How to Start Homesteading

Today's episode is something that all people who thinks of starting to homestead can relate. This is a relevant topic that most of us can get tips and tricks.

As how Danielle mentioned, anybody can start homesteading because homesteading is more of a lifestyle choice than it is. It's kind of more like a lifestyle or like a mental attitude more than anything else. 

If we think about it, homesteading, in large part is all about food. We are producing food, preserving food. It's one of our core needs. There's a lot of things that we think we need that are really just things that we could actually survive without. But if you don't have food and water, you literally cannot survive. You'd need to know how to prepare that food. And if it comes to water, you didn't know how to purify that water, how to store that water. If you are someone who struggles with boiling water, then that's a great place to start. And just like gardening, if you think just because you killed a few plants that you can't garden, you don't know how to garden, you'll never be able to garden, anything can be taught. Same thing goes for cooking.

Anything that you need to start your homesteading journey can be learned. You just have to have the proper mindset.

Listen to the full podcast episode and find out how Bonnie and Danielle started homesteading.

Links mentioned in this episode:
2022 Seed Varieties
Pampered Gardener Box by Kitchen Botanicals
The Self Sufficient Life
Not So Modern Living

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Kitchen Botanicals
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Transcript

Bonnie Von Dohre: 0:03

Hello, welcome back to the Grounded in Simplicity Podcast. This is Bonnie from The Not So Modern Housewife. And I'm joined by my good friend Danielle from the Rustic Elk. And we are here to help moms live simply and find joy in being less busy. With the current state of the world that we are in, we decided that we're going to talk about How to Start a Homestead. Because it is a hot topic right now, because everyone is worried about the food supply and the economy and basically just how they can be more self reliant. And this is one topic that people tend to a they either get overwhelmed just at the thought of it, or be they try to like, go in swinging and do all the things and then they end up overwhelmed because they took on too much. So since our goal here is to help you feel less overwhelmed, we're gonna tell you how to take it step by step.

Danielle McCoy: 1:00

We're trying to try to

Bonnie Von Dohre: 1:05

learn from our mistakes.

Danielle McCoy: 1:08

I'm still learning from mine. So

Bonnie Von Dohre: 1:10

yeah, I'm getting there. One load of laundry at a time.

Danielle McCoy: 1:16

That just comes back.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 1:21

For kids who don't wear clothes, my kids make a lot of laundry. Pricing. It's usually because they will wear an outfit long enough to go to town and then take off the outfit as soon as we get back home

Danielle McCoy: 1:34

and then decide to has to be dirty, it has to be dirty.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 1:37

So therefore Yeah, if it even makes it into the house, I also have like, you know, an entire wardrobe or the clothes riding around in my car.So anyway, that is not the topic of discussion today. We will talk about parenting failures today. First, let's start talk about how to get started where to get started. I am living in an apartment in town and I can't possibly be self reliant unless I am living on 20 acres in the middle of nowhere, right

Danielle McCoy: 2:14

okay I mean, I think if you have that kind of you know, like mindset, then that's probably going to be your reality.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 2:25

Okay, well,we're here to convince you I told you I'm tired that is not a mentality to have.

Danielle McCoy: 2:37

So anybody can start homesteading because homesteading is not really, it's more of a lifestyle choice than it is. Like, a set of certain things that you have to

Bonnie Von Dohre: 2:52

write, you don't just go down. And you like check off A, B, C or D and hey,look, you're you're a homesteader now.

Danielle McCoy: 2:59

Yeah, no, it's kind of more like a lifestyle or like a mental attitude more than anything else.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 3:09

And, and there's varying degrees to it. I mean, you get a lot of people that they show up in these homes, setting groups. And they basically want to tell everybody that they're not homesteaders because they're paying taxes to the government and they live in they're not

Danielle McCoy: 3:27

often they don't have 400 acres and all these different

Bonnie Von Dohre: 3:31

thing all their food and their Yeah, yeah.Right. And there's there are no prerequisites. And honestly,like, you know, we both know people who are living off grid and up in the mountains, and,you know, like, don't use the internet don't have a cell phone, all of that stuff. To be quite honest, that's not the way I want to live. First of all, I hate driving in the mountains.But it's like, if I can't like,if I can't call 911 or if I can't find my husband, and he's,you know, and I haven't heard from him in a couple of hours. I Danielle will attest to this, I will lose my mind. So you know,there's something to be said for modern communication at times.But we better get into this before I take us totally off rail.

Danielle McCoy: 4:28

I like running water.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 4:30

Right. Let's showers water showers are good.My dishwasher conditioning, air conditioner. Yeah.

Danielle McCoy: 4:38

I mean, I like these things. I can live without them. If I absolutely had to.But you know, there are lots and lots of modern ways that I if

Bonnie Von Dohre: 4:47

I absolutely had to I probably wouldn't be living in Florida.

