A Year Of Homesteading Alone - Here's What Happened

Can you guys believe I've been homesteading here for over a year by myself? I was thinking about this the other day and I thought now would be a great opportunity to kind of look back and reflect on the last year to year and a half and it was over the last couple days that I kind of was looking around and was like oh my god so much stuff has changed here and I can't believe that I am even where I am right now and I also can't believe how much my mindset has changed from last year to now. So this is a great opportunity to do a recap and look back and kind of show you what's changed what's not changed and basically what my plans are moving forward. So if you're new to the channel or you're new to Instagram or both I've been on my own here for just over a year coming up on a year and a half and homesteading alone is a lot different than homesteading with somebody or actually you know to be honest I don't really know that it's any different because the workload feels pretty much the same but it is different to a degree because everything falls on my shoulders mine and the kids shoulders. I've been living in this house for just about two years now coming up to two years in August I moved from a fully functioning brand new home high efficiency everything I had put in a brand new kitchen that had a hundred square foot island on it it was perfect for cooking and canning and preserving and everything. The house had air conditioning and I was on 1.9 acres there I'd kind of maximize my potential with that place and I had put in some raised garden beds. The property there was super marshy and wet so I wasn't really able to do much more than the raised garden beds and truthfully I had kind of run out of space so I ended up selling that and moving here two years ago shortly after I moved here I removed the person that I had moved here with I had removed him from my life and my place here and everything kind of felt like it was up in the air I wasn't really sure what I was going to do if you circle back to some of the videos from last year you can see even the way that I was speaking about this property that I didn't really know what I was doing just the significant amount of changes going on in my life right now and with my kids I really am interested to see where we'll be next year at this time maybe we renovate the house and we love it and we stay I don't think so but it'll be really interesting to see where I am next year I had no idea what my plan was and at one point I wanted to sell this place and get out and start somewhere else and start over I am a firm believer in what is meant for you will come and honestly I know that everything works out the way it's supposed to and thank God I didn't end up selling this place thank God I can't say that enough honestly I think about it every single day how happy I am that I did not end up selling this place everything here has changed so much in the last year and a half and when I look around at it it's actually wild to see how much has changed the other day I was standing down here with Bailey and the sun was going down we were having this perfect most beautiful sunset honestly that I've seen in a long time Bailey was like mom look at this I was like look at what and she's like look at all this and I was like yeah and she's like isn't it crazy that it's ours and we live here yes it is crazy that we live here and it is crazy that I almost gave this all up so in celebration of not giving this all up and all the changes that have come I want to kind of go over everything and circle back to the last year and what it's been looking like so April is when I officially started my journey on homesteading alone now I've been homesteading for probably about eight years a lot more serious in the last five and in the last two years I've completely changed everything and put so much of my attention and focus and everything into this lifestyle before it was kind of just like a hobby sort of thing that I did on the side when I was on my days off from work but this last two years has gotten all of my attention and in the last year and a half it's basically been my life the first thing I want to start with is the garden last season I put this garden in myself so it was all grass here there was nothing here I had one small spot that I had garlic in the year before and that's basically all I was working with and before the garlic patch I had nothing here so when I first moved in this land had been untouched for several years probably decades and the grass was over my head everything was a complete disaster here so I've really had to start from scratch I put this entire garden in I sawed cut all these plots I rotor tillered everything I ended up planting directly in the ground last year this year I did a complete overhaul of this area I now have two patches side-by-side I've got garlic in this one and as you can see I've got all my zucchini and stuff in this one I switched over and I added ten raised beds I've got netting on two of them I have a trellis that's on its way right now I put in two potato patches I put in an herb garden I put in a sunflower garden strawberry patch and I ended up laying 2,000 square feet of weed barrier down on here and mulched the whole thing I moved between the mulch and the dirt I think 22 yards total by hand so with a shovel and a wheelbarrow Abby helped me a little bit and so did Bailey but I mean between all their sports and at that time they were still in school it's basically just me moving everything by myself to look at what this area is like now in comparison to last year even but certainly when I moved here honestly it's overwhelming to look at what this area has been transformed into and not only what it's been transformed into but as much work as it was it's still wild to me to think that we did this we did this by ourselves with nobody else and it's now producing and we're eating out of the garden regularly now so yeah it's it's crazy it's actually crazy top of the garden I went ahead and put deer netting all the way around to the perimeter because I was getting