Where do I start?
 

Hi I'm new to the board. My name's Marietta. I've been married for 6 yrs and have a son Noah (5 yrs) and a daughter Anya (1 1/2). I have been wanting to be a homesteader for a while now but living where I live I really didn't know how to go about it. We're trying to move but not sure how soon that will happen. We live in a small city. The pop. is around 50-60,000 people. We live smack dab in the middle. 3 blocks off Main street. We have a very small yard as our neighbors are very close to us on both sides. We could be here for another few months or even a few more years depending on how things work out. What I want to know, from those of you who have done this for a while now, is where do I start? What can I do now that would get me on the right track? Thank you for all your input!

It all depends on how much room you have, how much sun you get and what the city regulations are. If there is not enough open ground for a garden, you can grow an awful lot in window boxes or patio containers. Herbs can be grown on window sills. As for livestock, rabbits, gamebirds and chickens come to mind. They can be raised in a small space, are easy to keep clean and can produce high quality, low cost meat. For chickens you just have to forgo having a rooster, most cities do not allow them.
Does your city have a Pea Patch program? That's another way to grow a garden.
Do you know any farmers/homesteaders near you? If not, meet some. They may be willing to exchange some labor for meat or produce. This gets you experience and great food all at the same time.
Good luck!

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum. Take Care

Welcome! I'm so glad you joined HT! There's a ton of great information here ~ I'm sure you will find the information you need (and friends!) shortly. :)

Welcome to the forum! This is a great place! I learn something new all the time just lurking. ;) You can plant edible landscaping in your yard that will not only be beautiful, but will also provide a small crop. Blueberry, currant and highbush cranberry make good foundation plantings, dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees provide fruit and shade. Put veggies and herbs in with your flower gardens, utilize containers if necessary. Start small and add more each year. Adding to your property will help increase it's value when you want to sell. Be creative and have fun.

welcome to the forum
Best wishes on your dreams

Welcome to HT! You will find a plethora of info here...and any questions, just ask away as someone out there is always willing to lend a helping hand :)

Homesteaders
 

The best is to start homesteading is to stay at home as much as possible.
Learn to cook from scratch.
Grow your own food.
Make your own homemade cleaning products such as, laundry soap, homemade stain remover.....the list can go on. I have the recipes for these thing. If you would like them please send me a message or an email and I will be glad to share with you.
My family and I enjoy being homesteaders. Our most happiest times are at home!
BELLE

Cherrymomma,

Where to start? With a seed and a cup of soil.

I "started" back in 4th grade when our teacher had each of us plant tomato seeds in 6 paper cups and put our plants on the window sill.

When they got big enough , she let us take them home. I transplanted the 4 of mine that survived to reinforcing wire cages my father made me and we planted them where the A/C water could water them.

From there I helped my parents in their gardens, later truck patched on my own and now do BISF and hydroponics.

This is a good BISF site for small ground area gardeners

www.squarefootgardening.com

While the technique is great for gardeners, the cash from squarefootgardening works well to fit the equivelent of a 7 acre truck patch into an acre of ground space. So at the same time the grower is learning to be the best grower they can be, the BISF technique can grow as ones available ground area increases to maximize their skill and production potentials.

Welcome
As a busy mom of small children why not try sprouting seeds in a jar by your sink? Easy, frugal and terrific nutrition for your sweet babes and your self. All you have to do is get some sprouting seeds like alfalfa and a jar to get started :)
motivated
just reading here will give you quite an education
try the new homemaking section.

Keep yourself out of debt. If you are in debt, pay it down. This will put you in a better position to buy the land you want.

In the meantime, do as the above posters suggested, and create a garden if you haven't already. With a 1 1/2 year old child, you want to do something that will take small amounts of time. If you mulch your garden, you can spend less time weeding and more time reading picture books. One or two tomato plants, some green leafy vegetables, a pumpkin plant. And, enjoy your kids while you can!

Welcome to HT..I agree with the others..Get out of debt, work this site and learn, and try to plant as much of a garden as you can...Due to my living in Germany in an apartment I have a very small area that I can garden..This year for the first in many I planted some veggies in my small area..I have gotten great radishes, the lettuce is coming back after the battle with the slugs which I seem to have won..And my onions are doing pretty good..The Basil has taken over its spot and will get mostly harvested this WE due to the fact that it is shading my struggling pepper plants.....I really do not have enough space to do a real garden but am using this as a learning process since it has been several years since I did any realistic gardening..Read, learn start making lists and plans, learn how to can and preserve.........Once again, Welcome................Mike

ideas
 

Most everyone above has said it all but another idea is to learn how to can. You can do this by going to the library and reading. I taught myself then I taught my sister. You can buy good produce to can. Every year I buy peaches. The easiest thing to start with is jam/jellies. Start small and learn. Buy a wood rack or clothesline...stop using the dryer. Little things lead to big things! And WELCOME!!!!

Excellent advice.

If you are thinking of moving outside the city onto property soon, just keep reading and planning so you will know what you want to do. It is easy to do too much at once with too little experience. Start small, but with a plan. Growing as much of a garden as you can now will greatly help. Grow herbs, grow in pots. Put up trellises for beans to climb, etc. Gardens don't have to be in one large area. They can be scattered through the yard.