Danielle McCoy: 4:52

You might want to live in the mountains.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 4:55

No, because I guess cold.

Danielle McCoy: 4:57

You'd rather boil

Bonnie Von Dohre: 5:00

If I need I just I just need to study 70 to80 degrees year round. That's all.I mean, it's not asking for much, right? Sure. Well, you

Danielle McCoy: 5:15

know, but that70 to 80 degrees. If it's too human, then I don't want it either.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 5:19

Yeah. It depends on where you're at.Because like, I know I've been,I've been on islands, like even in the summertime. And you would think being surrounded by water be humid. But there's such a nice ocean breeze going that you don't feel it. Right. So that's not too bad. But there's also downs like, I couldn't imagine trying to keep livestock on an island because I mean, I think my grain prices are ridiculous in Florida. I can't imagine.grain price grain and hay prices living on an island.

Danielle McCoy: 5:53

So anyway,anyway. So lots of people ask, I think the most common question I get anyway is, how to start or where to start. And I would say that probably the best place to start is in your kitchen.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 6:09

Yes. Well, so if we think about it,homesteading, in large part is all about food. We are producing food, preserving food. I mean,really, it's it's one of our like, it's one of our core needs, there's a lot of things that we think we need that are really just things that we like,like we could actually survive without them. Maybe that's debatable. But if you don't like if you don't have food and water, you literally cannot survive. So and of course, you'd need to know how to prepare that food. And if it comes to water,you didn't know how to purify that water, how to store that water. But we won't even get into that today. So you know, if if you are someone who struggles with boiling water, then that's a great place to start. And just like gardening, like if you think you just because you killed a few plants that you can't garden, you don't know how to garden, you'll never be able to garden, anything can be taught. And so same same thing goes for cooking. I mean,honestly, like I went to culinary school for two years,literally the only thing we didn't culinary school is they gave us a stack of recipes. Just

Danielle McCoy: 7:28

and let me like basic things like I remember when I started college, I was a home health aide so that I could work around my college schedule.A woman I was taking care of her in the morning, and she wanted me to make her bacon and eggs. I didn't know how to cook bacon and eggs. And she's like, come here, she drags me in the kitchen with her. And she taught me how to make eggs overeasy and fry bacon so that it didn't burn. And so you know, like just basic things, because lots of people don't know how to make basic things like I can make scrambled eggs even men. But you know, I didn't know how to cook hardly anything, despite the fact that my father used to be a chef. So like nothing.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 8:11

I know. My kids, half the battle is teaching them that. If something is cooking, you can't walk out of the kitchen,

Danielle McCoy: 8:19

like Right.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 8:22

Kind of a fundamental thing. sure that you don't burn the house down is to,you know, keep watching what you're cooking. But I mean, I taught my 11 year old how to make sushi to this week, I still have to cut the vegetables for him. You can get just go to the Betty Betty Crocker cookbook and learn how to, you know, make something really simple and just go from there, you just flip through Look, look, find what looks good, what's not going to have, you know, a ton of ingredients or take a lot of prep work. And it gets I mean,it gives you the measurements,it gives you all the instructions. I'm constantly trying new recipes. And in fact,today we went to the farmers market and I needed to get more slicing cucumbers. But of course the pickling cucumbers are like right next to them. So Henry wanted to get a bunch of pickled cucumbers. So I guess I'm going to be teaching him like this kid is addicted to pickles. I'm going to be teaching him how to make refrigerator pickles.Because every time we do this,like he buys cucumber, he buys pickling cucumbers expecting me to make a big batch of pickles.And of course I need you know more than like five cucumbers to make a full batch and canned them. So I'm like, we'll just do refrigerator pickles. I'm pretty sure I've got all this stuff at the house. And that way he can see just a real simple way. And he can learn a real simple way to make his own pickles. So that's, you know, that way when my kids are grown, they actually know how to feed themselves.

Danielle McCoy: 9:54

Yeah, that is the goal. I mean, I teach my kids like they know how to cook eggs and bacon and all those things now but I didn't, I mean,I could cook it, but I didn't feel, you know, confident or comfortable cooking them for somebody else not really knowing exactly how to do it.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 10:09

Right. Yeah,and I mean, I guess, you know,it is something that I grew up doing. And I was always around.So it wasn't that big of a deal for me, like, you know, just something I did. But it's, it's been interesting, getting out of my own and becoming an adult,made it and like realizing just how many people really have no idea how to how to cook. And I mean, they're just used to eating every every meal out or heating something up in the microwave.

