I’m not like most Homestead Mamas, and honestly I’m okay with that. I’ve always kinda swam up stream, been the brunt of a lot of eye rolls, and been happy to be “different.”But when it comes to homesteading? I’m an Accidental Homesteader, plain and simple.
We Wanted to Simplify Things
Our family was just looking to simplify things a little. Move a little more north and a little more country. We wound up moving from just south of the busyness of Philly to way north of the busyness of Boston. And calling our new home “in the country” isn’t really doing it justice. And it isn’t anything even remotely “new” either.
Our family now lives in a New England farm house that was built in 1800 and situated by a mountain lake that bubbles into a sun-kissed river that flows along our 14 wooded acres. Before you get all dreamy eyed and think that’s romantic, I’ll assure you that the land is littered with rocks (not too helpful in a garden or a cow’s field) and the house is in constant need of repair, with a capital “C”… Constant I tell you.
The barn roof sags. The lights and water are not always guaranteed to work (at least the way we want them to). The floorboards creak like crazy. The land is rocky and filled with work to be done. And the nearest traffic light is an 18-mile backroad trek.
Our teenage daughters were never crazy about suburbia, so they liked the quietness of our new life. But they are workers at heart and quickly realized a few jobs they wanted to take on…
The Accidental Homesteader
When we bought our old farmhouse, we knew we were getting into all of those things I already mentioned—the rocks and the creaks, the sags and the problems.
What we didn’t know was that there was a dilapidated, probably 100-year-old chicken coop down the slope from the barn and overgrown with sticker bushes. And a stable perfect for milk cows, if we could just rebuild the walls and level out the dirt floors. And plenty of room to add meat rabbits in the barn and turn over a large garden past the stable.
We didn’t see all these promises of homesteading on our new-to-us 14 acres in the country until we had lived there a few seasons; my daughters and I started to look around and wonder what previous owners had done here on this land for 2 centuries before us.
Homesteading is Therapeutic
I have 4 daughters, a total of 7 years apart. The oldest headed off to college in Boston soon after we moved. And Logan wound up bringing car loads of other college students back to the farm often. It was therapeutic for them to escape the stress of their rigorous engineering classes to come to the farm and watch ducks waddle through spring puddles, sit in the overgrown gardens of fall, or collect buckets of sap during sugar season.
Then the next in line had a freak accident in her Junior year of high school lead to unbearable chronic pain. When other girls’ biggest concern was what they’d wear to prom, Jordyn fear was if she’d be able to handle the pain enough to get out of bed on any given day. But she often found a way to sneak a baby chick or a soft new barn kitten up to her room to keep her company.
When pain gave way to spinal fusion, which gave way to a rare neurological syndrome—Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)—she found deep, simple, calm joy on the farm. A clinical trial eventually eased her pain and she married and moved across the country last summer, but she knows memories of the farm will always ground her, even when life is painful.
Then my youngest two daughters? Kayla and Hayley passed all of their teen years in the heat of homesteading challenges, chores, and hard work. They learned to grow food and wonderful ways to cook and prepare it. And they both agree they can’t imagine any better place to have grown into adults than on our farm.
Kayla will spend the rest of her life in ag, if she can. Hayley, on the other hand, is pursuing a degree in communications and may never own her own farm. But both of them will always be different, stronger women because of all those years of early mornings spent milking the cow and collecting the eggs.
“Simple” is Often the Hard Choice
Bill and I had moved to simplify things and slow down the crazy pace of life just a little, and suddenly we longed to use this land and this old farm house the way it had been used for 200 years before us. Bill was tapping a hundred maples and I was publishing a book on the topic. And we learned that “simple” is sometimes the hard choice.
With our teen daughters by our side, my high-school sweetheart and I rolled up our sleeves and became accidental homesteaders, one animal, one new recipe, and one garden at a time. Along the way, we learned that Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy, but man is it worth it.
I am not well traveled. I’ve never flown on a plane. I’ve never been north of Ohio or west of Texas.I’m not as well traveled as some may say one should be, but this piece of land has housed all of my fondest memories…
Do you ever worry that your kids will miss out because of this homesteading lifestyle choice? This fear crosses my mind time to time. I’m sure many, if not most of you, could agree that it can be extremely difficult to get extended time away from the homestead for more than a full day, especially in the busy summer months when daily chores demand our regular attention…
“In some Native languages the term for plants translates to ‘those who take care of us’ … the land knows you, even when you are lost.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass…
Babies, Business, and Bumper Crops: How I am Learning to Homestead with Babies in Tow
Have you ever had one of those days? You know the days when you are cleaning the baby’s diaper, milking the cow, scooping poop in the barn, wiping noses, and cleaning more poop off of kids’ shoes…
Hey there, Homesteading Mama’s!
I’m Rachel from @frontier_homesteading. My husband Ryan, three children and I have been homesteading for about 10 years now, first in Wyoming and now in Alaska.
We currently have milk goats, pack goats, sheep, a pig, a cow, chickens, rabbits, bees and a dog. Seasonally, we also have more pigs, meat chickens and turkeys….
Stained glass windows date back to the 7th century. With the earliest known reference dating
from 675 AD when workmen were imported from France to Britain to Glaze the windows of a
monastery…
Homesteading and growing food is not the easy way out of this life, i would say it is the hard way as there’s nothing convenient about it. It’s a lifestyle, a life change not a trend or hobby. Well, that’s my opinion any way…
Awakino Station is a child’s dream. There is the river to splash in, tussock covered hills to explore, animals to raise and a bustling kitchen with a baking tin full of something yummy to eat…
After a busy daycare week for our toddler, and the hectic joys of infant co-parenting + farming, weekend mornings are eagerly anticipated family time; the weekend promise of adventures great and small is so refreshing…
