Too much vs. Simplifying

Have you, too, noticed the lovely homesteading videos on social medias?
Gotten carried away by promising projections from what you read in books and see on the internet about abundant gardens, food forests, livestock, processing your own milk and wool, fermenting, renovating, natural building, solar power, rockety contraptions etc?
And tried to do it all??

I'm wondering if there are others who have found the limits of their resources (time and energy, financial) and decided to adjust their envisioned Paradise. And if so, how did you adjust?

This adventure of mine has taken my analytical mind in all kinds of directions.
"I want it all" doesn't balance out with "the two of us". Which made me think of   community and tribe , but I'm not a community kind of gal.

The limits of our land proved too small for pigs. Later we had a horse since our neighbour's donkey needed a friend, but bringing and fetching him, at designated (but shifting) times, two times a day, proved not to be a sustainable option for maintaining low enough stress levels - especially when the said horse wanted to be with his donkey friend 24/7, but couldn't, and would test the robustness of gates and fences.
We now have three small sheep and they're perfect, alongside with the small-ish flock of chicken.

I tried to do all the fermenting, baking and cheesemaking - next to establishing gardens, working on my business and renovating.

When I read all of this back, I can see why there weren't a lot of successes. Some. Small and tasty. And fun. But also a lot of exhaustion and feelings of incompetence.

So I'm simplifying. I believe we can have "it all", but it needs to be in a better order. All at once is a recipe for a steep learning curve ( + ) and exhaustion ( - ).

Getting the basics in place first, and expanding from there if and when the time is right.

Have you had a Too much vs. Simplifying experience? Do share!

Hi Nina,

Adjustment is ongoing.   Of course, that is the easy answer to your question.  Much depends upon the exact issue, but good speculation says 3 to 7 years.  

I think the best word is "optimizing." That is, figuring out what you can realistically do in-house and finding other sources for the rest. The notion of doing it all yourself is unsustainable.

The other part of optimizing is leveraging your "medieval village" of neighbours and fellow obsessive crackpots to create a trading network. For example, I don't keep laying hens -- I know from experience it's a crapload of work, especially in a long Canadian winter. But being a ready resource to locals who do keep chickens has paid off handsomely.

The single biggest mistake I made starting out with a bunch of this was not planning far enough into the future.  (a bunch of it I didn't know then was part of the problem)  The rest was simply the get it working attitude.  2x effort back then might have meant more of it would be still running now.

For example about 6 years ago I killed most of the trees when health problems and finances meant I couldn't replace the pump that summer.  destroyed nearly 30 years of effort.

I could have reduce the long term effort by more soil prep.  More soil prep might have kept the tree alive or at least reduced loss rate.  Problem is I only had about 1/4 of the knowledge I needed then to do it.  Swales and water capture should have been part of the thinking better and earlier.  Should have eliminated a bunch of tillage as I was destroying the soil carbon structure I needed to be maintaining.  There again lack of knowledge

So my goals would be to make every system as bullet proof as possible while making it as durable as possible with the goal of minimizing long term labor.  Another piece would be designing for multi use tools.

There is too much to do for any one person or one family to do everything.  Pick your priorities.  If your goals are long term build for durability so you only do the work once in your lifetime where possible.

C. Letellier wrote:For example about 6 years ago I killed most of the trees when health problems and finances meant I couldn't replace the pump that summer.  destroyed nearly 30 years of effort.

Oh, wow. I am speechless. That's harsh.

Oh,yeh. Long before we bought and moved here, we were already doing 90%+ of our own cooking, baking, fermenting,etc, from scratch. But, when we moved, within 3 months we were raising a dozen chicks in our living room, because when the coop we ordered came, it was the wrong one - so they stayed in my living room for 4 months. By the time they were 6 months old (which meant we were here for only 9, putting us in late November), we had a 10wk old puppy who was growing at the rate of 3lbs PER DAY, and 3 goats. Oh - and after the goats were already here, I started trying to put up fences for them. Hey - at least I had already turned the detached 2car garage into a barn & hay storage for them with mostly free pallets!

Then, we had the near miss in December, that could have burned down the 'barn', with the goats inside, if it hadn't been for the puppy freaking out, letting us know about the grass fire. In January, we got another puppy, and then in the spring, more chickens, because half had been taken out by predators. By mid summer, John decided he wanted to raise ducks, turkeys, muskovys, and quail... Meanwhile, I added soap making, wool processing, spindle-spinning, felt making...

Over the last few years, we've had increases - we got up to 13 goats, 28 chickens, 12 ducks, 5 turkeys, and 5 muscovys, and 3 sheep, for a while; and decreased - we're now back down to 3 goats, 3 ducks, a goose, and 4 chickens. But, we've also added a 3rd puppy.

We still ferment, cure, bake, & cook mostly from scratch, having added most of our own charcuterie, dehydrating, and occasional canning and cheese making. And, I'm learning plumbing in mind of a 'trial by fire meets trial and error' kind of way.  But, we don't try to do it all at once, anymore. We learned long before moving that we have to do our things in cycles, as needed for the necessities (like the dadgum plumbing issues I'm working on, now), and as time & resources permit, for the more fun things. I'm planning to sell my goats. It's work that I just can't keep doing, indefinitely, and I've found a great source for both goat and A2/A2 cow milk. I need a strong supply of eggs - at least 80/ month, so I'm looking to change up the breed from all dual purpose to just a few dual purpose (because they do 'broody' beautifully, but don't lay as many eggs per year, as production birds do) and half a dozen production birds, to bring in more eggs, on less feed. But, production birds don't go broody, well, so it's not self sustaining, without a rooster and a few of those dual purpose gals.

