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I am addicted to watching various self sufficiency and off grid living YouTube channels eg Wild Wonderful Off Grid. It’s like all the videos on YouTube about T

I am addicted to watching various self sufficiency and off grid living YouTube channels eg Wild Wonderful Off Grid. It’s like all the videos on YouTube about Tiny Homes, Treehouses and people living in stealth vans: totally absorbing. But this article is an entirely different level of realism; this is talking about actually doing it, and taking an attitude that seems quite different from all those super great videos I mentioned.

taborj 7y ago
One of the things that a lot of those videos don't convey very well is this one, inescapable fact: homesteading is work. Hard work at times. A lot of videos romanticize it, but the fact is sometimes you're going to be tired and sore and cold and wet and hot and sweaty, and sometimes all at once. I think that's something that not a lot of people really appreciate, and the linked article falls just short of touching on, which is a shame because they're almost there. The first point of "grow something - anything" is good advice, and it has the possibility of easing you into the physical labor part of homesteading.
- HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
  This is one of the reasons I really like the TV show "Alaska: The Last Frontier." They don't shy away from showing the real hard work and explaining how things break, have to be fixed, dealing with predators, etc. We live on a small farm and it pretty much mirrors my experience. No matter if it's -20F and gale force winds or 100F with insane humidity and clouds of mosquitoes, still gotta go out and feed the animals.
- tomcam 7y ago
  Also a lot of the work is on its own schedule, not yours—esp. anything involving animals.
  - taborj 7y ago
    Oh yes. You gotta get the animals fed and let out when they get up, 7 days a week. And they get up when the sun gets up. And that's why I built an esp8266-based automated chicken door.
kzrdude 7y ago
Have you seen Red Gardens? it's very practical and methodical

taborj 7y ago

One of the things that a lot of those videos don't convey very well is this one, inescapable fact: homesteading is work. Hard work at times. A lot of videos romanticize it, but the fact is sometimes you're going to be tired and sore and cold and wet and hot and sweaty, and sometimes all at once. I think that's something that not a lot of people really appreciate, and the linked article falls just short of touching on, which is a shame because they're almost there. The first point of "grow something - anything" is good advice, and it has the possibility of easing you into the physical labor part of homesteading.

HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
This is one of the reasons I really like the TV show "Alaska: The Last Frontier." They don't shy away from showing the real hard work and explaining how things break, have to be fixed, dealing with predators, etc. We live on a small farm and it pretty much mirrors my experience. No matter if it's -20F and gale force winds or 100F with insane humidity and clouds of mosquitoes, still gotta go out and feed the animals.
tomcam 7y ago
Also a lot of the work is on its own schedule, not yours—esp. anything involving animals.
- taborj 7y ago
  Oh yes. You gotta get the animals fed and let out when they get up, 7 days a week. And they get up when the sun gets up. And that's why I built an esp8266-based automated chicken door.

kzrdude 7y ago

Have you seen Red Gardens? it's very practical and methodical