When it gets real: the homesteading experience

Homesteading is about reality, right? Smells and feels. The whole experience.

This week we had helpers in the butcher shop. They were newbies, trying on homesteading to see what it’s all about while they enjoy chilling at the on-farm campground. 

They’d petted the new calf, pulled weeds, moved chicken tractors. Today’s activity was chicken processing.

They watched the video (see below if you wanna watch it, too). They put on their old clothes and shoes. And they showed up at the door with eager smiles, ready to do the job. 

And then things got real.  They smelled the smells (let’s be honest, “wet chicken” is not a Glade scent, is it?). They felt the feels. And when they left at the end of the day, Mt. Everest looked doable. They’d scaled a mountain they weren’t sure they’d make it up at the start of the day.

That’s what we’ve heard from all the folks after an on-farm class:

• “I’ve watched all the videos, but it’s different when you do it.” 
• “When I do something, I feel like I really know it.”
• “I didn’t read that in the books, but it really works!”
• “I have to do it and ask questions. Then I know I’ve got it.”
• “It’s just not the same on a video.”

Yeah, we hear ya.  When you smell the smells and feel the feels, it gets real. And that’s what we all want, right?  

The real deal. To truly own the knowledge and muscle memory of it.

I guarantee that teenager Zane will always remember getting the guts out of a chicken, and pulling pin feathers off a duck. He smelt the smells and felt the feels.  

That’s truly farming. You can’t virtually farm. You have to need a shower at night and want to lay your tired body in bed to rest. That’s the real deal.

That’s what we love about teaching the way we do: it’s real. 

• You’ll get to scrape the hog. 
• You’ll get to move the cow fence for the cows to graze new grass.
• You’ll get to put the food in the jar and the jar in the canner.
• You’ll get to smell real soil.
• You’ll get to taste the pork steak you just cut off the half a pig laying on the cutting table. 

Experience. How else do you learn how to do something? That’s why this is “The Anyone Can Farm Experience.” Because you get to experience how to farm, ask questions of people who really farm, and meet other people who really homestead in one way or another.

Come and be part of the experience!