One of the best pieces of advice my therapist has given me is that my husband and I should have weekly staff meetings for our homestead. She explained it like this: whether or not we are actually running a business with our homestead, it's like a business, and successful businesses have regular staff meetings in which all parties sit down, share what they've been doing, figure out what still needs doing, and keep it professional. While we haven't implemented it perfectly yet, staff meetings have really helped us in so many ways.
We've been going over a set agenda for the staff meetings this week in hopes of making them even better and more effective. We have been talking about ways to make sure that all key areas are getting hit and, more importantly, ways to make sure we really do share everything that each of us is doing and planning on doing. It becomes so easy for each of us to live and work in parallel lives on the homestead with Robert doing all the stuff he has to do (which is just so very much) and I doing all I have to do and us only checking in on stuff we need the other's help for. That's a quick way to build up resentment, we've found, and that's not healthy. So, we have worked up a basic agenda, making sure to put space on there for how each of us is feeling, what we've gotten done that week, what still needs doing in each area, what deadlines we're up against, and finances check-ins. Both of us feel so much more solid going into a new year with a better agenda to weed out any negative feelings, find ways to be more realistic about what's actually possible, and keep am even tighter rein on finances than we already do. We also are putting a second meeting for the week right before the weekend on the calendar, as just one meeting a week leaves too much out, especially as our health stuff changes or kid stuff comes up. Hopefully, this will help us stay more on top of things, too. Our agenda is thanks to Robert's employer. We used their staff meeting agenda as a base, and I think it's really solid.
It may seem long, but we will likely be able to go through it in an hour or so, especially if we both keep each other on topic, as we both have a tendency to go off in the weeds. This way, we have a set agenda every time, and it depersonalizes so much of it to help us stay professional as we communicate. It's not personal: it's just homesteading. Here we are, in the third year of the pandemic now, and more and more people are turning to homesteading. This is a great thing! I see posts on social media every day from people looking to get out of where they are, get a patch of land, raise animals and grow veggies, and try to live a more self-sustainable lifestyle. While this has meant that rural land prices are higher than ever, it does mean that more people are getting serious about changing their lifestyle for the better.
I often see people asking what they need to do or how they need to start when looking to homestead, and as always, I have a few thoughts. First of all, homesteading is a mindset and lifestyle that can be lived anywhere, urban, suburban, or rural. You don't need 40 acres and 100 chickens to be a homesteader. Homesteading is, by definition, subsistence farming, or the way many millions of people around the world still live. It is about using the resources you have, starting with what is closest to you, to provide for yourself and your family. That can be done anywhere, even in an apartment. Changing that mindset is the best place to start. Homesteaders make do or do without, as my grandparents and parents emphasized when I was a kid. In other words, homesteaders eat fresh in season and preserve for out of season, mend and repair their belongings and tools until there is no other option but to buy new, care for the land by composting and conserving water, and so much more. Granted, not all homesteaders do all of it, but the mindset is there: make do or do without. Once you decide to change your mindset, start by looking around your home. What do you have that you don't need that you can give away or sell, what do you still need that you have to save up for, what resources do you have available that could help your family live better? Do you have a patch of land close by you could put a garden in? If not, do you have a window or two you could grow herbs in? If not, do you have a CSA or farm nearby you could barter work for produce or meat? What do you want to do, and what do you already have to make that happen? A big limiting factor is always the budget. Changing your mindset from a consumer-based one to a homesteader-based one can be very difficult, but it sure can help the budget. If you are dealing with debt, starting there and digging out of debt is often a huge part of a homestead's success. Starting with the mindset change and then working on getting your budget under control are the best ways to start. The next thing I always recommend is learning the skills long before you move out onto the many acres or go off grid. Start by learning how to cook. I mean, really cook. You should be able to make good meals out of any fruit or vegetable you grow or any animal you raise for food. You also need to know what to do about leftovers, making them into the next meal or incorporating them so they don't all go in the compost. Cooking leads to baking and canning and preserving food. Making your own bread, jams, canned soups, all of it is so very rewarding, and if you're using foods you have grown or raised yourself, it's even better. I'm not saying you can never eat out again, but start by cutting down how often