You can take the boy off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy!
I spent Christmas week with my wife’s family in Las Vegas. A suburb, guard gated community, HOA, manicured rock gardens and golf courses. All I despise… Or is it? I’m not gonna lie, I really enjoyed my time. There’s something about the orderliness, and cleanliness of a planned community. In Vegas you have access to whatever you want all the time. It’s a very comfortable lifestyle.
Instead of judging myself for wanting and enjoying comfort, I asked myself a few questions with that in mind. If I was living my ideal homestead life what comforts would I want? What comforts am I enjoying now? How would I integrate them into my country life? What is my definition of a homestead?
Just because I want to homestead doesn’t mean I have to live like it’s 1855. We have modern conveniences and technology that we can integrate into a nature centered self sufficient permaculture life. Do what works for you, design it to fit the life you want. I really enjoyed the open concept of the home. I enjoyed having an office where I could shut the door and get deep focus. I loved my morning qi gong and run that put me into a creative flow state. I loved being around family. I loved having a dishwasher. I loved eating at Flower Child Cafe, it reminded me of the early years of my marriage in LA. Oh yeah, fast internet!
It looks like the things I value are having a well designed space, free time and an abundant lifestyle.
Looking back on the past three years as a professional regenerative farm manager I learned a lot of farming skills. I lacked control over the rhythm of my life. My schedule was set based on its needs. No time for morning walks or mental brain dumps. Free time was often interrupted by animal emergencies and phone calls concerning employee morale. I often asked myself how I can farm and be free to live a creative lifestyle. Or better yet, is there a style of farming that’s more fun?
I haven’t yet seen first hand the exact type of farm I would like to operate , but I know it is possible to have everything I want. Pristine quality unadulterated beyond organic food. Ease of acquiring it, maybe not as easy as going to the grocery store. Which requires a different kind of struggle; driving in traffic, sifting through green-washed labels, dealing with Karen’s and shelling out a lot of dough.
What is your definition homestead, farm, ranch, garden?
Our family enjoys watching and reading The Little House on The Prairie series. It’s fun to go back in time and imagine a slower pace of life and focus on old world values. Charles Ingalls was a wonderful person, clearly he had a poverty consciousness. While he was rich in spirit, he certainly did not help the image of the successful farmer.
I spent months working with my coach Tyler imagining who I need to be to create the life I want. The last thing I want to do is bring in my month to month struggle mentality to my new business. It is this visioning exercise where I came up with the philosophy of AHA, Aligned Homestead Abundance. Truthfully most farms have severely low profit margins. “That’s just the way it is” they say. I believe it is possible to create a business model that is highly profitable while managing a plot of land that is used to grow crops and or raise livestock. I imagine the yield to be purely for family and friends consumption/barter. Once food is a commodity, it is entirely too easy to comprimise the quality in order to increase the profit margins.
It’s very easy to just fall in line with the popular competitive methods. It takes time, energy and money to set up and maintain a proper producing homestead. How wondrous to imagine walking through a gilded permaculture forrest with perennials, flowers and fruit trees growing symbioticaly. Where soul and science meet to provide flavor and meat for ones growth of body and spirit. “Honey, grab me some some peaches and herbs and while you’re at it stop at the henhouse para juevos fresco”. Physical work is required, but what is the value of having food security, self-sufficiency, and your own custom farmacy?
I’ve been riding some big life waves, next chapter I’ll cover a major wipeout, learning lesson complete with a dark night of the soul.
More questions to ask yourself:
Is it possible to change your attitude toward your work?
Can you imagine homesteading as fun?
Do you enjoy your current lifestyle?
What do you dislike about it?
Do you enjoy living in a city?
Do you crave connection with nature?
Are you interested in changing your life?
Do you feel in touch with your souls purpose?
Feel free to drop your responses in the chat.
I completely relate! I'm from Phoenix (the land of the suburbs) and after a recent visit to spend time with my family, I had many thoughts about country life vs. city life. I now live in rural Idaho on a small farm and I can say that although I will always love my hometown of PHX, that season in my life has ended. I am now learning how to homestead and honestly loving the life I've created. Great post!
Sounds amazing, I’ll check out your thread. What things have you brought with you from your city life? There’s a spectrum of technology we live with. Where I currently live we have almost 0 Internet. I feel like I sleep great. Yet, it’s pretty hard to get online work done. Trade offs, am I right?