Homesteading comes with freedom. It provides you with an opportunity of living off the land as you enjoy your own grown food and recreation. On the flip side, getting started might require some capital before your homestead can sustain itself.
Here are some tips to get started with homesteading for almost no money.
Initial Decisions
If you want to start homesteading today, you must first consider what is important to you. You might want to start growing your own food, raising your own livestock, cooking your own bread, or even doing a combination of the above.
Additionally, consider your strengths. If you love vegetables, start with gardening. If meat is your thing, then you can get started with meat harvesting. It all depends on your passion and interests. If you have interest in something, you will be more likely to sustain this sort of lifestyle.
Homesteading with Livestock
If you have made a decision to start homesteading with livestock, then you’ll need to practice a lot of patience. You can start by joining Facebook groups in your locality, especially those relating to livestock and farms.
If there are livestock in your area, some people sell them for super cheap. This means you can really start with the livestock at a low price. You’ll just need to worry about the food.
However, you will have to ensure that the stock you are receiving is healthy and will not infect your other animals with diseases. If you are cash-strapped, this is something you really need to be smart about. Don’t take free or low cost animals for the sake of increasing your livestock, because it can have the opposite effect. Make sure each animal you choose is perfect for your needs.
When it comes to goats, purchase them when they are young and bring them up yourself. They are available at a much cheaper cost than when they mature up. For homesteaders who want to rear pigs, a weaned piglet is available for as low as $40.
If space is limiting, you can rear chickens, rabbits or quails instead. They don’t require much space. On the other hand, you can even stack up their cages, making use of vertical space, which is not easy when rearing cows, goats and pigs.
Learn Traditional Skills
One of the simplest and best ways to launch your homesteading is to learn some traditional skills such as canning and baking. Once you learn these skills, you don’t have to buy bread any more. You’ll be able to eat fresh breakfast straight from your farm.
There are certain foods that you might need to acquire from the store. So that you can save on costs, you should purchase them in bulk, and then you can them. You can also learn how to make sausage or how to preserve meat. Similarly, you can learn numerous traditional skills that will help around the house and plot.
Gardening
Homesteading is not complete without gardening. If you happen to have some portion of land, start growing vegetables and fruits. It is advisable to grow only what your family can consume. During your first homesteading years, just concentrate on few varieties of vegetables.
This will give you a better experience, as you proceed to putting more land under cultivation. Tomatoes are always a nice way to start, since they are not very demanding, in terms of care and management.
Moreover, you can make several things with them including pasta sauce, tomato paste and salsa. Beans, which contain a significant amount of proteins, should also be grown.
Conclusion
There are many ways to start homesteading today. Just find out the activities that are very attractive to you, and start with them. Homesteading isn’t super easy, but it’s rewarding. These hacks will help you get started!
About the Author
Jack Neely is a fitness expert, survivalist, and world traveler. He’s been in several life or death situations, and he’s making an effort to spread his knowledge around the web to help others survive these situations as well. He’s also on the content team at The Tactical Guru.