you do and replacing that meal with one you have made from scratch. Look for old cookbooks with good recipes that don't depend on specific grocery store items. Learn how to make your own from scratch, starting simple and adding on from there. The more skills you have in the kitchen, the easier homesteading becomes. Side note: Before getting any animals, please, please, please read up on them beforehand and make sure that you have a safe, secure space for them and know what and how much to feed them and how to handle illnesses and predators. Every spring, people head to farm stores to get cute little chicks and ducklings only to end up killing them due to neglect or abuse or, just as bad, dumping them by lakes and streams or local farms when they get big and start eating too much. Any animal in your care is your responsibility, and even if you are raising that animal for food, it is your job to make sure that animal lives the best life possible. Stressed animals do not make for good food, and diseased animals cannot be used for food. Animals dying before their time, when it was preventable and your responsibility, is a horrible, sad waste of that animal's life that was in your care, not to mention your time, efforts, and money. Do not depend on the people working in the farm stores to tell you everything you need to know, as they often really don't know much. Get books, read blogs and websites, join groups online, and learn as much as you can and have a plan and resources in place, with backup plans, before that animal comes home with you. Other than kitchen skills, there is so much more to learn and practice before heading out to the big new homestead. Learn how to garden, at least on a basic level, as gardens every year are experiments. Learn how to start seeds and actually keep them alive after planting (those always seem to be two different things to me). Weeding is a skill, a highly needed one, especially efficient weeding and mulching that also feed your soil. Start reading up now on the various gardening methods, take a class, follow gardeners on YouTube, and see what you can learn. You might be surprised what your local county extension office offers. Learning how to reuse items, mend and make clothing, fix cars and other things with engines, build needed structures, stay in a budget--all of these are critical skills for any homesteader. For example, my husband fixed our furnace last night for free. He figured out the part that was needed, already had one on hand in his boxes of various parts he's collected, looked up some stuff, and replaced it, saving us so very much money. That helped us have heat, stay in budget, and so much more. He's also in charge of fixing our cars, and it's amazing to me what-all he can do and has learned how to do from watching YouTube. If he can do that, you can, too. Start with the skills and the mindset, and the move to the homestead will be so much easier for everyone. As my daughter prepares to move out of the house to live off campus for her junior year of college, I have been thinking through adult life advice I'd like to give her (but she's probably not quite ready for). Mom prerogative, I guess. I also have been thinking through all the things I do to keep our home running, especially for those bad pain days when I start thinking I'm not giving enough back to my husband and our family. Food is pretty much entirely on me, and it is a big part of any family's budget. Due to my being on disability, not to mention having to cut back post-divorce and live as a single mom for so many years, I have learned some tricks for keeping the food budget under control. So, let's get right to that!
After doing monthly planning for over a year, I've found a few things really work for us. First of all, I have different themes for each day of the week. Monday is meat/casseroles, Tuesday is Latino (Taco Tuesday with a rather broad definition), Wednesday is meatless or fish, Thursday is leftovers, Friday is Italian, Saturday is leftovers, and Sunday is big dinner or meal prepping. In the last couple of months, I've made Tuesdays into Robert's space for picking what he'd like to make (so he isn't trying to learn some new recipe off Pinterest right as he walks in the door from work), and that's helping a bit. We might keep that. Now, to be honest, we don't tend to stick closely to the themes if we aren't hungry for that particular dish; it just makes it easier to plan. In all reality, I could just create a list of 20-22 meals for the month and then cross them off when I make them, but I use the calendar method because I take the family calendar into account in the planning. Makes things a bit easier. Secondly, I start my planning based on what I already have on hand. If I don't happen to have any hamburger in the freezer, then I don't plan any dishes that need that for at least a week into the month to give us time to stop at the store. When money is tight and hamburger prices are up, I don't plan any dishes that month with it at all. Instead of starting with what we like or feel like, I start with what we have so I can use that up first. Shop your pantry first, then the store, and it really saves money in the long run. Also, quick point: I'm starting a binder of all the recipes from Pinterest, magazines, and books that we like. A family cookbook, if you will. That way, all our favorites will be in one place and make the planning easier. The way I do it now is with a few key cookbooks out as well as Pinterest pulled up on my iPad, but eventually, I will have the complete binder to just pull out and use.
