envisioning your homestead

Wow!  Jenny and I discovered a really amazing new e-book recently. It's called, “Your Custom Homestead:  Awakening a Fresh Vision ofHomesteading”  by Jill Winger.   It is a great tool for refining your vision and the direction you’d like your homestead to be going.  Whether you are homesteading in an urban setting, dreaming of your own piece of land, or have been doing this for a while it is a really fun and productive way to spend a few hours.

The book goes through a series of exercises to help you create a mission statement, a five year plan, and long term goals for your homestead adventure.  I’ve been at this for a few years now, and I’ve always had dreams and goals, but I’ve never, until now, sat down and tried to answer questions about WHY I am doing this and what I hope to accomplish.

I’d recently been becoming frustrated with the fact that I’m not making money homesteading.  While working though this book, it became clear that I was asking the wrong questions.  I wasn’t in homesteading to make a living, at least not a financial living, but I was in it to make a life worth living.  The plan had always been to teach part time to support my homesteading vision.  When teaching became too difficult for health reasons, I tried harder and harder to make money at the farm.  In the process I just became more and more frustrated.  Reading this book and working on the exercises helped me let go of the frustration.

Jenny and I sat down and created a vision and a mission statement.  The brainstorming and mission statement didn’t involve anything about making money on the farm.  The mission statement had to do with spiritual growth, raising kids in an atmosphere of love and joy, being good stewards of our land and our animals, and growing and eating healthy natural foods.   What a freeing experience.

After reading this e-book, I started to think about writing my own e-books.  I was, after all, an English teacher for 20 years.  I know a little about writing.  I’ve been a little brainstorming about what topics I might want to write about.  I’m having fun with it.  I hope you are having fun on whatever your personal adventure in life is.

Blessings,