Even the Pioneers Didn't Raise ALL of Their Own Food
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- Today we are discussing a hard topic. The expectations that homesteaders put on each other. Let's all give each other a break once in a while.
#gardening #homesteading #hightunnel
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Thank you, Thank you! I'm 66 years old and do this farm like I'm 20, my body says no while my mind says Go, and giving myself permission to slow down is not easy, worried about my kids and grandkids all the time in these days, love you guys
You took the words right outta my mouth!!!
I'm almost 60 and doing the same. I have my farm and work a 40 hour a week job away from home. It's hard but I love it....most days 🥰👩🌾
You keep going!
55 and ditto. I am backing off this year. Too much work for me.
I’m in the same boat. I have to exercise and stretch every morning so I can keep going! It’s a great life!
Chasing the dollar to be number one will get you every time
It’s so funny that I saw this video today. I was just telling my mom today how proud I am that we’ve been able to keep 3 families in eggs throughout the fall and winter. My goal for the spring and summer is to see what we can do to supplement for our families for produce. But in all reality, being part of the “homesteading community” means reaching out to other sources and not being ashamed of that. We are all working together towards a common purpose🥰
"It's ok!" ....I loved hearing that...
Thank you for talking about this subject. Many of us who do what we do aren’t realizing this. We put way too much pressure on ourselves. This is why we need each other to grow different things and barter. 😊❤️🙏🌱
Yes Christine!! Well said…♥️
Completely agree! Well heres to another year of biting off more than we can chew😂
Hey 👋 there we love ❤️ watching your videos. We learn so much about your world. We live in a Vegas apartment and we started prepping and actually have fun trying to find another open hidden space lol 😅
God is so Faithful 🙏🏿✝️♥️
Thank you Kevin and Sarah. I'm not a homesteader, yet I garden, can, freeze, ferment, dehydrate, freeze-dry and cold store a lot of food I produce on my property. Currently I only have egg-laying chickens, and bees, but have raised pigs, meat birds and turkeys. Not only do I feed my family, but 24 children in our childcare. I take great pride in feeding everyone as natural and organic as I possibly can. Processed foods are not on our menus. I do put a lot of pressure on myself to keep expanding on all that I offer. I really needed to hear "It's okay" not to do it all. Love watching you and the journey you are on. Love and prayers.
You are homesteading! 😀
@@tracygill9868 I stand corrected. Have been working 7 days a week running all aspects of child care/preschool, so I feel that is what I do! However, homesteading is in my heart, my soul! I keep saying, "If I was 30 years younger, I would homestead!". Maybe in retirement, I will become a full-time homesteader!
We have decided to get out of pigs. We've had pigs for nearly 15 years and we are getting older and they are alot of work. The prices of feed are crazy as well. We will still continue our beef herd but we can't do it all.
Thank you, I’m a widow with children, 2 are special needs, I work my tail off , sometimes I’m too hard on myself. I’ve come to realize I can do what I can do. Every little bit is better than none. Thank you!!
Bless you! I totally agree something is better than nothing!
Where are u? How many kids? Do u hsl or do u go to work?
I’m also a single mom, widowed very young w/small kids & a baby but now I’m divorced & my younger kids are teens, so I’ve done both lol Ive always hsled all of them
@@YeshuaKingMessiah I’m in Missouri, our Children are 13-14-16-17-almost 18, 2 have left home our older children are military and one is a nurse, they live on the West Coast of USA. No I do not work our 2 youngest are special needs. I stay home, garden raise some farm animals and keep house, I would like to start a business selling my sewing items, but I haven’t even sewed since moving her 3 years ago. My Husband got sick 3 months after moving here and then was sick for 8 months. Passed away. I’ve still yet to unpack some items.
Loved seeing the chickens out the kitchen window. Makes doing up those dirty dishes an easier task.
I too feel the pressure to grow as much of my own food as possible. This pressure comes from the online homestead and prepping community, my family, the current costs of goods, and my own expectations of myself. I appreciate you two having the foresight to see this coming in your community and addressing it. Peace and Love neighbors.