I figured this one out with bread. My kids are a bit picky (spoiled, whatever), and when they were younger, they would only eat the more expensive breads from the store, about $3-4 a loaf. I can make bread here at home for a quarter of that price, and honestly, it isn't that hard or much added to my weekly routines. Once I started making bread, I didn't feel so bad if I had to make a second double loaf in a week because they were eating all the bread in sight. Not like how I felt when they'd eat $8 worth of bread in just a couple of days, that's for sure! Doing all your own cooking, I will admit, takes time. There are some ways to cut down on time in the moment, but you'll have to put the time in somewhere. Canning potatoes, for example, really cuts down on the time they need for cooking in soups, casseroles, breakfast dishes, but that means you have to have the time to peel, cut, and can them. Same with canning your own soups, beans, or anything. The Instant Pot is a serious time saver, though, and I highly recommend that and a good crockpot or two (different sizes). Throwing everything in for a soup in the morning means you don't even have to think about dinner later, just dish up the soup and hand out crackers or bread.
For example, after I read that advice, I sat down that Sunday with all the store flyers and compared prices. We had a grocery store in town with the best cheese counter and many of the specialty items I liked, so I had just started doing most of my shopping there to cut down on trips. I was horrified to find that, on average, I was spending $20 more each trip than I would have been if I'd been shopping at Meijer or Aldi. That ended up being a lot of money every month! So, I made that into a monthly special trip just for the specific items we needed, and I switched to Aldi for almost everything else. I still use Aldi as our main store. Side note on prices: take quality into account. Just because that canned soup is cheaper doesn't mean your kids will eat it. If no one likes it, then it was a waste of money. Just because it was on sale doesn't mean it was a bargain.
Food prices are going up, just as they have been for decades now. In many areas, the food part of the budget can end up being a huge chunk of the family budget. Anything you can do to cut that part of the budget down means you have more wiggle room for other needed items, like shoes for teens or the new sports fees or a new bill that has taken you by surprise. If you keep track of prices and your meal plans, you'd be amazed at how much you can save. Having grown up in a small town, one major lesson I learned growing up is that people help each other. We help family as much as we can, but we also help strangers, neighbors, people at church, anyone we can. That's our job, not just as citizens but as human beings.
When it comes to homesteading and prepping, we all have to help each other. If I have too much of something that you need, it's my job to help you out and vice versa. Donne was right: no man is an island. We can feel that way as farmers, doing so much work on our own all the time, but it's okay for us to reach out and ask for help, and it is our job to help others who need it. So, the first tip I want to share in prepping and homesteading is to ask for help. Join groups on Facebook, read blogs, watch YouTube videos and take notes (at least, I have to take notes because I forget so much with the brain fog). Ask people for advice. Show them pictures of your setup and ask what they recommend. Then, follow what seems to be the best advice or what most people agree on. After that, here are some things I've learned over the years that can work. Time
Storage Space
Money
If you have any advice to add to these lists, please add them in the comments. What has worked for you? Let's help each other out and share our best advice. Prepping is short for preparing, which could mean preparing for anything. Some people call themselves preppers who just like to make sure they have enough for surviving a month or two without power due to hurricane or tornado or whatever. Some people own the term because they are preparing for an apocalyptic event (civil war, riots, whatever). There are preppers on all parts of the political spectrum, but when I was growing up, it was just called normal Midwestern/Michigander behavior. We had to be prepared for power outages (amazingly common and frequent) and storms, and my stepmom always made sure the pantry shelves and freezers were stocked full of food. Gardening, canning, freezing, drying--all normal in both homes growing up. Apparently, that means I'm a prepper, too.