Natural Lifestyle: The Homestead

We are currently living with a relative while our house is being built. So needless to say many of my goals toward a natural lifestyle are neither practical or possible in some cases.

However, building a house provides many opportunities to prepare. For example, we are incorporating a second pantry for keeping dried goods and anything we might jar or can from our garden. Also, picking materials for building can be creative. If money were not an issue, I could go with wool carpeting and hard wood flooring. But, on a tighter budget, we can still manage to choose the least synthetic materials as possible (maybe a bit more engineered) but with fewer chemicals and plastics.

The ultimate goal would be to live entirely off of the land and become self sufficient. That would probably involve farming (goats, chickens, fish, etc.). And we've also considered a rain well, to collect water in. This will take time, but in the end would be worth pursuing during these unstable times. Can we really rely on the market or government to provide is with all our needs during a crisis? (think Katrina)

Having a garden alone will be the cornerstone of this new life: wholesome, home grown food that we nourish with care, so it can nourish us. We had a tiny garden at the last home, and really only got one good year out of it. The soil at the new place looks more promising, so there's hope!

I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie and wondering what it would be like to live such a simple life. Perhaps our new homestead will be just that.