Hello and welcome back to the Gubba podcast. I’m Gubba, a first time homesteader following in the footsteps of my homesteading forbears. I discuss homesteading, prepping, and everything in between. Today I want to discuss what it means to homestead and how you can homestead from anywhere.
What is homesteading?
By definition, homesteading is living a lifestyle of self sufficiency. I also think of homesteading as connecting back to our ancestral roots through doing things as they would like growing our own food, using natural ingredients for the food we make, living within our means among other ways.
I personally look at homesteading as disconnecting from the mainstream flow of society. The mainstream society pulls you in so many different directions that it’s hard to make your own choices sometimes.
I feel like you make decisions based off of the mass instead of what is actually right for you.
Our ancestors were in survival mode, they either made it or they died. Nowadays it’s easier to make it and just go through the drive thru at McDonald’s daily and carry on that way.
We live a life of convenience, at least in first world countries like America we do. So because we have been brought up with these modern conveniences and been so disconnected from our homestead survival roots, it can be difficult to reconnect with them
On a recent TikTok I made about milking my cow someone asked if I was scared to get brucellosis from drinking the raw milk. I replied and said how I’m not afraid of the raw milk what so ever and that I’m more afraid of the ingredients on the little Debbie pie.
I find it interesting though how this is a modern convention and prime example of how we have been so disconnected from our food. I know SO MANY PEOPLE who just chow down on little Debbie pies daily but no one ever bats an eye but the same people are up in arms about raw milk.
Do you see the disconnect I’m getting at? We’ve been led to believe how bad something so natural is but yet something lab made is considered “food” nowadays.
I believe homesteading is reconnecting to our roots of survival and health. The beauty of homesteading is that you can do it from anywhere and you don’t need a chunk of land to do it.
Take the steps towards reconnecting with your food and being self sufficient.
How do you homestead?
I would say the first step to being a homesteader is figuring out what areas you want to become self sufficient in. Do you want to grow more of your own food? Take steps towards cultivating a garden.
I recorded a great podcast all about gardening from anywhere. Do you want have financial security? Take steps towards creating a budget and finding ways to improve your finances.
Do you want to eat better? Learn about your body and what foods are truly providing the nutrition that it needs. A great place that helped me learn about my bodies nutritional needs and really helped me snap out of modern day things like being a vegetarian for 10 years is Westonaprice.
Basically, eat real food, get sunlight, and connect back to your ancestors. So figure out what way you want to start becoming like a homesteader like your ancestors and do it.
I began to desire a traditional homestead that was disconnected from society a few years ago when the world erupted with the Covid weirdness. At the time, I couldn’t escape to the countryside so I began to homestead from my house in the city.
I began building up a food storage. Homesteading is self sufficiency and part of self sufficiency is being able to feed yourself and your family without the help of outside sources. A great way to do this is to build up a food storage.
You know I love food storage and I have podcast episodes and YouTube vlogs dedicated to it, and a food storage is a huge part of being a homesteader. If you look up homesteaders and food storage on YouTube and look around, you will see so many people who have food storages.
I would consider anyone with a food storage to be a homesteader because they are looking towards and preparing for the future.
How do you build a food storage?
Start your homestead journey by building a food storage today. I can’t stress how important and crucial it is to have food in case of emergencies. Your ancestors had to prepare and be ready or they died.
I think there is wisdom in that. To begin building your food storage, you can start buying extra of what you eat. This is the easiest method. Say you eat beans or rice, next time you’re at the store, buy a few extra cans or bags.
If you have a favorite condiment, buy an extra here and there. Seriously, I went to a restaurant the other day and they didn’t have siracha because they said there is a siracha supply chain shortage. Well, it would really stink if you loved siracha but didn’t stock up on it.
I guess siracha was the main ingredient in their famous sauce, so they couldn’t serve it at the moment. That restaurant needed me as the person who makes the orders. You best believe they would still have their famous sauce. But it’s little things like that of just start slow and build up your pantry then start working on long term storage.
Truly, having a food storage is being a homesteader.
Have you every thought about how important it is to be able to grow our own food?
Or at least have the knowledge of how to do so? You can have a garden from anywhere even if you live in a small apartment, there are ways to grow food.
Having this skill or at least having books that teach you, is priceless. You instantly have a valuable skill that could help you or your family in different situations.
Having this skill is definitely a part of being a homesteader. Order some good books and learn how to grow some basics like carrots and tomatoes. Then you’ll be off to canning and different methods of food preservation which then head into your food storage.
See how it starts to tie together? You grow your food, you preserve your food by one method or another then it ends up on your pantry or your long term storage. Homesteading truly ties into all aspects of your life like this.
Another thing that goes hand in hand with homesteading is being smart about your finances and not living out of your means. I feel like with the modern day we are in with the conveniences and abundance of material wealth, people grow up thinking it’s normal to carry massive loans around with them and being in debt is normal I don’t think it is, and I think it’s important to always strive to get out of debt.
Don’t go in over your head on a car just because it looks cool.
Don’t buy meaningless stuff.
Respect your money and don’t abuse it. I feel like we grow up watching, or at least I did, like the celebrities and their abundance of wealth and society has you thinking you want or need that Gucci bag or cool car, but no… you don’t.
Think about it? Is it for you or is it for how other people think about and perceive you? When you stop caring about what others think and stop buying the latest thing, you can watch your finances improve.
I know people differ on opinion about this but every homesteader I’ve enjoyed engaging with or listening to always strives to be out of debt. Sometimes I don’t think it’s possible but it is. Disconnect from the modern day materialism and just see how good minimalism feels.
This also comes with not caring what people think. I genuinely wear like the same shirts over and over again on my stream and don’t tend to buy new clothes anymore unless I absolutely need or the piece brings me joy.
As long as clothes are serving their purpose of covering and protecting me, I don’t care to buy new ones and to me, waste money. Trying to live within my means is a part of homesteading to me.
Another part of homesteading to me is attempting to eat clean. This is something you can do from anywhere and something’s our ancestors did. They weren’t in the McDonald’s drive thru or chowing down on little Debbie pies.
They were eating pies stuffed with fruit from their garden that was surrounded by a crust hand made in their kitchen and not created in a lab plant somewhere around the country.
Do you see the difference? Convenience is the biggest factor here and I would encourage you to not be a victim to convenience. Yes, it is easier eating the little Debbie pie as compared to baking one from scratch but what are you subjecting yourself to and what are you missing out on?
First of all you are subjecting yourself to a toxic trough of chemicals. What do they do to your body? And while putting yourself in the convenience line is easy, you are missing out on valuable skills like learning how to cook and bake from scratch.
Learn to bake and cook from scratch, it’s another priceless skill like gardening. That’s part of being a homesteader.
Bottom line, homesteading is continuing that journey towards self sufficiency. You don’t have to be perfect in every single category, but you can homestead from wherever you are at and I love that.
Well, thank you for tuning in to the podcast and taking the time to listen. I hope you enjoyed it and have an amazing day! Don’t do anything a Gubba wouldn’t do!
