Branching Out: Becoming a Lifetime Learner

Confession: I hate not knowing how to do something. I also hate not being able to figure it out on my own. Jumping into this lifestyle has forced me to admit that I don’t know sometimes. We are doing things neither my husband or I have any idea about, and even though I’m pretty good at navigating Google, there’s just some information that’s really hard to find. Over this past year, I’ve found some really helpful resources to get us going on the right track.

Social Media

Yup, good old Facebook has been a goldmine of information, but if you’re not careful you’ll get overrun by information and your head just might explode. When I first started finding homesteading type groups on Facebook, I joined all of them – full on “more is better” mentality. Quickly, it became apparent that there was a lot of redundancy among these groups. I had to sift through and pick which ones aligned with my goals the best. I’ve narrowed down my homesteading groups to three: one national page for general information and ideas, one state level page for more specific information on local crops, timelines, pests, weather concerns, etc., and one county level page that has more of a community of people who are willing to help one another in my area. I have also found it helpful to belong to specialty groups such as a chicken keeping group and a sourdough group. Through my local homesteaders group I have been gifted a sourdough starter, received quick responses to issues as they arise, and have learned about different events going on in our area that are relevant to what we are doing.

Classes

My husband is a big YouTube guy, whereas I prefer reading a tutorial over watching a video. What’s even better than either of these, is taking a class where you can get hands on experience! Derek (my husband) and I had really been wanting to make our own soap, but we had heard how dangerous lye can be to work with. That was enough to make us both apprehensive about trying it on our own. Through my state level homesteading group on Facebook, I was made aware of a farm that did soap making classes. When I looked into booking a class there weren’t any dates listed that we could attend. I kept on looking at their website and realized that they offered several other classes like beekeeping, candle making, homestead classes and more. Everything they offered were things that we were interested in learning, so I reached out to the farm and asked if they ever did any private classes. In a few days’ time the owner and I had worked out all the details to create an all day class including several different skills that we wanted to learn. I surprised my husband with this farm experience as a gift for our anniversary, and it did not disappoint! The class was absolutely amazing and seeing the soap making process from start to finish eased our minds and made us both realize we were over thinking it. Having someone walk us through it step by step gave us the confidence boost we needed to move forward with our goals.

Networking

During the homeschool year we went on field trips to a few local farms. Even though these field trips were primarily for the kids, I made full use of this time to learn whatever would be beneficial to our homestead as well. Looking at the way different farms do things helped me to realize that there’s not a one size fits all way to farm/homestead. It’s all about finding what works best for you. My husband wasn’t able to attend both my son and I’s favorite trip last fall, so in the spring I reached out to the farm, and we were able to book a tour that my husband could go to. We ended up being the only people on that tour, so we were able to ask any questions we had. This meant that the tour was more catered to what we were wanting to learn. I also used our county Facebook group to look for local homesteaders who were willing to let us visit their properties and learn about how they do things. I was absolutely blown away by the generosity of the homesteading community. So many people replied to my post offering to let us tour their properties! After going through everything I ended up talking with three different homesteads that are close enough for us to visit. Tomorrow all of us are going to the first homestead. We can’t wait to go see what these lovely people have built and what new ideas we gain! I’m sure there will be a post about that in the future.

My Advice to You

Throughout this year I have learned one very important fact: homesteaders help homesteaders. Unlike many other things in life, it’s not a competition. No one wants to see another homesteader fail. Everyone had to start somewhere and has gone through the learning process. Use this to your advantage. Connect with your local homestead group online. Reach out to other homesteaders in your area with questions. Take a class to learn a new skill. If you can’t find a class about it, ask someone who does it if they might be willing to teach you (and of course compensate them for their time!). Building a network, both online and in person is a huge part of succeeding as a homesteader. Take the chance and reach out to people. The worst thing that can happen is they say no and then you’re no worse off than you were before. Best case, you build a friendship that you carry forward for a lifetime.