The greatest resource available on Earth is other people. We are meant to be in a community.
Amen!
I would add that it's good that certain companies strive to produce healthy products, but what even some of them may not know is the plastic packaging can leach out chems that act like potent hormones, and cause obesity and cancer. So, growing our own food not only tastes better and is less expensive, but is much more heathy for us.
It's not just about homesteading. Internet leaches create audiences by lying and exaggerating everything to make themselves sound more like experts and more important. There are these types who do what the Kardashians do to make a buck and are just as phony. Everybody ..... Just be you.
@FLPhotoCatcher yes and the fact that labels can be deceiving.
Very good video. My husband and I are 60 years young and last night we tiled our kitchen. Plus we have animals to take care of. We’re a small homestead but we just can’t do it all. As much as I’d love to, I don’t want to kill ourselves over it and not even enjoy the process.
Loved seeing the chickens through the kitchen window….just wonderful
Yes, me too! So heartwarming!🐓💕
Thank you! When I brought up the 'GENERAL STORE' on Homesteading channels there was a 'Hail Storm' of CRITICISM. Do what you can do at YOUR level of _self-sufficiency._ They didn't GROW everything; they didn't RAISE everything; they didn't have EVERYTHING to slaughter... they sold things for the MONEY they needed TO PURCHASE those things they couldn't grow. So BUY what you need to, whether it's ORGANIC or not! Look after YOUR money and YOUR access and YOUR FAMILY!
Kevin and Sarah could not agree with you more on creating expectations that are too high! I got into homesteading three years ago, every year adding more to my work load. This past winter I have been really struggling to finish canning and preserving, something I love to do. You guys hit the nail on the head! We CANNOT do everything ourselves! And to also keep up with the homesteading lifestyle, especially for someone who is 60, it is critical to live and eat healthy. Knowing your limits is ok! None of us are getting younger.
I love Azure Standard. Have ordered from them for the last few years since hearing about them in your first video you talked about them. Many times their organic bulk prices are lower. Love their business model. God bless and take care!
Great point! I bit off more than i can chew each year 😂
@@olekentuckyridge The mind is always willing, but the bodies are slowing down unfortunately. I love the idea of doing more, always getting new ideas but, sometimes we just gotta listen to what our bodies, and heart are saying...
@@forrestgump9576 absolutely! If we dont listen to our bodies then we wont be able to do anything will we
Unfortunately with this entertainment based society, too many people get their life advice from "reality" shows that have absolutely no basis in reality. There is a whole lot of "behind the scenes" that you don't see.
Thanks, that’s a very good thing to go over ! I am not a complete homesteader but I am doing what I can.
I’m so glad y’all addressed this topic. I love watching homestead channels and I’ve recently seen negative videos about “fake homesteaders”. It made me so angry that someone would post such a video. I understand that there are some fake ones but most folks are just trying to do the best they can and should not be made to feel guilty for not producing 100% of everything they consume. ❤
Yea, I don't think I'll be growing rice or toilet paper any time soon. 🙃
👍♥️
I used to be happy having my 6 × 4 inch garden and a space for several pots. I used to grow tomatoes and cucumbers square foot gardened in that spot. I really miss that. I could get a bush tomato plant to grow 5 ft tall by pruning and using 6 ft stakes. I learned a lot about turning, what looked like a rock creek into soft healthy soil, by adding leaves, compost, etc.
We are definitely one of the farms “trying the best we can” 😂 . Praise God we dont have to be to that level just yet but making progress each year 😊
@@nancyfahey7518 Grow rice paper, and create art, and Japanese sliding doors!
In your spare time, of course, with one hand artfully tied behind your back.
My grandparents had a small farm in Vermont, and raised most of what they consumed, but not all. What they felt they couldn't live without they often found someone in their small community to barter or trade with. Also, there was a general store, as you mentioned, to buy flour, sugar, coffee, green tea (my grandpa's fav). What I notice as I read of farms past, many people did NOT live super-long, and that was partly, I believe, due to the incredibly hard and unending work they did, day in and day out. My grandparents lived to be decent ages, 72 for my granddad, and only 67 for my grandmom, who died of sepsis (before antibiotics). They were both worn out.
