Why Being Self-Sufficient Includes Community

We all want that homestead. We are able to produce all our own food, and only need to go to the store once a year for something we can't produce; like oh say- toys for Christmas. It would be so ideal to live off your land and not depend on anyone else at all. Except, there is one flaw in this dream; God made us so that we would Have to depend on other people.

 I have figured out one thing in my ten years or so that we have homesteaded, and that is definitely that we cannot do it alone. We have depended on our friends, family, neighbors and the Amish community for so so many things. This doesn't mean that we don't want to be self-sufficient. However, unless you are going to have a lot of children to help, you just can't do everything alone. If your reading this, you are probably still somewhat new to homesteading. I know that when I first started, I looked for a variety of different informational sites and blogs to see if it was even something I could do. Step-by-step I started learning one thing after another. Jack of all trades, master of none is how the saying goes. That describes my life! We have yet to do anything masterfully, but we can get what we need done. We look to those who have already done what we want to do for guidance and ideas. We look to our neighbors and friends to help when we are overwhelmed. And that's O.K. It will happen more often than you think. There will be a number of things that you may learn how to do or make, but it won't be worth the time or energy in your daily chores to make because someone else makes it for you for the same price as what it would cost you and your time.

We are blessed to be right in the middle of an Amish community that has already done most of what we look to accomplish, yet they depend on their community for all the help they need. However, despite all the self-sufficient things they do on a daily basis, they still go to Walmart just like we do! They buy flour, sugar, and some other staples that it isn't worth the time to make. That really surprised me, but as I get into more and more activities with raising our own meat, hunting, gardening, building our house, canning, harvesting and processing all the animals, taking care of the family pets... there is no time in the day to do much else. I still work a full time job, so I hope to someday go to part-time so I can spend more time on the homestead.

I really wish that we could have a community that is as close knit as the Amish do. Although they are happy to help at times, we are not actually Amish. Therefore, having them come over for a barn-raising is not feasible. For this reason, it is super important for us to create a give-and-take- system with our friends and neighbors. We try to volunteer to help others as much as we can. Someday we will need that favor back! I have internet and watch some of the television shows about homesteaders (Live Free or Die with National Geographic is my FAVORITE) but have noticed lately that they all depend on others for help of some sort. Maybe its bartering for tools, or trading work for something they need. You will always need others though.

Please feel free to comment, make suggestions, ask questions, and offer ideas for future posts. I am not as gifted as some of the bloggers out there and am constantly working towards improving my blog. Thank you for reading my posts!

Blessings,  The Virtually Amish Homestead

Closed For the Winter

We are closed up for the winter now. We have only managed to finish this one room, but as we progressed we noticed that we were much faster at each tire. We closed it in with a nice sturdy roof that we plan on building a second floor on. We had some family help near the end of the season so that was a big help.

The construction sped up after this point and we started on the roof 

After this we covered the outside in a plastic that will protect the roof from getting wet during the winter and wrapped the plastic around any areas that may be exposed. We hope to get started again sometime of May 2016 again. Thank you for visiting my blog and I'll be back with other homesteading adventures!