Baby Steps (Austin)

Since this is the premiere entry in this blog, I imagine that most folks who read this will already know my girlfriend and I as well as our situation. If so, feel free to skip the next paragraph.

We are college students at the University of Northern Iowa. Neither of us grew up on a farm or really has any agricultural experience. We have no land to our names, and right now we just live in regular apartments and dorms like most college students do. But we are working and saving for an acreage
on which to build a future and are constantly scouring the internet and talking with real estate agents to see what's out there and what areas we may want to end up in. As of now the top states in the running include Idaho, Montana, Texas, and Oklahoma. There are a few others but the properties we like tend to come from these states.
"But Austin, since you don't own land why are you blogging about a homestead you can't yet build?" Valid question. This blog exists as a chronicle of our journey toward self-sufficiency, a record of our thoughts and attempts at various projects, and as a medium with which we can convey our experiences and discoveries to whomever finds them interesting. We want you to see the process unfold as we complete it step-by-step (we also want to someday look back it from the beginning), and we have already been making our first baby steps.
I've read a few homesteading books, and there seems to be a fairly agreed upon series of undertakings to help city folks like Lauren and I transition into the self-sufficient/agricultural lifestyle we desire. Without intending to, we've already been well following that curriculum as we've tried to adopt the practices that we can in our current urban environment. The next several posts will show you these items in depth, but here's a brief preview of the beginners' tasks that we've already undertaken:

• Start a compost bin
• Plant a garden
• Begin raising one species of small livestock (for us, rabbits)

A few other tasks we are set to due but waiting for the above tasks to provide the materials:

• Properly harvest the garden's produce
• Clean and butcher livestock
• Can/preserve garden produce and animal meat
• Tan/treat rabbit hides for sale or crafting

So these bullets are a good look at some of the stuff we are excited about and you can expect to hear more on, but these aren't the only things. We'll share fun facts and articles we find, interesting concepts we came across and are considering for future use, success/failure stories, and more. So keep up with us and we will gladly keep you up to date!