It’s not a random decision for me to adopt a homesteading life, but a pre-planned one. My grandpa and grandma had already lived long and healthy lives in the south.
I also spent most of my vacations there with them.
When it came to owning property and holding responsibilities, I made many homesteading mistakes in my initial homesteading years.
Mistake #1
When I was ready with my Dexter cow on the grass field, she didn’t even touch the grass on the first part of the meadow.
Actually, I had created two different pasture environments for rotational grazing.
What stuck was that one part of the field fell into her favorite, and another was less attractive to her. It was only a single line fence, so she could easily cross the border and feast on her favorite pasture.
One had fine grass with short clover tops and no weeds. And bad one pasture had fine grass too, but with most of the weeds and broad-stemmed grass covered.
Here, mowing is magic, but I had only a single cow.
Also, the challenge is, mob grazing is not possible when you have no more than one animal. That led to no competition for the grass.
It was already a bit late to realize that I had to give her the bad area first for a week, so that she had to eat that section well. Then, offering a prime section for a short time would be enough.
Mistake #2
There is nothing wrong with raising meat chickens, but they cost me around $40 each at the very first year of homesteading. Can you believe it?
I knew that I was keeping heritage chickens that were dual-purpose birds.
They’re Barred Rocks (I had to opt for Cornish Cross, later I realized it). I gave my chickens a generous amount of food but it took forever to grow them.
18 weeks and more. Yes!
I only used organic feed, buying bag after bag from the grocery store. It ended up making me realize that birds took me over with money.
At that moment, I didn’t even have sufficient harvesting tools like a propane burner and plucker.
So, I learned that I had to do better research and more, know poultry skills, and prepare essentials.
I want to tell you about another incident here with chickens, too, but it was a neglect blunder. After some successful years, I had hatched a batch of chicks at my homestead.
They’re only a week old and were kept in brooder under the chicken tractor. The tractor was a nice shelter with turf and good amount of ventilation.
It was all going fine, but one night, a storm swirled babies.
I had tucked the tractor up against the back of the home, so it helped with a few blows, but couldn’t protect the wind from the opposite direction, I guess.
The next morning, I saw 12 lying unconscious. That was heartbreaking!
Mistake #3
I love watermelon and wanted to grow it on my own in the first year of homesteading. Then, I had a watermelon patch of epic proportions.
Out of excitement and inspiration from Instagram reels, I spent much of my time preparing new dirt for the new crop.
It was spring, and so I sowed several other veggie seeds, including squash, indoors to get a head start. All went well with a plan, but when it came to transplanting the seedlings outdoors, someone mixed up the butternut squash and the watermelons.
They all looked similar, like ducklings.
I failed to distinguish and planted all in the raised beds randomly.
The twist came out that squash grew well, but watermelon vanished in the soil, except for one plant. That year, I had a bumper harvest of butter squash with around a hundred pounds or more of it.
I ate squash as much as possible and gave the remaining to my friends and family.
Actually, I had no pantry facility or cellar and no idea about canning and preserving.
Mistake #4
Out of the property, I plowed a 30×80 area for a garden where I wanted to plant corn.
The chickens had already become overpopulated with a batch of new hatchlings, so I needed to find some free and homemade feed for them. So, I decided, why not grow some on my own?
And corns were the perfect grains for winter feed, with few other foods.
Life happened, and the crop didn’t receive as much care as it needed. The whole crops turned into a weed patch and left nothing for me to harvest.
That taught me that I should have kept project sizes reasonable.
What I hate about gardening is managing weeds, which is just one of many! They also almost ended up in another crop in the same year.
I had to swim with my hands in the weeds to find potatoes. Thanks to my neighbor who told me to remove these in time and finally I got some nice-sized potatoes.
Mistake #5
It was my idea to buy a steel stock tank for my first run of ducklings. Initially, I was confident about my firm decision.
The tank was of a good size, similar to that of a bathtub, and provided ample room for all babies. They run around happily and without being crowded.
Also, they looked nice for pictures, and I shared some on Instagram.
Anyway, I have set up the tank inside the house in the spare bath. They were close to my room and easy to care for as well.
Plus, I didn’t need to worry about predators from outside at night.
When the night fell, ducklings became a band of 18 of the tiniest and loudest steel drummers. Their pecking went with tip-tip all night.
I had to be their good audience for the show every night. It’s already several nights passed before they grew big enough to move outdoors.
Then only, I had a nice sleep.
And that stock tank was turned into a pond filter the following spring to grow aquatic plants.
Mistake #6
I had already been a couple of years homesteading and started with dwarf goats. They gave birth to two nannies in July.
When winter came, I didn’t install the heat lamp as my fellow homesteaders had already burned some part of the barn. So, I also worried about the fire.
But I had to put a dog igloo in their stall. The cold has already reached 12 degrees Fahrenheit.
The idea was simple that this facility would help animals to cuddle together inside it at night to keep warm.
The malfunction happened there. The igloo was supposed to hold a little hood vent on top but mine didn’t have but a small hole instead.
Also, I overlooked that goats could climb on things, and the igloo was a chief target.
Besides, baby goats’ hooves really fit in the small hole. To my horror, I found one of the nannies had already landed her foot in the hole.
She was barely touching the ground and was hanging by her back hoof.
As soon as I reached there, I unstuck her, but she was already unconscious.
Mistake #7
Tractors make it easy for farmers and homesteaders to manage large agricultural lands. But when I purchased it, I realized that it became the most clunky, useless thing.
It made me feel way priced and overrated.
My plan was to use a tractor to move hay rolls and lift drums full of corn, and get most of it. I had second-hand Alis Chalmers 7045, a powerful beast, but got only a minimum of it.
Also, whenever I tried to clear the land with it, it would break 2-inch steel bolts, hitting a hidden tree stump.
Only I had to plow the land for gardening, and the machine remained inactive most of the time, so I had to find a new buyer for it.
Now, my pigs dig out tree stumps and 4 feet deep into the ground completely for free.
Final Thoughts
Most of my fellow get pumped up with online inspirations, be an Instagram or a Blog. Before fully be invested, I also finished reading several books and blogs.
The reality turns different, sometimes to our advantage with easy accomplishment and other times with a drought initially.
So, I feel the beginners should have a mentor who can observe their homestead and help them fix challenges for the first year.
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