Our first long form YouTube video has officially been posted!

When the idea for YouTube first arose, we couldn’t imagine posting a video longer than a couple minutes! Now here we are posting a 30 minute interview video about why we feel called to homestead.

It’s raw and simple. And it’s our first real step into documenting the journey intentionally.

We’re two farm girls living in the city, working full-time, and preparing for land we don’t own yet. This channel and this blog is where we document the in-between season.

It’s only been a few weeks now since we started posting videos consistently but it has felt like a journey. A new season. One full of excitement as much as reservations!

We have found joy in the process. In learning to carry cameras around, in editing, in learning and in incorporating and building the homesteading skills now.

For our first long-form video, we chose to sit down and share our story: where this dream started, what it means to us, and how we’re preparing while still living in the city.

With this, we are sharing part of that interview in written form.

Why homesteading?

Jo: I think it’s having grown up on the countryside, it’s just in our blood. Moving to the city for university was a big change being from small towns. The idea of getting back to that quietness of the farm and countryside, that aspect of eating from the garden and slowly trying to build our dream farms.

Hannah: I’ve always really enjoyed it being out on the farm. I go out there still quite often to visit and help out on my parent’s farm. Going back to a homestead or to a farm and being able to build that up myself would be the ultimate dream. The freedom of being out on a homestead and working for myself or with my best friend, I feel like that would be a lot of fun to do.

What are you most looking forward to on the homestead?

Hannah: For me, it’s the garden and growing all my own food. I want to have a very big garden and a lot of fruit trees! If I can, I want to build up a whole U-pick. I’m looking forward to the animals but I got a lot to learn. I’m gonna get there!

Jo: The horses, Nigerian goats, maybe some mini cows, some ducks…. just a variety of different farm animals. All the joy and chaos they bring!

Also, the quietness that’s the farm. When you wake up in the city all you hear are the noises of the traffic or you look out your window and you see the house next to you. Whereas, growing up on the farm, you look out the window and things would be peaceful. The birds are singing their morning songs, the farm cat is crossing the yard on the prowl, and the farm dog is out and about. At night you would hear the crickets chirping, and the coyotes howling their songs. The peace of being in God’s creation.

What is one thing you’re doing to prepare yourself for the homestead?

Hannah: I’m trying to learn as much as possible. I realize there’s a lot more to learn so right now I’m trying to take some lessons, conferences and such. There’s going to be an upcoming conference on homesteading which will teach us about beekeeping for example (soap making last year!). I’ve also learned about garden patterns and growing your garden in the best way possible. I would like to take horse back riding lessons in the future but one step at a time for me! We’re slowly getting there right now. I kind of want to seize the opportunity before we get out to the homestead to learn as much as possible.

Jo: I’d add to that, we’re trying to get a budget formulated but doing the research at the same time. It helps too that we both have an accounting background to determine what we are financially able to do or budget a way to get there.

The goal is to understand what’s behind everything we are envisioning like having horses, for example: what tack and equipment is needed, how much feed and how many acres per horse, etc. All that is going into the preparation so that when we get to the farm, we’re ready to go. We will know what we need to do.

Even with our garden, that’s something we can do for homesteading right now where we are. We can take the time to experiment and try different ways of gardening: raised garden beds with square foot gardening versus Hannah’s got the in ground garden. We have the chance to try different plants.

But, then coming back to our farming background, we both know what we’re looking for and what to expect. We also know the areas where we need to develop our skills so that way we’re not jumping into this blind.

To watch the rest of our interview, see our YouTube video here!

Grace and peace,

Jo & Hannah

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