05/20/2026
**UNPOPULAR OPINION ALLERT**
I don't believe there is a self sufficient concept that aligns well with homesteading, but people keep throwing that out there like that. 🥴
Homesteading no matter how you spin it is a group effort. You can not call your self "self sufficient" while relying on outside aid to sustain you. Cant call yourself self sufficient with a side business. Cant call yourself self sufficient if... not alone. Sufficient means "enough". A perfectly adequate amount. No abundance. Self is singular and personal. You cant say "WE are self sufficient" and any kind of farming whatsoever effects others.
Most of the time I feel this unavoidable lack. As though no matter how hard I try, I come up at zero.
A good example of this is when a sweet friend last week offered me a tiny job gardening that would pay for 2 bags of grain. That very night after all the work, my goats broke out and decimated that exact amount of grain....😵💫
I then had to deal with sick goats that night adding to my usual work load, and the next day? Stung by a bee making chores all that much harder for who knows how long. Lead to my next concoction of a bee balm containing jewel w**d, plantain and witch hazel.... 🥴
Turns out the friend that needed garden help is becoming quite the treasure, and teaching me so much about different plants and old methods long forgotten. Dont know what that's worth exactly, but I bet its more than 2 bags of grain. 💜
Then my apple tree that has bloomed for 7 years without a single apple just started this year growing tiny little apples. I dont know who near me started bees, or got their own trees going, but that example is the reality. 🫤
We are not sufficient alone. It takes others in all sorts of areas doing what they do, and feeling always a lack that is directly giving to those around them. The bee keeper might fail this year to mites, a fungus might take out the other apple trees, but because of their efforts, I have fruit they will never know they provided for me. 🥹
I remember that with every remnant I have left. It is not enough for me. I work harder and lose more, so others can have...something. Sometimes I wonder if the present would be as hard if we knew where it goes, or how it ends. 🤔
Only a fool thinks they work alone.
We may not always feel the gain of things, but this work is never in vain. It also is designed to have contentment, feel blessed, but always striving for more as well. Its never sufficient. Its never enough. Its never just self. The loss is great, but only because the tasks, plans, and chores are far greater. Someday we will understand what this driving and calling is, but definitely not self sufficiency. 😅
