Homesteading???

Looking back I never imagined I'd be living this life. Just a few years ago I was living just outside of Jacksonville, NC with the hopes of one day buying a house with a little bit of land so we could go out and shoot whenever we wanted to. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be raising chickens, growing my own food, and learning to can and prep for the future. I always thought of prepping as something only crazy people did. That was mostly because I used to watch that show Doomsday Preppers on TV.

I look at prepping in a completely different way now. Last year we weren't making enough money to pay the bills and feed ourselves, but because I had bought extra food throughout the year to put aside in case of an emergency, we didn't starve. I had a full freezer worth of meat, and an entire pantry full of canned goods, and easy meals.

Prepping means preparing for the inevitable. I live in Eastern North Carolina and we get hurricanes regularly. Not to mention we also get really bad storms that knock out the electricity. Having food put away for those occasions just makes sense. Then I got to thinking, if I'm going to start prepping why not start growing some food to go along with the things that I buy at the grocery store. Which then led to gardening. It seems like everything has lead to something else and eventually it led me to homesteading.

So, what is homesteading? Homesteading is defined by Wikipedia as a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. And while they aren't wrong, they aren't exactly right either.

I have learned throughout this journey that homesteading can look however you want it to. For instance, in 1862 the United States put the Homestead Act into law. This act allowed more people to claim land as their own, and make it whatever they wanted. Between 1862 and 1934, the federal government granted 1.6 million homesteads and distributed 270,000,000 acres of federal land for private ownership. The Homestead Acts allowed people to start farming on their own land.

Homesteading today doesn't always look like it did in the pioneer days. Nowadays, most people have electricity, running water, still go to the grocery store for things. Modern homesteading is completely different from what most people think of. Usually when I tell people I've started homesteading, they immediately think I live like the Amish. I'll tell you right now, that isn't happening!! I like electricity and air conditioning entirely too much.

Homesteading for me means growing my own produce. Raising livestock and, eventually, butchering it to feed my family. Canning and preserving everything I harvest. And last, but definitely not least, cooking and preparing all of our meals from scratch. There have been so many new and exciting things I have learned and experienced while on this new journey, and I have loved every second of it.