chickens and well goats and rabbits and all kinds of stuff actually was coming in here so far we've had no issues since then I've had a couple things get stuck in the fence but the fence is obviously working because they haven't been able to make their way in which is also part of the reason why everything is now in full bloom because nothing's in here eating it that kind of wraps up all the improvements that I've made in the garden and what the garden looks like compared to last year so now that I'm done in here I think we should head up and look at some of the other stuff that has changed over the last year so the chicken tractor I've always had I've been doing meat birds for I think three years now I want to say this is my third year normally I process them at home by myself however because I've had to shift into doing everything on my own I decided I had to start taking things off my plate so this season I actually started dropping my birds off to get them processed so I still raise them here and you know grow them out here but when it comes time to process them I now take them to a local place here and they process the birds for me honestly it's so much easier for me to know that I can just load them up and drop them off pick them up they're fully processed they're plucked they're broken down if I want them quartered they come already frozen and vacuum sealed they put inside the necks the feet the organs anything that you want and well yes I do have to pay for it honestly the cost that it is for me to take them there and pick them up later saves me much more time and money and me having to dedicate an entire day to processing the birds on my own so that has been very helpful that's something major that has changed and me that makes sense so that I can allocate that time that I would normally spend doing that to something else as you can see behind me this duck is not having a good day her and another hen of mine came out of the bushes two weeks ago and behind them were 18 ducklings following along so I've had to separate her from the ducklings because they were all free-ranging around and they were way too small and getting trampled on by the goats now she kind of stands outside and cries it's actually quite sad but once they're a little bit bigger I'll be able to let them out with her and it'll be fine but for now they have to stay in here as you can see inside here I've got probably close to oh gosh I've got to say it's probably close to a hundred chicks in there that are between a week and two weeks old and the reason I bring that up is because I've always wanted to continue to expand what I have here I've wanted to continue to expand what I have here I wanted to continue to grow and learn and just continue to add and build on the lifestyle that I have that was becoming quite difficult in the situation I was in before you're not aligning on that stuff at all so I have found in the last year everything has been ramped up everything's been added on everything's expanded even the amount of chicks and stuff I've been hatching okay all right all right and I just find it funny that now that I'm on my own here with just the kids things seem a lot more manageable even though everything is way bigger than it was before something else that's been added and changed over the last year is this yurt so I've always wanted to have a store or some sort of structure or something here that I can put all the stuff in that I make so my soap my preserves my jam I refinish antique furniture and I just kind of wanted a space that I could put all of it in right now I just have a cooler at the end of the driveway so I can only fit eggs in a handful of jars in there so the idea is to turn this into a store and in the meantime while I've been waiting to get this finished I've had other thoughts about it and possibly turning it into an Airbnb to do an Airbnb homestead experience or to teach classes like so making or jam making preserving canning all that kind of stuff I'm not really sure what I'm gonna do yet but the fact that this is here I look outside sometimes and I truly cannot believe this is here you know if you'd asked me this a year and a half ago when I was in the situation I was in before this would not have even been an option it's crazy to me to see sort of everything that I wanted everything that I dreamed of having everything that I ever thought that I wanted to have for my life and for my kids it's actually unraveling before my eyes in the last year and a half and it's crazy that I'm standing in this yurt having this conversation with you guys when just a year and a half ago I was like I need to get rid of this house what am I gonna do oh my gosh and and now I'm standing in this handcrafted hand-painted yurt from Mongolia talking about how I'm gonna turn it into a store or an Airbnb experience so it's actually crazy to me that this is here so the garden has changed the yurt has been added and let's head over to the animals and see what's changed over there I'd love to know how you followed me all the way up here while you beat me up here and now you're gonna be up here making noise all right we're up at the animals and if you're new to the channel then probably nothing looks any different to you but last year I actually ended up downsizing everything when I first transitioned to being here on my own I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything and I mean prior to that I was kind of on the way to downsizing stuff just based on the conversations that we were having we were not aligned on anything I wanted everything they wanted nothing and so I was starting to downsize what I had and it was horrible it was the worst I hated every second of it parting with some of my animals rehoming them and it was it was really it was terrible we've definitely expanded on our chickens and our ducks I have also added back some more goats so I borrowed a buck earlier this year I think around April or so and I put him in with my girls so they're all bred right now and so I should be essentially ending up with four kids shortly so the goats themselves have changed just by the