We often see videos of picture perfect homesteads. This gives the wrong impression to outsiders. Sometimes people might take on more than they can handle, expecting a romanticized farming experience, but instead it’s more like this!
- There’s poop everywhere…and some animals like to eat it!
- Animals have babies, which brings baby animals! But it also brings about the more icky side of birth.
- Sometimes animals die. Sometimes baby animals die. It can be a hard thing to wrap your mind around.
- EVERYTHING draws flies…even flies draw flies. So there are flies everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
- And mosquitoes (at least here).
- Butchering is a reality on a homestead, which means you might have done an amazing job treating that animal respectfully as you raise it. It’s hard to let go sometimes, but it was raised for a purpose. (I’ve had many ridiculous comments about how awful it is to butcher animals. Unless you’re a vegetarian your comments are hypocrisy.)
- There is dirt everywhere. On animals. On you. In your house. On your kids. There is no escaping it.
But there are also some really amazing things too, which is why we do it! The good outweighs the bad, but it’s important to know what you’re getting into and not expect picture perfect. Because unless you have the cash flow to make it that way and maintain it, it’s going to be pretty messy.
If you’re in the thick of it and thinking, “This is not at all how I pictured it!” You are not alone! But remember why you started in the first place. Those perfect homesteads hired people to make it that way or have the money to maintain on a different level than the rest of us.