If your city has a farmer's market - attend it often. You will find what kinds of crops can be grown in your area. You can learn to can and freeze their harvest before you have your own. Talk to them about their gardens, etc, how they grow their crops. Check the extension service to see what kinds of animals are in your area and how to raise them. Go to the county fairs. Meet people. Talk to people. Attend any kind of heritage craft or old timers days in your area.

Homesteading is a way of living. Anyone can do it!

You can also learn to make soap and candles at home, as well as home-made bread, yeast, butter, cheese and yogurt. These are all important homesteading skills.
My DIL was raised in the city and they had a tiny shed out back where they raised 4-H rabbits. They used the extra rabbits for meat.
Good luck in your endeavors and welcome to the HT family!

Welcome,
I'm somewhat just starting out myself and what I've learned so far is this.
1)get out of dept and save as much as you can.
2)read ever thing you can get your hands on , read what the folks on this web site are talking about,it gives you an idea of what some of the challenges of homesteading are.

Here's one of the best books I've found so far:
http://www.carlaemery.com/country-living-book.htm

I don't know you situation but for me I'm able to work on my place in the country on weekends and work in the city during the week,If your able to do this it makes it much easier,it also gives you a chance to grow things and learn what it's like to be on a homestead before you make the transition.

Wow! I really wasn't expecting so many responses! I'm so grateful! Thank you all!!! Some very good advice! My hubby and I are getting ready to start Dave Ramsey's plan to get out of debt. Besides our house we have a motorcycle and a car. The car will be payed off in the next few months and to bike hopefully by the end of next year. My hubby knows how to make candles and we've made soap but only melt and pour. I would love to make it from scratch! I had already planned on doing some canning soon. I'm very excited about that! I'll start getting some herbs and veggies growing. I'd love to get some rabbits. That'll take some big time sucking up to hubby though. Not sure if he's ever eaten rabbit. I have and I loved it. Well thank you so much everyone for your responses. I hope to learn alot and make some good friends here! Thanks!!!

Marietta

Cherrymomma:

Try a crock pot cacciatore recipe using rabbit. There may be a market in your town that sells rabbit if you want to try it first. Check out the local 4H clubs. They have pamphlets on butchering rabbit. Keep us posted!

If you don't have much room for a garden you can still learn how to preserve it by buying from produce trucks and canning it. Nothing says homesteading better than having a stockpile of fruits and veggies.

Also works well for jellies, jams, and salsa. Homemade they make great gifts.

Everyone here has great advice. We're in the planning stages ourselves, being at least 2 years out from diving in. We just finished FPU in April. We've already paid off 3 credit cards and 2 smaller debts. We have figured out that, with some discipline, we can have everything but the house paid off in 1 1/2 yrs. The good thing, too, is that about the time we pay everything off, all 3 kids will be in school so we won't be spending money on daycare either. Will make it much easier to buy the land, etc that we want.

Best of luck and welcome!
Brandon

I think the best place to start is to lay out your lifelong financial plan first, and then start fitting things into it.

From that you will end up knowing things like how much money you will earn, spend and save this year. And that tells you what you can spend each month to start bringing your homesteading skills up to speed.

Then it gets to be a game to figure out how to spend little amounts wisely and get good return off the spending. If you have $10 this month to invest, plan ahead on whether that will be able to get you bread pans (new or used?), flour, and yeast. With a financial plan in your head you know whether to get a library book on bread making, look it up on the internet instead (saving gas $), buy a new book, or buy a bread machine. You can calculate how much "buying" this skill this week can save you on groceries next week.

Then you do that with gardening. Buy books and magazines and store bought plants? Buy seeds? Ask on Freecycle if anyone has extra seedlings started and not enough garden space?

Knowing the money plan first, in detail, and with an eye on the long term makes all the rest of it fall into place easily. You'll know if you should turn off the air conditioning and use the saved money for something else. You'll know whether it really makes sense to buy something or whether you should cherish the time, effort and hard work to do something the hard way instead (getting free education in the process). And you'll know exactly how each choice brings you closer to your vision of homesteading.

If you haven't read the Tightwad Gazette, get it from your library. It is also worth the cost if you decide to buy it http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Tight.../dp/0375752250 I've had this book on my "to buy" wishlist for years and years, but so far I've always decided that checking it out several times a year from the library has been a more prudent use of homestead money. But the content is very very valuable, and you really need to find a way to get hold of a copy to read and enjoy.



I think the very most important thing in homesteading is to develop the mindset of a homesteader. To me that means knowing how you want to grow old and what kind of place you want to grow old in. Then it gets easy to ask yourself "what is the one thing that I could do right at this moment that would best serve to take me down that path." As you can probably tell from my slant on what's important, we went full out on getting our budget and savings in order so that we'd be free from having to trade our precious life hours to someone for a paycheck. And even now that we're homesteading full time each day starts with deciding which chores, learning, or doing is the most important thing to do to fullfill our long term dreams. (Chatting with other homesteaders on the internet happens to be a nice little part of that :) )

Lynda