My Journey - Week One

The Current Homestead 2018
 Image:  Tracy Few

As I begin in earnest upon my journey towards my own homestead and a more self-reliant and simplistic life, I felt the need to chronicle this major event in my life.  I hope to share with you, the readers, my ups and downs—my success and failures—my progress and my setbacks—just about anything and everything that happens as I learn a new way to live. 

My Aunt Monica asked me a few weeks ago why I was wanting to take this journey and I simply answered—I have been living this life I live for over fifty years now, and it has not made me happy.  It would seem that I need a change and felt that a more self-sufficient, simpler, non-materialistic lifestyle would give me the peace and happiness that my current lifestyle does not seem to provide. 

I have been pondering on whether or not I really wanted to make an attempt at this journey.  It is one that I will be taking on my own, along with my furry baby Miss Rooh, so I am sure there will be days that I will want to just throw in the towel.  However, I am going to stand steadfast and true to see it through.  I have a vision, I feel given to me by the Good Lord, of how my life will be and what my homestead will look like when I finish my journey.  This is what keeps me on the straight and narrow, even at those times that I begin to second guess myself.

I worked really hard for ten years to get, and remain, debt free.  I am debt free at this writing, and my vehicle is paid off.  The only incoming bills I have are utilities and such.  I had thought of maybe trying the off-grid way of life, and further reduce my living costs, but I work on the computer, out of my current homestead, and to keep this employment I have to have high-speed internet and a land phone  So, because of my work, I figure I will opt out of the off-grid lifestyle, at least for now.

I want to spend all my free time researching animals, housing for animals, gardening for both the warm months and cooler months, as well as such things a composting bins and chicken runs.  I want to absorb as much information as I can so that I will be better prepared when I acquire my piece of land.   I know what type of home I want—basically, a storage building that will be finished out as I can afford it—as well as how much land I think I will need so that I can adequately achieve my goals and still be able to maintain.  I am currently in the phase of saving for the land because that is the first crucial piece in the overall puzzle, so I am pretty much constantly working.  I take all the hours I can, as well as take on any clients that will offer me a job, so that I may put as much back as I can.

My goal is by September 2019 is to have either enough money to buy my land outright or enough to pay down on it to afford me a better chance of getting a loan for the rest.  I prefer paying for it outright because with a loan I would not be debt free.   And I do not want to start my homestead being in debt.  After I acquire my land, I can then set my sights on a home to place on that land.  But that is for another blog post 😊