We don’t actually have a homestead. We have acreage, barns, the good ol’ farmhouse feel, and country charm. But looks aren’t everything and right now our time is being best spent on family, our home, and maintaining a semblance of normalcy in society.
We totally have a garden. It’s a kick ass garden with weeds and toppling plants but it produces amazing food and is super pretty to look at. We love it beyond words and wish we had more time to spend beautifying one of the best places in our yard. The garden is one of those things that is easy to prioritize- it feeds our family and allows us to stock up on healthy canned and frozen food for the cold season. With prices the way they are right now, we have been so grateful to grab lettuce, peas, herbs and kale without the grocery store price tag!
There are apple trees and there are grape vines. We call these areas the orchard and vineyard respectively but they aren’t. Not really. They get mowed a few times a year when we need to tame the jungle and access what we can salvage of the fruits of our non-labor. Thank God nature is fantastic at taking care if it’s self and has been for forever- we are just blessed that the fruits we so excitedly seek are the sole purpose of reproduction for organisms far more savvy than us.
There is even a house. Oh, this house. It has come so far but still proudly boasts the most defeated facade I have ever seen. Dismantled porches, a sad semblance of patchwork siding, and more hail damage than any structure deserves to bear. We keep saying it will be beautiful, and it sure could be, when insurance and contractors are done putting us through hell. For now I squint and cover one eye when I have to look at the place and pretend I don’t care but Lordy it is a stab to the heart with every glance. We are trying, house. Your time is now and we are doing all we can to restore your glory.
We have a tractor (homesteading points) with a big mower but you wouldn’t always know it. Grass is faster than us, hands down.
Inside our home we have grace. You can tell because our family has poured obnoxious amounts of travel time, long weekends, and curse words mixed with forced patience into creating a living space we can safely raise our toddler in. We have a brand spanking new bathroom upstairs with a full size tub, shower, double vanity, and all the space a growing family needed but didn’t have in the closet that used to have a toilet. Our laundry area is upstairs and out of the ancient basement and I actually enjoy cleaning our clothing now. We have new drywall. New electrical. New trim. Fresh paint on every wall and ceiling. New flooring throughout the first floor. The most “state of the art” kitchen we will probably ever own. New windows and doors. Hell, new HVAC and central air on the way. We have a mother effing island and I don’t know what we ever did without one. We have so much grace and progress within the walls of this 100 year old home. We are thankful for that.
We have new life on the way. Another little human to fill these rooms and scuff these new floors. A promise of more toys, more laundry, more dirt everywhere, and on more mouth for our garden to feed. More sleepless nights and so much more love to overflow out these new doors. While we waited patiently for this second child, we are now wondering how it happened so fast and cannot wait to meet her in a matter of weeks. We hope she is a born a naturalist and enjoys this place as much as her brother does!
But we don’t have a homestead. If you do want to call it that, it’s a super lame one. There are no chickens running around or grazers in the pastures. The barns are kind of lonely, I would imagine. They must watch the cows across the stress and feel empty as they slowly degrade beyond our care. We have everything we need and more space than imagination but No. Stinking. Time. Any animal brought here would surely perish under our distracted care. At least we can openly admit that and avoid such a scandal.
The best part of all of this- I’m ecstatic to be the lame homesteader. We do so much and then some and we are never bored. We have learned more than I ever thought possible about the widest variety of things. I tend to downplay what we do on a daily basis because boasting is bad… but this is my space to do that and if you’ve made it this far you must be fairly sympathetic to our cause! I’ll gladly own the title of lame homesteader but I’ll dare anyone to say we are lame in any other aspect of life.
My husband, a saintly man, took this leap with me knowing damn well what it meant for him. He has learned carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and all things sharp, dangerous, or poisonous in the lawn care department. He outpaces me every day and I get salty about it because I was going to be that wife that pulled equal weight. This man does more than hang picture frames and swap lightbulbs, ladies. Mundane tasks like that are what he does while brushing his teeth before bed. He takes on everything that needs to be done as long as the risk of bodily harm is below 90%, no matter his reservations. He also takes on all of my hair brained ideas which is honestly the scariest part.
So I’ll confess- we are so proud of what we are building here no matter what it looks like. It’s a lame homestead but it’s a hell of life. It’s full of experiences that we are honored to give our children and lessons we will carry with us the rest of our days. Board by board, weed by weed it’s going to fall apart and come together.
