Homesteading Skills to Master This Fall

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Have you thought about what homesteading skills you need to master this fall? Homesteading requires different skills for different seasons. Knowing what you need to have down this fall before going into the harshness of the upcoming winter months will help keep you and your homestead up and going. 

With winter quickly approaching, you can give yourself a head start by looking into homesteading skills classes, researching some modern homestead ideas, and marking off what you have learned on your self-sufficiency skills list!

Figuring out this way of life won’t happen overnight, but one of our favorite things about homesteading is that with the willingness to put in the work, you can give yourself a real sense of accomplishment and not just live life running through the motions.

What is The First Thing to Do On a New Homestead?

Are you new to homesteading and still working on building up the skills for your new lifestyle? One of the first things you can do on a new homestead is to try and break things down into bite-sized pieces instead of trying to tackle everything at once! Also, accept the fact that it will take time along with a lot of trial and error!

Homesteading Skills You Need to Master 

So what are homesteading skills? These are practical skills that help you make the most of your homesteading experience. They teach you how to be self-sufficient and ready to take on anything. These skills help you feed yourself and your family by growing your own garden, raising your own chickens, and putting your land and skills to good use. They prepare you to care for common illnesses and injuries since many homesteads are not located very close to doctors and hospitals. 

Homesteading requires many new skills, which will constantly change depending on the size and scope of your homestead, but some of the basics you need to master will always remain the same. Perfecting these skills will set the foundation for many years of productive homesteading.

Growing Your Own Food

Whether you have a kitchen garden or a large garden outside, one of the most important homesteading skills that you need to know is how to grow your own food. With many homesteads located far from town, you can’t just run to the grocery store every time you need something in the kitchen. 

There are a couple of different ways to start a garden. Seeds are more affordable to start with but will take more time, attention, and proper care to turn into productive plants. There is also the option to purchase what is known as “starts,” which are plants that someone else has already started with the seed and is now in the process of growing. These cost more upfront but give you a heartier start to your plants and often a higher survival rate when it comes to growing your own produce. 

Food Preservation

Getting creative with preserving the food you grow will diversify your meals and broaden your homesteading skills. Some of the most well-known preservation methods include canning, dehydrating, and pickling. Each of these has its own pros and cons and comes with a lot of skills to learn when it comes to figuring out the processes. This is one of the skills where a homesteading skills class at local community colleges or spending some time with local farmers who are running their own homestead can be very helpful to you in learning the necessary skills. 

Freeze-drying, root cellars, and other alternative preservation methods are also gaining some traction among the homesteading communities. Finding new ways to utilize resources is a great homesteading skill to have!

Knowing How to Build Meals from Scratch

In today’s world of convenience and pre-packaged everything, it’s hard to think of what it takes to build a meal from scratch.  However, when you look at the big picture, it’s often much cheaper and healthier to implement this way of cooking whenever you can. This is one of the examples where putting in some hard work can save you time in the long run, and let’s also be honest when we say there is nothing better than fresh food on the table and the satisfaction you get from building the meal from scratch!

This is the perfect time to have lots of fun while building up specific skills in the kitchen. It’s also a great way to involve your kids so that they feel they are a part of the process as well! Many homesteaders have found making their own bread to be a great skill to master early on as they begin building a more simple life.

Composting

To grow those healthy vegetables and turn all of your scraps into resources, you will need to learn the art of composting. Composting is a task that you can start with just a small compost pile and work your way up to a more complex range of bins, but no matter how big or small, it is an essential skill in the homestead lifestyle.

If you have kids and are building a homeschool curriculum, composting is basically one large science experiment that can constantly change with the different products you put into it! There is so much to learn and many fun things for kids to get excited about as far as what might happen next!

Understanding How to Care for Your Animals

Many homesteads include a variety of animals. Going into the winter, you will need to know some of the different tips and tricks for keeping everyone alive and healthy in this sometimes brutal season. Whether it’s adding protein to their meals, making sure their shelter is properly winterized, or making sure all fences are in good working order to keep hungry predators out! 

Chickens are a fairly hearty homesteading animal, albeit also low on the food chain. Learning some of the skills necessary to keep them comfortable can greatly add to your homestead for multiple purposes. One skill you will have to learn, and that will vary depending on the breed of chickens you have, is that they can sometimes lay less when the weather is really cold. One way to counteract this is by purchasing feed, or adding old egg shells into their feed, to help ramp up their overall production. 

Basic Homesteading Survival Skills

Knowing some basic survival skills for yourself and your family is necessary for living on the homestead. Whether it’s growing herbs to help with common cold symptoms or having a stocked first aid kit ready for any accidents that might occur. 

With many homesteads being some distance from a local 911 call, you need to know how to handle any situation until help can arrive. Being outside and completing many tasks that require some degree of difficulty, there is always a risk of accidents. 

You will also want to know how to prepare for any power outages by making some of your own candles to have around the house!

Your homesteading journey can be one of the most rewarding and self-fulfilling ways of life when you know what you’re doing, but can also be a bit overwhelming when you don’t. One of the best pieces of advice we can give is to start small, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and learn the basic skills first. 

Can you think of other homesteading skills you found helpful to master on your homestead? Something you had to learn the hard way that you want to help new homesteaders learn before they get started? Let us know. We love hearing from others who have taken on the homesteading lifestyle!