Danielle McCoy: 10:38

Right? Right, or using a box.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 10:43

Moving on from that. Alright, so this is one thing that I've noticed a lot of people who get into homesteading, especially if they've just bought land, they think they have to fill the entire property with like every kind of animal. This is not Noah's Ark, like the rabbit population will survive. If you wait a few years before you buy all of them, like I go

Danielle McCoy: 11:13

to the chickens and turkeys and ducks and all these different things. Yeah,

Bonnie Von Dohre: 11:17

well, and then the other thing too, is people are like, the thing I see the most is people going into groups on Facebook and looking for free animals. And their thought process is, you know, they're gonna save so much money if they can just get it free. But free animals cost just as much to feed as expensive animals. And sometimes, if they're poor bloodlines, or they've been neglected before you got them,they're actually more expensive to feed than the ones who are more. So especially if it is an animal that I'm going to be breeding like. Because for us,like a big thing for me is I want all of my animals to be sustainable. So I don't I mean,granted, yes, I do still prefer to buy Cornish cross chicks. But like, you know, we started breeding the pigs and the goats and the chickens and the ducks.And yes, I know, I have all the animals, but I didn't. It took time to build all that up. It's still sometimes it feels overwhelming. But my whole thought process was I, you know,I want to I want to improve each generation. Because like,especially when it came to that,really when it came to a lot of them, I mean, the chickens and the pigs and the goats and the pigs. And I think I said pigs TWICE, TWICE. The rabbits. There are so many, like, there's so many crappy ones being bred in my area. And so I saw people that were buying meat pigs, and being told that they were, you know, heritage bread. But the even the adults weren't 100pounds by the time they were a year old. And I'm like, that's not that's not heritage bread.That's just crappy bread. Like,right. I mean, even Cooney coons are bigger than that at a year old. So, and these were like,they're like, Oh, they're, you know, heritage bread.Hampshire's. No. They're not,I'm sorry. And, you know,there's this, this whole idea that just because an animal grows fast or gets big, that must be some type of weird mutant or like genetic, an anomaly. It's like, no, it's just like with chickens. For instance, if you keep breeding big chickens to big chickens,your chickens are going to get bigger every generation. And we see a lot we see this a lot like with the show chickens and stuff like that. Because, you know,there's some breeds that the judges just like the bigger birds for whatever reason, and these birds now are being bred above standard, like the standard may be, you know, 10pounds at maturity and yet these chickens are showing up at shows are 1112 pounds. But it's like,I'm not saying it's good or bad.It's just the judges aren't aren't docking them for being overweight, though. They're right. Some of those they're placing better. Um, as long as it's as long as it's a well bred, like, if it's conformationally Correct, and it's just bigger then that's fine. But if it's like hatchery quality, and you keep breeding the same narrow structure and and pinch tail and you know, all these other issues, and you just keep making it bigger Yeah, it's just gonna make those issues look bigger.

Danielle McCoy: 15:02

Right, right.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 15:05

For me, you know, I, yeah, I breed the commercial breeds of pigs, but,you know, they're still they're still able to breed. Naturally,they're just, they're just a bigger breed. And I would rather, I would rather them be ready to butcher at seven months, and be, you know, and I end up with 250 pounds of meat,and I can fill my freezer versus feeding them out for 18 months,and getting half as much meat,you know, so now all of your work well, I can keep the Cooney coons on on pasture, I don't have to feed them the grain,this is true, but then I still have to house them for 18months. And they're still taking up space. And they're still there's a lot of things that can go wrong in an 18 month period.So, pick like pick one thing that you want to do. So it may not be like, you may not decide to start with the with the garden, you may decide to start with chickens, or you may decide to start with rabbits or goats,whatever, but pick one and get the best animals that you can afford. And then breed them and continue to try to you know,like learn everything you can about them learn what the breed standard is, look what people look at what people are looking for, even if you're not planning to show, if you are breeding show quality, then that they're going to be more desirable, and you're going to have more people that want to buy them. So that way you can kind of offset,because like, especially if you're talking about goats,you're going to have to breed every year anyway. And if you go to shows, you know, it's really it's marketing for your farm,and so then you get your name out there, and then people want to buy your animals because you're doing well at the shows.Right. But

Danielle McCoy: 16:58

I think I've always recommended people make like a vision board of what,what they want their homestead to be like, in two years or five years or you know, down the line sometime. And then, you know,just pick one of those things that is doable, wherever you is you are and start getting the knowledge or you know, improving your breed or whatever it may be that you're working with, right where you're at. And you know,then you can tick that box off for lack of a better word. But you know, you create that vision board. And then you're like, you know, these are the goals that I want to move toward. But I don't have to do it all at once.Right. And your vision board can change over time, of course.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 17:40

Yeah. Well,and I will say like, I think a lot of people, especially right now are looking at things from a place of fear. And so they feel like, well, I've got to get this thing now while I have the chance. And like it's, you know,it's not going to be available in the future. Chances are, it will still be available in the future. You know, there will always be people breeding rabbits are always see people raising chickens. And so if the opportunity is not right for you right now, don't push yourself.Like to try to make it work. You just pass on it. And if it's meant to be it's going to come back around again. But having a scarcity mindset and thinking that, you know, this is your only opportunity to ever do this. That's that's never the case.

