Our BIGGEST Homestead MISTAKES

One of my biggest (most public) mistakes was poisoning my garden! Watch the story on that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPvgTAHOfC4

My wife & I homeschooled from 1978 to 1990? I am a clinical psychologist & my wife had 2 Masters degrees i early childhood development & special education! Even our own parents didn’t think we were qualified ! So we started the Arkansas Christian Homeschool Association, to start the grassroots movement of homeschooling here. In 1985 we got a law legalizing homeschooling here in Arkansas. We left the public eye in 1995. We had always lived in town but I had my little hobby farm, but I now spent more time farming! My wife died in 2002 ( breast cancer) so with kids grown and gone I poured my life into the farm. I am now 68 and manage 4100 acres full time, hay & cattle mostly.

Wonderful tips for beginners like me! Thanks! Comparison has been my biggest challenge. I used to own a 1/4 acre upon which I built my home and was very content, until I started comparing myself with others who had bigger parcels. Soon I had bought a 5 acre piece that I'm currently building infrastructure on for my retirement homestead. Man, when I closed on it, I thought I had achieved my biggest dream ever! It was so huge, I could not wrap my head around it. Just walking from one end to another took a very long time! I was extremely happy. A few months later, I realized that my next door neighbor at my 5 acre farm has 50 fenced acres ! Suddenly my 5 acres seems like nothing! Comparing is not good!

My favorite saying from Salvador Dali - have no fear of perfection you'll never reach it. And I absolutely love your YouTube channel ❤

You’re enjoyable to watch. I loved watching your kids problem solve themselves with the poop ramp. Thank you for being transparent with mistakes, not cleaning before the videos, and showing good animal husbandry. Thank you for your hard lessons.

People ask us this all the time and they are so surprised when we tell them it is NOT cheap. That is so true, you can buy food more cheaply but you cannot buy the quality. We have been homesteaders for 30 plus years, been raising chickens and heritage turkeys for our table. We milked cows, made hay, etc. none of it money makers. Would not trade the experiences nor would our kids. My husband tells people we do it because we are lifestyle people- Quality of life as you say- our three kids have the experience of working together, raising food, etc. very good video.

You’re crushing it in this space!

You are sooooo articulute and have a great sense of humor! This was really helpful!

Totally loved your last tip...paralysis by analysis....my tiny home awaits my putting one step in front of the other like my grandma always said

My husband and I learned about the downfalls of cheap fencing as well. We figured chicken wire would be fine for our chicken run....sure our chickens couldn't get through it, but our dog could....we lost 10 out of 40 chickens. We also had a great horned owl break through the chicken wire screen door on the coop just last week. Our dog no longer goes after the chickens, but the owl was a different story. It killed 2 chickens and then stayed in the coop perched on the roost until my husband managed to get it out.