In my hometown, we have a wonderful co-op that I'm proud to say I was one of the founding members of, back in the 1970's! This co-op now has pretty much any kind of flour, spices, grains, granolas, free-trade coffee, teas, everything organic, both in bulk and individually packaged, and organic produce and meat, plus dairy. Most of the produce, dairy, and meat are locally grown. When this co-op started, you had to fill out a form as to what flours, grains etc you wanted, and was VERY limited. Now it is a huge store, with baked goods, a deli, a sit-down restaurant for eating your deli order, kombucha to order fresh, local ales, I could go on and on, but the best part of this co-op is that it is owned by the patrons. The people who shop there make the decisions about what happens there, and that system of food dispensing has worked very well for about 50 years! It's like our general store, so the farmers around the area don't have to grow everything.
I don't want to have chickens, but luckily, my neighbor does, and they are reasonable and beautiful. I feel super lucky to live in a semi-rural community, with many organic farmers around me, so I only need to grow the things I actually am good at. And as you pointed out, that makes sense. Thank you for your video, it's something many folks need to hear.
This is such a liberating message! You guys just don’t know what this means to me. I started prepping in the middle of the pandemic. I am in a very challenging situation though. I don’t have a home with access to all the normal appliances (a stove for example), and canning was one of the very first things I started trying to do. And I would try to do it in very big batches which is really not necessary because I live alone. After struggling for months on end, I finally decided that really the only effective way for me to do it, do it right and be successful in the end, is to do what I can in small batches. Water bath canning is the only thing I have done so far, but I just keep moving a head, one thing at a time and at a pace I can handle. This video serves as a gentle reminder for me to do what I can and let that be enough. God bless you both!!!
WOW, this post really hit a nerve in the RUclips community and uplifted so many people’s self expectations, allowing themselves to take the pressure off themselves. Well done Kevin & Sarah, we’ll done!!!
Love this realistic video. This is why we need to know other people…who produce other products to buy from. You two are great people.
I couldn’t agree more Ellen!
It's wonderful how our Loving God created so many of us and made us dependent on each other and prayer to complete our survival needs. God is Good!!! :)
Yes there are certain homesteaders on RUclips who intentionally give the impression that they want to do it all and they push their entire families on a clock to do so. Even saying down to the minute they are behind....so stressful. It just looks so hectic. Thank you for bringing up that we do not need to do absolutely everything at once-- or by ourselves.
Its called OCD. LOL i am the same way. I need to stay organized or i get more stressed out. Its not always a bad thing. I would rather be early than late. Drives me nuts.
I think as long as we are trying and making a difference in the quality of food our families get to eat and saving some money on the grocery bill is a huge win! Then we can keep going from there! Its a lot
There are 2 that I used to follow that are so negative. I am no longer following them and even 1 of them got booted off youtube just this last week or 2...
@@southloupriverhomestead4696 It might be more comfortable for you, but think about the effect it has on your family and others around you.
Kathy A aka NanaBluebird I agree with you, I stopped watching. Why have a homestead if you’re punching a clock like having a 9-5 job? Only it’s more like 5am-9pm!
I came to this conclusion with honey/beekeeping. There are folks who love it, but I'm content to make sure the mason bees have some habitat and trade pumpkins/eggs/lamb for honey when I need it.
Thank you for talking about this topic. When I realized last season, my personal expectations were not possible. I changed my viewer name to the current one. I realized I HAD to give myself grace. I'm older, with serious health concerns. In saying that, I still do my absolute best every day. God blesses me every day. I wake up breathing, and I might as well make the best of the days.
I really like this comment. I hope it is ok to say that we need to give that same kind of grace to the remainder of our lives. For example: Holidays. When we expect every single detail to be perfect, we are setting us and those around us, up for failure.
@teresaroman3348 Thank you. I fully agree with your comment as well. God bless you.
Everytime I see these delicate baby plants sprouting, I am reminded that all of us began so delicately and fragile. All of life forms begin with such fragility! Isn't God amazing!