Danielle McCoy: 18:31

Yeah, I think we also and we'll talk about this a little bit in a little bit, but I think a lot of people think that it's cheaper to raise your own. And it's not it's really not like it really really isn't.It's somebody that said that they were going to get to bottle calves have no structure, no fencing, no knowledge on how to raise calves and thought that it was going to be cheaper and easier. Yeah, and I'm like,

Bonnie Von Dohre: 19:02

you know, the capsule or the capsule alive?has he gotten the calves yet?

Danielle McCoy: 19:06

No. I think we passed on it. Oh, well, the Yeah, yeah. Everyone talks to me, it's like, sorrow AZ. And it's kind of expensive and the elaw and, you know, you're talking like 18 months before that calf is going to be, you know, the trouble steer. So,yeah, don't think it's cheaper and don't you know, dug into that hole fear, scarcity mindset and think that you have to have all of the things right now.Because you really don't and you know, heaven forbid, to be shortage that Bonnie wasn't aware of. But you know, yeah,always

Bonnie Von Dohre: 19:52

a lot of beef because of the beef prices. And too this is what happens when I do grocery delivery and I don't go to the store.

Danielle McCoy: 19:59

You But when you start small, that doesn't mean that you can't acquire. Like,we'll talk about beef, you know,like, you could buy a quarter of a cow, and you could just, you know, figure out how to budget for that quarter or that half or whole, we bought a whole cow.And, you know, you just figure out how to budget for it. And you can let somebody else do a hard work. And then, you know,you pay you pay them with, you know, your hard work that was used in other ways.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 20:27

Right? And,you know, it's

Danielle McCoy: 20:34

you focus on what your zone of genius, you know, yes, if you're really good at chickens or rabbits, then just do that. And you until you're really comfortable and,and, you know, then if you have the, the means and the desire to, you know, expand on that and do something else. That's great.And if you don't, you can continue to defer those things to your local farmer.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 20:58

Yeah. There's actually living historical farm by my parents. And I was one of the docents that like volunteers there, they were saying that the original family that started the Farm Park part of like, how they got the farm started and actually like, made the money to expand and build everything on the farm was just selling the firewood off the farm. And then they would just, you know, they would haul the firewood in town,sell it and then turn around,use that money to build something else in the farm. And then they just built it all up over time. Right. So it doesn't have to be any like, grand scheme or big, elaborate thing.You know, you just you focus on what you can do, which I guess is going into our next point.This episode was brought to you buy kitchen botanicals, your sustainable gardening headquarters, stopped by kitchen botanicals.com and get a look at our 2022 seed varieties as well as supplies and pest control products to help you with your organic garden 2022 is a great time to take care of yourself with our pampered gardener subscription box. Every month you'll receive all natural self care products, untreated heirloom seeds, high quality garden tools, organic garden amendments, cute and practical supplies and fun products that we know you'll love. This is your opportunity to take care of yourself in the garden, I started the pampered gardener subscription box, because I had gone through a time of not taking care of myself and dealing with the stress that it put onto my body I was ill I was tapped out and I felt like I couldn't possibly pour any more out of my empty cup. So I created the pamper gardeners subscription box for women like me who wanted to get back to what they enjoy, but also wanted to love themselves. So we've put together this collection of gardening and self care products that are geared towards women who love to garden, they'll get things such as gloves, lotion,bags, hats, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, things that you can actually use, but also things that you'll enjoy. And don't worry, there will still be plenty of gardening tools,seeds, we've created a subscription box like no other by gardeners for gardeners order your own box today. Do what you can with what you have one thing I so I get stuck in this trap a lot where I'll look around all the things I want to do. And then of course, all of those things are going to cost money.And so I'm like, I feel like I'm stuck because I don't have the money to do that right now. So I can't, I can't do anything. But really, what you have to do is take a step back and go Hold on,what can I do right now, that's not going to cost me anything,or anything anything extra. I mean, I don't need to worry about how I'm going to build more trellises when I haven't even weeded out my garden beds yet.

Danielle McCoy: 23:59

I need to go eat my garden beds, but nearly as bad as my grass. lawnmower in their winter race

Bonnie Von Dohre: 24:12

beds, I can't put the lawnmower on top of the race bed. But, you know, I'm like I'm trying to figure out I've got all these squash plants and I need more trellises. So I can, you know, grow them up the trellises. And I'm like, but I could go ahead and put them in the race beds, get the cattle panels and then put the cattle panel over the race bed after I have the cattle panels, but already the squash plants are already in the ground and getting established and doing their thing and not waiting for me to go and buy cattle panels.You know, it's like it's these little things that we get hung up on like feeling like you know, we have to wait until we can until we can take whatever steps we think we need to take.When it's like right I don't actually need to wait for that step. There's things I can do now.

