GONE COUNTRY
We’re often asked a couple questions about how we started our family homestead, Mackadoo Farms. And while the questions will be structured different from one person to the next, the common things they ask are:
“How’d y’all move from a city like Austin where they keep it weird to an old German town in the country?”
and
“How’d y’all go from the city to the country life of homesteading?”
In short, deciding was easy, making the dream come true’s been hard, lots of learning’s taken place, and we’ve leaned on God – a lot. There’s more to the story of course, so read on as we dig deeper!
DIGGING DEEPER
The surprisingly easy decision to go from city slickers to country bumpkins was a calling from God – and in truth, was a calling we questioned, even debated because it was such a big change. One question we asked God was “If this really is what you want us to do, open wide those doors we should go through and slam shut those we shouldn’t”. He did exactly what we asked of Him; it was now our turn to do what He’d asked of us.
And that’s when things went from easy to hard!
Whether you’re making sourdough bread for the first time or doing something a bit more consequential, you’ll need a good plan to follow if you wanna do it well; we’ve included below, a summary of the process we folllowed once we were ready to get started.
Living out this calling’s definitely been hard, we’ve learned way more than we thought we’d need to learn (even though we went in thinking there’s a lot to learn), and we’ve persevered. If this is something God’s called you to do, you might just have to do what we did - take a leap of faith and go for it. But don’t go doin’ that without a plan; I mean God promises to equip those whome He’s called, and one thing He’s provided us with is a brain - so we darn sure better use it!
FIVE STEPS TO GET STARTED
CHOOSE YOUR GEOGRAPHY
We’d long ago fallen in love with the Hill Country of Texas, and in the several years preceding our decision to homestead we’d decided to retire in Fredericksburg.
After considering a few other locations in the Hill Country, we found none were as attractive to us as Fredericksburg.
LAND MATTERS
We were looking for about 25 acres of ag-exempt land with relatively deep soil, existing year-round pond, strong well, lots of trees, flat to lightly sloped land, no neighborhoods, and about 15-20 minutes from town.
Existing fencing, historical use of property, surface water flow, condition of adjoining properties, easements, power lines, and pipelines were also important considerations.
LEAP OF FAITH
Once you’ve chosen a geography and identified a piece of land within your budget, you’re just gonna have to go for it trusting that God will fill in the gaps.
Your family will be fine. Our kids were 16, 13 and 11, all were totally plugged into our church, community, and had a great group of friends in Austin. The move was hard, but they did it. Today they’re totally plugged into our new church, new community, and have a new great group of friends. They’ve learned that no matter where life takes them, they’ll be okay and they’ll find new friends.
DO WHAT FIRST
We couldn’t do everything all at once, so we made a list and prioritized it.
Our first three were garden, chickens, then goats. From there, we made a list of things we needed to have a garden, chickens, and goats; this included these major items: fencing, soil prep, housing for chickens and goats.
BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS
You may know, God calls us to be strong and courageous. Who knew He would test us so extensively on how well we live out this command!
Learning new stuff and making new friends can be both exciting and terrifying! We found that making friends at the local feed store was a great way to make new friends and learn stuff we needed to learn.
There’s lots of good books on all aspects of Homesteading and we’ve found several family Homestead’s that have lots of great information on their websites and great content on their YouTube channels.