This weekend has got to be one of the most motivating weekends we have had in a little while. A weekend full of gathering with like minded people in one space. Lots of families were able to connect and grow together. I was even blessed to be able to meet a family friend of Jeremys. Everyone’s passion was shown in this space.
HOA was the event we attended. If you don’t know what that stands for it is Homesteaders of America. We left for our trip on Thursday and enjoyed an evening as a family full of many s’mores in our stomach. I’d say the kids were very happy about that. The absolute only issue with the weekend was the traffic on Friday morning trying to get into the event. It may have taken us about an hour but once we got into the event we were able to see our top desired talks.
Through out this whole event we managed to notice a running theme of priorities and self care. Priorities hit home for us as you have noticed we make lots of lists for what is needed to be accomplished. Our struggle though is that we don’t necessarily prioritize everything in the manor needed. We have a tendency to think “Oh I need to do this instead” and we manage to miss what is actually needed. Also it sometimes makes our projects take longer than originally planned. In addition to this we also heard “batching” and “routine” in addition when you are prioritizing your tasks. So our change for that is planning days where we will accomplish tasks on the same day every week. Prime example is cleaning out the coops. The goal is to use the ground, poop from chickens, and yard waste to slowly build up our compost. We will cover the ground with yard waste and every Friday we plan to add another layer of yard waste to the pen. This will take time but we will be able to make a wonderful compost in about 6 months time. This compost will then be used for the garden. Don’t fret friends we plan to keep any eye out that we do not use the incorrect type of waste.
Another topic we continue to hear is self care. This topic I actually plan to make another blog post about so I wont get too deep into this topic. But the interesting part of this was that every speaker touched on this topic a little. From being able to run a smooth homestead, to managing health, to making sure you actually give the best you. There were so many different examples of how self care can actually benefit the homestead in many ways. Our primary desire on this topic, and like I said I will expand on this later, is for our health.
Lastly we learned that everyone has an area of knowledge on the homestead. Let that person shine in that area. For example in our homestead Jeremy does amazing with all the animals. While I am good with the garden. I can help Jeremy with feeding in the morning but he is the one that has more knowledge than myself with the animals. So when I am concerned about an animal I am going to reach out to Jeremy so he can do what he feels is best. Also if someone has questions about anything on the homestead then the person with the knowledge should speak not so much the one that is less informed. I know that truly probably comes off horrible through a blog but in reality it works so well and you’re also not spreading the wrong information. Why not let the person bloom in the space they are planted.
Overall we were so blessed to take time to be with our friends that also attended HOA, learn so many new things, meet so many new people, shop with small business, and plan out some more dreams of ours. We have so many things that we are planning and this weekend truly lit that inspiration again. I cant wait to be able to watch the videos of these lessons again when they become available on the HOA website. I highly recommend attending next year if you feel the desire to learn more about homesteading. While I may not know the topics that will be covered for the event, I do know that you will feel so much inspiration.