, and maybe the cheapestplace I can find land is in, I
was going to say Colorado, but Iknow Colorado, I don't even know
where there's cheap places tofind land anymore, but we're
just, North Dakota, okay, sowe're good.
Let's say we got to go to NorthDakota.
That's a complicated situation,and you're going away from all
(24:23):
of the things that you know, andthe families that you know.
Do you need to have 5, 10, 15,20 acres of land to to be a real
homesteader?
No, I don't think you do.
But the other thing I would sayis this, be careful what you
wish for.
So there's someone I know.
I actually interviewed her on mypodcast.
She and her family got allexcited about Homestead.
They went out and they bought a40 acre farm.
(24:45):
They hadn't grown, I don'tthink, maybe they'd grown a
little bit in their suburbanbackyard, not much.
But they went on to a 40 acrefarm and they started doing all
of the things and it didn't workout real well and they ended up
selling and moving on.
So be careful what you wish forbecause bigger isn't always
better.
You see, in my opinion, learninghow to take care of land and
(25:08):
learning homesteading skills andlearning how to take care of
animals.
All of those have learningcurves.
And if you're trying to do itall in one fell swoop, all at
the same time, be careful whatyou wish for.
I'm not sure that's necessarilya recipe for success.
And certainly with more landcomes...
(25:30):
Greater temptations to do all ofthe things and raise all of the
things and grow all of thethings.
Do you have to have 5, acres ofland to be a homesteader?
Well, that's a great question.
Thank you so much for asking it.
As I said, our homestead 2.
16 acres.
(25:52):
I've given up trying to figureout what percentage of food we
grow on our, it's a lot.
I don't know.
Percentage wise, I don't know.
It's a lot.
There's some areas, like I said,with eggs, 100% self sufficient,
uh, tomato sauce, tomato,crushed tomatoes, jams, jellies,
like, like all that stuff, 100%self sufficient.
Other things, maybe not quite somuch, but it doesn't matter.
(26:15):
We're doing the thing.
We're raising food and we'rehaving fun doing it.
My mom and dad, I think theyhave exactly an acre.
If you go down into theirbasement, into their pantry, you
will be amazed at the jars offood that they have put up off
of one acre of land.
They've got chickens.
My dad has bees, although that'sbeen a bit of a rocky, uh, and a
(26:36):
sore subject, but, uh, my daddoes bees.
Uh, he's raised meat birds.
One acre of land, but do youneed an acre of land?
No, there's this guy I knowfarmer Greg urban farm check him
out got a great podcast greatYouTube channel urban farm
farmer Greg He for many yearslived in Phoenix, Arizona Now
(27:00):
Phoenix, Arizona is not a placethat I would necessarily say is
well known for homesteadingbeing homesteading friendly Yet,
from one third of an acre,Farmer Greg estimates that he
was growing 30 to 35 percent ofhis food from one acre of land
in Phoenix, Arizona, but youneed to have a third of an acre
(27:22):
of land.
Well, no, no, you don't.
I wish I could go.
I wish I could go to thesepeople's house and sometimes,
you know, you have to be carefulwhat you read on the internet.
So I wish I could go and improvethis, but there is a family who
lives in Australia that claimthat out of An 800 square foot
(27:43):
backyard.
They are producing 80% of theirfood.
Now they're having to getcreative.
They're doing successionplanning, doing vertical
gardening.
They're bartering with people,but from 800 square foot, 800
square feet, they're raising.
80% of their food.
But do you have to have 800square feet?
Well, no, thank you so much forasking that question.
(28:05):
Let me introduce you to myfriend Claire on Instagram at
start underscore smallunderscore homestead.
Now, this is Claire excitedabout harvesting some things
from her community garden plot.
You see, Claire started herhomestead journey three years
ago.
This is her bio on Instagram.
(28:28):
I have 500 square feet of rentedgrowing space and I'm
homesteading.
I even have some livestock.
Two years ago, I had 80 squarefeet.
Some dreams start small.
This is where she started.
And I know it's hard to see.
I wish this was a betterprojector just for this, this
(28:49):
picture.
But this was where she startedon an 8x10 patio.
She's got totes.
Another tote over here.
She found a pool ladder by theside of the road that she turned
into a trellis.
80 square feet.
And then she said, you knowwhat?
I can do more.
(29:10):
And so she went, she got quail.
She can't have chickens, butshe's got room back there
somehow on an eight by 10 patioto raise quail.
And she's generating eggs forher family.
Last year, she decided toupgrade.
