My name is Jessica Lane. I live with my husband and three children on a 1/4 acre backyard homestead in Maine. We raise Nigerian Dwarf goats, ducks, chickens, and quail, and we grow as much of our food as we are able. What we can’t grow or produce for ourselves we try to barter with other homesteaders for. If we can homestead where we live, what’s stopping you?

Homesteading is a way of life, a way in which we can all live off the land that we have available to us, relying less on living beyond our means. As we all move into the future, we are relying less on our skills and abilities and more on buying everything we need. Homesteading teaches us to get back to the traditional ways of life, growing your own vegetables, raising your own animals, baking your own goods, but that doesn’t mean you have to move out into the countryside and run a large farm.

Being able to utilize the land available to you and get the most out of even a small backyard homestead is the backbone of simple living and through The 104 Homestead I intend to show you exactly how to accomplish it! The important thing to remember is, and I’ll keep reminding you about it is that you don’t need a huge plot of land or a farm to be successful. The best thing you can do is keep trying, if something doesn’t work the first time, then don’t give up on it completely. Go back to the drawing board and take a look at where it went wrong, and fix it, then try again.

Homesteading is a way of life, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on everything in your life! There are some great ways that you can start off a backyard homestead and introduce your family and loved ones to delicious natural foods, chemical and artificial free. There is simply no easy way to describe the feeling of sitting down for a meal with your family and friends and enjoying the fruits of your hard labor.

One of the things which make backyard homesteading great is the ability to share ideas and advice. To make sure that you don’t miss out on any homesteading goodies, be sure to sign up for The Homestead Helper! You can also follow me on social media. I look forward to sharing my backyard homestead with you and seeing the results of your hard work!

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“Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may or may not also involve the small-scale production of textiles, clothing, and craft work for the household use. Homesteading is not defined by where someone lives, such as the city or the country, but by the lifestyle choices they make.”

From my favorite homesteading book,
Homegrown & Homemade