No matter if you homestead in an apartment complex with boxes out the window, on your tiny balcony, and down the stairs or if you have a 20 acre spread, there are just certain skills every homesteader should know! It’s not what you think, either. These skills are from within.
Most people reading this would think that gardening and pressure canning are skills every homesteader should know. Or canning, or raising livestock. The fact is that not every homesteader raises livestock anymore. Besides, those skills will only come along when you have these four already in place and being practiced! So what are these mystery skills? I’m glad you asked!
Being Flexible
One thing you can be absolutely certain of happening is things will go wrong. At the worst possible times. When it’s 9pm, raining sideways and you’re trying to secure things down, only to run out of twine or rope. It’s late, raining, and you have no way to get more rope. The wind is blowing around you and you know it’s going to get worse. What do you do?
You have to be flexible. If you aren’t, problems like this will eventually be enough to ‘break’ you. When you homestead, trying to keep to a schedule of minutes and hours is a joke. Homesteader’s time is generally governed by the rising and setting of the sun and the changing of the seasons; not the clock on the wall. I say generally because homesteaders of today are different than what most people think about when they think of a ‘homesteader.’ Being flexible leads right into the next skill.
Seeing Resources-Everywhere
When most people go to build something, they head off to the store to buy their supplies. When you homestead, chances are pretty good you don’t buy everything new. Even if you had the money, how far is it to the store you need to go? These two factors tend to foster the skill of looking at what others might consider garbage and seeing a resource that can be used to further your goals.
Take the example above: it’s raining, dark out, and the wind is expected to get much worse. You are outside, tying things down and realize you are completely out of rope and twine. The stores are closed! Sure, you may be able to head to a neighbor’s house but let’s assume you can’t. How will you secure the rest of the items down from the storm? GET CREATIVE!
Those old jeans, cut into strips, would be strong enough to hold down whatever you needed it to. Same with an old sheet. What about the roll of used cable you picked up last week because ‘it might come in handy someday’?? What if you have to supplement your chicken’s feed because you can’t afford to get more for a week? How would you handle that? Those scraps you save to make vegetable stock with would a wonderful treat for them and ease the amount of feed they need to consume. Being able to see the usefulness when others only see junk or garbage is a skill that takes many homesteaders a long way.
Finding Humor (Especially when nothing is funny)
No matter what kind of lifestyle you live, there are going to be times when it seems the world is crashing down around you. Every time you turn around, another thing is messing up and not going to plan. Then one of the kids gets a cold. The dog hurt their leg running too hard, slipped, and rolled on the ice. To top it all off, the heating element in your oven went out. You are ready to scream, take a long drive and never come back, or want to bury your head under the blankets until it goes away.
It is times like these when the ability to find humor will make all the difference. It keeps you going. It helps you make it. Of course, this ‘skill’ is something that can be applied to everyone, everywhere. Though harsh, my mother told me many times growing up: “LeAnn, you have to learn to laugh when things are hard. If you can’t go through life laughing, you might as well go pick your plot now. Life isn’t always funny but laughter will get you through those times, when it’s needed most.” The older I get, the more I realize that she imparted some very realistic, down-to-earth advice. In today’s world, people would gasp if they heard someone say that to their kid. Oh! The horror! The reality is the world, and life, isn’t always funny but being able to find the funny gets you through. I am thankful for the lesson. It’s helped me get to this point, many times!
The Ability to Keep Going
At the end of the day, it’s your attitude that will determine whether or not you are successful at homesteading. If you think about it, your attitude can determine your success rate on just about everything in life! Sure, there are circumstances that can affect your success – but it’s still your attitude that determines how badly that circumstance will continue to be a thorn in your side. You can choose to learn from it, dismiss it and get on with life, or you can let it keep bringing you down long after.
There’s a difference between accepting your limitations and quitting outright. It’s perfectly human to have moments of weakness, frustration, anger, and all the other ‘negative’ emotions! What you have to decide each day is: Are you going to get back up? Are you getting back on that horse, wagon, or whatever you want to call it?
Give yourself permission to fail now and then. Remind yourself, especially when things are hard, all the reasons why you wanted to live a homesteading life in the first place. Consider where you were 6 months ago compared to now. Did you make progress? Whether a little or a lot, it doesn’t matter. You didn’t give up.
You are winning. 🙂
farmer Liz says
That’s not the list I was expecting! All very good advice, thanks for getting me to think differently 🙂
Denise says
Great article. Along the way I have picked up some of these habits. My husband smiles and shakes his head, however, when I whipped out all my “finds” and built a make-shift shed to keep all our tools and such out of the rain. He was pretty impressed. Went back to check on things – tools were perfectly dry! See Ladies and Gentlemen reading these articles are GOLDEN. Even got a new one: using cut up jeans! Brilliant. Thanks.