One of my favorite features every week on the Monday Musings posts is the update from our Heffner Homestead. I remember when I first told my husband I would like to call something on the blog that and talk about our garden and such, and he asked if calling it a homestead was maybe a little generous to call our (then) container garden a “homestead”.
And so I waited. I didn’t want to be misleading or anything and “homestead” was a LONG way from our reality – at least as far as where we lived, without any land, a “real” garden, or animals.
But homesteading was growing in our hearts. Not because we think it’s what everyone has to do or enjoy.
But because for us, we are interested in doing it. In learning about it. In growing food, preserving food, having animals, and more.
So we like learning about it. Taking small steps towards it.
And that’s when I decided it was ok to use the word “homestead” when I talk about our aspirations. It’s the idea that a homestead doesn’t grow – literally or figuratively – overnight.
One morning I will not magically wake up on hundreds of acres of land with cattle grazing and rotating just so, with a never ending supply of eggs and fresh produce.
While this would be cool, it would certainly leave us with a HUGE knowledge gap, one that we’re filling every year as we try new things, talk about new things, read more, watch more documentaries, and then try some more.
Last year at this time, I was spending my mornings picking raspberries from our produce guy while the kids played. At our house, we had exactly seven planters with produce growing – mostly herbs.
This year, I’m working (or often, watching my husband work with this big baby belly) at switching our Back-To-Eden type garden from our summer produce to fall produce.
We’ve (literally) reaped the benefits of a garden – over 7 gallons of pickles, gorgeous sunflowers, enough tomatoes to make some soup for when the baby is born, and more.
And we have learned a LOT. We know some things we want to change for next year. We’re more aware of our vast growing season here that we simply did not have in Ohio and when we need to plant to take advantage of it.
We also know that to keep our garden going, we need some active fertilizer making. And we’d like to get chickens. Which have multiple benefits – a compost factory and egg laying. But we’re not quite ready to jump into that one yet, maybe in the spring.
What I’m saying is that one day I may wake up on acres and acres of a homestead with fresh produce and animals running in their pastures, Lord willing. But it won’t be a magical transportation. It’ll be a growing process, a learning experience, and an opportunity for this little novice gardener to get some more dirt under her finger nails and dig in.
And if the idea of having any size of homestead sounds appealing to you – and I’m talking a container garden all the way to full-blown operation – then I invite you to check out this book bundle. A book bundle is a limited-time grouping of books with common topics so that instead of scouring the vast interwebs, looking for something and hoping it’s good, you instantly have an entire library of (in this case) over 90 eBooks and other resources to help you as you investigate, grow, and learn. This particular bundle is available through Monday.
It’s called the Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle. It doesn’t just cover homesteading but has 8 topics along the lines of healthy living – like natural remedies, natural home, allergy-friendly and healthy kids. I know we can all agree that we want our families to be healthy, and this bundle will encourage you as you seek to try something out this year. (There are GREAT testimonials from other moms, just like us, that you can read.)
Any one else an aspiring homesteader? What are your dreams? I’d love to hear from you!
P.S. There are some people (I have been one of these people) who look through the list of books and think “Well I really only want a couple. Is the ENTIRE library worth it?” And then I get to FREE bonus offers, which are always AMAZING and YES, it’s worth it! So be sure to look at the bonus offers too, if that’ll help sweeten the deal!
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