Starting up
 

I want to homestead but I don't know where to start I have a couple years till I can move out of the house but I want to start prepping early can you help me?

Age? location? Do you want to have fun, or earn some income?

1. Cooking, especially from scratch. Keep a sharp eye for good older cookbooks. My short list:
- 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook (I have the reprint in binder and lay open flat)
- early 1980s Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (found mine for $5 in a thrift shop)
- 1962 edition Joy of Cooking (I paid $15 at a used book store for mine, in excellent condition and worth every penny!) - this is like a textbook on how to cook with many example recipes
- 1968/72 Betty Crocker Cookbook - apparently a "collector's item" and tends to be frustratingly expensive unless you can find one in a garage or estate sale. I am still looking for a copy for me, but a friend up the highway has one (absolutely no cover, torn pages, extemely dog-eared corners ... TRULY well loved)

2. Gardening. If you need to start out with container gardening, it is still a learning curve especially if you move to a different region.

3. Canning/preserving/drying.

4. Sewing/mending/knitting/crocheting ... textile fun. Otherwise known as "It's faster to learn how to make my own than to actually find good quality, durable clothing items!"

That is enough to keep you busy for a couple years.

I just looked; I have both versions of the BC cookbooks, AND all the others! A legacy from Mom, who loved cookbooks. Thanks for the reminder.

Great advice here!

Ok, here's one more: the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, originally published by the Boston School of Cooking in 1896. Hubby found me a nice leather-bound gilt-edged edition on the internet a few years ago.

I also LOVE cookbooks.

There are a LOT of beginning homesteading accounts on-line! I would not only read them I would study them!

Here is a short version of mine:

I live in a state of mostly small cities. So, my husband located where his work was on a map, and then followed a major road out of town. Because it *WAS* a major road the snow is cleared off quickly and the speed limits are higher.

Then he drove what he thought was a reasonable commute out of town, and we looked in that area at the houses with land around them and we bought this place. It does only have an acre around it, but then I really like it here.

We have chickens, berries, fruit trees, a vegetable garden, a lot of daffodils, a green house that I made myself, and so forth.

We also have a 30 year mortgage.

Some people will buy bare land for cash and build as they can afford it, and they often have no mortgage at all. Different homesteaders make different choices.

You *WILL* need some money to start with. We saved up while we rented an apartment in town: we both worked.

Unless you have a source of income you don’t have to currently work for (social security, pension, trust fund) move somewhere you can get work. Check out what you would be paid. Even if your land completely sustains you, you’ll need to pay taxes, see a doctor, etc. Things that cost dollars.

If you have never taken care of livestock, start small. Chickens are nice. Look up chicken tractors (in case you have chicken eating predators in your area- can’t free range them). Sheep are easier than cattle and you can butcher them in the fall and not carry them over the winter. Try lasagna gardening, You can’t do it in a pot but you can do it in a box if you don’t have a yard. Put the manure and green garbage back into the land by learning how to compost. You can compost slow using bins, or compost fast using a large enough tumbler with a small motor.

Have some idea of what you want so you know what property will suit you. A small orchard is nice. Protect the tree trunks and your orchard can double as pasture. Research the nutrition of each species and each type, as well as how to prune them for picking. Ditto for bushes- blueberries, high bush cranberries, bush cherries, bush hazelnuts, raspberries… Know what soil types are desired by different plants and if you can amend the soil to suit you.

Remember that you are not getting younger, you are getting older. Always look to work in ways that will save your back. Use chutes with animals, cages with birds. Use pulleys and ropes and wagons. Keep the grass mowed around the house or you will get fleas and ticks. Don’t let your dogs roam.

Consider building a tiny house on a trailer. There are lots of sites online that discuss how to build one. Even a tiny house should be plenty of space for someone starting out on his/her own and if you use a used trailer as the base the costs should be manageable. Having a portable house will give you more options as you can move from spot to spot until you find just the right place to settle for the long run. You may be able to rent a little acreage from someone and put your tiny house on it and try your hand at homesteading that way. If you like the place and are a good neighbor maybe you'll be given the option to purchase the ground you've been working on. Once you build a permanent house you can sell your tiny house or find another use for it. It's good that you're making your plans in advance as success is much more likely. I'm planning for my retirement place over the next 7 years and planning it, already, is a lot of fun and it makes the time go faster. I hope that planning this far in advance will also help me avoid costly mistakes and to, in the end, have things just the way I want them. Enjoy.

Starting up
 

I am 11 I want to homestead in the alucian islands and I have wanted to homestead since I knew what it was. to collegeboundgal

Then you have plenty of time to learn a whole slew of skills! Find books, find informational websites, find teachers ... but most of all get as much hands-on experience you are able.

