Look, I know everyone expects homestead bloggers to have their act completely together. Like we’re supposed to be these wise, earth-mother types who instinctively know the right way to build chicken coops and never accidentally poison our own vegetables.
Plot twist: we’re just as clueless as everyone else, we’re just really committed to learning from our disasters.
After a decade of spectacular failures, kitchen explosions, and fence lines that have been rebuilt more times than I care to admit, I figure it’s time to share some of our most embarrassing mistakes. Maybe you can learn from our chaos instead of having to create your own.
So here we go—the greatest hits of homestead failures, brought to you by two city kids who had absolutely no business thinking they could figure out rural life without adult supervision.
Our Top 5 Biggest Homestead Mistakes
Mistake #1: Not building things right the first time
Our frugality absolutely destroyed us here, and it actually ended up costing way more money in the long run.
When we first started building infrastructure, we had this brilliant strategy of doing everything as cheaply as possible. Why spend money on proper materials when you can use whatever’s lying around and hope for the best, right?
Wrong. So incredibly wrong.
We built our first chicken coop out of scrap materials and cheap hardware that lasted approximately one winter before it started falling apart. We installed fencing that looked fine until the first windstorm revealed we’d basically built a very expensive pile of garbage.
Here’s what we learned the hard way: doing something twice costs more than doing it right the first time. Every project we cheaped out on had to be redone within a few years, and by then materials were more expensive and we were older and more tired.
Now our rule is: build it once, build it right, or don’t build it at all.
Mistake #2: Thinking homesteading would save us money
This is probably the biggest myth in the homesteading world, and we bought into it completely.
Sure, vegetable gardening can save you money if you actually know what you’re doing and don’t count your time as worth anything. But dairy animals? Chickens? Ha. Those are expensive hobbies that happen to produce food as a side effect.
Our milk cow costs us way more per gallon than buying organic milk at the store. Our chickens eat their weight in feed and produce eggs that cost approximately $12 each when you factor in housing, feed, bedside care, and the therapy we needed after various predator attacks.
We don’t homestead to save money. We homestead because we want control over our food quality and because we enjoy the lifestyle. Once we stopped pretending it was an economic decision, it became way more enjoyable.
Mistake #3: Thinking too small
This one still drives me crazy. We had such a hard time thinking beyond our immediate needs, and it created so much extra work over the years.
We’d build a chicken coop for 12 chickens, then six months later we’d want 20 chickens and have to rebuild everything. We’d design garden beds for our current family size, then have another kid and need to expand everything.
Always plan bigger than you think you need. It’s way easier to build something with room to grow than to rebuild it every two years when you inevitably want to expand.
Mistake #4: The comparison trap
Social media is the worst thing that ever happened to homesteaders, and I’m saying this as someone whose business depends on social media.
When you’re struggling to keep your chickens alive and your neighbor is posting pictures of their perfect garden and adorable baby goats, it’s easy to feel like you’re failing at everything. When homestead influencers are showing off their gorgeous setups and you’re dealing with another equipment breakdown, the temptation to compare is real.
Here’s the truth: everyone’s struggling with something, they’re just not posting about it. That perfect homestead on Instagram probably has problems you never see. That neighbor with the amazing garden might be terrible at managing livestock. Everyone’s figuring it out as they go.
Stay in your own lane, focus on your own progress, and stop judging your behind-the-scenes by everyone else’s highlight reel.
Mistake #5: Trying to do ALL THE THINGS, all at once
Christian and I are both intense people who get excited about new projects and want to do everything immediately. This has led to some spectacular overcommitments.
Year one: “Let’s get chickens and goats and start a huge garden and learn to can everything and maybe also build a barn!”
Year three: “Why are we so stressed and nothing is working properly?”
You can do anything, but you can’t do everything all at once. Pick one or two new projects per year, master those, then add more. Your sanity and your bank account will thank you.
Bonus Mistake: Not finishing projects
This is a mistake I see everywhere in homesteading communities, and thankfully we learned to avoid it early on.
Getting something to a “workable” state is not the same as finishing it properly. When you leave projects half-done because they’re functional enough for now, you’re basically guaranteeing that they’ll fail at the worst possible moment.
Finish what you start, even if it takes longer than you want. Your future self will be incredibly grateful when that properly-finished project is still working years later instead of breaking down during a blizzard.
Look, homesteading is basically an advanced course in humility and problem-solving. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to build things wrong, kill plants you were trying to help, and accidentally create disasters you never could have imagined.
That’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Every mistake teaches you something valuable, even if the lesson is just “don’t do that again.”
The key is learning from your failures instead of just repeating them over and over. And if you can learn from other people’s failures too? Even better.
Now go make some mistakes of your own. Just maybe try to avoid the ones I’ve already made for you.