She got two 10 by 16 foot plotsat the community garden.
(29:35):
And then this year, she said,you know what, I can do even
better.
And she got an 8 by 10, I think,square, uh, uh, another plot.
So she's now got three plots atthe community garden.
Now, her dream is to buy her ownplace, and in fact, they thought
they had a place, and kind ofthings, uh, fell, fell through
(29:55):
on them.
But she's not waiting to getstarted.
She's doing the best she canwith what she's got to work
with.
And she's getting super creativeand she puts me to shame with
the amount of food that she'sable to generate and grow out of
that small area.
But the point is folks, youdon't have to have five, 10, 15,
20 acres of land to get startedon your journey towards self
(30:16):
sufficiency, self reliance andsustainability.
If nobody else is proof of that,Claire, in my opinion, sure is.
And not only is she raising andgrowing food, but she's learning
how to can.
She's making bread.
I mean, you go to her, um, page,you will be amazed.
Check it out on Instagram.
Start underscore smallunderscore homestead besides
(30:42):
thinking that you have to havelots of land people think you
need to do all the things Youdon't have to do any of the
things What I mean by that isthis Obviously you have to do
some things if you're gonna be ahomesteader sit down the couch
eating Cheetos getting fat isnot a homesteader Okay, but what
(31:03):
I'm saying is means something toyou may not mean anything to me
and that's okay What is selfsufficiency to you?
The things that you need, thethings that you want to raise,
grow, produce, and or processprobably are going to be
different than the things that Iwant to raise, grow, produce, or
process on my homestead.
And that's okay.
That's the beauty of this.
(31:25):
Now, I've heard people say,well, you can't be a real
homesteader unless you havechickens.
Well, I love chickens.
I don't ever want to not havechickens.
But Claire's doing just finewith quail.
She was doing just fine withoutquail.
So do you have to have chickensin order to be a real
homesteader?
No, you don't have to.
Do you have to grow beans?
(31:46):
You don't like beans.
Don't grow beans.
Do you have to grow tomatoes?
No.
If you don't like tomatoes,don't grow tomatoes.
You don't have to do.
What everybody else is doing.
One of the things that drives menuts, I should say drive me
nuts.
That's probably a little bit ofan overstatement, but when
people will say, you know,they're all excited about
gardening.
What should I plant?
What do you like to eat?
(32:09):
I'm not going to tell you toplant what I like to eat because
maybe you don't like to eat whatI like to eat.
So what do you like to eat?
Do your thing.
You do you figure out what selfsufficiency means to you.
You don't need to do all of thethings.
You don't need to do any oneparticular thing.
Do what brings you joy.
Do what brings meaning to yourlife.
(32:34):
But certainly there's atemptation to do all of the
things.
Is there not to grow?
All of the things.
To raise all of the things.
I mean, people talk aboutchicken math.
Chicken math is real.
Duck math, that's pretty realpig math.
Um, I've had some unplanned pigpregnancies.
What did we determine that was UP P P?
(32:54):
Yeah, that's what he determinedthat was, uh, Rich and I last
night, I think it was your PPP.
Um, but yeah, I've had unplannedpregnancies.
I think I've got a couple ofthem right now, but that's a
story for another day.
Um, there is a temptation to doall the things and raise all the
things and grow all the things.
And I'll tell you folks, itdoesn't matter whether you're on
year one or you're on year ten.
(33:16):
I think that temptation nevergoes away, but don't try to do
all the things and raise all thethings and grow all the things.
That's a recipe for disasterbecause it's going to overwhelm
you.
It's going to overwhelm youphysically.
It's going to overwhelm youmentally.
It's going to overwhelm you.
Uh, financially, um, it's justgoing to bog you down.
(33:39):
So do the things that you wantto do.
Don't worry about what anybodyelse is doing as best you can
put a break on it.
Slow your roll a little bit.
Be realistic.
And don't try to do all of thethings.
But the other reason why I thinkit's not a good idea to do all
(33:59):
of the things is becauseremember we're talking about
community and there's thingsthat someone else might like to
do and I might not like to dothem.
So if I try to do the thingsthat I don't like to do, then I
miss out on that communityaspect of working with somebody
who might like to do the verything that I don't like to do.
And so I.
At the end, achieve the sameresult, but on top of achieving
(34:22):
the same result, I've builtcommunity.
And I don't know about you, butsometimes you can feel a little
bit alone in this thing.
And so when you start buildingthat community and working with
people.
The joy that that brings and thevalue that brings to the idea of
homesteading.