Danielle McCoy: 25:00

That's just like land, you know, if you're talking about instead of something about money you talk about, well, I don't know, you know, I live in an apartment, I don't have any space or, you know, whatever. But there are ways that you can, you know, do things, wherever you are, you know, you can, you know, go to a community garden and learn how to garden or, you know, you could just learn how to garden with a couple pots of ro plants in your windowsill or on your balcony, or, you know, learn how to cook things and, you know,get stuff at the farmers market and learn how to Canada, I mean,you don't have to do anything all by yourself.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 25:31

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say is like, I don't, I don't produce enough to be able to Can my own stuff. And so you know, I go and I buy a flat of strawberries from a strawberry farmer and I make strawberry jams. Same thing with blueberries. Although I never made the blueberry jam, we just put it on the freezer, and I swear, my daughter's gonna eat all the blueberries before we're six months into the year. But like, you know, tomatoes, I'll wait until tomatoes are real cheap. And then I'll go and buy like a case of tomatoes and make salsa. You know, stuff like that. So it's, I don't have to,I don't have to have the garden space to grow all of that myself. I don't have to have you know, the time or, or the resources or whatever. I can just, I mean, okay, yeah, maybe if I was growing up myself,maybe it would be cheaper. But honestly, for the amount of space that would need to grow that many strawberries and that many blueberries and you know,whatever else. You know, it's better for me to focus on what I can focus on with what I have,and then go and buy it when it's in season and at the best price.

Danielle McCoy: 26:39

Right. Next is set goals.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 26:44

And this kind of goes along with your vision board. But I think you know,what I've seen a lot of people do is write out a list of like all of the projects they want to do, or all the things they want to do. And it does help if you kind of if like you have a vision of what you want your life to look like, say 10 years down the road. Because then you can prioritize, like you have all these ideas of all the things you want to do. And then you can prioritize, okay, well,which ones are going to actually get me to that vision that I have? And, you know, which ones can I work on now? Which ones can I build towards? But yeah, I think the biggest thing with the goals is set priorities, but also I find, you know, if I can break a goal down into steps or milestones, then it's a lot more achievable for me doesn't feel quite so big.

Danielle McCoy: 27:34

Right? Well, and your goals don't have to be like, based off of where you currently are, like one of your goals can be to you know, get more property or buy your house or you know, whatever it is. So you don't have to normally, you know, like, you don't have to feel like you're stuck in right,wherever it is you are necessarily, although a probably a lot of people probably do right now. But you can set those goals, just try to make them achievable. Like obviously,you're probably not going to turn around and buy unless this is something that's already been on the books, you know, a new piece of property next month,but that doesn't mean you can't in another year or five years or, you know, whatever might seem achievable to you.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 28:18

And I think this is kind of going back to this, starting with what you have and things like that. I know for us a lot of times, like we always we plan on staying on the same property. But we, you know, we really want a bigger house. And we have a tendency to feel stuck because everything becomes about what when we have a bigger house, we'll do we'll do this when we have bigger house, we'll do that. It's like okay, but like we need to stop hanging on to stuff or not doing things or whatever, just because we're like holding out for a bigger house. It's like, okay,but this is where we are now.

Danielle McCoy: 28:55

Right? Right. So

Bonnie Von Dohre: 28:57

it's like,okay, we can I mean, for us a lot of it's about like, we need to minimize and declutter a little bit and so like there's a lot of stuff that we just need to let go of and then like okay,when we have a bigger house then we can repurchase all that stuff or you know, whatever if it again comes back to if it's meant to be it'll come back around so anyway, so living within your means. So we were kind of talking about this offline like before we started recording when it comes to homesteading. I mean, yeah, in most cases, if you're truly trying to become self reliant,like you know, you own your own property. A lot of people are going to have some kind of livestock. And so anytime you own your own home, or you have livestock, I mean and even if it's just a family member, the the more you You can get out of debt, and have the savings set aside and like not completely stretching yourself to financial limits, the more flexibility it's going to give you and the more resilience. If you're already completely, you know,stretched thin, and then an emergency comes up and something is going to come up, it's just guaranteed. Now, all of a sudden you like, you have no, you have no resources available to you,because the credit cards are maxed out, you don't have any savings. You know, you've got all these, you're drowning in debt. So and it even goes back to, you know, getting started with home setting, if you take on too much, and it's costing you more than you're making back out of it. I mean, I would hope that if we're putting this much into it, it's at least offsetting our grocery bill by a little bit. If all it's doing is eating away at your money, and not showing you any benefit,then you really should reevaluate, you know, how you're doing things, and maybe you need to step back and figure out how you can do things more efficiently.

