by Jeffrey Green at Activist Post
Can you picture yourself living a homesteading lifestyle?
Waking up early to milk the cows, release the chickens to scratch the barnyard, collect their eggs and then update your blog before your stay-at-home family rises. The rest of the day you do chores aimed at delivering an authentic human experience for people you love. You produce high-quality food and happy healthy humans. You have independence and security but still enjoy the fruits of modern convenience.
Yes, you can do it. Many families are already living the dream and sharing their experiences on YouTube.
These YouTube homesteaders highlighted below share their personal experiences through vlogs and courses. They teach methods for raising livestock, growing fruits and vegetables, preparing and preserving food, homeschooling, and saving and making money.
There are many reasons for the growing popularity of homesteading, but general motivations seem to be the following:
- Desire for independence from potential social disruption
- Craving the highest quality food to optimize health
- Desire to gain authentic human skills and experiences
- Desire to live in better balance with nature
One of the biggest challenges for all homesteaders, old and new, is financial independence. Despite the goal of “self-sufficiency,” homesteaders still need to make enough money to interface with society and to take advantage of creature comforts. Mortgages, taxes, insurance and addiction to imported coffee are stubborn things.
Besides being entertaining teachers, the YouTubers below are my favorites because they also share the secret ingredient to cooking up a sustainable homesteading experience – making a supplementary income from home.
Here are the 5 best homesteading YouTube channels worth binge watching:
Every day the Rhodes family puts out a high-definition video blog that records daily activity on their homestead. After studying permaculture and pastured livestock under the likes of Joel Salatin, Justin practices what he preaches. With help from his wife and four enthusiastic kids, the Rhodes homestead is a beautiful example of how anyone can produce high-quality food. Rhodes also teaches free webinars and sells a video course on raising permaculture chickens. Entertaining and educational! Visit their website here: http://abundantpermaculture.com/
You can check out their recent farm update below, but I strongly suggest binge watching their archives.
Jack Spirko runs the wildly popular 5-day-a-week podcast show called The Survival Podcast which covers “how to live a better life if things get tough or even if they don’t.” He also runs a YouTube channel that documents his adventures into raising pastured ducks and quail, permaculture design, and “Meads of the Week” among other topics. Spirko authentically lives the solutions he promotes. He explains why he does things and he’s not afraid to show his successes and failures. Spirko teaches live workshops, webinars and speaks at live events.
Below is the first episode of Spirko’s latest Duck Chronicles series:
The Wranglerstar family documents their move from city slickers to become modern-day homesteaders. Through vlogging their daily experiences and reviewing homesteading products, they teach others to “become truly independent from the mythological American dream.” Playlists include titles like “Back to Basics,” “Kitchen Remodel,” and “Survival Kit.”
Below is a brief trailer of the Wranglerstar YouTube channel:
In every episode Becky shows you how to go from a consumer lifestyle into the self-sufficient homesteading lifestyle even if you never had any previous experience. Becky built a log cabin by herself. She grows gardens and keeps goats, chickens, pigs and more. Her videos are very educational and motivational. Visit Becky’s website at http://beckyshomestead.com
Watch Becky’s trailer below. It’s sure to convince you that anyone can do it and you’ll want to watch more.
An American Homestead follows three generations of a family who live completely off-grid with the exception of a phone line for Internet. They don’t have electricity or running water and yet they still manage to live an abundant lifestyle. Their videos will teach you to raise sheep, chickens and fish in their aquaponics system, rainwater collection, gardening, food preparation, how to store butter in an underground fridge, and so much more. They also run an excellent blog at http://anamericanhomestead.com/.
Here is a snapshot of why they became homesteaders and how they did it:
Thank you.
I will be sure to check out these channels. Self reliance is a huge part of the future whether we like it or not imo. Have you guys tried kombucha tea yet? I thought it would be complicated but its really easy to start and maintain.
Hi Aces,
We have not tried kombucha yet, however we culture sweet water kefir and drink it daily. Amazing how simple it is to produce our own probiotics versus the high cost and often much weaker versions for sale.
And yes, agreed that self-reliance is a must. Funny that I once thought self sufficiency meant I was able to cut a check or charge whatever I needed. Then I learned how little I knew about anything. :-)
Hello Mrs. Cog,
Kefir is next thing on the list for me. Also want to start fermenting foods as they retain most of the good stuff when preserved that way. I would like to suggest “Living Web Farms” for you and your members also,they have lots of informative vids on youtube.
Thanks Aces. I will check out the website.
We’ve experimented with fermenting quite a few things. You can find some of our adventures with fermenting recipes and links here: https://twoicefloes.com/the-great-fermenting-experiment/
Amazing we humans have made all this food stuff so complicated when its really pretty simple. :-)
Keep us posted on your fermenting efforts.