Boots and Hooves Homestead may earn a commission for purchases made after clicking links on this page. View our disclosure policy for details.
Homesteading can help you build the life of your dreams and provide fresh food for you and your family. Are you ready to homestead for real? Read tips for starting homesteading here.
I’m sharing more than 50 resources to help those who are learning to homestead. Perfect for beginners – the very basics & tips to help get you started.
Over the last few years, we have moved a few different times. So to say that we are adept at this beginning homestead thing, is a little bit of an understatement.
This post has been updated from its original publish date of May 19, 2019. It has been updated to provide better photos, additional helpful information, and step by step tips.
Long story short, we have started our homestead journey, got settled, built structures, created new gardens, set up fencing, etc. Just in time to move within a couple of short years.
We’ve had our share of building from scratch, trying different things. And then doing it all over again and yet again. It hasn’t been a bad experience, we have kind of gotten the hang of this.
However, it would be great to finally settle into one place for a bit longer term. And I believe this is our next journey. We have moved onto my husband’s family ranch and the process of building/moving a new home has begun.
It will be a long road ahead. We need to build all of the animal structures, fencing, and gardens over again. But it will be a joyous road for our family.
Preparing the land.Digging for the new homestead basement.Fox blocks for basement walls.Using a crane to move the new home.
Homesteading for Beginners
Are you a beginner homesteader? Where do you begin when you need to start from scratch? I’m sharing some of my favorite resources for the beginner homesteader.
Homesteading is the practice of self-sufficiency. Homesteading is not just for farmers, but for anyone living in a rural community or even an urban community.
Of course, you don’t need to have a ton of acres to begin homesteading. I think one of the most important things about beginning any homestead journey is to start small.
To learn a variety of different skills.
Self-sufficiency takes time, a whole lot of effort, and a ton of diy projects.
And it really isn’t for the faint of heart.
Creating your ideal homestead lifestyle will look different from my ideal version and goals.
For us it may look like having an acreage on the ranch, raising animals, and growing a variety of foods on acres of land.
For you it could be totally different. Like growing a small patio garden or herb garden in the kitchen window and food preservation. Or backyard homesteading with bees, gardens, and raising chickens for eggs.
And then for the next person it could be living off-grid and focusing on fiber arts and other trades.
So, homesteading really is what you can do where you are and within your means, skill level, and ability. And varies so much for different people.
I think if you make a plan to learn a new skill a little at a time, you will really set yourself up to be successful.
Preparing to homestead
Let’s talk about some things you could do now if you’re preparing to build your dream homestead. Or maybe dreaming up the day when you can raise your own backyard chickens and grow more of your own food.
Before I started homesteading, I grew a few tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and herbs on the balcony of my apartment building.
I didn’t dream of raising my own food for self sufficiency. But I did believe in supporting our local farmers by shopping small and frequenting farmer’s markets.
Here are a few skills that you can learn now while waiting to homestead.
Before I got married, I was a city girl very focused on my career in Human Resources Management and Business Operations.
I grew up in Los Angeles. And so I knew nothing about country living, or homesteading for that matter. I mean, I was born and raised deep in the heart of the city.
I never ever in my wildest dreams desired to learn how to milk a cow or help a goat during kidding. The closest that I was to homesteading was growing a small container garden on my apartment balcony.
My husband grew up on his family’s cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. So, definitely opposites attracted in this situation.
I literally married a real life cowboy.
The culture shock was real, but I quickly fell in love with the the country life. And when we got married and began raising children, I wanted a more natural & simple life for our children.
This is where I began to learn some of the basic homesteading skills and self-sufficient lifestyle. And over the last decade, we’ve grown to learn more.
So, I get it. I know where you’re coming from as a beginner and I want to share what I’ve learned with you.
Self Sufficiency on the Homestead
Being self sufficient is something that is very important to my family. But how do we make self sufficiency work on the homestead?