Thank you for your faithful encouragement in many areas! May the Lord bless all your labor and give you much fruit this year.
Love Azure Standard. The way food business should be, imo. Bought lots of grains on last order and milled at home. Great products so far.
I’m loving, distracted and entertained by the birds behind you through your kitchen window 😂🐓🐦
I'm so glad you tackled this topic. I've felt that pressure, too, especially when people do pantry tours. But this year, I'm giving myself permission to not grow cauliflower. It's just so difficult to get big, white heads and I can better use the space in my garden for something else. So thank you!
I am having a hard time slowing down. We turn 73 in April and just planted 21 fruit trees!! It is a promise of the future. I am following Ann Ralph’s method of “Grow a Little Tree” so we will be able to care and harvest the fruit. I only have about a half acre so I am somewhat limited in space. I just want to grow some of my food and know I can grow more IF I need to in the future. You guys are more balanced than many!! You need to slow down and enjoy life. The closest drop off for Assure Standard is like an hour and a half away so we don’t use them. I have a success skin care company and make all our cleaning and skin care products. I have been doing this for 10 years.
As a homesteader, my strong suits are dairy, fruits and veggies. My weak area is meat! This video was refreshingly honest and gives me some grace in that area! Blessings to you both.
It's interesting that you mention the General Goods stores. It seems that we went from a mild dependence on others to meet our little needs, to big box grocery stores that sell everything you could imagine. We went from barter and trading to Barnes and Noble.
This also reminded me of my Grandpa. He had a small cubby in the garage, maybe 4 feet wide by 20 feet long full of old tools and whatnot. One day he told me to follow him in there, and he tossed me an old, dried out corn cob. I asked him what that was for, and he said, "Boy, that's what we used to wipe our butts with." I never took toilet paper for granted again after that day. Obviously we can't all grow our own toilet paper, and sometimes crops we try to grow just don't produce.
What a great message! I never really have felt the pressure to produce all of my own food but this sure does bring peace to my heart. Of course the pioneers didn't produce all their own stuff! I never really thought about it but verbalizing it sure brings an underlying paradigm shift to what I'm doing in my own garden. Thanks for the great message.
I couldn’t agree more!
I am 74 and have been gardening most of my adult life. Pantry is full as well as freezer. But now, with health issues popping up I am limited on how I can garden. So, this year I gave myself grace to do only what I was capable of doing. What a great relief to my psyche. I am letting my large garden rest and just producing in containers. Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions, and misc veggies.
Bless you for saying what others aren't saying. Because for most if not close to all of us viewing homesteading channels are not able to have a farm or homestead. And this give us a defeated feeling that tells us "you might as well not even try". So....I appreciate you speaking the reality of this homesteading movement.
I’ll be 68 real soon and my husband and I have decided to down size some. Our kids rather just go to the store, so we are planning for ourselves. We go to Sams and catch things on sale. We get eggs from our neighbor, praise the Lord and I give back homemade bread, things from garden.
So glad to hear you are going to slow down a little and give yourself permission to really enjoy life and family. It took me way to long to decide I can just relax once in a while. I have taken care of family members with health problems all of my life. Now I’m in my 70’s and just want to have a little less stress in my life. God Bless you both!
Onions grow very well in Ireland. You just plant them and up they come whereas tomatoes have to be grown in heated greenhouses.
A much needed video! Chasing another person's dream, will wear your hiney out! Also, trying to force another, to fulfill your dream- 🤔
Just because we 'can" do something, doesn't always mean we should. We have an elderly couple here in town, that only grows blackeyed peas. They have been doing it for years. They do it because it feeds them, and we can go out and give them a few dollars, to get some for ourselves. We can grow our own, at home. But, it works out better, to be a good neighbor and help them, as they help us. If we all can grow ONE thing at home, and grow it well. Then we should consider, doing that. Then, like Mr. R- the pea man, we can bless him with some much needed cash, as he blesses us with much wanted peas. I try to remember something shared with me, many years ago... Plant some to eat, some to keep and some to share. Thanks Kevin and Sarah!
