The "-ish" of it All

Okay, so we've already established that we're not doing the homestead thang, but we are striving for homestead-ish.  Heavy on the -ish.  What's that mean exactly?  Let's explore...

Homestead:  Grocery store? What's that?  We grow all our own food! In fact, we have such an over abundance of produce that we help feed those in need in our community.   

Homestead-ish:  Doing our our best to grow what we can and if we're lucky our yield will be more than three tomatoes, five zucchini, and a ton of disgusting grubs that ate all our potatoes like last year.

Homestead:  Raising and butchering our own animals for meat and hides is our way of life!  See that cow carcass hanging from the tree?  That was Bessie - I killed and gutted her myself.  Tomorrow the kids are going to help me cut her into steaks and make beef jerky! 

Homestead-ish:  We've got chickens to provide us with eggs and snuggles (chicken snuggles are therapeutic) and a tiny heard of yaks for breeding, selling, milking (yak milk - yum!), and fiber.  Aaaaand, not gonna lie - also for snuggling.  There are no carcasses hanging from our trees.  (Not that I have a problem with that - I just can't bring myself to do it.  Yet.  Give me time.)

Homestead:  Completely off-grid, solar power, well water, the works.  We don't need no stinking utilities! 

Homestead-ish:  crickets  We're totally reliant on the "grid".

Homestead:  Using an outhouse is no big deal!  Bathrooms in the house are gross!

Homestead-ish:  Look, I'm no Eve Kilcher.  I'm a fan of indoor plumbing.  But if I have to go outside, I can sometimes do it with only minimal pee getting on my pants.  I've never been very good at squatting in the woods. 

Homestead:  We forage for medicinal plants and make our own tinctures to heal us when we're sick!

Homestead-ish:  Guys - I've got this one covered!  I've already got two pints of usnea tincture.  I foraged and harvested and tinctured it all by myself.  It tastes absolutely horrid and will probably wreak havoc on your liver seeing as how I used Everclear for the extraction process, but it should knock out an ear infection if you get one.  You're welcome. 

Homestead:  Our root cellar is packed floor to ceiling on every wall with jars of preserved food - at least two-year's worth! We are prepared for disaster.

Homestead-ish:  Okay, I'm also not too behind the curve on this one either.  I've learned how to both water can and pressure can food.  I don't have two years worth built up yet but I'm working on it.  If you want a jar of split pea and ham soup that will be shelf stable for ten years and looks like a jar of pond scum (but tastes delicious), just stop by and I'll hook you up.  But you have to return the jar!

So now that we've defined what we're striving for, the"-ish"of it all, it's going to take a lot of time and figuring out, falling and getting back up.  Let's do it.