Danielle McCoy: 31:06

Well, but you know, with the rising cost of feed and fuel, and always, Oh,definitely, like a lot,definitely is profitable. I don't want to say profitable,but

Bonnie Von Dohre: 31:17

Right, yeah, I mean, it's, it's, most of the time, we're just hoping to break even. But, I mean, if you've seen it, you know, you get a lot of people that just go way overboard, and they're either overfeeding or they're buying,you know, super expensive stuff for their animals because they think they have to, or they don't know how to keep their animals alive, so they have to keep replacing them. So there ends up being a lot of different pieces. So there's there's definitely ways I'm not saying that there was there's ways to do this cheap. I know a lot of people, lamp glamorize. There's ways to do this cheap, but I mean, really, not really.

Danielle McCoy: 32:02

There are ways that you can save money just like we built an entire Goshen in span. Like it except, right.I mean, you call on you, but Well, yeah, that was fun. You know, and we already had fencing and my husband grabbed trees,that downed trees out of the woods. And we use those as our corner posts for our fencing.And so you know, we spent absolutely no money on it, other than the drive to go get the pallets and have the cops call on us. But, you know, other than that, so I mean, there are ways that you can, you know, like build your infrastructure and make things, you know, like Facebook Marketplace is a good place, I hate Facebook. But to find, you know, like, we found T posts on there for dirt cheap before somebody had taken, it certainly didn't with the T posts anymore. And so we went and bought a ton of T posts for like, the cost of like, three because they're like, 15, or $20piece

Bonnie Von Dohre: 32:55

of ridiculous I know, well, and I was just looking at T posts this week,and they were still wanting seven $8 apiece on Facebook marketplace. Like what happened the days of getting a T post for like two or $3

Danielle McCoy: 33:10

We paid the equivalent of getting them for about, like, I think they ended up a little over $1 apiece is all so nice. Yeah. So I mean,you know, there are deals to be had. But you know, of course,you also have to jump on those deals. And fencing, we found lots of fencing, like people have used rolls a fence, unused rolls of fence that they didn't use, and all types of things,you know, so that you're not spending as much money to buy new. So there are ways and living within your means also includes you know, like, your housing and your vehicle purchases. And, you know, like,you don't have to have a tractor and all these different things,that's all, you know, included.It's not just, you know, like buying expensive stuff for your animals or whatever, right? It's a whole a whole picture. And honestly, like,

Bonnie Von Dohre: 33:55

most of the stuff, if you're just talking about, you know, equipment that you need for one project, you can rent the equipment. And if you're only going to, you know,if you're only able to work on it on the weekends, then you just rent the equipment for the weekend. And they return it during the week. And then you get like, and I know people like but it's, you know, it costs so much to rent it for the weekend,and I could just make a monthly payment. Okay, but guess what,if you're only renting it two or three times, and then you're done. That's, you know, a few$100 versus a monthly payment to buy it. So if you're lucky if you're lucky, right? I mean, it

Danielle McCoy: 34:30

depends on what it is to like if you're if you're talking about like even like a little subcompact tractor you're talking almost $20,000Well, yeah, nothing.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 34:39

You know, when we first got our place, we were renting a tractor. And then after about a month, we just decided to go buy a tractor, but that was because we knew we were going to be feeding round rolls to the animals and and you know,in our properties on a slope, we almost always have to regrade the driveway. And there's a lot of like, we knew we were going To be continuously using a tractor, right? But like, if I need a tiller, or I don't know,something to seed the pasture or I don't know, so whatever, like,if there's just a single time project I'm working on, I will go and get that rented for like half a day do the project and then turn around take it right back. Right, right. So, and plus, then I'm not having to store a bunch of equipment either. You know, we have like,yeah, we have zero storage space. So the less I have to actually own the better.Alright? educate, educate. Okay,so this means more like, you're like life, you need to acquire a love for lifetime learning, not meaning you have to educate the world.

Danielle McCoy: 35:52

Yes, I didn't know how to word it. And so I know, I just, we could have changed it. But anyway, yeah.Like, you know, you need to continue become a, what, like a perpetual learner, like, there's always something to learn. I think you need to, you know, be comfortable with gaining knowledge on a daily basis, just like my goat spraining his right ankle, and me having to figure out like, okay, like, is it broken? Do I need to call the vet, you know, all those different things. And so, I think, you know, gaining that,that love of learning, I guess,and being comfortable with not knowing everything, but knowing that you can probably find a resource, especially in today's world to, you know, at least marginally learn it and be at least halfway comfortable and confident with it. Because I think some people, like, will automatically, like, defer to, I don't know how to do this, and not be comfortable with, you know, trying to figure out how to do this, you know what I mean? And I think you need to get, you know, comfortable being uncomfortable once again, so that you can, you know, learn,and educate yourself so that you can do some of these things on your own because it's important.Yeah, that's what the whole,that's what this whole lifestyle is about. It's about, you know,learning because, while a lot of these things used to be common knowledge, they just aren't anymore. Right?

