The Little House Living Show – Episode 015 – How to Start Homesteading

The Little House Living Show – Episode 015 – How to Start Homesteading

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Podcast Transcription

Hello and welcome to the little house living show. This channel is for those trying to live a simpler, slower and more cost-effective life. My name is Merissa, and I will be your host and your friend as we journey along together to find new tips and advice, as well as lots of encouragement. Everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the little house living show. I’m so excited to have my friend Anna, on the podcast today. Anna, you want to say hello and kind of introduce yourself, talk a little bit about you and where you blog at.
(00:46):
Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Anna Sikowski and I blog [email protected]. And then I also run through my blog. I run an online magazine called modern home setting magazine. And then I have, you know, my YouTube channel and my socials and all that kind of stuff at the same at the house in homestead.
(01:07):
Awesome. Thank you. So we’ll put links to all of Anna’s staff where you can find her at, in the show notes. So everybody can go out and check out her website and magazine after you listened to the podcasts today. So the first thing I want to ask you, Anna, we talked a little bit before the podcast about kind of your home setting backgrounds and why you came to decide to do what you’re doing now. So if you want to tell us a little bit about like where you started at and like how you decided to homestead, how you kind of came into that mindset.
(01:42):
Yeah, absolutely. So home setting is not something that I grew up with or really had any exposure to at all. So it’s my husband and I both homestead now on we’re just on a quarter acre at the moment and we’re on Vancouver Island and we’ve been here doing this for a boat, I think going on about six years now. So we’re fairly new to all of it, but we have done a lot in that six years. So, you know, we’ve progressed quite a bit, but we, like I said, did not grow up exposed to this lifestyle at all. We both grew up in the city. So in Vancouver and for me, it was, it’s kinda tough when people actually asked me this question, but like, well, why did you get into this? Or what made you want to start? Start home setting is something that I’ve done actually, a lot of reflecting on because it really has been a lifelong process for me.
(02:30):
And there’s been so many points in my life that have kind of been Pitt now looking back, I can see them as pivotal moments on this journey that kind of got me here. And so the first one, I really think back as a child, the first kind of exposure that I had to this kind of rural lifestyle and everything was when I went to visit my aunt out on her farm. And so she lived on a farm just outside of a small town in Northern Alberta. And I just fell in love with it. She had these little barn kittens at the time and their mom had gone missing. And so they were going to like die without their mom. And I was about 10 years old or so. And I stayed out in the barn with him. I like slept out there and took care of the animals.
(03:09):
And I just loved it. Like I felt like I was just in my element there and then, you know, kind of came home back to the city. Didn’t think much of it, but I had always just felt something that just wasn’t right with where I was living. And then as I grew up, when I was in my twenties and I had done, like when I was a kid, I did have exposure to like, my grandpa always had a garden in his backyard. And so I would garden with him. And I just like, those were always some of my best memories or even when I would go camping with family and I was living more kind of in tune with nature. That’s just, that was my happy place. But I grew up in the city and on the last and in my twenties, I did, I did a lot of traveling.
(03:46):
So I would, I did like a study abroad program and lived abroad in Europe for a few months. I did a volunteer program in West Africa and lived there for a few months and then I ended up and just traveling all over the place. And I ended up working as a travel agent and that’s actually when my husband and I met. So we were both working downtown in these kind of corporate travel jobs. And that’s when we first mapped when I was about in my mid twenties. And funnily enough, we had actually grown up like around the corner from each other, but just kind of goes to show like living in the city, you don’t always know, you know, your neighbors or anything. So we had only met then in our twenties and I had already had another trip booked to Australia. So that was always a dream of mine to go live there for a year.
(04:30):
And so I went ahead and did that and we stayed in contact and we kept dating long distance and he ended up actually moving over there a few months in, and kind of the rest of, you know, the rest is history. As far as that’s concerned, when we moved back to the city, then we lived together and eventually we got married and here we are. But it was one thing that was kind of pivotal for me with traveling was first off. I found that every time I would go away, I was looking for something I was looking, I knew in my heart that there was something that wasn’t, didn’t feel right about where I lived growing up and about kind of the lifestyle I was living in. So every time I would travel to a new place, I was kind of, I’d find myself considering like, Hmm, could I live here?
