The Homestead Blues

Do you long to own a property where you can expand on all of your homesteading ideas? Have you been searching for that perfect piece of land? Have you been dreaming about gently rolling hills, with mountains outlining the background? No neighbors in site. Beautiful scenery with picture perfect sunsets. Are you checking out homesteads and farms on IG, FB, YT, and Twitter? Do you go to sleep at night thinking about the gardens you will plant and the livestock you will raise? If so, then there is a good chance that you may also suffer from the homestead blues.

You have all these big ideas for when you get to your ideal place, and you are ready to implement all of your homesteading skills. For some of us, it’s already a reality in the works, but for many of you out there, it’s just a glimmer of hope that one day you will acquire your ideal little farm or homestead. I am in the latter group, holding on to that glimmer of hope. Along with that hope comes a little frustration at not having the opportunity to fulfill your dreams in the near future. I prefer to call this frustration my homestead blues.

I’ve spent my last two years...dreaming. Dreaming about what I will do with all of my future land, where I will put my herb and veggie gardens. Dreaming about chickens, goats, pigs, ducks, and cattle. I have done my research, taken steps to outline the process to transition to homestead life. I’ve tried to connected with like-minded people who have taken the journey. I have scoured the internet searching for any advice that will further my little dream. But, with all of my knowledge, I can’t make that dream a reality right now. Does that sound familiar to you? This is where the homestead blues come from.

You may have the homestead blues because you are stuck dreaming about the wonderful life that you see the rest of the internet enjoying. Feeling down because you want all of those wonderful experiences, but you are not in a place to make it happen. The blues because you are so far away from your dream right now, that it almost seems impossible.

I understand that for some of us, dreaming about the homesteading or farming experience is as close as we will ever get to actually doing it. For suburbanites like me, it’s not so easy to break into the culture of homesteading and farming. There are many obstacles that are preventing me from living my ideal lifestyle. Why is that?

1. For starters, it’s tough to become a farmer or homesteader:

To break into the farming industry, you will have to spend a considerable amount of money. This may be all at once or stretched out over several years, but either way, it’s gonna cost you money. There are several cost barriers that prohibit many of us from even trying.

Few colleges offer an affordable education in farming. Land prices are not always affordable in an area where work is guaranteed. The cost of equipment used to run a farm or homestead can also be prohibitive. And we all know that you will never get rich being a farmer or a homesteader. So lack of funds can be a real dilemma for many.

2. Living in the city offers no community to support your efforts:

Most farmers come from generations of farmers before them, so they already have a firm knowledge base. Many homesteaders were exposed at a young age to this kind of lifestyle, and usually have the knowledge to succeed on their own, or know people who can show them the ropes. But people like me lack those basic resources. I live in the suburbs, where lawns are landscaped by companies, and HOA rules prohibit many homesteading efforts. Rarely can you find someone with a veggie garden. In my world, long-time neighbors don’t even know each other's names. It’s a sad fact among us in the cities. As close as we live together, we are all strangers to one another.

3. You have no one to show you how to do things correctly, or what to do when things go wrong:

I myself am a hands-on learner. I need to be shown what to do if I am going to be able to remember it. Homesteading is not about memorizing theories in a book, it’s about doing. Without someone to show you how to do things properly, how can you gauge if what you are doing is right? You need someone who “knows” to bounce ideas off of and ask advice. You need someone to show you the ropes. But, in the suburbs, you are unlikely to find any such resource. While the internet and YouTube are great forms of media to help teach you how to do things, it’s not the same as having a real hands-on experience.

I find it ironic that as densely populated as we are in our cities, no one knows their neighbors and rarely can you call on someone to help you out in a jam other than family. Yet in the most rural of communities, everyone knows their neighbors. They are usually willing to help one another, and they all share a strong sense of community. There are many farmers in my state, but I don’t believe I have ever met a single one. Most live far away from my area, and my local farmers aren’t usually accessible.

4. One more prohibition to the lifestyle you want is time:

You can’t just quit your job and move onto a farm. You need to work to pay the bills, but you also want to homestead. That means that you will likely have to do both for at least a few years. You need to find time for work, family, gardening, and maybe livestock. That’s a lot of tasks to take on, and if you are like me, time management is not always your best attribute. It can be exhausting trying to find time to fit everything in. I would love nothing more than to quit my job, and farm all day long, but that’s not realistic to 99% of us.

Let me tell you my “blues” story and see if you can sympathize with my plight.

I live in a suburb right outside of Washington, D.C. I live 20 minutes from Thomas Jefferson’s famous gardens, yet been there in years. I haven’t been able to get any reliable training from any of my local resources mainly because I don't know who they are, or I can't find them.

Perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t always feel comfortable knocking on a stranger’s door and asking how they grew something. The vendor’s at my local markets are usually very busy with sales and don’t have a lot of time to offer advice beyond a simple suggestion.

My state does have farms that offer internships, but I have a full-time job, so that’s out of the question for people like me. Additionally, you can attend workshops in my area for a steep fee, but those tend to be out of my local area, where I have to drive over 2 hours to attend, and usually are scheduled on a work day in the middle of the week. I just can't take advantage of these resources from where I reside in my current life.