I think you missed 2 very important things when talking about costs. A lot of that is going to depend on your location and managment practices. If you live way up north, youll be feeding hay much longer than someone in the south. Also being too far south, your pastures will go dormant in summer. Im in tn and i dont pay for feed from march throughout the end of November because our pastures keep growing the whole season. By november, all of the animals we intend to eat have already been slaughtered, so now im only feeding my small amount of breeding stock. Also because of the crazy long growing season, hay is really cheap, like $3 a bale cheap. Then when my husband has a few coworkers who grow hay on the side, now we're talking $2 a bale because friend discount. We also grow our own oats for the animals, so that cuts way down on costs. My feed bill for the whole year is $200. My mom on the other hand is living in california where she was paying $17 a bale. Big difference. Her friend who breeds goats out there, is paying almost $1000 a month on hay because its so dry, they cant keep aninals on pasture. The longer, and wetter, growing seasons we get in Tennessee also keeps our food costs down because our garden is productive from march into mid december. I can start earlier and we dont get summer die back because it doesnt get too hot and we get plenty of summer rain where we are. Ive had over 1000 seedlings started since the beginning of February that will be leaving the greenhouse very soon. This feeds us and we sell extras, what we dont sell is donated at the end of each day to the local church food bank. We make money, and help families in our community eat healthy food. Thats another thing, what are your state laws about sales? In my state, its legal to sell at roadside stands, so no paying farmers market fees. You cant do that in california where im origanally from. I can also sell eggs unregulated, honey up to a certain amount without regulation, and now my state has just passed a law where i can sell cottage foods. Thats tons of money from homemade jams that i make from our berry harvest. We can even sell our goat milk as long as we label it for pet use only. If my customer wants to drink the milk they bought for their dog, thats none of my business. All i know is a lot of dogs in my town are drinking goats milk lol. Dont worry, i low temp pasturize and would never sell anything i wouldnt drink myself. As far as meat, i can sell it as long as its processed by a licenced butcher. Another thing is management practices. Where does all of your poo go? Thats not something most peaople think about. Are you cleaning stalls and putting it into the compost for the garden? Are you taking the tractor out after a cut and dragging your pastures to spread the manure? These are simple chores that will save you hundreds, maybe even thousands when you arent paying for chemicals. Its good for us, because we do organic gardening, but organic ferts are very expensive at big box stores, so why not just use what we have, and what we have is massive amounts of poo. We also sell our rabbit and horse manure, so the poop pays for the feed that made it. Sell that cow manure and have that go towards the hay costs. Another thing is how diverse are your plants and animals? Im an ecologist, and our farm started as an experiment in biodiverse farming. We have many species of animals that all have a specific job. If it doesnt do a job, i dont own it. Even the lazy cat earns his keep. The horse eats the grass, the goats eat the scrub, pig tills the fields while the chickens follow the pig and eat all of the dug up grubs, the ducks get free rein in the veggie patch and eat all the bugs, while rabbits get turned loose into our wildlife garden, then put up at night (if you plan on doing this, make sure your rabbits are very tame and will come when called). Our wildlife garden has many species of native plants that were hand selected to attract native bees and birds. We also have bat houses, and we will be putting in a small pond for the native frogs. Because we work with nature, we dont have pest problems, we dont have disease problems, and the soil is fertile. This saves us tons in money and labor. All of the livestock does its job to keep pastures healthy and productive. I dont have to do very much work because the animals did it for me. Taking this aproach has turned our 4.6 acres of what used to be weeds and bad soil, into a cheap, sustainable farm thats very productive, and it only took 3 years to get it that way. Im sorry this is so long, but there are a lot of smalll details that can really make or break your farm. I would suggest anyone wanting to try this, should do their research (im a scientist, and i still have to do lots of research on a regular basis), and maybe consider moving to another part of the country if your current climate is going to hinder your success. Theres nothing worse than buying livestock, then drowning in feed costs because a pasture just cant keep up with the animals. Or your vegetables never producing well because the growing season is just too short. For anyone who is inrerested in growing more food and becoming more sustainable, charles dowding has an excellent youtube channel with tons of information on no dig organic gardening. Also, John Seymour who created the 1 acre homestead, wrote a lot of great books during his lifetime. I would suggest the self sufficient life and how to live it as a good first read before starting. His knowledge is extensive and he is one of the few authors i truely trust. I hope this helps. Remember, your dreams dont have to cost you as long as you do it right, and they can even make you money.

I have made some mistakes in my day. One mistake that comes to mind happened about this time of year. I had a wood stove set up out in the barn. I figured I used the big south-facing window in the nice warm barm to start some seeds for the year's garden. The paddock where the beef cows spent the winter had some good manure ladened soil. I figured I sift this and use the fine dirt/soil for starting my seeds. Bad Idea. Those seed beds sprouted weeds, far more weeds than the single seeds we had placed in each seed block. I was trying to save money by not buying potting soil. This was a failure. Fortunately, the mistake became obvious quickly and we were able to get some store-bought potting soil and that year I had a great garden.

Growing up my parents tried homesteading and we probably made every mistake in this video, plus some 😊 Today, I am breaking even with my own layers, but I love knowing what I'm eating is healthier and the joy I find in caring for them

I relate to analysis paralysis, and being overwhelmed by all of the projects we have to do - so much so, that I forget to appreciate what we have, and I also tend to have 7 different pots burning simultaneously, and none of them are getting full attention or care. Trying to learn to focus on one project, so it correctly, with as quality of products as we can afford, then finish completely before moving on.

