"Homestead" - Hoping and Dreaming

It may seem strange that I call this blog The Sufficient Homestead when we do not, in fact, live on a homestead. Not even close. We live on a corner lot in the village of Broadalbin. Adorable, yes. Homestead, no.

So why choose that as a blog name? Why label myself and my life as something that, in no way, seems to fit?

Part of it is for myself. I want to live on a homestead someday. I want to live in a place where we can have goats and chickens and cut our own wood and plant a big garden and have a beehive and do all of the things that make life a more authentic experience. Maybe, hopefully, even build our own home. And I mean us, literally, building the house from the ground up. However, as of this moment, I am not close to that. At all. Our house is listed For Sale by Owner on Craigslist through the winter, and I have had a couple of dim-looking little nibbles on it. Nothing more. So, I don't know how far in the distance our homestead is. But I keep looking nonetheless.

Another reason I named it this is because I am trying to put some of the homestead practices into our life right now. This year, I am learning how to crochet. I already know how to sew. I will also be working on my bread baking, and hopefully expanding our garden in one way or another (it may have to be in containers because of our limited sunlight situation, but I'm still hoping!). So, while I may not be on a technical homestead, I am already trying to begin a change in my mindset.

Lastly, I am trying to broaden my own definition of homestead to help soothe my often-discontent heart. Maybe a homestead can be people doing the best they can with what they have. Maybe it can be a family trying to hearken back to yesteryear in whatever way is practical for where they live. Maybe it can be a woman reaching through the depths of decades to the time of her grandmother, when women worked just as hard as their farmer husbands and sleep was an earned right after a day of hard work, not something to be monitored by a fitness tracker.

Maybe it can be a small part of where I am right now.