My education on the subject of homesteading and gardening has been mostly based on books, internet research, and YouTube. Ultimately, I ended up just starting projects in my backyard and learning from them. Trial and error have been the ultimate teacher for me. I have grown successful gardens over the years. I have learned how to can and preserve produce and dehydrate. I have learned to budget my money and control my time management a little better. I am raising chickens in my backyard. But still, I lack the basic resources to start my own farm.

On top of the lack of general resources, I lack the finances to purchase my dream homestead, and therefore, I am stuck on my tiny suburban lot. I scour the internet searching for the perfect piece of real estate, but when I find it, it’s either out of my price range or in an area where I would have to drive over 2 hours each day to get to work. Um, no thank you.

I also have debt. Student loans, credit cards, car loans, the works. I have been trying to scrimp and save while paying off my debts, but it’s a slow process. It takes several years to pay off that debt you have incurred over the years. I am making headway, but when you envision years ahead of you spent sacrificing to pay down your debt, it can cause some homestead blues.

I find it funny that I spent so much money paying for an education so that I could get the job I wanted, only to realize 10 years later that I no longer want that job or that lifestyle. I envy all of those people that get to work from home and have the opportunity to live anywhere they choose. I chose a noble profession that I truly enjoyed, yet at this stage in my life, the surrounding factors lead me to a new path.

I had a two-year plan to pay off my debt, secure my land, and eventually transition to a homestead. But life had other plans for me. Obstacles popped up. By that, I mean family illnesses, costly home repairs, broken down vehicles, and job losses. You know, life! So my two-year plan suddenly became extended beyond sight to the far away future.

With all of these overwhelming dilemmas surrounding us, why do people like me continue to dream of homesteading? I will tell you why. Because that is how we want to live and come hell or high water, we are going to accomplish it! One day.

For those of you who are like me, homesteading or farming are not a whim or fad. It's a lifestyle we long for and hope to accomplish. It’s something deep inside of us that forms a need that must be fulfilled. Our dream burns strong even though those homestead blues surround us.

To help you ease some of those homesteading blues, let me give you some advice that I hope will help you accomplish your dreams.

1. Learn to budget:

You will need to total up your debt and figure out your monthly expenses. No more Amazon shopping, or impulse buying. If you want to accomplish your goal of buying that perfect homestead or farm, then you need to know how much you owe in total, and how to pay it down quickly. That means not spending money on things that you don’t absolutely need. It’s a difficult step, but one that is necessary if want to make things happen. You will never be able to live a simple homestead lifestyle with a mountain of debt, or uncontrollable spending habits.

2. Practice growing where you are:

There is no better way to learn how to fit homesteading into your lifestyle than by trying it out in small scale right where you are. Try tending a small garden, so you can fit it in on the weekends. Once you can comfortably grow something on a small scale, expand it. This allows you to build your skills, while also allowing you to adjust your schedule for time management. Gardening takes time away from the things that already fill your days, so starting small is best.

3. Be realistic:

When my homesteading dream first began to take shape, I wanted a 30-acre farm so I could sell market vegetables, raise bees and livestock, and sell produce and homemade goods. I was going to quit my job and become a farmer.

Then I did a little research and discovered all of the barriers to that poor little dream. Slowly, as I researched how to do the things I wanted to do, I learned that I didn’t have the actual capabilities it took to accomplish many of those things.

When you are dreaming of the big picture, it’s hard to remember that farms grow, they don’t start off already built. What you see in the media has likely taken years to accomplish.

I have since refined my goals to something that works with what I already have. You should start things small, and expand over time as you gain knowledge and resources. I may one day have that 30-acre farm and do everything I dream of, but I know it will take possibly decades to get there. That farm is simply not a realistic goal at this stage in the game. Instead, I focus on the short-term goals that will help get me to that farm one day.

4. Do your research:

Many farming activities are actually prohibited where I live. HOA‘s do not allow backyard chickens or front yard veggie gardens. I will spare you my opinion of these rules and regulations, but you need to be aware of them since they may cause a serious issue if there is ever a problem.

I was watching this popular couple on YT once, and some neighbor had reported their livestock animals to their local government. As it turns out, it was illegal for them to have their animals and they were given a 30-day notice to get rid of them. It was heartbreaking watching them agonize over feeding their sick child healthy food or being forced to move and give up their lifestyle. You don’t need issues like this, so always know what could happen. You will have to make the personal choice on whether to break those rules or not, but at the very least, research the consequences before hand.

5. Stick to your guns:

Don’t let life sidetrack your little dream. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and give up. Don’t do that. Instead be persistent. I wanted backyard chickens for many years, but I had to learn how to care for them, build infrastructure for them, and save money for the whole endeavor. That took about 3 years for me. But I kept up hope, and this year, I finally got my first chickens!

Many times I considered giving up on chickens, but that little glimmer of hope always crept back into my brain. Now, I am so excited to take the next step in homesteading, It took many years to achieve even the smallest of my accomplishments, but they were well worth the struggle. I may not have that dream farm, but I am well on my way to having a homestead on a small urban scale in my backyard. I never gave up, I stuck to my guns!

If you tend to suffer from the homesteading blues, at least take solace in the fact that there are many of us out there, just like you. We all may be at different stages in our journey, but the goals are usually the same. Keep on learning and experimenting and you will achieve many great things.

Good luck to you!