I spent a few years on my dad's farm, as a teen. So, I knew a lot of what to expect - but there was MUCH that I didn't know I didn't know. Learning has been a rollercoaster ride. We're learning as we go what works for us, on this very rough land - and what doesn't. The number one thing is stay flexible. The number two thing is just get back up one more time than you fall on your face. It's not a sprint. In fact, it's not a contest, at all.

Don't ask, don't tell ... Why did it not work?

First, county would dropedp Ag exemption because I did not furnish IRS tax form proving I sold ... what?

Fire ants wiped out purple hull peas harvest so why garden?

Fifteen years later ... sold out.

What is your story?

Watched a video a while back that would have been impossible for any mortal.  Another popular farm speaker said he got it done by only sleeping 3 hours a night, yeah, no thanks.  I’ve found it much easier to grow food than to pick/process/preserve/cook it.  Currently downsizing the operation as my adult children are fledging resulting in less labor and food requirements.  I’ve always said you are better off doing a few things well, than a lot of things half assed.  Currently have sheep, chickens, veg garden, potato patch, wood heat, the biochar operation, and all the perennials we have planted over the years.  Most of our preserving is done by freezing.  Plenty of work to keep me busy!

Its okay to try things and realize that most people can't do everything.  You're finding the things that work for you on the land you live on and that is okay, you don't have to do every single thing that gets counted as homesteading or permaculture, do the things you can, try adding new things from time to time and if they don't work for you that is fine.  It seems like through trial and error you're doing that, so that means its going fine.

"Too Much vs. Simplifying" is the story of my life.  Started with nothing, gradually built up to "too much", got disgusted and downsized to simplify my life, only to rinse and repeat many times.

When I retired the first time in 2005, I got rid of almost everything so I could live on a 39-ft (12 meter) sailboat which didn't have room for more than the supplies needed for a long coastal cruise.  After a year of that lifestyle, I came to the conclusion that I was too claustrophobic to live in a tiny space at sea miles from the nearest path in a forest or a mountain to climb, so I sold the boat and bought an RV to travel on land.

That lasted nearly 5 years by which time I'd run through most of my retirement funds, so I went back to work, bought a house and again accumulated furniture, kitchenware, tools, etc., etc.  Retired again in 2016, downsized to a large van camper and set off for parts unknown.  After spending a couple of years doing fix-and-flips, I found a 30-acre farm that I thought was my final dream home.

But after 6 years of fixing, building coops, pig, and goat sheds, cutting swales, planting fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, grape vines, and accumulating more tools and equipment, my age caught up to me, and I couldn't manage all the physical work anymore, so I figured it was time to scale back and simplify my life again.

Sold the farm, packed everything that I couldn't part with into a 14-ft box truck I'd bought because I couldn't use a U-Haul.  You have to know your destination for that, and I didn't.  Drove from VA thru TN, KY, AR, OK, MO, UT, and NV intending to find a compatible community to join or a smaller homestead that I could manage on my own, but I didn't find what I was looking for.  While out in NV, a house in Maine that I'd sold in 2019 with seller financing came back in my hands after the buyers defaulted on the loan, so I drove my "stuff" back across the continent and spent last winter re-rehabbing that house to resell in the spring.  Coldest winter in about 20 years.  Pipes burst, basement flooded, and lots of other problems to cope with.  Not fun.

Finally found a buyer and packed my stuff back in the box truck (minus some furniture I left behind) and drove back to KY to spend some time with my older brother who'd been trying for decades to get me to move closer to him.  I looked at dozens of small farms, rural homes, and even apartments before I finally found a 4-acre property that met most of my criteria about a half-hour from his place.

I'll be moving in next week, and I guess the cycle is starting again.  I am already starting to accumulate more used furniture and fixtures.  All the while trying to keep it as simple and undemanding as possible.  At 80, I just want to putter in a garden, raise some chickens and dairy goats, and do some woodworking to supplement my retirement funds for as long as I can still stand up and walk about the land.  God willing, that'll be another 20 years or so.

Yeah the gap between what you think you can manage and what you actually can is brutal at first. I spent a couple years trying to do everything, then just stopped half of it and the garden got better. Less stuff competing for your attention means the things you do keep actually get done properly.

Fruit trees.
They make fruit, a lot of it if I prune them the winter before.
But the animals get most of it.
Plus, I like fruit, but I really don't eat that much.
I only see planting  fruit and nuts  bushes going forward.

Chickens are easy, but I use them to make compost and the eggs are an afterthought.
I plan on having them for as long as possible.

My annual garden is basically about alliums and tomatoes, because I've found varieties that can survive neglect and still produce eats.
Also, we actually eat them, unlike some garden products.
I have entire beds that have laid fallow this year, because I have other pressing matters to attend to.

I am still committed to finding more plants to grow and eat that are super easy, especially sources of fat.

Mostly, I like building beds and soil.
That seems like a good thing to do to feed myself in the future.
It also helps me mentally cope with my present circumstances.

My mutual aid network is growing pretty well.
It's a joy to work on, just like building beds and soil.