On that acre and a half, though, we have 28 chickens (both hens and roosters right now) in which we collect about 7-12 eggs a day. A couple may be too old to lay but the rest of the hens are too young right now.
We have fruit trees planted and a big patch of land that, in late spring and summertime, holds a garden full of tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, cabbage, peas, and corn. After harvest, I have a walk in pantry full of jars of items I have canned. I love, love, love canning and have high hopes that every year my yearly harvest stockpile will grow larger and larger.
My in laws own somewhere around 50 beautiful acres in which we hope to build a home one day. No need for a pool because the property has natural springs which leads into a creek that could be perfect for playing in. On that acreage my father in law raises beef cattle. The older ones are pets but he sells the calves at auction. He's talked of raising one to slaughter but he hasn't done it yet.
My best friend, who lives about 12 miles away, owns a milk cow, which she hand milks twice a day. I help her milk Delilah every now and then and she lets me have milk whenever I want it.
My husband works hard 5-6 days a week to pay for all those things I listed at the beginning of this post. I work as a dental hygienist 1 day a week and stay home with our 3 year old daughter the rest of the time. My 9 year old son goes to our small town's public school. I am very involved at his school and as long as things stay the way they are there, he will continue to go to public school. My husband and I have discussed homeschooling, but at this time, feel satisfied that he is getting a good education from the teachers during school hours and from me after school hours.
What are my homesteading dreams? Well, I often enjoy reading about pioneer days. I know times were tough then and I feel blessed that, right now, we have wonderful advances in all areas of life, but what if, heaven forbid, there were some disaster which made those things unavailable to us. Could my family still survive? I would like to say yes but I wonder. While I worry about the unknown in that sense, I actually enjoy the idea of basic living. I would love to have my whole family living on a large plot of land, living off the land. My in laws garden and my mother in law puts up veggies. My mom would be more than happy to help tend the garden and help with harvest if she lived closer. We have a well, but at present it doesn't have a hand pump. I would love to raise a beef cow to slaughter. I think I would like to own my own milk cow but my husband thinks that I would get tired of milking her twice a day, including those days in which the bottom seems to fall out of the sky with whatever precipitation the good Lord chooses that day. When we determine which of our chickens are roosters, I would like to get those into my freezer. I've not done that before so it should be interesting. My husband hunts and fishes if he ever has spare time and I've helped de-feather, breast out, gut, and fillet those creatures so maybe it won't be a problem.
I am constantly learning new recipes for cooking from scratch and I hope to share them, new and old, on this blog. I plan on sharing my gardening and canning resources and anything else I think may apply to being a homesteader.
As for being debt free, I am always re-vamping our budget. We finally got comfortable about 5 years ago when we had 2 vehicles paid off and both credit cards paid off and what did we do? Sold one vehicle (not worth much), traded in the other, and charged up the credit cards again. It has been our habit to pay them off with income tax returns each year but last year we were a little shy of paying off one of them. We haven't charged too much this year and hope that we will be able to pay them off with the return we receive in March 2012. Our prayer is that we are able to NOT use them next year and start paying off our vehicles. My husband now has a company cell phone so we will be getting rid of his personal which will lower that payment. We keep a house phone because the children aren't old enough for cell phones yet. We have a digital cable package that carries our internet and my husband and children enjoy the multitude of channels with nothing on them. I personally think I could do without the television though. If we were to stay here, we have a mortgage payment (with about 50K in equity) that will be paid off when CJ graduates high school. So, do we stay or do we sell and take the 50K and build a small home on the in-laws land? Maybe we could even live in the camper for a little while. I mean, we'll be paying on that for a few years too. I could deal with it but my husband, not so much. Grocery bills continue to rise, especially if you like to eat all natural and organic foods. I don't have to purchase eggs, milk, or veggies as long as my pantry is full from harvest, and hopefully we will be able to get venison in the freezer this year. I'm hoping to come up with other ways to lower that grocery bill. If you have any ideas, PLEASE share!
I know I have a lot to learn but I'm enjoying the journey. I hope you'll enjoy reading about it and maybe you can help. Until then, we are still...
A HOMESTEAD IN THE MAKING
