How would you start? | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

I just typed out a long response and accidentally closed my browser before it was submitted, after I repair my laptop that is sticking out of the wall, I will try and retype it.

My recommendation would be to not try and do everything at once, very often people get overwhelmed and frozen into indecision. I would sit down and make a list of strengths and weaknesses and build some short and long term goals off of that. 

Personally I'm a big fan of goal setting, I will pick three skills or projects yearly and prioritize them A, B and C. A is a must, B is preferred and C would be nice. For example, raise chickens, build a fire-pit, plant a fruit tree.

I then try and learn everything I can about chickens, I visit farms and talk to people raising them, and I drive my wife crazy to the point where she says, go get the damn chickens!

It has worked well so far with pigs, ducks, turkeys and mini Dexters  

Sadly not goats yet

Once my A goal is accomplished, My B goal becomes my A and I add another goal to my list. I decide if the old C or the new goal will become my B and proceed from there.

So say if you are strong on gardening but weak on food preservation, maybe your goals are to learn a new food production method, learn how to make bacon, and learn how to can spaghetti sauce.

Even though you are strong on gardening, it is still a skill to improve on and it will help establish other goals later in the year and should be relatively easy to accomplish. Experiment with no dig potatoes, straw bale, etc.

Once that is complete, making bacon becomes your A priority; find a local butcher shop; buy a pork belly and try it. Once you have fresh homemade bacon, you will never buy from the store again. 

Then that simple bacon project opens you up to two more projects; learning how to raise a pig and building a smoker. Which then leads to building a proper pig shelter, experimenting with solar electric fencing, planting a food plot for your pig, learn how to set up a rain water catchment system so your pigs can self water, build a proper feeder so that the pigs minimize waste, etc.

Which one is less daunting? Learning how to make bacon or that whole last paragraph?

The downside to that is when you make what should be a 5 or 10 year goal into a yearly goal; which I did with our house. I let the goal of building an Earth Sheltered home consume me for over a decade. I was constantly planning, sketching, reading, looking for the "perfect" piece of land, etc. I battled insomnia for years because I would lay in bed working out little details in my mind; how would I do this, how would I do that; to the point where I could probably have built my house with my eyes closed. I lost a lot of time that could have been spent on other skill building projects because I was so focused on that one thing.

Over-thinking the process froze me into doing nothing at all; so we just kept pushing it off year after year; until the day my father almost died. Watching what he went through was a slap of reality and a kick in the ass for me; I didn't want to keep pushing this goal off to the point where I was in my later years and ended up passing away shortly after and not being able to enjoy what we built. The day after he was released from the hospital; we broke ground and finished the house three months later.

I have since learned from my mistake and make my goal settings a lot different now. For example; our off grid cabin. My wife and I bought 20 acres of remote land three years ago that we want to build a cabin on. We set that as a five year goal; but we established other yearly goals around that. 

Year one was to get it surveyed; which we did; we then found out our 20 acres was actually 15 acres and the spot where we wanted to build the cabin was on the 5 acres that was lost. So that winter the lot next to us went on the market, it was 10 acres and we believed it had picked up the missing acreage; so we focused on buying it. After purchasing the land we then shifted our goal to having the wood harvested and clearing out a building spot; which we did two years ago. We haven't done a thing to it since and the only goal left for the land is to build the cabin. To be honest I really haven't thought about it or lost a minute of sleep over it. There is a thread on here somewhere about the cabin that has not been updated in over a year, but once the cabin build starts; that thread is going to explode. I like to take pictures and videos

If you look through the forums I usually start a thread on goals for the New Year and I usually put down start the cabin. It is not my A priority, it is my C; but our daughter is graduating this year and at some point we want to be out on the land; so it needs to become an A at some point.

If you are looking for specific ideas; here are a couple blog posts I had written a couple years ago that might give you some ideas and directions.

http://thehomesteadi.....fficiency/

http://thehomesteadi.....homestead/

Here are some thoughts from several of our forum members on trying to live self-sufficiently. 

http://thehomesteadi.....ient-life/

So what are your strengths and weaknesses?

easytapper said
And to add to what KVR said, I would look at things you can do in your current situation to work towards your goals.  ie, maybe having livestock isn't feasible where you are, but having a garden is.  Maybe learning to hunt if you don't already do so.  Food preservation is pretty high on the list imo and can be done regardless of your current situation.

 Perfect time to work on stuff like this right now, go to local produce or food distributors, you can get a 25 pound case of tomatoes for around 20-30 dollars, you can work on canning without having a garden

garlic is a must!