The Messy Side of Homesteading

There are many parts of homesteading that the pictures don’t show. There are messes and hard things like death, animal escapes and did I mention messes? Do you know how far 1 gallon of milk with travel in your kitchen? Do you know how large the pile of swept debris from 1 shedding dog, 3 farm kids and 1 fire place is - daily? Mud. Mud and muck and more mud… do you know how hard it is to clean up broken eggs off the floor because your toddler “put them away” for you? Do you know how gut wrenching it is to anticipate births only to loose those little (ones)? …or have a kill go wrong despite you best efforts. You spend a whole season growing things only for deer or voles to feast upon your work. There are smells, sounds and sites that are absolutely awful… so here is the question I’ve been pondering…

IS IT WORTH IT?

Wouldn’t it be easier to just let big Ag do the work for us? We could relax and have more play time. No hard stuff. No long hard farm days. We could just go to the store like everyone else. We could send our kids to school and not pull our hair out trying to teach multiple ages at once… let someone else…

That’s where it is isn’t it? Someone… Someone else… Someone has to do it. There is no way around it…We must eat. We must learn and grow. No matter what walk of life you choose the journey will be hard. It’s how you choose to handle yourself in those hard things that matters. It’s who you share the journey with that matters. It’s what you choose to focus on that matters.

If you focus on the mess, the death, the muck and grime, spilled milk and broken eggs you will be so overwhelmed. It will become depressing and impossible to carry on. BUT instead if you focus on what you DO have, if you put yourself to bettering your practices and learning you will get better and there will be less hard stuff to deal with. Your heart will still hurt when loss happens, but you will be able to carry on.

This week I’ve been sprayed by wine and cider while siphoning into bottles - in fact I soaked half my kitchen (hilarious night - huge mess). I got sticky honey everywhere while inspecting our hive for the first time. I broke a whole gallon jar full of milk in my kitchen this morning. Yes the entire kitchen floor and other surfaces including myself were completely covered in a lake of milk and glass. I’ve dropped a dozen duck eggs on my stairs and countless more have been broken by my children who love to help with eggs. I’ve seen more rabbit death in the past 6 months than ever in our 5 years of raising them. Our pig kill did not go as planned - Yes there were tears. Yes I will continue naming our food. Yes we learned hard lessons and are making appropriate changes for next time. My kitchen has been covered in so many things. The floors. Oh man the floors. Why oh why do I still have white floors.

So Is it worth is? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!

Make messes. They clean. Fail. You will learn. Choose to focus on beauty and life.

What’s our beauty and focus? So many connections. Planting seeds. Spring! Sunshine. Baby animals everywhere. Friends. So many eggs. Kids learning new things on their own. Seedlings. Tea in the sunshine. The kids playing outside after a long winter. Blessing upon blessing. Full freezers. My list goes on and on…

Let’s here your fails and wins!!

I bless you with beauty and abundance until next time.