(05:09):
Like, is, is this where I’m meant to be like, and yeah. And I never did quite find that and I’d always end up back at home. And then another thing was traveling is that that’s where I first kind of became interested in cooking and like growing up, I like my mom did all the cooking. I wasn’t in the kitchen at all. I really had no interest in it. You know, I could maybe open a box of like processed food and, and cook that for myself. By the time I hit my early twenties, but that was about it. But when I was abroad, first off, I was exposed to all sorts of amazing foods and I love food. And then the other thing was being kind of a poor backpacker for awhile, right. I had to do a lot of cooking myself and when my husband and I were living in Australia, we actually got really into cooking because we didn’t have much money.
(05:52):
We were trying to make ends meet. We’re picking up odd jobs, you know, to get by there. And we’re in this little trailer and sort of finding that when, you know, we would buy ingredients that were more whole ingredients and like from scratch things that we could actually stretch our money farther. And so we started cooking from scratch a little bit for the very first time. And so when we got home back to Vancouver, we lived in a condo in the city and we continued this, like this cooking. Right. And, and I wanted to get more into it. And I started getting more interested in just the ingredients that we were using and where they were being sourced from. And yeah, just in general, kind of started turning to more like locally sourced ingredients, more whole foods. It’s just started taking more of an interest in that aspect of it.
(06:38):
And then at the same time that this was happening, we started watching a lot of like food documentaries. So this is the time when like food Inc and Farmagedden, and those kind of big documentary started coming out. And we were like just, we got really into them and started watching them a lot. And this idea of home setting kept kind of coming up because throughout these documentaries, they would interview people who had opted out of, you know, the rat race and had opted out of the kind of conventional system and the industrialized food system and all this stuff and had started growing their own food and making their own, you know, things from scratch and just living these kinds of more sustainable self-sufficient lifestyles. And I just thought really kind of attached. So the idea and, and this thing that I had kind of, I felt like I’d always been looking for this piece that had been missing.
(07:32):
I started finding it through this, even when we still lived in the city. Just this idea that like, what if we could do that? What if we could like move out of the city and do that? And it just got me so excited, and this was really big at the time because I had started suffering from really bad anxiety and depression. And I knew that a lot of it had to do with my environment that I wasn’t happy with where we lived and it wasn’t like Vancouver specifically. I love Vancouver. I just, I it’s always going to have a piece of my heart, but just the city in general, I didn’t feel right in the, the rush of it and the noise of it and the kind of concrete everywhere. And, and, and Vancouver specifically, it’s actually, there’s a lot of nature nearby, so it’s not even all that bad, but still, I just, anytime I feel like that, I just want to like escape to I, you know, the, the forest or the parks, or I’d go just for a rural drive somewhere.
(08:26):
And that would always make me just feel a little bit better. There was something that, that, that called to me and I started putting all these pieces together and going, like, I want to move out of the city. I want to, I want to change my lifestyle. And I’m finally understanding what it is that I want to change and the changes that I want to make. And I know, I just felt like when you finally, I feel like you’re kind of in alignment with something like I did here. You just know in your heart, like, this is the thing. And I didn’t know exactly what that was going to look like, but we started talking about this really seriously. So we actually started like looking up, you know, we’ll, where would we go if we moved out of the city and we looked at a few different areas and we had some criteria.
(09:11):
So we started like making an actual plan. And we didn’t even know at the time that we were making a plan, but we, you know, we’d stay up into the night, like dreaming about this stuff. And we started thinking really big and kind of going like, what if we could really do this? And so we looked at different areas and then we, we started settling on Vancouver Island, which is, you know, a hop, skip, and a jump really from the city. So we knew we could come back and see friends and family. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but we could get some land out here and kind of live this lifestyle that we wanted. And the job that my husband actually worked for home Depot at the time. So we were like, well, where could he transfer to? And I was getting a degree in teaching.