Creating an annual homestead schedule is helpful for the success of the yearly goals on the farm. It helps to keep focused and plan out month to month goals
I think that there is a notion that modern homesteading is an old fashioned or pioneer type of life. Or often is confused with the homestead act. So what exactly is a modern homesteader anyway?
Around our family farm, I like to draw my homestead inspiration from two of my favorite TV series – either “The Waltons” or “Little House on the Prairie”. So many great life lessons on frugality, self-sufficiency and homesteading can be found while watching these series. I put together this list of some of the inspiration that I’ve drawn from them while running our homestead.
Are you dreaming of a homestead but don’t know how to change your life? Do you fear the outcome if you leave it all behind and try to make the transition? Find out what it really means to have the courage change your life.
Over the past few years of our homesteading journey, I have learned many lessons. If I could narrow it all down, here’s my top five homesteading lessons.
Over the past several years we have found our favorite tools to make homestead life easier. We’ve narrowed our list down to our top ten favorite tools. 10 Tools to Make Homestead Life Easier
Learn how to prepare for power outages that may arise during bad weather, blizzards, or during the winter months. Tips and tricks for items to stock up on before the outage.
Can you grow enough food to feed your family? How about for a years worth? Learning how much to plant per person in the vegetable garden takes some planning.. learn those tips here.
How to create a potager garden. A potager is basically a French ornamental kitchen garden. It’s filled with practical things like fruits, veggies and herbs, but is also ascetically pleasing and filled with a variety of florals.
How we grew HUNDREDS of pounds of food without weeding or watering a single time!
Do you love growing your own food but hate all the labor that comes along with it? Check out how we spent 2 hours on bed prep and planting time and grew over 300lbs of food without weeding or watering at all!
Like any garden method, there are both pros and cons. However there are also many benefits of raised bed gardening and I’m highlighting a few amazing benefits.
Find out how to prepare for the harvest with these 5 steps! We all dream of a huge garden that produces enough food for our family and animals… but if you’ve never had a garden
In this section, we are sharing our favorite ways to preserve the garden bounty. So you can enjoy jars of beautifully preserved foods from the garden and fruits from the orchard.
From canning resources (both water bath canning & pressure canning), cold storage, and dehydrating — my favorite method!
Beginner’s Guide to Canning and Preserving
How do you get started with canning and preserving when you’re a complete beginner? I’ve found some really great tools and resources to aid in your journey!
Do you get overwhelmed during the harvest season? A wonderful tool for keeping track of all of your food preservation efforts – canning, freezing, and dehydrating. Plan, organize, and track your preserves & storage.
This guide will get you set up for water bath canning success! An essential for every new home canner. Learn how to water bath can your own jams, jellies, salsa, pickles, and more!
This resource is perfect to keep in your kitchen after the garden harvest. You’ll find it full of useful information for beginning your pressure canning experience. Learn how to water bath can your own meats, vegetables, soups, and more!
Do you have goals for raising your own livestock on the homestead, small farm, or family ranch? We’ve compiled our best tips for raising chickens, cattle, goats, ducks, and more to help you get started.
How to Raise Chickens for Beginners
The basic information you need to know when you get started with raising chickens. How to raise chickens for beginners, from chicks to hens.
When raising chickens, you may want to free range chickens. But often times it isn’t the safest option to keep the flock safe. Here are many pros & cons.
I’m sharing a few awesome solutions on how to protect chickens from predators. This guide is helpful for anyone who wants new ideas to keep chickens safe.
Goats are a great animal of choice for most small farm owners. If you have a small amount of land to work with, here’s the best dairy goats breeds to start.
New to raising goats? Or maybe looking for info on how to care for pregnant goats. I’m sharing some lessons I’ve learned over the years in postpartum goat care
Goats are amazing at clearing up unwanted brush and weeds. In this post you’ll learn more about the benefits of using goats for grazing and land clean up.