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that we really do need to keep things on hand as much as we can. Prepping, though, is based on three things (which, in turn, are based on socioeconomic class): time, storage space, money. Time It takes time to garden, and it takes a lot of time to put up food. This morning, for example, I had to put away the 50 pounds of whole wheat flour my husband found at a favorite store (Horrocks in Battle Creek, MI for $20!). That took time, especially when my main flour tote could only handle half of it (I'm so very much not complaining about that since we've been out of whole wheat flour for weeks now). Yesterday, it took me hours to weed a main bed, prepare it for new plants, and put those plants in with the breaks I needed due to pain and fibro issues. I have more to do today, along with picking shelling peas and putting those up. That all takes time. If someone is working more than one job (super common in the middle class and poor), they barely have the time for laundry and cleaning and making food, let alone prepping food for storage, shopping for things they need from bulk stores, making room in their pantries, etc. Prepping takes time, and that needs to be remembered when we talk about what needs to be done to make sure we have enough food and supplies on hand for an extended length of time. Storage Space One thing I see overlooked in how people talk about prepping or putting food up from the garden is lack of storage space. Not everyone lives in a house. Not everyone even lives in a decent-sized apartment. Not everyone lives in a tiny home because it's such a cute fad--they live in spaces that small because that's all they can afford. Some people are homeless and couch surfing or living out of a car or van. For anyone without storage space, prepping isn't realistic. Can you store more in a small space than you'd think? Sure. It takes money and planning, and there are some amazing ideas for that on Pinterest, but even still, lack of storage space really puts pressure on any pantry, let alone if you're trying to store enough food for months. Back to my flour example: fifty pounds of flour takes up room, a good bit of room. We're lucky in that we have the room. I will have to move and rearrange some things, but our basement pantry has room. For long-term food storage, a cold room or root cellar is critical, but that means that you have a house or access to space in a basement (many apartment buildings don't have those and are built on slabs). Again, that storage space issue becomes critical for anything for long-term. Money Finally, prepping takes money. You have to have the money in your budget to buy in bulk. For example, the cheapest, best way to buy meat is to get half or all of a butchered animal from the farmer. For beef in our area, that runs you $300 or more for a half portion. That means you have to have that kind of money in your budget all at once, which so very many people don't have. Sure, it's cheaper over the course of a year, but it's a lot of money all at once. Same for a lot of bulk foods--they are cheaper per unit, but they're more up front. Also, the storage options cost money, from racks to totes to ziploc bags to getting a deep freezer and paying to run it. While we have found that prepping, for us, is cheaper overall, especially in growing and raising our own food, it still has some serious costs. Not everyone has that kind of money in the budget. In fact, with the majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck (and we are right there with you), I would argue that most of us don't. In my next post, I will write about some of the tips and tricks I've found over the years to help with time, storage space, and money. If you follow me on social media, you will see that I frequently share news about the Black Lives Matter movement, the protests that have been going on (finally!), and especially on Twitter, news about Black farmers and researchers and educators.
See, no lives matter until Black lives matter. Black people deserve full equality, equity, and equal power. I believe in reparations, though I'm still working out in my head what those could look like in detail; in destroying the effects of redlining and fixing that massive problem; the complete and full funding of schools with majority students of color; defunding the police and creating/recreating social support programs; more Black educators and farmers with programs in place to encourage them and support them; and so much more. If you aren't okay with my being an ally for Black and Indigenous people, for all Latinx people, for all LGBTQ+ people and for my trying to work for anti racism, then it's okay if you unfollow me or stop reading my blog. If you want to start a conversation, then this former high school teacher doesn't have a problem with that and helping you learn more about issues of equity and equality as long as you stay respectful of all people in your language. Black lives matter. Period. The Victory Garden program started during World War I and the Great Depression in many countries and really took off in the United States during World War II. Victory Gardens in the US were all about maintaining the food supply chain, keeping food local, and making sure Americans ate more vegetables and fruits while also feeding our allies and our troops. It was a fairly successful program, though there were a lot of ways it wasn't as successful as the propaganda suggested, like you would expect; however, in the end, it fed Americans and definitely created a whole new generation of gardeners as so many of the children of World War II grew up to have gardens of their own.