As Canadian living in the north, so much we can't grow in our agricultural zone. However I'm also guilty of thinking I can make it all from scratch, because we don't consume any dairy products I have to make all the substitutions. Hubby works from home to pay some bills and only so much I can do in a day.
BRAVO!! YES!! 🙌🙌
This topic absolutely needed to be addressed and in our opinion, you two are THE perfect people to do so.
Things in the Homestead RUclips world have run amok and hard-working folks in many cases either don't understand or are being completely misled.
THANK YOU and GOD BLESS!
Thank you so much!! Last year, I gave myself permission to stop trying to grow garlic. Last Fall, I gave up on Brussel Sprouts. This spring, I will take the year off of yellow squash. That is hit and miss for my 9b/10a. I can find all 3 of these on sale and be happy. My main focus is tomatoes and peppers this spring, with many other lesser focus things. I can be easily overwhelmed.
Proud of you both.
This is why we need community...it's impossible to live your life without our fellow humans
If you guys ever make it up to Kansas City, MO there is a really neat museum there called the Steamboat Arabia Museum. This big steam paddle wheeler sank in the Missouri River in the mid 1800’s. It was fully loaded going up the Missouri with supplies for general stores upstream. It had 200 tons of supplies that they salvaged in 1988. It is very interesting to see these items from needles to boots to jarred food. There are movies to watch of it’s discovery and retrieval plus interesting stories of it sinking. I highly recommend you visit this sometime!
I have been to a similar museum for Steamboat Bertrand. West of Missouri Valley Iowa. It was very interesting. They had canned fruit in jars from the 1800's. They dug all the items up in the 1970's. When they tested the fruit in the jars while it had lost some nutrition from age they said it would have still been safe to consume all those years later.
I love the bucket of lard! ⭐️
Giving ourselves permission is a new mantra for those of us who are used to being in charge. We really aren't in charge. But doing the best we can IS GOOD ENOUGH!
A blast from my childhood Little house on the Prairie. That was my favourite television show growing up. Even watched repeats when my children were little. I watch this channel and a couple of others mainly to see what the USA is like, the difference between our countries. We in Australia are able to grow all year round in our gardens which I guess we are lucky. I am not a homesteader I live on a quarter acre block in suburbia, I have neighbours both sides and at the rear of our home. I have a small garden that grows what we need, we are empty nesters. I am in the process of getting chickens in the next 6-8 weeks which I am very excited about. I have not had chickens since I was a child, but with the price of eggs and a shortage I think 6 hens will be ok. I just love to watch you both I really enjoy the content of the channel. In my opinion we all need to live like our grandparents did, my grandparents one set had an amazing vegetable garden far more than they ever needed but it was shared around. My other grandparents were dairy farmers until they retired then became beef farmers. Both sets lived a very frugal lifestyle neither actually needed to but that was the way they were all bought up. They were able to grow what was needed, and my grandmothers were both amazing cooks, you never went home hungry ever from either house. That’s where I get my love of cooking and gardening and maybe one day if my health holds out maybe our own little farm. But at this stage that is a massively huge dream. God bless you both and thank you so much for you wonderful channel.
I couldn’t agree more!
When I look at your video I see your shirts with buttons and zippers, lights. phones cameras--all of which we must rely on the rest of society to make for us. We benefit greatly from the many unknown "others" in our lives. Blessings
I am not a homesteader. However!!! I observe the goings on with a number of homesteading channels. Most follow this exact reasonable lifestyle. There are those that don't. Living unreasonably is just rediculous. Especially, where necessities are concerned, either real or practical. Bravo to you!!! Your expectations are realistic, now. Keep up the wonderfulness you do. It IS okay to do what you can, not what you can't.
The secret to a happy life is to live within your means, whatever that is. In 88 years, that has become my goal. I have a wonderful wife and family and I want to enjoy them as much as I can. My only regret in life has been working too hard and spending less time with them. You have found the beginning of wisdom.
Thxs for this video. This is why it's so important to join with like minded neighbors to trade with.