(09:50):
So we were looking at like, where would be a good place for us to find work. And so, you know, we were trying to like sort out the logistics and actually plan this thing out. And so we settled on the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. So that’s where we live now. And I had never even been here, but I’d done a lot of research and it looked like a really great community for what we wanted. So not only was there land available and whatnot out here, but it’s a really big like farming community and like small, sustainable agriculture people that are just kind of like-minded that are into this idea of, you know, local, organic food production and food security and you know, self-sufficiency and sustainability and all these values that were becoming really important to us. And so we like started looking, we looked online, we looked for properties and we knew we couldn’t afford to buy anything at the time, but we were just dream shopping and it was so exciting. And I would like, it would just get me through my days there where I was just dreaming, like what, like this, what if and what life might look like for us one day. And so from the time we really started planning to come out here to when we actually moved here, was it Lee,
(10:57):
I want to say about three years or so.
(11:01):
So it definitely didn’t happen overnight, but there was so much, like we just got really clear on our vision. We started learning more about like home setting. I’d take out books from the library. I started learning, like we lived in a condo with a North facing balcony. So there wasn’t a lot of gardening, but we were playing with food and the kitchen and, and again, learning to cook more from scratch and sourcing food locally. And I learned how to, you know, start foraging for local berries and just like little things like that, like just dipping our toe into this lifestyle, but it was enough at the time. And then by the time we were kind of ready to come over, we stayed in the city, we got married, I finished school and these things started to kind of fall into place. And I owe it a lot to just having this clear vision and just putting it out there to the universe.
(11:50):
But my husband’s boss, the time his wife and him, they owned a place over right here in the Comox Valley. It was on an acre and it was this old farmhouse and they weren’t living in it. It was her family’s, her grandfather had built it like a century ago and then her father had lived in it and she’d grown up in it. And when her father passed away, it sat empty for about a decade and they owned it, but they hadn’t been able to make their own move out of the city yet and come over here to live. So in the meantime, it was sitting empty and it needed all this renovation work done. So we actually were able to work out a deal with them where we could move there for free, because in turn, we were doing the work on the place. And so we ended up moving into this old farmhouse out here, which was like the perfect starting point for us.
(12:37):
It was, it had came with all sorts of problems as an old farm house does. Right. It was such a great learning experience for us. And it allowed us because we were on land that was, you know, owned by somebody that we knew. And even though we’re technically renting, they let us put in a little garden. And so that’s when we started getting into that. And then we, you know, started learning about gardening and seed starting and all these different things. And then they had a big Apple tree. So then I can applesauce for the first time and started learning how to can, and we didn’t have any money in that first year. So for Christmas, I made candles for everybody cause we couldn’t really afford to buy individual gifts. And then, so I started making candles and it just started to snowball. And then we lived there for three years and then we finally were able to buy our own place.
(13:20):
And it’s actually just around the corner from there. And it’s just, it’s a bit smaller. It’s on a quarter acre kind of backs onto the forest, but there were some selling points with where we live now. So there was a big fence garden in the front. And fencing is super important here because there’s a ton of deer that will come in and ravage your garden otherwise. And it had a greenhouse and it had the setup, even though it was a small property. But it was a really great layout. I had this set up for us to kind of take things just to the next level and do what we wanted to do at least for the next few years. And so here we are now, and now we’ve been here three years, I guess. And you know, we grow a big garden every year and like the cans of food, I didn’t even realize instill it until I started pulling everything out of my pantry yesterday.
(14:03):
Cause I’m doing a full inventory right now, how much food we now preserve and put up in the things that we make and we’ll put together a meal now and we’re like 90% of it, it was grown or produced on our property. And like, we kind of look at it sometimes when, like we did it, like we had this vision now going back however many years, probably going on 10 years now and slowly methodically kind of one step at a time, one big audacious goal and you know, dream and then kind of plan to make that happen at a time, one new skill learned at a time and now we’re doing it and we’ve got this big garden and we got chickens this year. And like one day we want to have more acreage and to grow a bigger garden and to have goats and have all sorts of other animals. But this is just, this is where we’re at in the journey. And we know that, you know, one step at a time we’ll get to where we want to be. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s kind of the, that’s somehow that’s the nutshell version. There’s a lot, a lot more than one into that, but but yeah, so really it’s been a lifelong process for me.
