Look, I need to get something off my chest, and it’s probably going to ruffle some feathers. Is homesteading simple living, I wondered as I was scrolling through Pinterest the other day (don’t judge me, we all have our vices), and I came across this quote from Leonardo da Vinci: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
At first, I gave myself a smug little pat on the back because, hello, I’m a homesteader. I’m literally living the simple life, right? I’ve got quotes about simple living plastered all over my farmhouse kitchen, and I drop the word “simplify” into conversations like it’s my personal brand.
But then I actually thought about it for more than five seconds, and I realized something that made me want to throw my phone across the room: I might be completely full of crap about this whole “simple living” thing.
The Reality Check That Hit Like a Freight Train
Let me paint you a picture of what my “simple” week looked like. Spoiler alert: it was anything but simple.
We had a mama goat die on us—because apparently, Mother Nature loves to test our emotional stability at the worst possible moments. That left us with two bottle babies who needed to eat every few hours, which meant I was practically living in the barn, milking extra from our other goats and our cow just to keep these little guys fed. Three to four trips to the barn daily for feedings became my new normal, and let me tell you, there’s nothing simple about trying to convince a baby goat that you’re an acceptable substitute for their actual mother.
But wait, there’s more. Because why would life give us just one crisis at a time? The neighboring ranch had some extra bum calves they needed to offload, and we stupidly agreed to take them on. Our timing was absolutely spectacular—and by spectacular, I mean terrible—because our cow Oakley decided to go into heat the exact same day these calves arrived.
Here’s something nobody warns you about: a normally calm, sweet cow becomes a completely different animal when she’s in heat. Oakley turned into this wild, unpredictable creature that I had to wrestle just to get the borrowed calves close enough to nurse. Meanwhile, I’m trying to monitor her with our borrowed bull to make sure everything’s working out reproduction-wise. Simple? More like a three-ring circus where I’m the clown getting trampled.
And because the homestead gods have a twisted sense of humor, our abnormally warm spring had me in full panic mode about garden prep. Should I plant potatoes a month and a half early? Wait for normal timing? Meanwhile, we’re also getting 150 new trees planted this spring, so my husband is running around like a maniac trying to find a plow and tiller setup to prepare the rows.
The Facebook Reality Check
After all this chaos, I made the mistake of logging onto Facebook that night. You know what my non-homesteading friends were posting about? What TV shows they binge-watched. Which frozen dinners they nuked in the microwave for exactly eight minutes. How they got home from work with zero chores and spent their evening on the couch.
And I’m sitting there, covered in goat milk and cow hair, wondering: who REALLY has the simple life here?
The Uncomfortable Truth Nobody Talks About
Here’s the thing that’s going to make some of you angry: I wouldn’t trade my life for theirs. Ever. Not even on the hardest days when everything’s going wrong and I’m questioning my life choices. I love what we do, and I find it completely worth it.
But can we please stop pretending that homesteading is “simple living“? Because that’s misleading as hell, and it’s setting people up for a rude awakening.
I think we call homestead life “simple” because we do things that remind us of a slower, less technological time. Gardening, cooking from scratch, canning, taking care of animals—these activities feel connected to something more basic and fundamental than modern life.
But let’s be brutally honest here: homesteading is a lot of work. Like, a stupid amount of work. Growing your own food and keeping animals isn’t rocket science, thank God, but it absolutely demands significant time and energy investment.
When I compare my lifestyle to someone who lives in town with no animals, no garden, and buys all their food pre-made from the grocery store, I hate to admit it, but their life seems way less complicated than mine in a lot of ways.
What “Simple” Actually Means on a Homestead
So what are we actually talking about when we say homesteading is simple living? Because clearly, we’re not talking about easy or uncomplicated.
I think what we mean is that homesteading strips away a lot of the artificial complexity that modern life throws at us. Instead of worrying about keeping up with the latest trends, we’re focused on basic needs: food, shelter, taking care of our animals and land.
There’s something deeply satisfying about work that has immediate, tangible results. When I collect eggs from our chickens, I know exactly where that food came from. When I milk our cow, I’m not wondering what chemicals or additives are in there. When I harvest vegetables from our garden, I know they weren’t shipped thousands of miles or treated with who-knows-what.
That knowledge—that connection to your food source—creates a different kind of simplicity. Not easy simplicity, but purposeful simplicity.
The Mental Shift That Changes Everything
The more I think about it, the more I realize that homesteading isn’t simple in terms of effort or time commitment. It’s simple in terms of priorities and values.
My non-homesteading friends might have easier evenings, but they’re also dealing with different kinds of stress. Job security, commuting, office politics, keeping up with consumer culture. Their free time might look more relaxing, but their work life is often more complicated and less fulfilling.
Meanwhile, I’m out here bottle-feeding goats and wrestling with cows, but at least I know why I’m doing it. Every task, no matter how challenging, connects to something meaningful: feeding my family, caring for animals, building something sustainable.
The Things Nobody Warns You About
If you’re thinking about homesteading, here’s what you need to know: this lifestyle will absolutely complicate your daily routine. You can’t just decide to sleep in on a Saturday because animals need to be fed. You can’t spontaneously go out for dinner because someone needs to milk the cow. You can’t take a last-minute weekend trip without arranging care for your livestock.
Your schedule will revolve around seasons, weather, and animal needs instead of your personal preferences. Some days you’ll be working in conditions that would make your office-worker friends call in sick. You’ll get dirty, sweaty, and exhausted on a regular basis.
But here’s what else happens: you’ll develop a different relationship with work. Instead of feeling like you’re just trading time for money, you’ll be building something. Every project, every improvement, every skill you learn adds value to your property and your life.
Why We Keep Doing It Anyway
Despite all the complexity, despite all the hard work, despite all the times when a simple trip to the grocery store would be infinitely easier, we keep choosing this life. Why?
Because it’s fulfilling in ways that most modern work isn’t. Because it’s rewarding to know you can provide for your family with your own hands. Because it’s soothing to work with animals and plants instead of spreadsheets and meetings. Because it’s empowering to develop skills that actually matter for survival.
The satisfaction that comes from successfully raising healthy animals, growing nutritious food, and building sustainable systems is something you can’t get from any other lifestyle. Even on the hardest days, even when everything’s going wrong, there’s a deep sense of purpose that makes it worthwhile.
The Bottom Line
So is homesteading really the simple life? If by simple you mean easy, then absolutely not. This lifestyle will challenge you physically, mentally, and emotionally in ways you probably haven’t experienced before.
But if by simple you mean purposeful, connected, and focused on what actually matters, then yes—homesteading can simplify your life in profound ways.
The key is understanding what you’re signing up for. Don’t start homesteading because you think it’s going to be easier than your current life. Start homesteading because you want work that matters, food you can trust, and a deeper connection to the natural world.
Stop romanticizing the difficulty, but also stop apologizing for choosing a harder path. Yes, homesteading complicates your daily routine. Yes, it requires more physical work than most modern lifestyles. Yes, there are days when you’ll question your sanity.
But it’s also the most rewarding, satisfying, empowering way to live that I’ve ever experienced. And that’s why, despite all the complications, I’ll keep choosing this “simple” life every single day.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on those bottle babies again. Because even simple life waits for no one.