I’m an old lady in her 70’s who has watched you for several years & have enjoyed learning from you. I’m not a homesteader. You should be very proud of your accomplishments since moving to Missouri. God Bless for sharing & caring. Love from Canada
I for one am thrilled you’re slowing down a bit. You’ve worked so hard and have accomplished amazing feats, you deserve to enjoy your life with each other and your kids! Great job guys and thanks so much for taking us along in your journey! God’s blessings always!
Thanks for showing us it's ok to be human! Love ya. Peace and blessings
This is so important. I am so worn out with so many things to take care of, I’ve been thinking about not planting anything this year. You have given me some things to consider. Thank you from this 70 year old wanna be a pioneer.
We are trying again this year as last year was a total loss.
I grew catnip one year. It got huge! I let it be and the next year it was even bigger! In the fall i decided i'd better start over and harvest the leaves. I went out to harvest the leaves and it was completly distroyed covered with yellow fur. Cougar found it! Later that week game dept posted signs ... cougar in the area. I guess you know i got rid of that plant fast!
i made 5 gal of homemade laundry detergent for about $10 & I LUV IT!!!
Thank you for your care, consideration, and Grace for yourselves and others. Life is already full of pressures and stresses so appreciate you all❤❤❤
Love this channel for all of those reasons! A true blessing
Your azure ordering is very interesting. Thanks.
Wow! I needed this, this morning! Last year we moved the family garden from my daughter's home to mine. I planted ALLOT, for both our families. I was stressed & overwhelmed it was unbelievable. So stressed that it was a bad produce year for our whole area. I was canning, dehydrating daily, trying to put up enough for both families & i just couldn't do it. I was so down on myself for not achieving this! Thank you!! We have checked into Azure but the closest to us is 2 hrs, 1 way in any direction, same with closest walmart but we r lucky to have a few small grocery stores here & surrounding small towns.
Tina... it might be cost prohibitive for you, but I know Azure WILL use UPS, USPS, etc and send items to you that way. It will most likely be a substantial cost that way, but also if you have the means to get to that 2 hr drop spot... maybe just put your order together once every several months or every 6 months. Really large order for you potentially, but no 4 hour round trips all the time.
My best suggestion to you is to contact Azure & see if you could start a drop point for your area. It's a volunteer thing, no pay to you, but Azure would be more than happy to help you figure that out. Check with neighbors, family, friends, etc & see what kind of interest there is & jump in!! Good luck with all of that. Azure is a really great company & great products. Be well & God bless. 🙏🙏
I’ve definitely been there as well! Just keep giving our best effort 😅
Last time I asked, Azure would make a new drop point for a $500 order. Get neighbors and family to order and that should be doable.
Make a huge order 4x a yr.
Worth it!
Will sure give it a try, thank you all! Have talked to many in our community and most not interested is starting something here. So will just do larger orders to make it worth my while to drive so far
You are dead on. Just do what you need . And God bless
I could not agree with you more!!! Permission to a mind easy! Tons of people NEED to hear this!! Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!! Y'all are soo inspiring and I am soo proud of where you have come since you moved here! Been watching you for 6 years now and you've grown soo very much! Love y'all!!❤❤
Thank you, I’m 76 years old and I have had bad feelings about all of the things that I can’t do anymore. You have made my day by telling me it’s okay not to do all of that anymore. Thanks ❤😊
I like to chop up onions and freeze them in freezer bag's. When I catch them on sale. I also keep fresh around too. Love having onions. I also grow my own green pepper's and freeze them up too. I love that you just get a cookie sheet with parchment paper flash freeze before storing them in freezer bag's and it's so easy. You don't blanch them like other things. 🙌
We have purchased a freeze dryer, so I'm going to take the diced onions and peppers that I put in the freezer and spread them on the freeze dryer pans and freeze dry them. It will free up freezer space for other things.
Common sense and practicality. Thank you for validating the fact that we simply cannot do, grow or make everything. As much as we’d like to…it’s just not reasonable or even possible. Thank you 😊
Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Y'all are a blessing!