sheer volume that I have and their purpose so I wasn't making goat milk soap before for my website for the stores and now I am so that has definitely changed as I mentioned we've got more chickens and more ducks and I've parted with my and something else that I added was hogs like they knew I was talking about them so in this area before I used to have many American potbelly pigs and what I did with them was breed them and sell them and that was it so they really didn't serve a whole lot of purpose and once I shifted into being here on my own I kind of had to look at everything that I had determine if it was worth keeping and expanding what was it giving me and basically what was its purpose and for the amount of work that it took to breed the mini pigs and then find homes for them it was too much work and it wasn't really giving me anything back it's expensive to raise animals and when I'm just paying to have them and I'm not getting anything from them it doesn't really make any sense so now I've switched over to hogs and I will be growing these out and processing these for meat the amount of things now that we're doing on our own here I've always had a garden I've always had a garden and I've always had chickens but now okay but now to be able to add pork and turkey onto the things we grow for ourselves it's pretty cool so the beef is coming that's got to be next when I get the cow we'll get one for meat and one for dairy and we'll be all set now when it comes to the manual labor maintenance building and construction of things that are required here on a homestead I can do some of them but I cannot do all of them so while I can build basic things and you know fix the fence if something breaks I don't know how to do things like jack up the coop and put a new floor in it so my dad was here earlier this year and he helped me jack up the coop and I should say he helped me he did it I helped him we jacked up the coop we put a brand new floor in I just put netting around the bottom so nothing can get in or out underneath there anymore my brother also did some of the other work that I needed done so he built the platform for the yurt and he also did my bathroom renovation so ripped out the bathroom upstairs we took three feet off Mason's room we extended the bathroom gave it a complete makeover and now we have a fully functioning bathroom that is not something that I would have been able to do by myself so I definitely have help in areas where I need it my brother and my cousin also waterproofed my basement so my basement was taking on water I was up to my ankles in water down there there was mold on everything everything was wet the smell down there was putrid and to go down there now in my bare feet on the concrete floor it is mind-blowing I never thought that I'd be standing down in that basement in my bare feet it's crazy these things that have been done over the last year I'm lucky to have the people that I have and people that I know and the family that I have helped me with these things because otherwise I would never be able to do them and while we're talking about my dad and my dad has made a very steady appearance on this channel over the last year year and a half and honestly it's been great we went up to the cabin we built an entire new sugar shack we tapped double the amount of trees that I've ever tapped before we produced more syrup than I've ever produced before and it was awesome we had the best time ever we tapped all the trees together we collected the sap together we boiled it we bottled it we did everything together and it was really cool building the sugar shack itself was just a whole experience on its own to see it finished and then actually use it for production in the spring was incredible it was so exciting and now we've got more plans for syrup and you know a year and a half ago two years ago when I was in the situation I was in I wanted to tap 20 trees and that was that was not something that we could agree on so to know now that you know my dad enjoys doing that with me and he's like yeah let's tap 200 I'm like okay yeah let's tap 200 Frank let's tap 500 so I mean it's just a complete 180 from what I was doing and experiencing before to what I'm doing and experiencing now and it's just yeah it's incredible it's crazy to even to think that that was my life a year and a half ago to what it is now it's crazy there have been lots of comments on whether my dad's gonna be back on the channel soon yes he is it's just the busiest time of the year right now and honestly the cabin is so hot and the deer flies and horseflies and mosquitoes are so bad that we go up there for limited amounts of time during these hot hot months but we are going up there shortly because I do need to split wood for the winter so we will be going up to do that soon and my dad will make another appearance on the channel so don't worry he is coming back and also next weekend is our family reunion and I'm hosting it here and we are doing a pig roast so you will see my dad there so stay tuned for that on top of spending more time with my dad I've definitely spent more time with my family as a whole a lot more family get-togethers a lot more family functions we've been down at my sister's house quite a bit we just did Canada Day there we did Christmas down there we did Easter down there I was also able to make it up to my other sister's house Nicole the one that I go hunting with we did some ice fishing I've been up there a couple times so many things were able to get done this year that I've never really had time or made time or been able to do this year has been great my kids have spent tons of time with their cousins as well and that has been awesome last season was also my very best season for production as far as harvest and preserving and canning and all that kind of stuff goes I put the most jars on my shelf last year than I have ever before I got the most amount of honey off my bees I grew the most in my garden I put the most chickens and turkeys in the freezer that I've ever done before in a season even that in itself is crazy to me because when I think back to where I