What is your top priority activity for homesteading?

[moonwolf]

I think that the top priority activity for homesteading is growing and harvesting from the garden.
The reason is because it can help with self sufficiency, it produces wholesome product for consumption, and it can be harvested to process for long term storage. All these perform the funtion that fits homesteading to a Tee.

The second priority item in my book would be foraging, which also includes gathering firewood if you have a woodlot.

I would say the third priority would be working from the home for an income.

Those three would make homesteading very doable, even in the modern context, I believe.

What are your top priorty activities if you are really into a homesteading lifestyle?

[Hank - Narita]

Definitely the garden. Spend most of every day doing weeding, picking, etc. Next is milking goats. They require that we be here twice a day. Next would be keeping the facilities in good working order. Something always going wrong. Forgot to mention feeding and giving water to chickens. They are the real workers around here.

[TC]

Our first priority after getting our land and building our home, was buying and raising our breeding animals that would be used for cash crop (home business) and food. We knew it would take a couple of years, because we started with babies(cheaper that way).

[katlupe]

I would have to agree with your list. Food is the #1 chore around here. And when we get our chickens and cow, I would include them in that category. So gardening, harvesting, preserving, would be where much of my day is spent.

Second, which is our firewood. A big job around here. We use a big woodstove and a wood cookstove. So I gather all the kindling I can find all summer and fall. Dh cuts the firewood, but he won't work on it in the summer.

Third, is the home business. Since it is working from my computer, I do it all day. Just leave my computer on and in between chores, I take a break on the computer doing some work. But I can work on that in the evening too.

[HilltopDaisy]

Your list is a good one, Moonwolf. I'm not able to heat with wood at this time (as I have asthma ~ I'd like to look into an outdoor stove in the near future).

The gardens, chickens and bees are the #1 homestead activity here; it's all about food, and their potential for bringing in money. When it comes to #3, working from the home, I intend to reduce my expenses as much as possible, to allow me to require little cash. I can't retire for a while, but Good Lord willing, I'll have all my ducks in a row by then and will be able to support myself just fine.

[Wisconsin Lisa]

Katlupe, what kind of work do you do? I'm always looking for something out of my home for work. Right now I commute Waaaaay too much for my liking.