Want to be featured as a Homestead Highlight? I would love to hear about your experience. For more information follow the link to the information page and share your own homestead here at the Backyard Farming Connection!
Today I welcome Lisa to this space.
Hi! I’m Lisa Lynn. My family and I live on a small homestead
in northern Illinois. I graduated with a BFA in Painting and Drawing, and I
love photography and writing. I also earned a degree in horticulture and worked
in landscape design until I decided to homeschool and homestead full time. Now
I have found the perfect medium for all my skills…blogging! I would love to
have you visit my blog, The Self Sufficient HomeAcre.
I grew up on a small farm in Western NY, and that lifestyle is still in my blood. I remember planting bean seeds in the garden with Dad and helping Mom measure flour as I stood on a chair at the counter when I was 3. I was making pies and helping prepare meals by the time I was 8 or so. Our family worked together to grow a large garden every year, harvest the bounty and preserve it. Wild foods were also used in our meals.
I remember reading through
my Dad’s Mother Earth News and survival guides. In the summer I would forage
for wild edibles, finding it fascinating that you could go out in the woods and
provide a meal for yourself for free! There were dandelions, broadleaf
plantain, wild onions in early spring, and wild strawberries in June. We went
fishing and my Dad shot a deer for the freezer most every fall. Our whole
family foraged for wild blackberries in July. We canned them by the bucketful
for the winter. We put up corn, beans, peas, carrots, and beets from our large
garden, along with applesauce and cider from wild apples, and peaches and cherries
from the local orchards. Jams and
jellies were canned and savored through the winter. Potatoes, onions, and
garlic were stored in the cellar.
A great deal of our food was produced on our
land. We raised beef cattle until the
oil embargo of the ‘70s made hay and grain production too costly. We also kept
pigs, chickens, ducks, ponies, and horses. Our meat animals were processed by a
local butcher, right next door to Grandma’s house. I’ll never forget the
fearful bleating of the animals, then a sad silence. When Dad butchered chickens I caught them and
helped pluck. I knew the very real
source of our meat and learned to appreciate that a life was taken to provide it.
It might sound like a tough life, but I wouldn’t trade those memories for
anything.
Nowadays my husband, son, and I make our home on an acre of
land in northern Illinois. We moved from a subdivision to this property in 2010
so we could have livestock and a big garden. Since then I have planted apple,
pear, peach, cherry, and plum trees. I put in small fruits, such as currants,
grapes, blueberries, and raspberries. We also have rhubarb, asparagus,
horseradish, and perennial herbs in the garden. Each year I make my garden a little
bit bigger. Our garage was originally a horse barn that was converted. We
turned part of it into a chicken coop for laying hens and meat birds. They have
a large pasture to roam in. I let them outside much of the winter, unless the
temps are too cold or there is snow on the ground. We live right across the road from a
subdivision and the village. It’s a short walk to the post office and then
right back to our humble little homestead.
One of the things I have enjoyed the most since moving to
this property is having poultry. There have been some problems with disease and
predation, but overall I feel quite proud of my chicken flock. At present, I
have over 60 hens. When the young pullets start to lay, I will butcher the
older hens for soup or pressure canning for later. I successfully raised
turkeys to put in the freezer this fall and I must say that I really enjoyed
that. Butchering my own poultry has been a very successful experience too. It’s
great to know that it was done as humanely as possible.
I continue learning new skills for homesteading on a larger
scale in the future. In a few years, my husband and I would like to move back
to western New York and build a home on a corner of the old family farm. We
would have more property to build a barn and raise larger livestock, such as
pigs and maybe a dairy cow or some goats. I am already thinking about where to
dig a pond and plant an orchard, things we might be able to do before moving.
Sustainable energy sources are another part of our plan, and we dream about
setting up an education center for people interested in the crafts of
homesteading and sustainable energy. Through
all of those changes I plan to continue sharing my experiences with the readers
on my blog. Homesteading is an adventure that I intend to enjoy to the fullest.
Thanks for sharing your story Lisa - I loved hearing how your childhood influenced you later choices.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this feature! I love how your childhood memories of homesteading led you to homestead in your adult life as well. Thank you for talking about growing and butchering your own meat. I don't eat meat myself because I know I couldn't butcher it and don't feel comfortable not knowing how the animal was treated in its life.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you do a lot on your land. One day we hope to get our gardening skills up to par to grow and put up most of our own food. It's a learning process! My husband and I grew up in the city, so homesteading isn't something we grew up around. But we love it now and are so happy that when we have children, we can teach them everything we've learned and hopefully they will grow up to be homesteaders, too.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my story, Gretchen! I enjoyed writing it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tammy! I'm glad that you are learning new skills to provide for your family. I think it is a very important thing to teach your children. And I'm glad to share the experience of butchering. I wish more people in our society had to see an animal die so that they could eat. It would change so many things about the way our food is produced.
Thanks for sharing this on Wildcrafting Wednesday!
I loved reading this! I think we have a lot in common. I also have a BFA degree (Interior Design) and I am finding homesteading and blogging (at www.greeneggsandgoats.com )to be the creative outlet I have been looking for for YEARS! It has truly been a balm for my soul. Creative gals MUST create or we go a little nutty!
ReplyDeleteIt's always interesting to hear other people's stories. Thanks for sharing yours and how you got started in your own homestead. It's pretty amazing how being exposed to gardening, canning and farm animals can open up a door to a "new" lifestyle as we get older. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up to Wildcrafting Wednesday. It was a pleasure to read Lisa's story. The homestead photography is AMAZING! The marriage of blogging, photography, homesteading and your BFA has really come together. That must give you so much Joy to see your talents blending in such unity in your blogging. Well done.
ReplyDeleteChris
Thanks for all the positive comments :) And many thanks to Gretchen for giving me the opportunity to share my story here!
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