(15:07):
Cool. Well, thanks for sharing that. I’ve talked to a lot of people, especially this year, and I’m sure that you have two that really want to get into homesteading because of everything that’s going on, you know, in the world. And just, just kind of, it’s kind of, I think homesteading is kind of seeing a new wave again. So let’s kind of talk about the person that wants to have a homestead, but feels really overwhelmed. Maybe kind of like you were in the beginning where, what like small things can they start with now, whether that be after they would move or just right where they’re at too?
(15:45):
Well, I always say to start where you are with what you’ve got, right. Start where you’re at with what you’ve got and then build on that. So like I said, with, with us, when we still lived in a condo, like I couldn’t grow a garden, it just wasn’t feasible where we were at. So that was like off, off the list for the time being. But I did have a kitchen and so I could practice my cooking skills and that’s a huge part of home setting, right? Because once you do start growing your own things and whatever, like you need to know how to deal with that food that’s coming in and you need to start learning how to preserve and all that stuff. So I started dabbling in that. And like I say, just learning about how, you know, where ingredients come from, how to, how to put different ingredients together.
(16:27):
You can just do like what we were doing and start sourcing locally. Even if you can’t grow your own, there’s even little. I mean, right now I’m getting really into micro greens. Even if you live in a city apartment, you know, a high rise, you can still grow like some microgreens or some sprouts on your counter, or you can learn how to make kombucha or, you know, sourdough all, you need some flour and water and you can make a sourdough starter and start making your own bread without any commercial yeast. Like there’s so much you can do, even in the smallest of spaces in the most jam packed city, there’s, you know, you can just start where you’re at and then, and then decide, you know, what is the next right step? And if it is moving somewhere, well, then start looking at that, but don’t expect for it to happen overnight.
(17:13):
And I think this is where people get caught up is they see something that they want and we’re such an instant gratification society. Right? We see something we want and we want it now. And we want it exactly how it is right now. And we don’t want to wait or do the small steps that it takes over time to get there all the time. We’re just not willing to kind of take that time or put in the work. But if you are willing to take that time and just go slowly, you know, it does, the path will unfold in front of you. I’m a true believer in that, that if you just take the next step, well, then the next step after that starts to become clear. So my advice would just be to start where you’re out, like I say, and then focus on the next step from there. And, and you’ll see, you’ll start to see the path to where you want to be and where you want to go, but just take things one, one step at a time and don’t think that just because where you’re at right now, if you can’t do everything you want to do that you’re never going to be able to do that, you know, dream big and and just know that those dreams don’t happen overnight.
(18:17):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s, I think that’s good advice because like, I mean, just like anything and like you said, everybody just wants to jump right into it, but I think that’s pretty much impossible with homesteading. Like homesteading is a process and you learn new things all the time and you, you know, make changes all the time. Cause like we’ve been living this lifestyle for at least like 12 years now. And I’m still learning new things like day all the time.
(18:43):
Let’s think even if you live in a place where you have like say, okay, you’re able to buy 10 acres tomorrow. If you go into that 10 acres with no skills and you try to learn everything and you know, all at once and do everything at once, you’re going to fail at least at something. Right. And then that can be disheartening. That’s when it gets overwhelming. That’s when people go, okay, maybe I made a mistake and I can’t really do this. And I, you know, and then they, they get this hurt and they decide to give up too. And so it’s also about having the right mentality. If you just focus on one new skill or one new project, or, you know, the next step, one thing at a time, then you gain confidence too, in everything that you do. And as you gain that confidence, then you’re ready to like, okay, now I feel confident doing that one thing and I’m ready to take on something new.
(19:29):
And then you get that under your belt and like ready to take on something new. So, cause that’s, you know, one of the biggest things is people go, well, I don’t have enough space to do it, but there’s always something you can do wherever you’re at. And if you wait until you do have just the perfect property or whatever it is that you’re looking for, and then you’re starting from scratch, then you’re, then you’re at, at, at a diff a different type of disadvantage. So there’s always something that you can do to start taking steps now to where you want to go.
