Making More Out of Less

Homesteading is hard. There, I said it. It's not always fun. It takes time. It's dirty. It takes a lot of hard work. And yes, it takes money, especially when getting started.There Are Always ExpensesOur ancient farmhouse is your classic money pit. The plumbing is being replaced piece by piece as the copper welds give. The plaster walls are slowly giving way to new drywall as we go. There isn't a single light switch in our downstairs, and we are in desperate need of more outlets. You get the picture. It's a constant work in progress and I cringe at the thought of new people seeing the house in its current state.We have yet to hire professional help (knock on wood) and have slowly made our way with generous labor from friends, internet tutorials, and sheer determination. But even with doing so much ourselves, supplies are a constant drain, especially on the bigger projects that require wood, hardware, rolls of welded wire, etc

Cedar posts and welded wire are a serious investment

Recently I hit a wall. With the expansion of our goat herd, we've found ourselves in serious need of a second stall for kidding and quarantining. When we priced it all out, the total for materials came to over $400. While I know this isn't a large amount to a lot of people, for us, it was a huge roadblock. This one project really stymied me and put me in a frustrated rut. And then, like most obstacles I've come across so far, I got stubborn with it and worked to find a way around it.Finding Free MaterialsMy first inspiration - the dump. In our town we have to drop our trash off ourselves at the dump. There at the dump, certain items are separated out into different sections, and one of these sections, is all scrap wood. I told my husband every week when we dropped off our trash, I wanted to pick up at least one useful piece of building material every week. He was not enthusiastic. People gave us funny looks. But, we also inspired a few people to stop and scavenge as well. And, as we started to find some real gems each week, he grew more excited about the idea and our building pile grew. My favorite find? A gorgeous old barn door that I'm going to turn into a dining room table.The real break came when I decided to get brave at work. I had inquired about old pallets before and was told that we reused them and rarely had any I could take. So I asked again, with little hope. Word got around the warehouse that I was looking for wood, and miracle of miracles, a big job was finishing up and they were breaking down big wooden crates and throwing them out. They were paying to have them thrown out. Now I'm saving my company money and I'm taking home all of the free building materials I can fit into the back of my mini-van at the end of the day.And now? My second goat stall is becoming a reality. I can't tell you how excited and proud I am that we've managed to figure out how to do it for next to nothing. It gives me hope that I'll be able to continue to tackle our never ending range of projects with more creativity and hard work, and less of my paycheck.