As we got into our late 60s and Dear Hub started to have health problems, we had to scale ‘way back to still be able to eat healthy food. Our new plan was “rotation.” We alternated every other year: One year was a green-and-yellow bean/beets/broccoli/cauliflower year. The next was a tomato/pepper/onion year. And we grew enough to preserve TWO years’ worth plus a little. The larger quantities allowed for economy of scale. It actually took less space and less time. And allowed for easier crop rotation planning. During the off years (for example tomatoes) we still grew enough for fresh eating, just not enough for preserving. Then age and medical issues really caught up with us and we had to sell our little farm and move to the city for accessible medical care, but our plan allowed us to keep growing for about 6 years longer than we might have.
Thank you for always thinking about new and different ways to look at things, you two!
Thank you for this timely piece of wisdom. I am 63 years old, single and I love gardening but it gets harder every year. But thank God, my grandson has become interested in gardening so the two of us are expanding OUR garden this year without working ourselves to death!
Excellent video Guys. You don't have to be a Homesteader to eat like a Homesteader. Find a local farmer(s) that you can buy great meat from and maybe another farmer you buy your in season produce from. Build relationships with these people and you'll feel and eat better by doing this.
Agree - we were designed to work in community. Doing it all yourself is not sustainable and probably not wise. Great wisdom born of experience💝
Great point Beth!
I am so glad you are stating the truth regarding providing all food for ourselves. I watch a lot of homesteading channels and have frequently thought that some are pressuring themselves and others to be miracle workers. It's unreasonable and unrealistic. Thank you for stating the truth.
Exactly!!!! I grow most of my veggies for canning and raise my own meat but i do buy other meats from other farmers because I just can’t raise too many animals on our small farm. I buy food from local farmers. Thanks for talking about this.
Hi I'm 71 I have farmed for 60 +years. I retired a few years ago. I still have about 10 acres of garden. We give a lot away but can a lot. We raise our own beef pork chicken ducks rabbits and now back to raising quail. We also have bees for about 50 + years. I'm glad you have this program for the so many are just starting out.
Honestly saw this coming for you guys and glad you caught yourselves. My wife Melodee has had it in her mind to one day have a dairy cow and being retired now we know that will not be happening as the work involved with larger animals, in addition to everything else would be unwise for us. Hope you still will continue with your channel as my wife and g-daughters catch all your videos, I catch most of them. While we will never do things to the variety and scale as you, we have enjoyed coming along with all that you've done. Hint- dish soap can be used to clean clothes too. Sometimes less is better. Love you guys. Mike and Melodee Scott
I wanted a dairy cow. Mini jersey. But same conclusion getting to old to do all involved plus the other things. I just wish I had fresh milk available again. Love the butter and cheese.
@@ginabrown7763 The mini Jersey was in the running
Thank you for this video. Some of us don’t have land to grow a lot.
Very practical advice! Thanks
Pioneers also bartered with each other, goods & services. They pitched in & helped each other with building homes & barns too.
Good morning Kevin and Sarah thank for this video thank for sharing reality and yes there is always something we can't produce on the homestead and that will always be take care stay safe and God bless
The KISS method.😁Love you guys! Just do what you can, and family always comes first, then....
You folks do a wonderful job at what you do just keep doing it we all understand hard times. God bless you guys
They are truly an inspiration!
I wouldn't worry about unreasonable expectations. Do your thing. Don't worry, be happy.
What a great video. We homesteading where we are at. Just a garden for now, plus prepping our land to move to. Of course, we are planning planning planning. We all need to take a step back and pick our battles. Our goal is a simplistic and simple life, and we don't need to add unneeded stress. We love watching you two.
Very well said! We always did way to much but soon realized to focus on what we actually consume and that has helped a bit! Planning is key as your doing!
@@olekentuckyridge We have big dreams, but my guy has heart and stroke issues so we had to accept small. We had to come to terms with that. We are very ok with it. We bought our small piece of land before the he got sick. It was a blessing in disguise. We will have a wonderful homestead on half acre in the country.
Do what you can with what you got & the energy you have to do it with.
This is a very rational approach and makes perfect sense. It really is wonderful that you opened up the discussion. I hope to see you less stressed this growing season and enjoying the entire process more!
