As more and more people begin to think about their relationship to the land and the planet, more people are choosing the homesteading lifestyle.
Imagine de Albrecht Fietz de la Pixabay
Homesteading is an approach to living life that offers a lot of self-sufficiency through farming, gardening, and even raising farm animals. Some people even choose to make their own clothes and textiles when they homestead. Especially with mortgage rates at incredibly low rates, if you’ve been thinking about homesteading now could be the time to act. The cost of land for you to build on or a home that comes with a few acres could be much less expensive in 2021 than in previous years thanks to the ability to qualify for a lower interest rate.
While homesteading naturally involves having a solid understanding of how to do things yourself, there are certainly some tasks that you may need to brush up on. In some situations, you may even decide that it’s worth consulting with or even hiring a professional to help you get started so you get to launch your homesteading adventure on the right foot. Even so, if you have an open mind and are willing to learn, then you’ll likely be very fulfilled living on a homestead. Read on for a few tips and tricks to keep in mind as you make the transition to a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
Get work on your home done before you make the move.
Just because you’re going to be doing your best to handle everything on your property yourself doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be times as a homeowner that you may want to reach out to a contractor to handle different jobs. Especially if the home you’ve bought is older and in need of renovation, it’s best to get a contractor involved with a remodel as soon as you close on the home.
Waiting longer to fix up aspects of your living space can complicate your living arrangements since nobody wants to live in an active construction zone. Especially if you’re interested in a bathroom remodel that involves replacing your bathtub or retiling your shower, it’s best to get your new bathroom job done prior to moving into your house as your primary residence. It might take a little more time to find bathroom remodelers in your area if you’re homesteading someplace off the beaten path, so if you plan on upgrading the shower and bathtub in your master bath, make sure to research contractors capable of handling the plumbing, electrical, and installation work prior to moving.
Make sure you know how to estimate your crop.
You can certainly call on contractors when it comes to getting plumbing or electrical work done around the house, but if you’re really serious about homesteading, you’re going to need to be able to grow your own food. Corn is a popular food to grow that requires minimal maintenance, however, you’ll want to be able to get a ballpark number of your crops so that you know what number of ears you can expect come harvest.
It’s important to remember that the number of harvestable ears of corn or the grain yield of your wheat plants needs to factor in the fact that some of your plants won’t make it in any given year. This is where something like a corn yield formula can come in handy for calculating your yield estimates using row length, row spacing, length of row, and a bunch of other factors.
Whether you’re working to calculate corn yield or are trying to estimate yield for your tomato plants or an apple tree, being able to use calculators to better estimate this information ultimately ensures that you don’t wind up with a shortfall come winter.