Up-cycling. Why we do it.

We up-cycle stuff. A trendy word for recycling, re-using, taking donations, trading, what have you..we do it. No shame, it is the reality of starting up a homestead, a farm, a business. It is the way it goes. Start ups always have Large expense and limited to no income. You must keep costs low if you plan to stay out of the red. You can not spend a fortune on a new coop if you then have no money available to put chickens in it, right?! That is like buying a new house and having no money to furnish it..you are house poor.

Here is the last project we up-cycled the materials for last fall. Our newest building on the homestead; the big chicken coop. Maybe we should name it..thoughts?

Anders and I had been talking about our need for a bigger coop for a while, but it was going to be a fairly big project, and life is life....busy. Well, and budgeting in a coop when your home needs siding and we needed other things, is a tough sell. I was adamant, we WERE selling more eggs and meat birds next year, it was a divine message I received (sounds more convincing this way, no?)... and we were going to manifest it; no more waiting around, we do it Now. Anders was not such a fan, how in the world are we going to budget a 50 bird coop? Anders priced out what he thought it would cost to build that 50 bird coop you are looking at...and can you believe that his estimate was 1,200.00-$1,300.00! That just wasn't something we were willing to budget in for a coop to put the chickens in. So, crafty me, I get a thinkin', because when I want something, I make it happen. I had another divine inspiration my husband hates to love; we were going to Up-Cycle it. We were going to get as much of the materials for free as we could.

We weren't out asking everyone on the street for their stuff or anything weird like that. We just payed attention to what people wanted to get rid of, and if we could use it, we did. Anders works construction and I sent him off each day with me in the back of his head telling him to look for materials they would throw out that we could use. He began coming home with our old Volvo station wagon stuffed with old plywood (which had strategically placed square holes cut out of it), wood and other supplies that they typically just throw out. Then I asked him to spend some of his free time on Craigslist searching for other materials that we could use. Next thing you know, we are in Minneapolis with our trailer picking up tons of 2x4s from someones house; they were remodeling. The catch? The 2x4's were full of nails.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

What do we do on the homestead, what does that look like? Who are we?

I think after introducing what homesteading is exactly, we should let you know what that looks like at Nature's Acres Homestead. What do we do each season or day? I will do this with some pics of the joint. Please note that none of them are current as we are in the middle of the most absurd winter blizzard in the middle of April. I have no intention of snapping shots of anything right now. At evening chore time the snow on the way to the chicken coops was mid-calf in some places. Which just means that more pictures will come in later posts. I have found that people love pics of the HSF(I am going to use this for Homestead/Farm, way easier) while reading an update, so....a photo montage, in  no particular order...just thowin' 'em up there as I find them...'cause that is the reality of life.

First, meet the Benson's...we typically dress like this and hold hands while doing farm chores...when I harvest cherries(Mandi) it gets real fun... I hope you all are ready for some snickers while reading....it is who I am.

The lot of us..except the kids are a bit older..I don't take family pics often..but, here we are. These are the best pics of us you will see on here, this is not farm garb, and when we take pics we wont be modeling. Well, my daughter might be..

So, what exactly does is mean to Homestead? Is it farming?

Homesteading isn't really a common term anymore. I am sure most who hear Anders and I talk about it wonder, what does that even mean? Well, that really is a good question. What does it mean, especially today? Well, I will share a bit of insight on the term/action and explain a bit about what it means for Anders and I, and our family at Nature's Acres Homestead. 

I am sure we are all familiar with The Homesteading Act of 1862 right? Well, settle in for a few minutes of history...You all have seen Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, right? They leave Ireland to come to America where they are giving away free land (wouldn't it be nice if they were doing this today, instead of taking it away?! Times sure have changed), this is an example of the Homestead Act. The United States gave away free land in order to entice people to settle in remote or less desirable places. The idea was that people would settle down and live sustainably (gah! another of those words..what does that mean?) off the land. They would build their own home from resources in their environment, grow their own food, preserve their own food, they even used wild yeasts to make their bread!, hunted, raised their own animals(utilizing all of the animal), use bi-products from the animals such as: wool, leather, hair etc. to make clothing an containers, build homes, decorate, for food, and many other uses. They lives as self-sufficiently(this is another post entirely) as possible. Most of these people didn't have jobs outside of the Homestead; they didn't really need one. They raised their own food, didn't have a mortgage or cars to fill with gasoline, and traded or sold goods to get what they couldn't procure in another way. Many had skills they traded with others, for example; a woodworker could trade the work of a kitchen set with a neighbor for the mortar work of a new fireplace. They spent their days living to produce what they needed to live, with very little consumption outside of that.

So, with that said, do Anders live like Little House on the Prairie?