I have 8 hens. I feed them on about 10 bucks a month. We used to eat and share twice that much in organic fresh eggs. We built a coop using all free materials. Everything we do has to be free, donated, reused, or recycled because of limited income. Also farm a 2000 sq ft raised garden too. It saves us $300 a month in groceries, feeds my friends and neighbors and chickens and costs me only $40 a year in new seeds when I am not able to save my own. Done the right, homesteading can absolutely save money compared to conventional living. 💚🌻

GREAT VIDEO! I grew up on farm and we grew our food and heated with wood. I got burned out on helping with the garden and our hogs. Now that I am older I still farm but the only live stock I have are cattle that  make me a profit most off the time. I sometimes put a beef in the freezer. I heated with wood for my first 20 years and then built a new house all electric. Over last ten years or so I have seen people buy a small piece of land and try to do this homesteading thing and go BROKE! I have seen half built houses left abandon. I have watched people heat with wood, grow a garden, have chickens, pigs, goats, and a cow or 2 in the first 2 years of moving hear. And then go broke and sometimes divorce. You are so right pick one thing master that then move to something else. Growing and raising your on food is not always cheaper.

#1 mistake has been waiting too long to have our own homestead. My wife and I have been living frugally for about eight years now. We have been reading every book and magazine dealing with every aspect of Homesteading while we wait... My first exposure to Homesteading was at the age of 13. My family got into primitive camping in a Tee-Pee, Black powder shooting, being self-reliant, and everything that goes with it. I think that I was the only one among my friends who had a subscription to Mother Earth News and my own set of FoxFire books...lol My wife was raised in a household that contained two matron Aunts and her Grandparents who were raised Amish... She cooks up a feast, cans, vacuum packs dry goods, bakes awesome bread, and everything else... I’m certain people will ask, because we hear it all of the time, why haven’t we found our property and started living our dream of being off-grid...? There’s only one reason, my Mom... My Mom became very sick with several health issues about eight years ago. We were asked to move in and help take care of her and my Stepdad who was a disabled Veteran... He was killed four years ago so it’s been just my Mom since. She won’t leave her home, we asked if we found a place would she move in with us and the answer was no... I’m the oldest son and I have a half-Brother and a half-Sister who refuse to help...! The only time they speak to her is when they want money from her...! I won’t put her in a nursing home as long as we are able to care for her...! It would kill me to do so... So, for the last eight years we’ve put our dreams on hold and will continue to do so until my Mom passes... Even if she were in a nursing home we would still stay here because no one else would go to visit her and I couldn’t leave her all alone like that... I just turned 56 and my wife is 54, we know that we’ve slowed down as we get older and I’m unable to do the things a younger me could’ve... I’m a disabled Veteran also. We realize that with every year we wait it’s going to just keep getting harder... We often sit together talking and this subject comes up and we wonder now if we will ever get to live our dream... Thanks for sharing this information with us. Have a great day and be blessed.

Trying to keep too many laying hens. I started with 40 (😳). Have since discovered 6 is more like it.

Thx for sharing, starting out on raw 35 acres at age 50, is a crazy idea we got about 2 yrs ago, along with 30 chickens, 2 horses, 2 beefers, ducks dogs cats and hogs. yep, all in at once the first year - lots of fencing built and a barn. But at our age and with the experience of this being our 3 homestead, we are ready for it all. We know what we want after many previous mistakes - along with learning each day from our new mistakes. Number 1 mistake: getting animals before being ready, but our hearts often lead us to our choices so in the end, it can't really be a mistake, if you follow your heart.

You are so right about the procrastination!!!! I have dreamed all my life about having chickens. Since I was a child I dreamed of living g ona farm. I wanted chickens, lots and lots of chickens, for meat and eggs. I wanted a garden and to can and freeze and have good quality food. I did accomplish the garden and food preservation but never got my chickens because I always let things get into the way. Still working on having those chickens...lol. Thank you for the encouragement 🙏