Homesteading Is hard work! I'm writing this right now at night because I'm tired and am quite often tired at the end of the day.
So why do it? Is it worth it? These are the questions I often ponder and constantly make me consider why I'm doing this.
Here are 10 reasons I homestead and believe it's worth it.
Better Health
This is the main reason I started homesteading and the main reason I keep doing it. Much of the food in restaurants and grocery stores is poison in too much quantity and buying organic gets expensive. Growing and raising my own food insures I get the highest quality, free from pesticides,herbicides, hormone induction, steroids and God only knows whatever else gets pumped into food, at the best prices. Sure my time and labor are worth money but that leads me to the next reason.
Love of the Lifestyle
I really do enjoy gardening and raising livestock, I enjoy preserving and cooking, I enjoy repairing and repurposing, I love being tired at the end of the day and seeing everything that was accomplished. In general I love most everything about homesteading. This is the way I was raised and when I was a kid I never had any doubt it was the way I would always live.
Self Sufficiency
This term is kind of deceptive as I believe no one is completely self-sufficient. What I mostly mean by this reason is the development of skills that enable me to provide for myself and my family. I am constantly trying to learn new things that enable me to do more and provide more without depending on someone else to do it for me. I feel like this is important in a time when most skills of the past are forgotten by the majority of the people and we collectively become more and more dependant on a "system" that provides for us.
To Connect The Past With The Future
This means I want to teach my children and grandchildren what was handed down from my parents and grandparents. We are the link between the past and the future and if that link doesn't hold tight and connect the two then they become separated from one another and the legacy does not carry on. My grandfather was a homesteader with wicked carpentry skills, my dad grew up learning all that he taught him and then passed it down to me. I want to continue that legacy for many generations.
To Help The Environment
That's right I'm a bit of a tree hugger. I love nature and the beauty of the planet and I want to preserve it for future generations. I believe homesteading is one of the most generous things we can do for our planet. Most homesteaders use organic practices that are generous to the soil and nature in general. The more that people grow their food in this manner the less poison is sprayed elsewhere. Yeah I know I'm only making a small difference but it's the difference I can make so I'm going to do it.
Preparedness
Okay so I'm a prepper, no not the crazy kind ;) Not all preppers are homesteaders, I mean buying food and cramming it under your bed and in your closet doesn't make you a homesteader but I think every good homesteader is a prepper. It is just what we do, we grow and raise our food and preserve it and put it up for when we can't grow it. We prepare for winter and weather events and anything unforeseen that comes our way. That is basic preparedness and it's not crazy, it's responsible.
For Freedom
Yep Freedom! I mean this in a few different ways.
Food freedom, the freedom to put into my body what I choose to put in there, not what food manufacturers want me to put in there.
Freedom from the system, the system that says "this is how we want you to live" work a 40 hour a week job, pay your taxes, buy your food like everyone else and have the same dreams as everyone else.
Financial freedom, as I mentioned before, I believe this is a much cheaper way to eat healthy and live in a more frugal manner. Translation - more money in my pocket at the end of the day.
To Be A Better Neighbor
Because I'm growing an abundance of food I get to share with my neighbors, just the other day some neighbor kids were walking down my fence line eating blackberries, this makes me happy, I want to share and they know they are allowed to do it. I love handing the neighbors a bag of food occasionally (and not just the zucchini). I love seeing the face of a next door neighbor biting into a fresh vine ripened tomato out of my backyard and telling me "you can't buy anything like that in the store".
The homesteading community
This is a reason I knew nothing about when I started down this journey but it is definitely a reason I do it now. The homesteading community both online and local are some of the most friendly, caring, and difference making people on the planet and I'm proud to be part of the community.
To inspire change
I do think this is a way of life that is better for people and planet and because I believe that I want to constantly encourage other to get started right now, right where they are if they have a desire to go down this path. To put it humbly, I homestead because I want to change the world!
So is it worth it?
You bet it is!
You bet it is!