Start Where You Are With What You Have

Sometimes life doesn’t always go the way you think it will or the way you plan it to go. My life is no exception. I’m actually trying to think something, ANYTHING, that has gone to plan. I’m not exaggerating either. Ever since I was little (like 5 years old little), I planned and dreamed of having a horse farm and homestead. It’s now thirty years later, and our family is living on a very shaded half acre on the busiest road in the middle of town. This is far from my plan for my life. 

It wasn’t long ago that I was whining and complaining to my husband that we were still stuck in town. The piece of property that I want is just down the road and practically laughs at me every time I drive by. To say I was depressed is a complete understatement. It was during that conversation that Phillip said something that stuck with me. I don’t even know if he remembers saying it to me, but I remember it. He told me to “Start where you are with what you have.”

At first I thought, “How am I going to do that?! We live in town with no sun to grow anything!” We also don’t have a fence or anything. But, I did have a phone. I called the city to see if we are allowed to have chickens in town. Short version of that story is yes, we can have chickens, but we would have to jump through a lot of hoops and pay a bunch of money. I had to cross that idea off the list.

Moving on! Since that option wasn’t going to be an option, I had to come up with something else. My next option was to try to grow some of our food. I wasn’t sure how that would work since our entire yard is shade. Well, as it turned out, we had a couple trees in our yard that were leaning a bit. We have a friend who is an arborist, so we had him come over and take those down so they wouldn’t fall on the house. I’m so glad we did! The bigger of the two was completely hollow and rotten through the bottom half of the tree. I was bummed to lose those big, beautiful trees, but it opened up a little space for sun to come through! I had just enough space for some cloth bags to grow stuff in! It wasn’t much, mind you, but was something!

I spent a few hours one afternoon filling about ten of those grow bags with black dirt and carefully planting seeds and seedlings. I made sure to water regularly and keep a close eye on them. Everything still failed epically. I got a few random tomatoes. That was it. But I was learning!

After that fiasco, I turned my energy into researching other ways to homestead or be self-sufficient. Most of them are not at all possible to do on this property, especially anything related to farm animals. But, I do have a kitchen!

Since I had a major flop with my attempt at a garden, I shifted gears into trying to preserve instead. No, I didn’t have any of my own home-grown food to preserve, but I could buy fresh produce from local farmers to preserve for winter.  In the past year, I’ve learned how to make applesauce, apple jelly, apple butter, and apple syrup. And I learned how to can all of that. I also bought peaches and pears to can and made peach syrup out of the skins. We also did some experimenting with pickles and sauerkraut. 

One thing that we did get fresh from our property is grapes! We found a wild grape vine randomly growing in my flower bed. The kids had so much fun picking and cleaning grapes to be turned into jelly. It turned out amazing!

The other major blessing from this past year came from some very good friends of ours. They had some extra space in their chicken tractor, so they offered to raise meat birds for us. That is the best tasting chicken we’ve had! By the end of the summer, we had our freezer well-stocked with 30 pasture raised chickens.

There have been several things since then, but I say all this to show that it is possible. I want nothing more than to live on my own piece of land and to raise all my own animals and food. But for right now, this is where God wants us. I keep praying that it will eventually come to reality, but I need to be content for now. Once I started with “homesteading” here in town, things started to fall into place. I have been learning an awful lot even though it’s not in the way I would have liked or thought. I am obviously still learning the fact that God’s plan is always better than my own. I do hope I can fully understand that concept sooner than later!

So, don’t get discouraged by plans not working “properly” or things falling apart. They may just be pieces of the puzzle that you need to find before the picture is complete. God always know best. Just start where you are with what you have and let God do the rest. If you are faithful in the small things, God will allow the bigger things when His timing is ready. Don’t worry or fret. Just start where you are with what you have.

The first part of this story that you just read was written on 5/5/2022, but I never put it on the blog. I started this blog several years ago in hopes that I would be documenting our journey to our homestead and beyond. As of today, we still have not been able to purchase our own land. Maybe someday I will tell you the story about why. But today is not that day. Today, I just want everyone to know that it’s okay to start where you are with a few pots on your balcony. Trying to “farm” where we are living right now has definitely stretched my abilities and my imagination. I’ve learned that the less than ideal makes you get so much more creative with problem solving. It really doesn’t matter if it’s a good problem or a bad problem. Your skills tend to broaden.

So, just do the best you can with what you have. There is always something to learn, no matter where you live. I can’t wait to take you all on this crazy little journey we have started! It’s messy, and it will probably get messier before it gets better, but at least we are trying. We are starting where we are with what we have.