My name is Sarita Harbour from An Off Grid Life. I’m a homesteading mom of seven and grandmother of three. I live with my husband and our two youngest daughters on our small homestead in Canada’s subarctic.
When we first moved to our off grid home in Canada’s Northwest Territories, we had no idea how to apply our idea of “homesteading” to this seemingly barren and extremely remote area. And honestly, as a career financial advisor, most of what I knew about homesteading came from books.
Yet with our five oldest children all working or pursuing post-secondary education, my husband and I, along with our preschool daughter, decided to leave our comfortable life in Burlington, Ontario (with a short adventure in northern Alberta) for this adventure-of-a-lifetime in the far north. And did I mention I was pregnant with our seventh child too?
Now, eight years later, we homestead, homeschool, and work from our off grid home. Trying to homestead and raise a family in this extremely cold, although beautiful, environment is a challenge and we’re always learning. We power our homestead with solar panels and diesel generators (in winter,) heat with wood and propane, and pump our water up from the lake behind our house.
We’ve adapted to the unusually compressed growing season (about 7-8 weeks, including 20+ hours of daylight in mid-June) and are learning the basics of permaculture. We added chickens and turkeys to our foraging, hunting, and fishing activities. And we’ve learned about raising poultry in -50 Celsius weather, and are now considering adding rabbits and/or goats.
As with many homesteaders, ours is a work-in-progress and the whole family participates. We’re now going into our eighth year of homeschooling, and hands-on activities are a big part of our day. Our middle daughter is the main caretaker of our mixed flock of 30+ chickens.
We enjoy gardening, nature studies, poultry husbandry and traditional homestead crafts such as knitting, crocheting, weaving, quilting, soapmaking, canning, and soon we’ll try our hands at candlemaking. And, of course, we’re always cooking and baking from scratch.
The daily opportunities for hands-on learning of practical self-reliant skills are some of the things I love most about being a homeschooling, homesteading mama.
Our first main homestead project was getting the garden going. Soil quality is very poor here. so we truck it in to build our raised vegetable bed. Over the years we’ve added compost, including chicken and turkey manure-seasoned straw. Over the years we’ve grown a ton of potatoes, lettuce, peas, and other vegetables in our raised garden and tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and herbs indoors.
We enjoy gardening, nature studies, poultry husbandry and traditional homestead crafts such as knitting, crocheting, weaving, quilting, soapmaking and candlemaking. And, of course, cooking and baking.
One of my biggest challenges as a homesteading mom in a remote area was keeping the children safe when they were small. Bear, wolves, coyotes, pine martens, wildfires, the lake…it seemed danger was all around us. Now that they’re older it’s easier. However, when they were small I kept a close eye on them, and there was a lot of “baby-wearing” in the garden!
Homesteading in the north isn’t for everyone. Yet as we strive to become as self-reliant as possible, I’ve learned so many lessons about adapting, innovating, and evolving to meet the challenges.
If you want to be self-sufficient and feed your family healthy hearty meals from scratch, you’ve got to
start milling at home. I know, I know, it sounds complicated and al little bit scary, right? But it doesn’t
have to be!
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…
Try, what is the worse that can happen? Ether, it works and that’s great or its failed and you learn. One lesson I learned early was to own it. If you laughed the loudest at yourself, it gave less room for other people to poke and bug about it. Plus, if you can grow to the point of being ok just uncomfortable (its probably always going to be uncomfortable failing at something) in your mistakes you are less likely to ignore or forget the important lesson that you were being taught. Unless its leaving hoses running for hours or all night, why is that one so hard to remember?!
when we choose to live closely bonded with the land, to turn to it in reciprocity, tending to the soil and the water and the plants and the animals for our mutual thriving, we are reclaiming a pattern of collaboration with all that lives. when we take the responsibility for what we need back into our own hands, those intimate relationships become vivid and immediate. we bring it home….
I don’t know a single person that can’t find some joy in flowers – whether it be their color, shape, or smell, a bouquet of fresh posies is sure to brighten anyone’s day. It’s no wonder that growing a cut flower garden has become increasingly popular among small farmers and homesteaders as a means of diversification…
“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…
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….
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…
