Nobody puts the poop in those pretty homesteading photos, or the two 300-pound pigs we finally loaded with the cheapest beer in the store. This week I’m telling the funny, messy stories behind the homesteading dream, from New Jersey blizzards to Florida fire ants, and what each one taught me about keeping it simple.
Nobody puts the poop in those pretty homesteading photos. Or the two 300-pound pigs we finally got onto the trailer with the cheapest beer in the store.
This week I’m telling the stories behind the pictures. Years of homesteading in New Jersey and Florida have given me blizzards, fire ants, black snakes in the nesting boxes, baby goats living in my house, and one beautiful irrigation system I destroyed with a shovel. (Sorry, honey.)
They were nightmares when they happened. Now they’re some of my favorite stories, and each one taught me something about keeping homesteading simple, so you can skip a few of my “learning opportunities.” Stick around to the end to hear why, after all of it, I wouldn’t trade this life.
Chapters
- 0:00 — What’s missing from every homesteading photo on social media
- 1:15 — The shoes that are banned for life from my house
- 2:45 — Animals don’t read the homesteading manual
- 3:45 — Why I don’t believe in “mistakes” when you’re learning
- 4:45 — How our feeder pigs got way too big
- 6:00 — Loading day: the pigs did not cooperate
- 7:15 — My mom’s surprising solution (and a trip to buy cheap beer)
- 8:45 — Build the shelter before you bring home the residents
- 10:00 — My New Jersey goat herd and a freezer full of goat milk
- 12:00 — Bottle babies in Florida… living in my house. Again.
- 14:00 — My husband’s beautiful, choreographed irrigation system
- 15:45 — Who sliced the irrigation line? (It was me.)
- 16:45 — Why we now use two hoses and two sprinklers
- 18:00 — I could be a lemongrass farm
- 20:40 — Meat chickens and the hard days of processing
- 22:30 — Growing food is only half the job
- 23:15 — New Jersey winters: frozen buckets and hay planning
- 25:30 — Black snakes in the coop
- 26:50 — Florida heat, parasites, and (yes) poop as a health check
- 28:30 — Rainy season turned my food forest into a jungle
- 29:10 — A coyote in broad daylight, hawks, and a fox
- 30:30 — Homesteading doesn’t take vacations
- 32:30 — Your animals don’t care that you’re sick
- 34:45 — Why I’m not breeding my goats yet
- 37:00 — Why I still love this life
- 38:15 — The chickens that come running to my kitchen window
- 40:30 — Accepting applications for coop cleaners
A few things worth writing down
- Build the shelter before you bring home the animals, or the plants.
- The simplest system is often the best one.
- Growing food is only half the job. Plan time to preserve it, or another way to use it.
- Design your homestead for your worst day, including sick days.
- Start small. You don’t have to do everything another homestead does.
Mentioned in this episode
- Episode 65 — Everything Will Work Out: The Pig Story
- Episode 203 — Raising Meat Chickens: Questions People Always Ask
Come find me
If this episode made you laugh, or made you feel better about your own homestead chaos, share it with the friend who’s always sending you baby goat videos. They need to hear the poop part first.
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