Oh, the previous advice about being mindful of/saving your back is still valid. Trust me on that one.

When or where your able to, take any courses that teach you engine repair, both small and large. IF your adaptable to that kind of work, then take a course in gunsmithing. Between the 2 you should be able to find work enough when your on your own to make enough money at home to live on. I seen a clear plastic 4 cyl engine on a novelty catalog page that one takes apart and puts back together and it runs. That would be good for you right now. Good luck.
Learn to garden, no matter how small it is. IF you don't have the ground to garden in, look for some old folks who have garden in the past and ask. Maybe they'll let you garden on their ground for 1/2 the veggies.
Learn to can veggies/fruit/meat.

Try to finagle a summer vacation with a relative or a school group where such lifestyle is already practiced. You will get down and dirty fast.

Wher in live is extremely cold and hard to garden in but I container garden it's a passion and the reason I want to move to the Lucian's is I love fishing

Oh and here homesteading is a practice

Please explain your last statement.
And for your information. Ive wanted to farm since I was at least your age, and I know much sooner than that. Im 67 now.

In jackson WY or near at least there are homesteaders

At 11, can I ask if your a gamer? IF so, I can suggest you get the game Farm Simulator 2013. IF you get it, I can tell you what machinery I have. If you get the same, I can tell you how to use them, and youll get some real experience on how to do things like plow, disc, harrow, plant, sow, mow, rake, bale, ect.

I'm not a gamer but that sounds cool I'll check it out

FarmBoyBill is it farmer simulator

Never mind that was a guide

On sat I am gonna start volunteering for a construction site for the re-store for hands on experience do you think that will help

Any thing that you can do will be helpful. The more things you learn and study the more informed you will be.

Here is a great book for planning...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CBDEW0S?btkr=1

This book is awesome. You could maybe ask for it as a Christmas gift....it has so much info about raising animals, food, homesteading, and way more. I have had mine for about 9 years and read it cover to cover several times, plus use it as a reference.

http://amzn.to/MBELeq

( Not sure why I can't upload a photo from my computer, but check the link if you want to see it)

Another really good book....check at the local library to see if you can take it out. Otherwise buy it; it has a lot of really good info.

http://amzn.to/1xRASgb

John Seymour's book has been read by thousands of people looking to homestead. It explains how to set up a homestead, depending on how much land you have. Great information.

At your age, your parents are going to have a huge impact on what you can do. Are they into homesteading? Could you get them interested in it? Do you live in a city, suburbs or country?

My goal is to create a farm for each of my interested kids to inherit. Maybe you could set up a land fund to save money in to buy land. Work summers to save money. Ask for donations to the fund for b-day/christmas presents.

Most important...READ everything you can get your hands on. Oh, if I had only had the internet to research when I was your age. Unfortunately it didn't even exist and neither did computers.

Never give up on your dream!

The Little House on the Prairie books are great tutorials. Laura Ingalls Wilder gives a great account of how they did things.

Any and all experience will help you. Plan on going to college. A two year, community college is a fine start. They tend to have very practical classes. Take horticulture classes and greenhouse classes along with the requirements. Take first aid classes and bookkeeping. Once you have an associates degree you can go on to a four year college if you want.

Work at different types of jobs before stepping into a career. A grocery store as a stockboy/girl, but also work as a cashier. Work on a farm. Just get hands on experience in as many things as you can, including flipping burgers.

IF you get the game, and your nOT a gamer
 

Youll have to do like I did and find a gamer to get the machinery I farm with.

I have a 1947 John Deere A Tractor
A Steel wheeled 30s tractor, but if you wanted, you could find a H or 300 Farmall
A late 40s Ferguson 35 tractor

A Steel wheel 3 bottom plow
A Ferguson 3pt hitch 2 bottom plow
A Ferguson 3pt tandem disc
A OLD 3pt harrow
A 6 row round box planter
A steel wheel cultivator
A Ferguson 3pt cultivator
A MM Grain drill
A 2 row pull type corn picker
A pull type combine
A Flatbed wagon
A box wagon
A 1922 IHC grain truck
\

Youll likely have machinery, by the time your out and farming/homesteading on your own, youll have better/newer machinery, but this will give you the idea of starting small, and I can teach you how to use them, as I have them.

I forgot some machinery
 

A JD pull type sickle mower,
A NH side rake
A Fahr Small square bailer
A bale pickup implement.

Go into your profile (see top of page) and put in your location. If you are in Wyoming, then put in Wyoming (east Wyoming, north Wyoming…).