(34:42):
Another thing that keeps peoplefrom starting their journey is
self doubt.
I can't do this.
I just can't do this.
I could never kill an animal.
I can't, I've got a black thumb.
I could never raise anything.
Well, what was it the other dayI ran across something trying to
remember exactly how it was, butit was like a baby doesn't know
(35:04):
how To, to do roofing.
Yeah, flat roofing.
Yeah, there was some more to itthan that.
I'm not gonna, not all of itwas, uh, but the point was,
nobody is born knowing how to doanything.
All of us have to learn skillsas we go along, and so maybe you
do have a black thumb.
Unlearn it, or learn how to havea green thumb.
(35:26):
And if you, maybe if you justsuck at it and you're like, ah,
that's them for me, then maybethere's something else that
you're good at.
Maybe you're good at raisinganimals.
Maybe you're good at sewing.
Maybe you're good at quilting.
Maybe you're good at bakingbread.
Like, you don't have to, again,you don't have to do one
particular thing, but selfdoubt.
Put that out of your mind.
In my opinion, everybody can getstarted on their journey towards
(35:48):
self sufficiency, self reliance,and sustainability.
I don't think homesteading isfor everyone.
Think that everybody has thisdesire, but I think if you want
to, you can do it.
But then there's this idea ofimposter syndrome.
People get started and they'relike, well, am I a real
homesteader?
Am I doing this right?
(36:10):
Am I a real homesteader?
I mean, have you ever seen,anybody of you part of Facebook
groups?
Have you ever heard, seenanybody like, I don't do X, Y,
or Z, does that mean I'm not areal homesteader?
Have you ever seen people asklike that kind of a question?
Well, let's switch off fromhomesteading for a moment to
something else, basketball.
Now, I honestly am not abasketball fan.
(36:32):
I don't watch basketball, butlet me ask you this question.
Who is the best basketballplayer to ever play the game?
Shout it out.
Alright, so if you said anythingother than Michael Jordan,
you're wrong.
Now, we're not talking about hiswizard days.
(36:52):
We'd rather forget the wizarddays.
But...
Many of us, and there's someyoung folks here that never had
the opportunity to see MichaelJordan play in the prime of his
career.
But, Michael Jordan was anawesome basketball player, and
in my opinion, sorry, Larry Birdguy.
Uh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, um.
(37:15):
The best basketball player toever play the game.
But the point is not whether ornot Larry Bird or Michael Jordan
were the best basketballplayers.
The question I want to ask iswhen did Michael Jordan become a
basketball player?
Was it when he was recruited bythe University of North
Carolina?
(37:35):
No, he was a basketball playerbefore then.
Was it when he played highschool basketball?
No, he was a basketball playerlong before then you see some
point in his life, MichaelJordan picked up a basketball
and he dribbled a few times andthen he took a few shots and
(37:56):
then he got into a game and hestarted playing basketball and I
don't know, I really don't know.
Like his youth.
level stuff, but maybe he gotinto a youth league and I don't
even know what travel league wasa thing back in those days, but,
uh, somewhere along the line,the point is Michael Jordan
became a basketball player.
(38:17):
When was that?
I don't know.
Why do I care?
It's like a crazy question toask and yet people sit around
and they worry about, well, whendo I become a real homesteader?
I don't know.
I don't care.
Pick up a basketball, play abasketball and start dribbling,
take a few shots, start doingthe things.
(38:38):
And as you start that journeytowards self sufficiency, self
reliance and sustainability,somewhere along the line, I
don't know where it is, I don'tcare, you become a homesteader.
But stop the self doubt and theimposter syndrome.
Just start your journey towardsthose things.
(39:00):
Anybody here ever think thatyou're crazy for doing this?
I got a lot of nodding headswith a lot of emphasis here.
Anybody have family and friendsthat look at you kind of cross
eyed or when they see you comeand they kind of turn and head
the other way because it's like,oh, here comes that crazy
chicken lady.
Or I don't want to hear aboutwhat's going on in the garden.
(39:23):
Yeah, what we're doing here,folks, is way outside the
mainstream.
Now it's become a little bitmore acceptable, I think, uh,
since COVID.
But as COVID has gone on and I,man, I hate to say that word.
I almost feels like a curseword, but as we kind of get
beyond the other side of it, youknow, people are going back to
(39:44):
the ways that they used to livebecause homesteading, it's not
the simple life.
I hate it when people refer toit as a simple life and I know
what they mean by the simplelife.
But to me, the simple life isgoing down to Haniford and
picking up a styrofoam tray withsome meat on it.
