I would like to start off by saying that I may or may not be obsessed with homesteading :). I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie with my mom and I instantly became enthralled with their lifestyle. I wanted to wear the dresses and bonnets. I wanted a horse and I wanted to live in a log cabin. While my actual life was nothing like theirs, I nonetheless wanted to be exactly like them. Fast-forward a few years and my mom and I move to central Iowa where there is this wonderful place called Living History Farms. I instantly fell in love. At LHF, you go through a 1700′s Ioway Native American camp, an 1850′s farm, a 1900′s farm, and then a 1870′s town. All of these sites come complete with livestock and real people who are dressed appropriately for their time period and do activities that are appropriate as well.
This reawakened my thirst for homesteading. I started getting my hands on anything that had to do with homesteading; books, pamphlets, hands on experience, you name it, I wanted to look at it or do it. So I started collecting books on homesteading and gardening as well as livestock. Now, by no means do I have an extensive collection. I have the books that I feel work for me and my family. My hope is that someday, we can live on a “homestead” and be able to feed our family and sell the rest at farmers markets. These books will help me achieve my goal. As for now, I’m going to be planting some things in containers and leaving them on my deck. Trying to keep up with a bigger garden with a newborn doesn’t seem like a good idea :) But someday, I hope to blog about how we bought our first chickens or goats and how big our garden has grown…someday :)
RT
Good idea – container gardening for this year anyway. You can plant one tomato plant, one pepper plant, some garlic, some other herbs, perhaps some onions, and have your very own salsa garden or pizza garden right on your deck. That’s a really good idea. Easy to maintain, right there, instead of off to the yard and leave the baby behind. I want to do some gardening too around the edge of my house. Not a lot of room, but I think I can make raised beds out of the space I’ve got and get some more awesome tomato sauce out of the deal!
Don’t stop dreaming and learning! Taking those little baby steps are what strengthen and prepare you for bigger, more challenging leaps. It won’t be long before the little one is digging through the dirt and chasing the baby chickens with you. Enjoy the journey.
I love these blogs from you Robbi. You sound just like your Mom as far as wanting to live like the family on Little House on the Prairie. She had great hopes to have some animals and did have a garden and did up the perserves. She even had chickens. She was even planning on adding more but things change. Don’t have a dog that likes chickens. Anyway you will be getting some fresh air and of course exercise when you start your garden. Tucker will love to be outdoors if you start him that way. Keep on keepin’ on and eventually your dreams will come true and you may get your Little House on the Prairie. Sending love to all!!!