I sit and daydream about my somedays...

Someday I will have a homestead where I can grow or raise most of my own food.  One section will have a permaculture food forest, another a pond for swimming and stocked with fish to eat, and yet another will have my vegetable gardens. Perhaps there will be an orchard to grow pears and apples to both eat and make hard cider out of. There will be chickens that provide food and calcium (via egg shells) for me and the other animals, goats for milk, llamas to protect the herd, provide yarn and pull a cart, geese, dogs, cats, horses and who knows what else (maybe bees if I can get my husband to agree). There will be our cob home, designed and built with love by us and our friends, the barns and workshops... 

Oh yes, I have plans for as sustainable a homestead as I can create. Planning both for the near and distant future. I will tend the gardens, can and dehydrate the food for storage. There will be food storage a plenty. In the off times (probably mostly winter) I will knit, and sew and maybe spin and weave... I will make our own candles, cleaning and self care products. I will make papers and bind them into books. The herbs grown in my garden will be made into tinctures and teas and other amazing things...

I dream and plan for someday, and this someday homestead is my favorite day dream. I can go on and on with ideas...

In reality, however, I live in a two bedroom apartment in the city (think car dealerships both next door and across the street) with my beloved husband, two cats (Bahamut & MotorMouth) and my pup Ladvarian. I grew up a suburb/city girl. I have yet to have a garden of my own. I haven't yet tried canning anything, and only know about food storage in theory. Ok, in reality I only know most of what I've mentioned in theory.

Somehow I want to take these from day dreams and make them into my reality. I don't want to wait until I have that someday homestead either. I want to do as much of it as I can living here in my apartment. I want a homemade life. 

We moved into this apartment mid-march. Last October (2011) we moved onto someone's farm hoping to get some feel for the "country life" and with the plans of building our lil' homestead in one of the meadows on the property. Things didn't go so great there. We didn't get the kind of experience we were hoping for (some because it was winter, some do to circumstances) but we did learn a great deal, and I got the chance to find out that this day dream of a homestead I've had for years really is what I want in life. 

I am a homemaker by choice which means that we have to be very careful with our money as my husband doesn't have a very high paying job. But he makes enough for us to get by and not have to go without (as long as we are careful). Understand that while I am a homemaker I have no children other than my furballs to raise. I actually do kinda approach homemaking as my job though. It is up to me to find as many ways as possible to save money yet have a nice home, good food to eat, entertainment... in general a life we enjoy and not one of deprivation. 

I set a goal for myself when we first moved in here to start doing as many of those "homesteading dreams" as possible right here, right now. So I consider this the beginning of my journey into homesteading even if the reality makes homesteading or even householding seem a far off dream. I am tired of saying "someday" instead I want to say "Today!"

I decided to start this blog to keep track of my own journey towards that someday homestead. I don't yet have a concrete plan of "the blog will contain exactly this" or day of the week idea's like crafty Thursday or homemade Tuesday or "in the kitchen" Mondays but maybe it will go that direction. It's not going to be a how to for everyone... it will be more of a how I'm doing it, and what I'm trying type of thing. 

I invite you to come along on this journey with me. I want to share this adventures with others. Will you join me?