I am a homesteader. Because we all need a label.

Wow.. Okay, so I need to get better at carving out time to sit here at the blog... I've got tons to get written down...

Rewind to the Christmas holidays.

A family member was inquiring about our move and our property and asked me "is it a hobby farm or a working farm?"

The question stopped me in my tracks and my answer was disjointed.  Ummm... well its not our main source of income but we are selling produce but that goes back into helping pay for the pleasure animals - horses...  what am I???

I chewed over this for about a month.  And then I took a look at our goals here at SchnickAcres:

Its really only one goal:

To be as self sufficient as we can be.  In our food, household supplies and one day energy production.  (renewable wind and solar..  just in case you pictured us erecting a nuclear power plant in the back 40.)

Vegetable garden mapped out under manure

Okay so where does this fit in with the farming definition?  The more I thought about it, the clearer it became to me.  We enjoy doing for ourselves and receive great satisfaction in our successes - such as enough extra eggs to share with friends and neighbours.  We are not survivalists but feel assured that we can process our own poultry and eat should we need to.  The growth we talk about, whether it be a vegetable garden, a wind turbine or a dairy goat and a few sheep all comes back to goals of providing for ourselves.

What can we build/make ourselves today that will sustain our family tomorrow?  Basically we enjoy living a pioneer life... but with electricity, high speed internet (which is coming) and NETFLIX.

Haha... seriously though.  I really feel that the label (because we all need an important title) of homesteader fits us best.

Thanks for catching up with us,
Jeanette