was mentally last summer and even in my videos with you guys talking about you know should I sell should I stay I don't know what to do I need to downsize etc etc I still look back and I still put away more food then than I ever have before so I think subconsciously I knew I wasn't going to sell this place but it was more so saying it out loud to I don't know talk it out with myself I guess but I had the best season as far as growing and stuff goes and this season already I put away more food now than I had even last year so constant improving and constant growing and learning and adding and yeah it's just it's been crazy so I'm looking forward to seeing what all gets harvested and preserved this year on top of canning and putting away chickens and turkeys I actually filmed hunting season last year so I've been going hunting with my dad my sister for honestly forever but last year was the first year I actually filmed the whole thing and we had a great season last year Nicole got two my dad got one I didn't get any but on the way to pick up my kids one day I stumbled upon a deer that had been freshly hit by a car fully intact and left on the side of the road she was still warm when I got there so picked her up brought her home processed her and she actually kept us going through the whole winter with venison I just used the last pound of ground venison last week I've still got I think a quarter deer left in the freezer of the one that Nicole got last season so I've got a little bit left to last us I mean even hunting season was amazing last year everything has been so great I truly just can't imagine not having this life I really can't on top of all the changes that have happened here I have met some incredible people in the last year like specifically probably in the last six months or so and I am a true true believer as I said before that once you kind of pick a path and you become true to yourself and what you want and the vision that you want and the life that you want and you actually start making the steps in the direction that you want to go like I don't know how else to say it except for ask and you shall receive you know that saying ask and you shall receive that is literally what has happened in the last year and a half I've met some of the most incredible people and not just in my personal life but even online between people that follow me on Instagram and people on YouTube the kindness and support and even just like the mail you guys send me sometimes the letters I get or packages I cannot express how much that means to me it is honestly the the kindest things I've ever seen and heard and experienced as you guys know in the winter and the fall I always wear those college and university hoodies and crew neck sweaters and I actually had somebody send me some from the college and university that they went to because they know that I like wearing those kind of sweaters so I mean what a thoughtful heartfelt thing to do and this is kind of what I was talking about with the people that I met over the last year year and a half it's just wild to me the people and the kindness that are out there and even the people I've met in my personal life like I can't imagine not having known these people it's weird to me that I didn't know these people before thinking about them not being around does not make sense in my mind again the thought of having been teetering between giving this up so glad that didn't happen it's been a really good year so that's pretty much what has been going on here in the last year year and a half I decided to stay I will never be leaving here this is my home I will never sell this place we're just going to continue to grow and add and expand on it over the years and learn new things hopefully we can get the year finished up shortly and kind of get things sorted there I would love to have a cow back soon and this mess of a pasture that's behind me and I mean all I can say about this last year and a half of homesteading on my own is if you've ever thought about doing it do it honestly just do it it is a lot of work but truthfully it's not as hard as you might think it is it really comes down to planning time management and having a vision and being okay with failing you have to be okay with failing you have to be okay with making mistakes and you have to be okay with not doing everything right the first time I've got just about six acres here and I do it on my own with my kids and if I can do this on my own with my kids anyone can do it on their own with their kids because I truthfully have no idea what I'm doing most of the time and we're winging it and it's working anyways that's it for this video thanks for watching thanks for sticking with me for the last year and a half and supporting everything that I do I really really mean that I really appreciate it this channel and Instagram wouldn't even exist without you guys so I mean the fact that you show up here week after week after week or day after day on Instagram is it's incredible because there's so many other channels out there and there's so many other pages out there on Instagram and you guys choose to be involved in mine that's it for this video thanks for watching don't forget to follow me on Instagram at underscore living different where you can stay up to date on what I'm doing all the time I post on there multiple times a day and Instagram includes completely different content than YouTube does don't forget to check out the website which has grown exponentially in the last year might I add www.living-different.com when you first sign into the website a little box will pop up to ask you if you want to sign up for a weekly newsletter the newsletter includes tips tricks hacks and other various ideas about homesteading you'll also get a recipe on there something that I use in my kitchen on a regular basis so I know it's tried tested and true and has good reviews for my kids that's it for this video though thanks for watching I will see you in two weeks at my family reunion that I'm hosting here and we are having a pig roast stay tuned for that it is going to be crazy catch you next week bye