These days, with the pandemic and everything going on here in the US and, indeed, all over the world, more and more people are getting into gardening either again or for the first time. It’s been very exciting to watch the seed companies sell out over and over again, the farm stores sell out of chicks and ducklings to backyard and urban farmers, and more people joining the Facebook gardening, homesteading, and urban farming groups every day. We all should be growing our own Victory Gardens, now more than ever. We have seen the international food supply chain founder, seen empty shelves for weeks at a time, and food prices skyrocket. All those signs point to the need to grow and raise our own food as much as possible. In addition to the old-time Victory Gardens and traditional gardening here in the US, there also is a movement that promotes climate-friendly gardening methods. In reality, there are many smaller movements, from permaculture to Ruth Stout's deep mulching fans, but what they all have in common is using gardening methods that sequester more carbon, feed the soil, privilege the use of heritage plants instead of GMO or hybrid ones, and encourage composting. In our mini urban farm, we utilize all of the methods promoted by the Green America Climate Victory Garden project, from aggressive composting to no-till methods and deep mulch using yard waste from our own yard. The Climate Victory Garden idea is that, just like the Victory Gardens of old, if most Americans, or really most people on the planet, grew all the food that they were able to using carbon sequestering methods like no-till and deep mulching, not only would we have better food security, but we could make a real difference for the environment. Green America has a Climate Victory Garden registration map where you can sign up your garden as being part of the movement. To see if your garden qualifies, you need, at the very least, to use the following environmentally friendly practices:
So, please join us! If you're new to gardening, start with the links on Green America's site for ideas, and then check out intensive square foot gardening, Bokashi composting, Ruth Stout and Back to Eden mulching methods, and regenerative agriculture. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me either here or on social media. Let's feed our families and our world while making the world a better place to live! Can this year get any weirder? I probably shouldn’t ask that. I am writing from our mini urban farm where I have been in self-quarantine since mid-March. With my health stuff, I am at high risk with this new coronavirus, and so I only have left (while wearing a mask and using social distancing guidelines) twice, once to the ATM down the street and once to pick up my husband after a car accident. While it has been rough not to see my mom and stepdad or my knitting friends in person, let alone my son who had been exposed and is at his dad’s apartment, it isn’t like we haven’t been busy. Duck Update We have ducklings! We got 8 ducklings (5 Pekins, 2 Khaki Campbells, and 1 Aylesbury) at TSC thinking the Pekins would be meat ducks for us. Turns out, most are females, so we will be finding them new homes soon now that they're almost adults. If you're local and interested in a duck, let me know. One of the Pekins is disabled (definitely looks to be birth defects), so he has become my daughter's main project. We don't know how long Apollo the Duck will be with us, but she is trying to make sure he has the best life possible. We will be keeping the Aylesbury, Danny, and one of the Khakis, Karen, but the rest with either be butchered or sold. We have two ducks now sitting on nests, so egg production is way down, but we do love seeing them try to be good duck mamas. Honestly, we got the TSC ducklings because none of the gals had gone broody, and we figured they wouldn't this year. Instead, Mango took the lead and is doing a good job sitting on her nest and managing it, and yesterday, Petunia (the Runner, of all ducks) joined her on another nest. Who knows what will hatch, if any, but we might as well let them try and see what happens. Garden Update The garden is coming along, though we had a bad freeze last night and another one on the way Monday. I did a video tour of the garden last week: Pandemic Thoughts
The real problem in dealing with this pandemic is making sure that we are following as sustainable a lifestyle as possible. To that end, we are growing more food than last year, aiming for enough of the things we can grow to get us through a year. I've been using Melissa K. Norris's book, The Family Garden Plan, a lot to help with garden planning and more. It's a great resource. We have also been having real discussions here at home about how to cut costs, stick to meal plans better, get by on less, and what we really need to raise ducks for meat, eggs, and pest control; grow enough food to feed us for a year, at least what we can grow; and plans for how to get by should this thing last much longer than I expect it will. Real talk for a minute: this virus is unlike pretty much anything our doctors have ever seen before, and the more they study it, the worse it is. They can't even prove that people who have had it develop lasting immunity, so even if we do get a vaccine, there's a real chance that it won't be as effective as we would expect. That means that we need to prepare for social distancing and disruptions to food supplies to last. If you haven't considered putting in a garden, please do even a little bit this year. Even just one container filled with herbs will help, let alone some five gallon buckets of tomatoes, greens, and more. Anything you can grow for yourself helps. It takes pressure off the food supply chain, and it helps you be more self-sufficient should you really need to be. At the very least, buy from your local farmers. They need all the support they can get right now. Buy from those local greenhouses to get some plants to grow, and then buy from your local farmers market, co-op, or farmstand to make sure that they stay in business, growing food for your whole community. If you aren't sure where any are, check LocalHarvest.org or even FB Marketplace. Even with working toward sustainability in your home and family with growing and raising your food, making do with what you have or doing without, fixing everything, etc., please make sure to follow basic hygiene guidelines as well as social distancing guidelines. You can't run a homestead from the ICU. |
CarinaI'm a 40s something disabled mom living the life on our small urban farm. Archives
April 2022
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