The Happy Homesteader

To do anything that takes time and effort requires some form of inspiration and motivation. Take a job for instance. What could possibly cause a person to get up early, rush around to get chores done, leave before its full light, work for 10 or more hours a day away from home in a stressful job, rush home to spend a few hours with family and share a meal together, sleep for a few hours and repeat?

I often question what my real motive is to do all of that and then also trying to establish a self-sufficient homestead. Is it just a phase I am going through due to the downturn in the economy? Is it just a middle age thing, my way of dealing with getting older? There may be a little truth to both of those motives but I really think there is more to it than just a fad or a middle age diversion. 

I have two small kids, 6 and 4. In my heart I want the best for them as every parent does. For some parents that means preparing their kids for college and advanced degrees from a very young age. It means saving and saving to be able to afford the best education possible and it usually means going into a lot of debt to pay for it. The sad thing about all of those plans is that only a very few people today are finding a meaningful career in the field that they went to college to prepare for. Many are not finding employment at all or are needing to settle for very low paying jobs. I recently heard that the next debt crisis will likely be based on the student loan debt due to lack of sufficient employment to pay back student loans. Who knows how that will play out but it is a concern for many people especially those with many thousands of dollars in school loan debt.

It seems to me that in the uncertain future that we face a simple debt free life will be the best way to live. Being able to provide for yourself and your family are the skills that I want to have and want to pass on to my children. We certainly are not the type of family that will move out into the middle of nowhere and live off grid despite all my begging and pleading. But we do intend to move very soon to a small rural area with a few acres to cultivate. Working now to pay off debt and to save up a significant down payment is my goal for the short term and having a small, maybe even micro, farm is my long term goal.

Its a strong motivation to have those goals but it is not really what is behind pushing me forward. Its my family, primarily my kids, that really inspires me to keep working hard to accomplish our plans. I hope to be able to teach them on a larger scale very soon how to grow and raise and prepare the foods they need. To be able to teach them how to support themselves doing something they love is also one of my biggest hopes and primary goals for the future so that even if they choose a different path they will know how important it is to do what you love. Teaching them to be self-sufficient and to lead a simple life seems to me and my wife to be the absolute best thing we can do for them in order for them to be truly happy as the grow up. That is what motivates and inspires us. How about you?