A Day in the Life of a Modern Day Homesteader

Modern Day Homesteader. What a cool title, right? Sometimes people bring me back to reality when they ask,”So what do you DO?” I’m sure they think I sit on my porch drinking sweet tea while the sunsets and my sheep graze. So romanticized. Or maybe they think I muck stalls all day? We are not commercial farmers so we don’t ride tractors all day or bring in the cows every evening, so what do we do?

Join me on a day in the life of a modern day homesteader through pictures!

Listing out the chores I do everyday doesn’t sound very fun, so this is my day summed up in pictures. The mommy stuff is left out for your sake, because you don’t need pictures of me being a referee.

Milking

This might be my favorite chore. Have I confessed my love for milk before? That might be the reason I keep at it. For many milking is the most tedious chore. However, I love having an endless supply of fresh milk. I only milk my goats once a day too, so that keeps me from burning out. Every morning I get to see this face.

Cooking

3 meals a day, 7 days a week. Home cooked meals are the best, and I don’t know anybody who would argue with that. I cook nearly from scratch, so I can be found in the kitchen for a couple hours each day. Homemade sourdough bread, yogurt made from our goats milk, from scratch pudding, lamb chops and buttered greens, and of course fresh eggs from our hens. YUM

Feeding The Chickens Scratch

Mid day I go out and throw some scratch feed for the chickens. This has many advantages. First, it gets them off my porch (where they DON’T belong!). Second, it lures them out into the tall grass where they are bound to find bugs. My chickens like to pretend that they are prairie chickens.

Tending to the Chicks

We have a large incubator, and are testing out hatching chicks to sell. We have had chicks hatching 3-4 days out of the week, and we have to get them out of the incubator once per day. They are actually pretty simple to take care of. Food, water, heat. Cleaning out the incubator in between hatches, and making sure that I mark my calendar when we start a new batch of eggs. There is the occasional chick that needs help getting out the the shell, or needs a splint on it’s tiny legs to help it walk. My 5 year old is pretty involved in their care too.

Our Daily Farm Walk

Now, this is the best part of the day. It involves fresh farm air, sunsets, and peace. We seriously go on a farm walk every evening, it re-energizes me. (Read more about the daily farm walk)

Collecting Eggs

This is a chore that rarely gets old. Look at that rainbow of colors! The fancy basket makes it all the more fun too.

Feeding Hay

Until we have enough pastures filled with grass for our animals, we supplement with hay. The animals sure don’t complain, but I’m excited for the time when we have enough grass for everyone. Besides the cost of hay, the itchy little bits that go down my shirt are so annoying.

That covers an average day of my farm chores. It can vary depending on the season, and flow of life. Right now I am doing more than I was in the fall while I was taking a break from the homestead. Being a modern day homesteader is my dream come true.

PS We just had two brand new baby goats born on our farm a couple days ago. Make sure to Like my page on Facebook so you don’t miss updates!