Homesteading Mistakes: Don't Forget the Money

Every homestead should be treated like a business, even if you don't think it is.

Much has changed for my family over the past year—most of it for the better. Two of the most relevant changes is that I changed my day job and we fell into a friend group full of homesteaders.

These have both been blessings, but the downsides have been that I don’t have as much time for homesteading as I once did, and seeing how good my friends are at homesteading make me realize how bad I am at it.

As a result, my farm operations are a bit of a hot mess and I’ve been suffering from imposter syndrome, which I’ve been told is pretty common. For example, a friend who is—bar none—the best damn gardener I’ve ever met has only recently started gardening again after ruining one farm with aminopyralid contamination.

Mistakes—often major and expensive ones—are part and parcel of homesteading, along with a sense of not knowing what the hell you’re doing. So as I contemplate how to rework my own farm operations, I’d like to share a few things I’d wish I had known before I started six years ago.

Let’s start with the financial element. To many of you, this may be obvious, but it’s all too easy to buy some baby chicks on a whim, only to find later that you’re stuck with an unexpected monthly expense. Let’s discuss how to avoid costly mistakes.

Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash