What is A Modern Day Homesteader?

Since I’ve started my blog, I’ve gotten the question several times about what a homesteader is. Specifically a modern day homesteader. When seeing my blog name Our Future Homestead some people aren’t sure of the meaning. I guess because I’ve been so immersed in this lifestyle being my ultimate dream and goal of how I want our family to live, I didn’t realize that some people are unaware of what it actually means.

Slowly making changes to become a homesteader has been something I have been working on for years.

Yet I don’t live on a farm.

Nor I was not raised on a farm or a homestead.

So, What Does Homesteader Mean and Why Would I Want to do That?

I think that if you asked around in the homesteading community what it means to those who call themselves homesteaders, you would hear many different answers. Such as from some of my favorite homesteaders I follow online. Like Jill Winger over at The Prairie Homestead or Shay Elliot at The Elliot Homestead.

It is a hard thing to put into words.

I like how Jill Winger from The Prairie Homestead said it:

To return to our roots. To find satisfaction from the work of our hands. To toil and sweat for something we love. To feed our families with foods that nourishes both body and soul. To leave the herd and grow our dreams. And to truly live our lives, not merely exist.

Jill Winger

Yet there are also many things that hold this group of people together and I am going to try to put that down for some understanding around what a homesteader is.

To me when I think of homesteaders and what that looks like I definitely see our home on land with animals and big gardens.

Yet, we aren’t there yet. Our yard space with this last move was so dramatically reduced its almost as we don’t have a yard anymore. So it’s not all about the space you are in. You can homestead in ways on a small plot or even in an apartment, yet I would say an ideal homestead would give you some acreage so you can do more.

So What Exactly is a Modern Day Homesteader?

Homesteaders are Producers

So much of our society just consumes day after day. There can be very little producing done in the modern home. Homesteaders choose to produce (not always because they have to in this day and age) because they want to.

Doing something with your hands is grounding, settling. There are so many ways that you can choose to produce as a homesteader that most modern people do not. Cooking from scratch, making your own dairy products, baking bread, gardening, canning your own food. Those are all things that I can and do even without living on our acreage yet.

Many homesteaders also strive to produce their own dairy, meat products, and stay out of the grocery store as much as possible. Mostly because it just tastes best when you produce these things, but also because many of them find it satisfying, morally the best way, or maybe it’s what their family has always done.

By producing your own food as much as possible, you are protecting yourself from so many things. Homesteaders do this for many reasons, such as, food shortages, quality of food they are able to produce compared to the stores, and most importantly THE TASTE! People, have you grown and eaten your own tomatoes, raspberries, green beans? So much better and that’s just the start of it.

Homesteaders Are Frugal

Saving money whenever and wherever you can is the motto of a lot of homesteaders. This group of people is not typically one to spend unless needed.

Looking around the house and using items for projects is being frugal, even if those items were originally intended for another purpose.

Frugal doesn’t mean cheap, though. Being frugal means to use up what you have and not purchase unless needed.

It can also mean purchasing a more expensive, high quality product that will last for years to come instead of a cheap item that will need to be replaced time and time again. Such as cast iron pans or a high quality pressure canner.

The Original Reducers and Reusers

You will not usually find many Marie Kondo followers with homesteading. Why is that? Well there is always going to be a use for whatever it is that isn’t being used right now. Getting rid of things would just be wasting when they could be used down the road.

Did you tear down an old fence or deck? Instead of taking the wood to the dumps, homesteaders will most likely have a need for it down the road, so they save it. It could be used to build a chicken coop, a goat shed, or repair another building on the property.

In our last move we had to get rid of so much of this type of stuff. Things I KNEW we would use in our future homestead, but in our case, could not be saved. Yet, I was able to give some away. An old part of our chicken brooder became an enclosure for a hurt animal for a fellow homesteading friend just a few weeks after she took it off our hands.

Modern day homesteaders may never know the future of discarded items, but they do know they will be used eventually in some way or another.

There is a Tug in Your Heart to Just do it Differently

It’s hard to explain sometimes, but something about modern life just leaves me feeling empty. Driving my kids to and from school, swim lessons, soccer practice, and, and, and. That doesn’t fill anything in my soul.

Waking up with the early summer sun to get the coffee and check on the garden, chickens, collecting a few berries, tomatoes, and eggs on the way around the yard and garden. That fills my soul.

Getting the kids up early to beat the heat for a morning of u-pick produce because we can’t yet grow all the things. Boots full of dirt and smudges of fruit juice running down faces. That fills my soul.

Planning a day of canning strawberry jam, homemade salsa, or apple pie filling. That fills my soul.

Half the time my kitchen is a huge mess and there are projects everywhere, but in the end I have baked a masterpiece, canned something for the coming seasons, or used up a variety of garden goods in a new way.

So Why Would You Choose this Life?

So.much.work. That’s what a lot of people say. Yes, it is work, but fulfilling work.

Cleaning out the chicken coop on a warm spring morning or building a compost enclosure or wood shed are parts of the homesteading chores that we have done when we may have wanted to be doing something more relaxing.

Yet, I wouldn’t trade those fresh eggs, the compost for my garden come spring, or being able to store wood for our winter fires.

And it feels pretty darn good to actually get a job done well and accomplish something with our own hands.

And stepping back to admire those jars full of peaches or apple sauce lining my counter top makes my heart full and happy in a way that not many other things do.

So, is modern day homesteading a way of life for everyone? Definitely not. Yet, I know it is for our family and that is why we have our dream for Our Future Homestead.

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