I realize that I had really just yesterday wrote a post about why I homestead and for who I homestead for, but I will go into a little more depth with this post, so that I can enter it into the STEEMIT HOMESTEADING CHALLENGE.
OK so here goes. As most of you know I HOMESTEAD for my children, I have 3 and I am a widow. I have raised my kids and they have all chosen to follow some path of athletics, so proper nutrition is a big component of growing my own food. I also grow my own food because one of my daughters as I had stated in my prior post, has an eating disorder, and only eats 15 ish things. But she does love everything I plant in my garden. So that is the big picture of the reason WHY I homestead.
As a young girl, I used to be shipped off to my grandparents each summer, and I loved it. They lived on a farm and I spent my days learning the way of the land from them. The memories and time I spent listening to them guide me how to do things in the garden and being oh so patient when I messed it up, were some of the best times of my life. My grandmother taught me to knit, Fish (yes I did say fish, fly fish for Salmon I might add) how to clean a fish, how to properly chicken catch without scratches all over myself, and most importantly she taught me to play cards (cribbage) and play checkers, on those days that the weather was unforgiving.
And as an adult, I still loved going to Grandma's farm, and she could still beat me at Checkers, and Cribbage.
My grandfather taught me to swing an ax, build a fire in the cook stove, and are you ready for it, set a mouse trap, among many other things. So knowing how much joy I had as a grandaughter learning all this cool stuff, I wanted to be able to give these same memories to my grandchildren one day. That is important to me. Knowing that my grandchildren would be able to provide for themselves in their adult years will give me peace after my passing. Which I intend GOD willing, to leave each of them however many I will one day have, enough money to buy themselves a little piece of their own paradise to develop as they wish.
Back to current reality. My big picture for the future of my homestead is to buy another piece of land. My intention is to build my retirement home on the land and develop an orchard and have a small pond, if I can't buy land with some form of water on it. I would love to have a horse as well.
When my daughter was released from the hospital, after 4 months, they had suggested that she take part in Equine Therapy to help her with her illness. So I enrolled her once per week she went and groomed the horses and eventually she managed to get on a smaller horse and ride her for 20 minutes. She felt so accomplished when I went to pick her up, and it really did calm her and make the whole weekend go by smooth. So I see great value in having enough land with a small meadow for a horse. This way my kids and grandchildren would have this invaluable resource to use as a form of therapy, and it would just be fun to go and hang out at grandma's house. The homestead I have currently is large as I raised my family here. So my 5 year plan is that my youngest will be again GOD willing in University and then I shall be ready to downsize to a smaller home with one level which would be ideal for my aging body by then. I intend to have a small 2 bedroom cabin style home, with a separate bunk house for the kids, grandchildren, and anyone else who needs a pillow for a night or two.
This is a picture of my grandparents Farm, on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, it had a salt water river running through it, and 2 fresh water ponds.
My door is always open, to anyone, from near or afar. I would like to be able to host and support the Tiny Home movement, and be able to offer my land for a temporary placement of a tiny home that is on wheels in transition to the land of their own. I will also, open my gardens in the summer to the various daycares and summer day camp programs in my community so that I can expose some of the inner city kids to the concept of a garden. I would like for them to enjoy an entire lunch provided by the garden, so that they have inspiration to learn the ways of the land.
So there you have it folks. These are my hopes and dreams for my future with my Homesteading skills and land. Love to hear back from you all.
Happy Trails