Balancing Homesteading and a Modern Life

Sometimes I really feel like I have a foot planted in two worlds. The first is the ‘modern’ one where I work in an office on computers, do my blogging, social media, and other stuff that is considered normal in our society. The other world is much slower, peaceful, and though the physical labor is harder – I find myself being much happier. Balancing homesteading and a modern life is not always easy.

As I detailed out in parts 1, 2, and 3 of My Story, I had an eye opener as to how fragile our systems really are and decided to work with my husband to change how much we rely on outside sources for our needs. We built cold frames and a green house. I began to learn how to pressure can, dehydrate, and cook more foods from scratch. He learned about reloading and we both upped our efforts to take advantage of the incredible bounty of resources there are where we live: free for the taking! We became and continue to become ‘homesteaders.’

Homesteading is a mentality more than what you have or don’t have.

The days of the pioneers heading west and staking claim are long over but the spirit to provide for yourself and your family is still out there, lingering like an old friend who is just waiting to be invited in. So many people say things like “You aren’t a real homesteader, you have electricity!” or “You aren’t a real homesteader because you have running water and live in a subdivision instead of a cave, eating bugs and dirt!” Ok, the last was a bit over the top but you get the idea. No matter if I was living like the Ingalls’, people would still judge and say I wasn’t doing it ‘right.’ All the while, they sit in their air conditioned homes, watching TV and eating microwave popcorn. The bottom line is, “Homesteading is a mentality more than what you have or don’t have.”

The Challenges

It is not easy to try and live in both worlds. One is slower, more in tune with the seasons and cycles of the planet and the other is a hustle and bustle to get ‘ahead,’ though most people have no idea what they are trying to get ahead of. I know I don’t.  I want to grow and preserve as much food as I can for my family but there is limited time available to really do it all. I have to work to pay for the lights, buy dog food, and all of the other things that I cannot produce for myself because I don’t have the time. Even if I could stay home all day and grow enough food to last us all winter long, I would still need money to pay the mortgage. Of course, there are those people who say you aren’t a real homesteader if you shop at the store. I always laugh at them and ask if the pioneers moving west weren’t ‘real’ either when they went to buy cloth and corn meal at the trading post. No one can produce everything they need.

The biggest challenge for me is switching mentalities between the two. Going from building databases in the morning to building a greenhouse and planning a garden in the evening is weird for me. Perhaps it’s because I want to live in the homesteading world so badly that causes the difficulty in flipping back and forth. If I could, I would much rather wake up and feed the chickens, chop some wood, or jar up some tasty food. Sometimes I feel like the day job is a fake life and the one in my garden is reality. Of course, that could just be wishful thinking. 😉

Other challenges I face include:

• Deciding which aspects of homesteading will be useful to learn (and finding information on it).
• Finding space to do the projects I want.
• Coming up with the extra money to buy what I cannot build.
• Finding people locally who have done or are doing what I want.
• Living in such an isolated location.
• Trying to integrate and balance things I have learned with the ‘modern world.’
• Finding the time to put infrastructure into place to start/continue various project.

It is difficult to try and live in both worlds: both take so much time! It isn’t all frustrations, though. There are some things about being a modern homesteader that provide great advantages over doing everything the ‘old way.’ For example, I know how to wash clothes in a bucket but why do it unless you really have to? Learn the skill (because it is more than just tossing clothes in water and agitating them) and gain a new appreciation for it. Should the ability of using a washer and dryer become unavailable, you know you will still have clean(er) clothing than others who never took the time. It’s a trade off!

The Rewards (that make it all worth it)

• Lower food bill and higher quality food
• A mentality that allows me to be more flexible with the unexpected things in life
• A much higher appreciation for the simplest things in life
• Connections with new people and networking knowledge
• Closer relationships with friends and family members. Instead of staring at screens, we are walking around outside picking berries. More meaningful interactions.
• A deeper sense of belonging and my place in this world. Everyone chooses whether they are part of the natural world or above it (even though we are all part of it).
• Freedom from the feeling that what I have isn’t ‘good enough.’
• Having the rose-colored glasses removed and seeing the world through clearer eyes (both scary and wonderful at the same time).
• Having far more control over our food!

It’s not easy to really pinpoint any one thing that makes it hard to try and live in both worlds. They are so far apart from each other not only in terms of time needed, but also in viewpoints of the world and your place in it. I feel more at home in the forest picking berries than I ever have in a large city where everyone is moving quickly to this or that and has turned a blind eye to those around them. There are no connections – other than faces to phone screens – and so much activity that seemingly gets nothing accomplished.

The Key is to use the modern world conveniences to make your homesteading efforts easier while still learning how to do things the old school way. It’s kind of like accounting. Anyone can learn to use a program for inputting numbers but unless you take an actual accounting class, you won’t understand how it is done at the most basic levels. The same goes with homesteading. Using the laundry example above is a good one. Almost everyone knows how to load a washing machine but do you know how to clean clothes by hand? I mean really clean them, not just soaking in water and shaking it around a bit. Think of it like a safety net: you enjoy all the comforts and conveniences but when the cards are down, you have something to fall back on.

Balancing homesteading and a modern life is not always easy but so far, it is always worth it. We continue to dream big and learn as much as we can so that when the opportunity comes to live a more simple, traditional homesteading life, we will be ready!