Building, running, and maintaining a homestead isn’t for the faint of heart, weak of mind, or frail of body. A healthy homestead needs healthy people. But sometimes what we want, sometimes our dreams, ask us to have things we simply don’t have. So how do you tackle the challenges of owning a homestead, raising and breeding livestock, and maintaining acreage when dealing with chronic illness, old age, and even mental illness? 

A Healthy Homestead for All

Thankfully not everyone has the same idea of what homesteading is, and on Our Pilgrim Feet we’re not here to judge what you consider to be your ideal homestead. Everyone is capable of different levels and degrees of going off-the-grid. Everyone has different limits of what they can achieve in a survival situation. Therefore, it’s we are going to share with you how we are tackling these different challenges with our own basket of afflictions and infirmities. 

Our little enclave has challenges ranging from autoimmune diseases to mental health struggles to diabetes to just plain old age. The autoimmune diseases and diabetes have led to special diets and dietary restrictions that our homestead life and lifestyle have to be able to support. After all, what good is living our dream of homesteading and growing glimmering fields of golden sheaths of wheat when a wheat sandwich will cause an ulcer and stomach bleeding from Celiac disease? Does it do any of us any good to learn old-fashioned candy-making skills when too much sugar can cause a dangerous spike in insulin?

Freedom is what Our Pilgrim Feet is about. 

Learning to adapt the homestead dream is no different than learning to adapt any other dream to your particular handicap – and everyone has a handicap. God made none of us without special needs that we have to consider. Our family is no different. But it’s when you stop looking at those handicaps as things that stop you from living the life you want and instead as challenges to overcome that you stop being a slave to your imperfections and find freedom. 

If you have a special need that you would like us to research and discuss here on Our Pilgrim Feet, just reach out with an email and let us know. We are happy to try and come up with solutions that might be able to help you! You might find others with similar issues who can provide support or insight of their own. This community is focused around helping others achieve their own freedom from whatever chains have them shackled. 

Building A Healthy Home

As we transition from our life here in the PNW to our new homesteads in the Black Hills, we’ll share with you the health-related struggles we face and welcome you to share your struggles with us. Topics we’ll cover in this section of the blog will include: 

• Dealing with Chronic Illnesses
• Handling Mental Health
• Maintaining Specialty Diets
• The Herbal Apothecary
• Dealing with Changes in Life including growing older, relocating older family members, growing your family while on the move
• Infertility and Adoption

And anything that comes up that is related to health on the homestead. Recipes will be kept in their own section of the blog!