Great idea about the patchouli. 👍🏼 I never thought of growing that. I don't buy tomatoes in the store, what's the point? They have no taste! If I'm not getting home-grown tomatoes, I'm not eating tomatoes. This was a good video. People in RUclips Land are all over the place right now.
Great video and things for folks to remember to give their selves grace. I’ve looked at Azure a couple of times but they are just too expensive on their food. ESP the meat
I too feel the expectations are unreasonable. Especially i live in a state with a very short growing season. I can only grow so much between memorial day and labor day. So I've learned to not expect all I would want.
Great topic of conversation! We've only been on our homestead since last summer. We had so much to do at first but we are slowly but surely getting there. I love your honesty.
We are slowly dabbing our toes in the homesteading pool and making baby steps but at least we are moving forward.
Amen! It's so hard to get past that mindset but we should all be striving to do so. I'm sure getting antsy to go foraging soon and would love to see some more videos of Sarah teaching us what is what. We live in Missouri too, not much more than a couple hours from y'all, so I'm hoping we'll have many of the same types of plants and mushrooms. God bless y'all! 💙
Thats definitely something we are trying to learn more about as well!
I remember my parents and grandparents, all from farming and ranching. Especially my grandparents, they would talk about the same thing. You grow what you can, others did the same thing. No one could do it all. Everyone traded at the local store, one would bring whatever extra you had, and would barter and trade what you had for what you needed. Everyone helped each other as they could. No one can do everything, not enough land, time, and resources, so you trade for or buy what you need.
Now, like then, you ask God for help in the morning and give thanks to God every evening . Everything will work out as it should.
God bless ya'll and hope ya'll have a blessed day.
Kevin & Sarah - great video and wonderful reminder. I need to remember some of the key points that you mentioned. I tend to want to do everything myself but that is not possible working full time and having a busy life. As always a wonderful few minutes of "hanging out" with you.
MY GRANDPARENTS WERE HOMESTEADERS I GUESS IS THE WORD FOR IT NOW,THEY GREW BIG GARDENS,HAD FRUIT TREES,NUT TREES,CANE PATCHES FOR MOLASSES,THEY GREW THEIR OWN MEATS,BEEF,PORK,CHICKEN WHICH THEY BUTHERED THEMSLVES,THEY WOULD HUNT,HAD CHICKENS FOR EGGS,GREW THEIR ANIMAL FOOD ALSO,MY GRANDMOTHER MADE SOAP USING WOOD ASH FOR LYE,SHE MADE THEIR CLOTHES EXCEPT MY GRANDFATHERS OVERALLS,SHE MADE QUILTS,CROCHETED SWEATERS,MOST EVERYTHING THEY WOULD GROW OR MAKE.THEY RAISED A BIG FAMILY IN THE DEPRESSION,I LEARNED A LOT FROM THEM AND SO THANKFUL.
Your video couldn't be more timely. We will never be in a position to be "real" homesteaders. We live in a neighborhood where even chickens aren't allowed. (We're working on that.) We're retirement age, raising animals is not on our radar. I do garden and raise a lot of our veggies. I've always been a perimeter shopper, scratch cook. We're now in a position to purchase locally raised beef, pork and chicken, which we do. With your encouragement, we've just placed our first Azure Standard order. (Hubby was reluctant.) Our goal is to eat better quality food and have an emergency supply, just in case. I don't know if there is a category for us, but we're living our best lives with joy. Thanks!
I love seeing the chickens out your kitchen window!!!
Such a valuable video… thank you guys for all your efforts in creating these videos and sharing all your experiences and teaching so many of us. This video is so very timely for us - starting year 3 and struggling with feeling we need to do “all the things”. Grateful for the encouragement and the “permission” for grace with ourselves!
I sincerely applaud both your epiphany and your decision. I also applaud your candor in this presentation. Our ancestors worked together as a community by trading, bartering and using the store of choice as well.
I needed this reminder. I sometimes get ahead of myself to my own detriment.
You guys are such a great team.
Sometimes we are our own worst enemy but at least were trying 😂
So glad you made these comments. So many see homesteading as a job instead of a joyful lifestyle. Thank you!