(19:56):
Yes. I can relate to that disadvantage this year from having moved to a brand new property just last year and starting from scratch and taking care of somebody else’s mess first. So yeah, the, yeah, there’s a lot to it, but yeah. Good to start with just small, small things that are achievable and, you know, reap the rewards of those small things before you move on to the bigger things.
(20:20):
And that’s another good point, like reap the reward, celebrate all the small wins. Right. This really, I do believe the home setting is like a mindset and it is a lifelong process. I don’t think that it’s one of those things that you ever go I’ve achieved it. Like I maybe, I mean, there’s definitely moments where I’ve been like, yes, like I feel like such a homesteader right now. Right. When you do have those wins, but you’re never done. You’re never like, okay. And then that goes behind me and I’m ready to like do something else. It is a lifelong learning adventure. And that’s actually why I love it so much because I love to learn new things. So I like, I kind of get a high off of it. Right. So I, there’s always more that you can learn and there’s always more that you can do. And that’s what makes it exciting. But you know, you’re never, you’ve never quote unquote arrived. Right. There’s always something more, but it is important to celebrate all the small wins along the way. Yeah,
(21:16):
For sure. So something else I wanted to talk to you about? Cause like, so people ask me about this often too, is like how much land or property do you think that you have to have to be able to have a homestead and well, we have a fairly decent size acreage. I know that it’s possible to have a home set on a smaller acreage. And I think that you’re a really good example of that. So do you want to just talk a little bit about home setting without having an Anchorage or possibly even while you’re living in the city?
(21:49):
Yeah, absolutely. And so I’ve kind of mentioned this a few times, that there’s always something you can do wherever you’re at. And kinda mentioned, you know, if you’re living in a city condo, there’s things you can grow even on a balcony or on your kitchen counter and there’s, you can do, you know, you can cook and whatever. So there’s always something no matter where you’re at. But as far as like actually doing the gardening and having animals and some of those other kind of traits, I guess, that we associate with home setters or, you know, what maybe a property, a home setting type property, it looks like you can do it on less space than you think. So we’re on a quarter acre now. So quarter acres, not all that much. What is good about our property is it’s got a good layout with a lot of kind of usable land that we can do stuff with.
(22:34):
So actually I find that it’s, we’re doing more on a quarter acre than we were really able to do on an acre. And he asked granted we were renting before, but still just the way that the property was set up, there’s more that we can even do here. So if you are looking for a property, but you can’t like afford, you know, a cringe like a whole bunch of it or whatever, just pay attention to more like, what is the setup like, like where could you put a garden? Like, could you, you know, could you have a, like a chicken coop somewhere, that kind of thing. Right. And if you’re not able, you know, to move or anything and you’re on a property right now, even if you’re in the suburbs, like you can probably put in a few raised beds or even have a container garden, right.
(23:12):
If you’ve just got a sunny area, you know, obviously you have to look into the ordinances where you live, but, you know, backyard chickens are becoming more of a thing. We have rabbits. Two rabbits are really easy when you know, if you wanted to raise some meat in a small space, rabbits are a really easy one to do. So there’s, you know, it depends, everybody’s situation is a little bit different, but you absolutely do not have to have like 10 acres to homestead. You know, there’s things that you need 10 acres for, you know, if you want to have cattle or something, you can’t have that on like a quarter acre. So we don’t have a cow therefore, right. But we are able to have a few chickens and we do have a garden that is substantial enough that we’re able to grow, you know, a year’s worth of certain vegetables.
(23:58):
And we grow a lot of food on a small, on a small space, like area, right. And there’s all sorts of other things that you start to learn because humans are resourceful, right. We have always had to make, do with what we have in various circumstances. And so I’ve found that being in a bit of a smaller space, but wanting to grow more food, we’ve started learning more about vertical gardening, right. And really making the best use of our square footage. And so there’s always, there’s always something, no matter how, kind of small the space you’re working with. And as the number one thing I hear from people as well, I love what you’re doing. I wish I could do it too, but I can’t because, you know, I only have a 10th of an acre or I live in, you know, a suburban law or whatever. There are lots of people that I know that are growing tons of food and doing, producing a lot at home on a very small, in a very small space. So it definitely can be done.