Bonnie Von Dohre: 37:24

Well, and be when they were common knowledge,it was a lot easier to have a community around you. And to have like a bunch of ladies get together and can, you know, the gears harvest all at the same time and, and help each other out. But now, when like, you're the one, you're the only person,your circle of friends that even knows how to use a pressure canner. It's kind of so in, it can also feel really hard to find the resources to learn those things when you don't know anyone in your community that knows how to do it. So I mean,there's, there are resources out there, I mean, the beauty of YouTube is you can find a YouTube video on how to do just about anything. And a lot of times, it's just going to be,you know, practice, practice,practice. I mean, we will usually watch several videos.And, and also check a couple of additional resources just to like, cross reference things to make sure that the information is accurate. Like before we'll even attempt something. But I'm,you know, one of those weird people that also really likes research. But the other like,the other side of that is, even if you know something, and you're really comfortable with the way you do it, and how you know, and all of that. I still love to learn how other people do things, because I really find like other people's approaches fascinating. Now, I may still hear their, their approach and still decide that I prefer my way. But there's always that chance that also I you know, I could take something from it. So I would say like, don't get so stuck in your ways that you're never open to like other opinions or other methods.Because I think there's always something to learn from other people. I don't Yeah.

Danielle McCoy: 39:18

So start start your homestead start small.Start where you're at, learn how to cook well.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 39:23

And also just you know, keep in mind that like, there is no like qualification criteria for being a homesteader. I mean, we've and everybody out there has improvements that they could make. And like everyone's everyone's walking their own unique path.

Danielle McCoy: 39:46

Or, you know,whatever you see on Instagram is just like a curated window into one little moment in time. It's not, you know, not there.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 39:55

Unless, unless it's my feed, because I'm pretty sure my followers have figured out that I have no shame. So,

Danielle McCoy: 40:03

okay. I mean, in general, when we look at a lot of these, like really prominent homesteaders in the online space, a lot of them, you know,they're only sharing little bits and pieces. They're not sharing the whole.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 40:18

And some people like Danielle are a lot better photo editing than others on this podcast. Your pictures look better than mine.

Danielle McCoy: 40:29

Anyway, I don't edit my photos.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 40:31

Will you take better photos than I do?

Danielle McCoy: 40:37

Like that picture that I took yesterday that I sent you is just a snapshot on my phone.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 40:42

Well, it was still prettier than mine. What the hell I posted pictures of me with pigment on my legs when

Danielle McCoy: 40:54

I went out in public and forgot that I had goat hooves muddy all over myself. Oh, yeah, that happens all the time. I went everywhere with mud all over my buck.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 41:07

In my back.I've I've done that before.Actually. Did you see the meme going around right now that's about having. Oh, it's like I don't have a hair do just sometimes my hair doesn't have hay in it.

Danielle McCoy: 41:24

I didn't have any hay in my hair. I just had goat hooves it's Kitty was like,all over me when I was trying to wrap hooligans leg earlier. She was like trying to climb up my back. Oh, geez. And she had I had my phone in my back pocket.And she was like trying to like pull it out. Do you even doing like leave me alone. And then she yanked my hair. Oh, my hair up. And I had my hair up in a ponytail. She got a hold of it.And she just went

Bonnie Von Dohre: 41:59

yeah, I mean,baby goats are fun, but they do like eat hair.

Danielle McCoy: 42:03

I know. And then I end up with cud and my hair and it's disgusting. To tell them to stop. I'm like, I don't need cut hair. I have to go on public. In fact, I told them that earlier today. And they're just

Bonnie Von Dohre: 42:20

like,whatever. If you didn't want cut hair, you wouldn't let us eat your hair.

Danielle McCoy: 42:24

wasn't trying to let him eat my hair. I was trying to rap hooligans lake with rainbow rainbow pet rap.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 42:34

I need to get more of that rap just for the fact that I've used most of it on my daughter. Because she loves to run runs. She loves to run around barefoot, and then she cuts her foot and can't keep a bandaid on her foot. So I have to make her have that wrap sock.And so I've used most of my vet wrap on her.

Danielle McCoy: 42:54

So I use plasma center. And that's what we used mean it's called cohesive bandage but come on. It's about

Bonnie Von Dohre: 43:03

I honestly don't know what else to call it other than vet rap like

Danielle McCoy: 43:10

plasma center manager or CO band because it adheres

Bonnie Von Dohre: 43:19

itself Sofia.Yeah, sometimes if you're lucky.But yeah. Anyway, Clementine

Danielle McCoy: 43:25

was trying to eat it off of him.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 43:27

Yeah, I've had that happen. Yeah, I've actually well Oh, pigs are worse, but we I had to try to manage a pig once and that did not go well.