That's the simple life.
(40:05):
Raising a chick up throughadulthood, moving the chicken
tractor, dealing with thechicken poop, um, lugging feed,
butchering the chickens.
That's not simple.
That's not easy.
Very rewarding.
The end product is much better,but that's not the simple life.
(40:29):
People look at us like we'reweird.
Part of the joy of an event likethis, look around.
Look around.
There's a lot of weird peoplehere.
You're in good company.
(40:50):
You're in good company.
And so, I hope that as you gothrough this weekend, that it's
not just about showing up toseminars and hearing people like
me blather on, but it's alsoabout forming relationships and
building community.
With other individuals becauseat the end of the day we need
(41:10):
that when we've got peoplelooking at us cross eyed Like
we're weird.
We need to have that communitythose other people maybe they're
a weirdo, but you know whatwe're weirdos together We're a
good company.
We get to meet other weirdpeople.
(41:32):
That's awesome So, how do youget started?
How do you get started on thisjourney towards self sufficiency
self reliance andsustainability?
Well, the thing I would say isstart small, just like Claire.
Start small.
Start with one skill.
Master that skill.
(41:53):
And then move on to somethingelse.
And as you start small, youmight get in to something that
you thought you really, reallywanted to get into.
And then all of a sudden yourealize this really sucks.
I hate this.
And you know what?
You don't have to keep doing it.
You can move on to somethingelse, but learn skills on a
(42:13):
small scale so that if you everget that five, 10, 15, 20 acres
of land, you can scale up andyou can hit the ground running
and you can keep doing thethings.
Be creative.
You saw, Claire had that pool.
I would have never thought ofusing a pool ladder as a
trellis.
She saw that by the side of theroad and in her mind, she
(42:34):
thought, trellis.
Now, like I said, I've got apotty chair over there as a, uh,
uh, stand.
And, you know, my mind generallydoes work that way, but...
I would have never thought of apool ladder as a trellis, but
she was creative enough to seethat.
So be creative again.
Don't focus on what you don'thave.
(42:54):
Think about what do I have andwhat can I do with the things
that I already have before yougo out and spend a lot of money
on something that later onyou're like, bro, this really
sucks.
Why did I spend money on this?
Focus on what you have insteadof what you don't have and do
the best you can.
(43:14):
with what you have to work with.
Don't let great get in the wayof good because if you let great
get in the way of good enough,you're never ever going to get
started.
Now, my brother, um, Keith, wholives down in Tennessee, Um, he
couldn't hack it up here in thegreat northeast, so he turned
tail and ran.
No, I'm just kidding.
(43:35):
Um, but we moved to Tennesseeand he jokingly refers to, uh,
whenever he does some kind of aproject around the house as good
enough contracting, like that isgood enough.
Just have to do.
And then he got into, uh, didsome landscaping and so he says,
uh, it'll do.
So it's landscaping companies.
(43:56):
It'll do.
And his contracting company isgood enough.
But folks, what's the point?
Do the best you can with whatyou've got to work with and
don't let this ideal of havingall of the things and the best
of everything get in the way ofgetting started and learning how
(44:16):
to do the skills and learninghow to do the things.
As you journey towards selfsufficiency, self reliance and
sustainability.
I also want you to keep in mindthis.
Homesteading is a marathon.
It is not a sprint.
(44:38):
It's also not a competition bythe way.
Sometimes I think people can geta little bit caught up in Trying
to keep up with somebody else.
Walk your path.
Walk your journey.
What is your journey?
The things that are important toyou are probably not what is
important to me.
You're wrong.
No, I'm just kidding.
(44:58):
But no, it's it's it's not acompetition.
It's not a marathon.
It's a marathon.
It's not a sprint.
So don't try to do too much atone time.
Don't try to go too big toofast.
You don't have to do anything.
Grow, raise and do what bringsyou joy.
Walk your path.
You don't have to do it all.
(45:18):
It's okay to hire others to dosome things, barter with others
to do some things that you can'tor you don't like to do.
There's no shame in that at all.
But I want to tell you this,know when to quit.
Just because you get intosomething, you might enjoy doing
something for a while, butthere's a season for that.
And then maybe you need to moveon to something else because
(45:38):
your needs change.
Or your life situation changes,or you decide, you know what,
I'm tired of doing this, or Idon't need this any longer in my
life.
So give yourself permission toquit stuff.
You try something and it didn'twork out.
Do you want to keep try again?
(45:58):
And if you want to try again,great, try again.
But if not, give yourselfpermission to quit stuff.