(24:48):
Yeah. Well, and I think the other thing to keep in mind too, is like, even people that have larger acreage is like the part that we actually use as far as like the gardening and the home setting. Part of it is actually quite a small percentage. Yeah. Acreage. Like I have, I’m trying to set up everything. So it’s really close to the house. So like my garden is really close to the house. My chickens are really close to the house. The little orchard that I’m making is really close, but we have 20 acres and I’m only using maybe, maybe like an acre of that. So you don’t want to spread out that far necessarily. Cause it’s, you know, it’s not a good setup.
(25:28):
Yeah. Well, I mean, there’s no way you are, you know, unless you’re commercially farming or something and you have hired help, you’re not working 20 acres of land. So yeah, absolutely. And I think that that is a misconception that like, that you’re using, you know, maybe all that acreage, you need all that acre that you have, but yeah, you really don’t actually need that much in order to, you know, like I said, do some of the basics grow your own food a lot. So, so much of it, like he coming back to like cooking stuff. It’s so much of home happens in the kitchen. So even like I say, even if you can’t produce food and you need to, you know, try to source ingredients locally or whatever, you really don’t need much space in order to do a lot of this stuff. And I think, again, it’s more about a mindset. And to me, the mindset of homesteading is to be more of a producer rather than simply a consumer. And there is so much that you can produce at home no matter how much space you have.
(26:22):
Yeah. Okay. So we’re getting to the end here, but I just wanted to talk about one more thing. So we’ve, we’ve talked about a couple of the kind of excuses that people come up with when they talk about homesteading they’re overwhelmed or they can’t find a large enough amount of land or can’t afford it. What are some of the biggest that you’ve heard about why somebody couldn’t homestead and how do you think that they can overcome those things?
(26:50):
Okay. So yeah, so space definitely would be number one, we kind of covered that. The next thing I would say would be time is the, is the next thing that I’ve heard from people is like, I just, I don’t have time to do all of this again. You don’t have to do all of it. Right. I think this is where people get caught up going. Like, I don’t have time to like run a full functioning home set and have animals and do the garden. You don’t have to, you can start homesteading by just picking up one new skill. So, like I say, maybe that sourdough bread and, and again, there’s this misconception because things are slower with certain aspects of home setting that they take more time. So let’s take sourdough, for example, sourdough to make a sourdough starter takes, you know, a couple of weeks to really build up that starter and really get it strong.
(27:35):
And then, and then you’re kind of able to start baking bread. And then that can be a process to, to bake a good loaf of bread, you know, there’s briars time and there’s, you know, all these things you have to do, but a lot of it is hands-off time and same with gardening, right? Yes. There’s things you have to do. And there’s definitely busy seasons with harvesting and preserving and stuff, but a lot of gardening is just waiting, waiting for things on grow, right. You plant the seeds, you need to tend to them. And there’s certain times at the beginning when you’re nurturing your seedlings a bit more at the end when you’re harvesting and preserving and stuff you know, there’s weeding, there’s certain aspects that can take up more time. But overall, the hands-on time of a lot of what we do is, is not a lot, right.
(28:14):
A lot of us just waiting time, I would say to people that don’t feel like they have a lot of time, again, first just focus on like one new thing. Don’t try to take on too much focus on one thing that you can fit into your schedule. And, you know, just realize that a lot of it is hands off time that you’re just waiting. So as long as you remember to, you know, check on things or, you know, get to, you know, feeding your starter or whatever is that you’re going to do, you know, to be mindful of that. But a lot of it is it’s really just a few minutes a day that you’re spending on some of this stuff.
(28:48):
Yeah. Yeah. And I think the biggest thing to remember when it comes to time is that you don’t have to do it all. Like nobody does it all my home does not look the same as someone else’s because I choose to do certain things. And I choose not to like, like you mentioned animals, I don’t have any animals except for chickens and a dog. And I don’t have any desire right now to raise more creatures. Whereas most homesteads, they have a lot of creatures, but it’s just not something that was part of our big plan or at least not right this minute.