Danielle McCoy: 43:39

Okay, so when you're starting your homestead don't start with pigs and don't start with goats. Or sheep. I've heard terrible things about sheep. Like sheep weren't

Bonnie Von Dohre: 43:49

that bad. The only problem is when I was in high school. She likes to die.

Danielle McCoy: 43:55

That's what I've heard. Yeah.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 44:00

And they really they like to die at really inappropriate times. Like sheep shows.

Danielle McCoy: 44:08

That would be embarrassing.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 44:10

Just I mean,let it literally be embarrassed.We had one just just tied outside of its stall. And it had a brain aneurysm and just like jumped up in the air flipped over on its side it was dead.Like just okay Are All Right nine months down the tube. Which who?

Danielle McCoy: 44:29

Which rabbit?Which rabbit the one that we got the silver Martin the buck.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 44:34

Oh,

Danielle McCoy: 44:36

he just he jumped in. He just like it. He's in his cage. He jumped up. He jumped down. He jumped back up.He jumped back down. And then

Bonnie Von Dohre: 44:47

yeah, sounds like that sounds like a like a seizure or aneurysm or something.

Danielle McCoy: 44:53

Yeah, I don't know. You just you just die.That sucks. No, we have to get to their silver Martin if we want to read it. Yeah,specifically Silva Martins

Bonnie Von Dohre: 45:03

we had one. I don't think I've had anything crazy like that happened with the rabbits. But we did have we had a book that I paid a good amount of money. I mean, not.Not compared to what some of the prices are, I'm hearing but he was worth a good bit. The breeder gave us a decent decent deal on him. So luckily, I have like four daughters out of him three or four daughters out of him. So like I haven't lost the bloodlines. But last summer, he we needed to staple the hardware cloth back to like the bottom of his cage because it's in one of the wood hutches. And he had figured out like that the staples would come out and so he could push it out and get out of his cage and jumped down to the ground. And I don't know if he had heard himself getting out.But like we go out there one morning we find him dead underneath the hutch. And the only thing I can figure is yeah,like he hurt himself somehow jumping out of the cage again.

Danielle McCoy: 46:06

So yeah, our old silver fox Buck was just like dead in his couch one day that was random.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 46:12

Yeah. I remember that. We actually had to go get another one. Now I've got I don't know eight babies that I have to wean and I have nowhere to put them. Yay,rabbits so much fun.

Danielle McCoy: 46:28

We have eight that we just weaned.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 46:33

I mean, I guess if I was looking say they're probably getting close to what's your age, but I have to decide what we're gonna do.

Danielle McCoy: 46:41

You didn't remove them?

Bonnie Von Dohre: 46:44

No, they're still with their moms because I don't have another cage to put them in.

Danielle McCoy: 46:48

For Mama. Oh,

Bonnie Von Dohre: 46:50

yeah, she's not. She's like, just take me now. Like, she just lays in there and the babies are all on top of her.

Danielle McCoy: 46:58

I left this match in because we had another batch that we hadn't butchered yet. That's an online cages we have to grow them out in. And so I left them in there a lot longer than I normally do. She was not thrilled. She was over it. Yours is over. She's like you should have taken them weeks ago.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 47:21

Well, I know.I shouldn't have any problems selling any baby. So I sell because there's a really high demand for meat rabbits right now. So

Danielle McCoy: 47:32

yeah, we thought about selling some of ours, but I haven't decided if that's what we're gonna do with any of.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 47:38

Yeah, yeah, I know, the one litter. I don't know, I'm probably going to keep back one or two babies from each litter. But like the one litter the one that only had three, she had some really nice babies, so and the dad to that litter is getting older, and I don't know how much more I'm gonna be able to breed him. So I definitely want to make sure that I'm like keeping some of his babies. So,right anyway.

Danielle McCoy: 48:06

Rabbits and chickens are good to start with.Yeah, if you're wanting to start with livestock or you know,start like a small garden in that can be you know, like pops in your window or whatever. And start small, you know, learn some kitchen skills, cooking skills and set some goals and live within your means. Yeah,sounds good.

Bonnie Von Dohre: 48:26

All right,well, we're both gonna go have a glass of wine and we'll catch y'all Thank you for listening to this episode of the grounded simplicity podcast. If we were able to help you in any way,please share this episode with a friend. And also leave us a review on Apple podcasts. You can also join us over on Patreon at grounded simplicity, and help to support this podcast as well as become a patron and get a behind the scenes look at the creation of our podcast and even have some input on future episodes.