It's okay.
Life has ebbs and flows.
Right now, my wife and I aregoing through a big transition.
We have one son, and, uh, he'sgetting ready to go off to
(46:19):
college.
And that scares me.
That's a big change.
That's going to be a big changeon our homestead.
And, uh, as we go through thisseason of life, now we're trying
to understand, okay, what do weneed, what do we want out of
(46:40):
life, and as we get into thispost Brian J.
I hate to say post Brian J.
World, but you know what I'msaying with the little snot nose
brat snot at the end of thehall, um, what's life going to
look for us?
Our needs as a family are goingto change.
The same holds true inhomesteading.
(47:01):
As we go through ourhomesteading journey, there are
going to be ebbs and flows.
There are going to be times whenwe need, need tomatoes and there
are going to be times when wedon't need tomatoes.
And if you don't need tomatoes,don't plant tomatoes.
Plant something else, plantsquash, plant cucumbers, plant,
rich by the way has got a reallygreat squash he's going to tell
(47:21):
you about in the seed savingclass.
So definitely don't miss out onthat, but plant what you need,
right?
Give yourself permission toquit.
It's all good.
The last thing I want to tellyou is this.
You don't have to wait to getstarted.
There are so many people to say,I can't wait to get started on
my homesteading journey.
(47:42):
I can't wait till I get 5, acresof land and really get into
homesteading.
You don't have to wait.
If homesteading is a journeytowards self sufficiency, self
reliance and sustainability.
Anybody can get started today,and if Claire isn't proof
positive of that, I'm not quitesure who would be.
(48:02):
I love to say, and I'm sureyou've heard it, the journey of
a thousand miles begins with asimple step.
And so this weekend, if youhaven't started, take that first
simple step towards selfsufficiency, self reliance and
sustainability.
And if you've been on thisjourney for a while, take the
next right step for you towardsself sufficiency, self reliance
(48:25):
and sustainability.
I don't know what that's goingto look like for all of us.
That's probably going to look alittle bit different, but each
one of us this weekend can starttaking that next right step in
the direction of selfsufficiency, self reliance and
sustainability.
So I have got five minutes left.
(48:48):
Did anybody drop a question inSlido or was I so enthralling of
a speaker that you didn't evenhave time to think about it?
Let me look here.
Pulling it up.
Work for me, please.
(49:09):
Here we go.
Any questions?
And as that's coming, no, noquestions there.
So anybody have a question?
Anybody have a statement?
Anybody say, Brian, you're agreat, you're wrong.
Question.
Statement.
(49:37):
Oh, that's a good point.
Well, that's a good point.
And thank you so much for thatplug for the Homestead Journey
(49:59):
podcast.
Um.
Definitely.
Check it out.
No.
Um, certainly.
I, and that's one of the thingsin not trying to pound myself on
the back here, but I really dotry on my podcast to keep things
as positive as possible becauseI want to encourage people.
If you've tried and failed, getback up and try it again.
(50:21):
You know it in, you know, if itdidn't work one way, it might
work another way and that's allright.
What works for one persondoesn't necessarily always work
for another person, butcertainly seeing success, what
do they say?
Success breeds success, right?
And so certainly we want to be,um, positive ambassadors.
Thank you for that.
(50:48):
Well, I do hope that you didenjoy that episode.
And if you have any questions orcomments as always, you can
reach out to me, Brian, at thehomestead journey.net is my
email address.
Or you can follow us on all ofthe social media accounts.
Did want to quickly remind youthat home is, quickly
approaching the, fall gatheringof home setters in the England
(51:08):
will be taking place.
September 9th and 10th inGreenfield, New Hampshire.
So you're not going to want tomiss that homesteaders of
england.com is where you canfind out all of the information.
Get tickets.
You'll be able to beat me andBonnie.
But of course, more importantpeople, more knowledgeable
(51:29):
people like Jack polner, Morgan.
Gold from gold Shaw farm alumnafrom lameness acres.
Try McClung from red tool houseand the pastured pig podcast.
He's also going to be there.
Don Bradner from little mountainlife will be there.
So just a lot of great people.
You're not going to want to missit.
(51:51):
And if you are interested incoming, hurry up and buy your
tickets because September 1st,the price is going to go up.
So if you're thinking aboutcoming.
Save yourself, some dose ski bygetting your tickets now.
That's it for this episode, Ihope you've enjoyed it.
And next week, chickensone-on-one.
Here on the homestead journeypodcast.
(52:11):
Until then as always.
Keep up.
The good work.
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