(29:20):
Yeah. Well, you know, you less of a home center, right? Like I think that’s where we get caught up as we can be so judgmental and we can be judgmental of ourselves and go, well, I’m not really this or that. If I’m not doing, you know, ABMC, but that’s not true. Right. These are just arbitrary, you know, things that we come up with basically, right. Fabrications, we, you know, come up with that, that try to categorize things and put ourselves into little boxes, but you don’t have to be doing it all to be living this lifestyle.
(29:50):
Well, it’s, I think it’s just like anything you see online, this big picture of what you think it should look like, and you try to mimic that except in real life home setting. Isn’t quite like that because like I said, it’s just different for everyone.
(30:04):
Yeah. Well, and even like us, you know, we cook, I’d say 90% we cook from scratch, but there’s still things as I’m pulling out my pantry that I’m like, Oh, you know, do I, do I want to show that like on my Instagram or whatever, that there’s that processed ingredient. We still have a few tins of Campbell soup in there that that’s something that I’ve really transitioned away from over the past year. And again, I do try to do like one ingredient at a time. Okay, I’m going to get rid of that and start making that from scratch. So whether it’s, you know, I don’t know, mayonnaise or tomato sauce or bread or whatever it is, but it doesn’t happen all at once. And so there’s a few things that we still have left that we still haven’t fully transitioned over from, but we’re working on it. And it happens a little bit at a time. And just because, you know, you aren’t fully 100% there doesn’t mean that, you know, you’re not doing it or what you’re doing is worth something.
(30:54):
Yeah. And even if you there’s something that you don’t necessarily want to transition to what maybe a typical homesteader would have. Like I have, I have canned soup in my pantry and I didn’t make it. I have, well, I got it just to have on hand in case the power goes out. And I actually talked about this in my last podcast. It’s really nice just to have on hand once in a while. And I didn’t have time this last summer to make a ton of canned soups because we’re building a house. So like I don’t beat myself up about that. It’s fine. You, what you think should be in a home setters pantry, but it’s there. So yeah,
(31:38):
This is, again, it’s kind of that same thing that like, I, that I’d mentioned earlier about kind of being like all or nothing, right? Like it’s, you know, if I’m not doing, if I’m not doing all of it, then, then why bother doing any of it and that kind of instant gratification, I can’t haul it, but all at once then I, why bother trying and doing things one step at a time. But the reality is that if you really want this to be something that’s part of your lifestyle and it’s a sustainable part of your lifestyle, that’s the best way to approach it, right. Is just one thing at a time and give yourself grace on the rest. And then I would finally say too, so that was time. And then the last thing would be money, right? Like those are kind of the three pillars, right?
(32:14):
Space, time, and money for why people can’t do the home setting thing. But again, with money, I mean, there’s two schools of thought I find on home setting one is that it’s a super frugal lifestyle that people live because they can’t, they don’t want to like either can’t afford or don’t want to be spending money, you know, at the store all the time. And so they’re trying to produce their own stuff at home. And then on the other hand, there’s people that think that it takes a ton of money to put in the gardens and to buy all the ingredients and to get the right tools and equipment and everything. I find that it can fall anywhere on that spectrum. Again, it ends on how much you want to do and what you’re able and willing to invest right now. Right. You can do things super cheap.
(32:54):
Like you can do things really most things for free if you want to. Right. There’s all sorts of ways. You can do things with scrap materials and with doing it very, very frugally. And I know you talk a lot about that on your blog, right. Doing things super frugally. And then there’s also, if you want to do, you can spend your whole life savings on, you know, different home set projects and stuff. So it depends on what you can invest at the time. But again, money shouldn’t be something that holds anybody back. I think that if you want to do it, do things on, on the super cheap you can. And again, just one thing at a time, right. Don’t try to like do everything at once because it will break the bank if you, if you try to write. So just take on, take on one small thing at a time and, and use what you got.
(33:41):
Yeah. All right. Well, that is awesome. And I don’t want to keep our listeners too long because there’s, there’s home setting to get to. So I will make sure that we put all the links to where you can find Anna and what she writes about in the show notes. So be sure and check those out after you finished listening and thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.
(34:07):
Thank you so much for having me.