First anniversary

Hello and welcome back, and what a day to be joining me. What’s so special about today? I hear you ask. Well, on this day one year ago, I launched and uploaded my first post for the Vandemonian Homesteader. So today, I am celebrating this blog’s first anniversary and am honestly amazed at how quickly the past year has gone by. As with any year, a lot has changed, and there has been both good and bad. But regardless of how I view it, I’ve learned and gotten a lot out of it. So today, I thought I would do a quick reflection over the past twelve months and give you a brief outline of what’s to come for the Vandemonian homesteader in the coming year.  

Looking back

Like many people, I have spent years watching homesteading videos and reading related books, thinking how great it would be to do that, have a place in the bush and provide for yourself. I would think I could get there one day, but not actually have any plans to make it happen. “The timing isn’t right” and “I don’t know how” are expressions I would use frequently. Then one day, while reading, I came across the following quote.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are” Theodore Roosevelt

It got me thinking about what I could do to achieve this goal of homesteading using what I had at that moment instead of waiting for things to be perfect. Knowing that a lot of people are also beginning to seek more from life than what the 9 to 5 can offer, and are probably in the same position thinking, “How?”. I decided to start this blog to document and share my experience and help others realise that getting out of the rat race can be done and is not as daunting as they would think. The quote then took on a mantra-like quality that has since been applied heavily to my blog work.

This is why my posts have been on topics like budgeting and finances, cooking and small jobs around the home over the last year. Small things that can help you reach your goal and provide some skills to give you a taste of what’s involved. Finances, in particular, I believe, are a struggling point for many people. It is far too easy to find yourself caught in the trap of living paycheck to paycheck. And it can be hard or even depressing to think or plan for the future if you can barely afford to survive each week. I’ve been there and know all too well what it’s like. And although I am not a financial expert, what I have shared related to the topic has worked for me both currently and in the past. And I know the largest hurdle for any would-be homesteader is being able to afford the land you need to get started, so any advice that can help towards that goal is worth its weight in gold.  

Since hitting launch a year ago, I have picked up new skills and have improved on others. Typing posts used to be a chore, but I have grown to enjoy the process over the year. I have also begun to enjoy the research that goes into my posts. I am now learning and studying topics I would never have considered even looking at before. Having a day or afternoon where I can work on the blog has become the highlight of my week, especially when I can bust out my camera and take photos for each post.

And finally, I can’t talk about the past year without mentioning the land I purchased. This was one of the more challenging goals I had to achieve. From what I have been told, there is a considerable amount of work to be done to it before I can start to live there, but honestly, I expected that. I don’t know what needs to be done until I can get there and look at it in person. So I am looking forward to being able to spend a few days exploring it when I return home next month. It’s hard to plan for the future and set goals without seeing and knowing what’s there and what I will need to do, but that will change soon.

Looking forward

As for the coming year, I predict it will be another busy year. And unfortunately, setting myself up on the land will have to wait until I finish some repairs and renovations to another property I own. Thankfully as mentioned in a previous post, the place I will be living in during this time has a large backyard that will allow me to do whatever I want to. As a bonus, it’s also a short drive to the land, so once I get a plan in place, I can go out every now and then and do some work to help speed up the process.

With the large backyard, I will be doing plenty of gardening, some small building jobs and demonstrating ways that people can start producing food and being self-sufficient while living in a suburban area. While I won’t go 100% into urban farming as it is not my desired outcome, I plan to cover the basics and do a few how-tos so that anyone willing to give it a go knows what’s involved. I also plan to do more posts on things that can be done inside the home, so expect more posts with recipes and some new ones covering basic maintenance, soapmaking and home brewing just to name a few. As much as I have loved travelling these past three years, I have missed making my own beer and mead at home, which will change as soon as I get back.   

As I have typed this post and reflected over the past year and the year that’s coming, I realise that I am pretty fortunate in the sense that as I have been running this blog, I have lived in a variety of living situations, single tenant, housemate in a shared apartment and even couch surfing for a week and very shortly I will be in the suburbs. In all these places I have lived, I have had the same goal, and I appreciate that I have been able to view that goal and the steps needed to achieve it from various living situations. Hopefully, this insight allows me to deliver my message and relate better with you, the reader.   

 Overall I am excited for the coming year, it will be difficult, and I expect a lot of curveballs, Like A LOT of them. But that’s what makes this whole journey worthwhile. The past year has been great. Thanks to this blog, I have learnt a lot and grown because of it. As for now, I can’t wait to return to Australia and get stuck into building the life I want.

All that’s left for me to do now is thank you for reading and following my journey so far. I couldn’t have done it without you. The next year is shaping up to be more productive than the last, so feel free to subscribe and keep checking in.

Next week I will step back into the kitchen for one final time before I leave Canada, and I will make a batch of chicken stock. So until then, have yourself a good one, and I will catch you later.