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If You Want to be a Homesteader But Don’t Know How to Get Started…
It’s all about taking baby steps. The temptation is to bite off more than you can chew. What gardener doesn’t know that? You look at the seed catalogs and buy way more than what you can reasonably plant and grow.
Unless you know your limitations and make the right plan for moving forward.
Last year I referred to Anna’s e-book series as a helpful resource for preppers in a post you can view here. Then recently I was contacted by Skyhorse Publishing about reviewing her book, which is just coming out in paperback. I agreed to that, and I asked Anna to be my guest on DestinySurvival Radio. She was on yesterday’s show.
The author
Anna Hess dreamed about moving back to the land ever since her parents dragged her off their family farm at the age of eight. She worked as a field biologist and non-profit organizer before acquiring fifty-eight acres and a husband, then quit her job to homestead full time. She loves pigging out on sun-warmed strawberries and experimenting with no-till gardening, mushroom propagation, and chicken pasturing. She lives outside Dungannon, Virginia.
The Book
The Weekend Homesteader is over 400 pages and is beautifully illustrated. But don’t be intimidated by the length. It’s meant to be worked through it a little at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Anna’s goal is to give you easy tasks that make a difference. You’ll find projections of time and money required for each task and whether it’s kid friendly.
A lot of practical info is packed into a few words. Anna doesn’t add fluff just to take up space. You’ll find innovative ideas throughout her book
Ideas like starting a gardening project at your church. How about rooftop gardening if you’re in the city.?
Her monthly schedule starts in April because that’s when most people are thinking about gardening. And her book makes an excellent primer for organic and sustainable gardeners.
While growing food takes up most of the book, it’s not a gardening book per se. She raises significant issues serious homesteaders and preppers need to consider. For example…
- Recognize many activities will be repetetive and boring. Homesteading isn’t as glamorous as portrayed in glossy magazines and Web sites, which don’t show the junk pile behind the barn or the weeds in the garden.
- Calculate what your working wages are worth. Should you quit your job? Do you know how to budget your money so you can achieve your dreams?
- Connect with apprentices or mentors who can teach you needed skills. You can’t get everything from a book or Internet. (That’s an amazing statement from someone who’s written her own book, isn’t it?)
- Consider a small business on the side for extra income. Anna and her husband sell chicken waterers.
- Mulching and composting
- Freezing, dehydrating, canning food
- Using a clothesline to dry laundry
- Seed saving
- Raising chickens
- Making a rain barrel for collecting rain water
- Eating seasonally
- Season extenders for your garden
- Water storage and purification
- Planting fruit trees and berries
- Growing mushrooms
- Beekeeping
- Plenty of cooking tips
- Basic tool recommendations
- Tips on keeping your home (and yourself) heated in winter
- Testing your soil and adding amendments
- Making bread
- Living with less exposure to media as part of the simpler lifestyle
- Buying food in bulk wisely
- Off the grid lighting and communications
- Setting long term, big picture goals beyond weekend homesteading
The Interview
Her original e-books were very well received. One thing led to another, and the print book came about as a result. Of course, it will outlast e-books in a grid down scenario. And that’s one good reason for you to have your own copy.
Homesteading doesn’t mean what it did when the West was being settled. Thus, Anna wrote her book for those who want to live a more basic, simplified lifestyle.
The biggest mistake many people make is to dive in too fast and try doing too much. Pace yourself. Take small steps. Otherwise, you set yourself up for failure.
Anna wants her readers to avoid that. It’s why she gives advice on starting with easy vegetables, fruits and berries.
If you’re a fan of multiplier onions, you’ll want to hear our discussion on that. Likewise, you might be curious as to why her raised beds are three feet wide, rather than the traditional four feet.
Anna encourages eating seasonally. But she found doing so to be quite an adjustment. You’ll appreciate hearing her comments because she says not to push yourself too hard if you want to eat only what’s in season.
When it comes to doing those necessary repetetive tasks around your homestead, are you appreciating the scenery around you? Are you living in that present moment? Are you taking time off when you need it?
Are you intimidated by what you see on gardening and cooking shows? Anna wants to put homesteading within reach for you and her other readers.
Is your job standing in the way of your homesteading efforts? Do you feel locked into the system? Can you figure out what you really need and get by with less? It’s Anna’s desire to help people move in that direction with the projects in her book.
About anybody can homestead on whatever level is comfortable to them, according to Anna. So if you’re wanting to do it, just get started.
Hear my visit with Anna Hess by listening to DestinySurvival Radio for November 8, 2012. View Anna’s blog site at www.waldeneffect.org. Find details about the chicken waterer Anna and her husband offer at www.avianaquamiser.com.
Oh, by the way, you have a chance to win a copy of The Weekend Homesteader, but you have to listen to yesterday’s show for details.
Get The Weekend Homesteader for yourself. Or buy it as a gift for someone you know who could use it. It’s a DestinySurvival Amazon Pick. To buy your copy, click on its image below. You’ll be taken to the Amazon page where it’s featured. Amazon has it at a great price. Add it to your cart to start the order process.
Do you have aspirations of being a homesteader? Have you started already? Do you have advice for anybody who’s thinking about it or just starting out? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.
2012-11-09 12:00:07
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